These are all VERY new items for cameras IMHO.

Until the EX1, I'd never used a camera with a Histogram. Gridlines? Well, IMHO there should be action safe and 4:3 safe. Anything else is gravy (and I do like gravy...). Intervalometer? I wouldn't argue if my camera had it but it's pretty much a niche effect and I can understand why a manufacturer would choose to leave that off ESPECIALLY when encoding to a long GOP MPEG stream. A strictly I-frame codec camera recording to solid state media? Yeah, I'd expect it.

Long-GOP MPEG and intervalometers don't mix. That should be obvious.

Since JVC is reading.

Instead of a coming out with an HM 110 with improvements to the HM 100, I would like to suggest an HM 200 (or whatever number you want). The HM 200 should be more like the HMC 150 or XHA1 with a more robust lense with 3 rings, focus, iris, and zoom with 72 mm threads raning from 14x and 28mm wide. 1/3 inch CCD's like the 700. A slightly bigger form factor. Mounting screw holes for accesories. Bigger LCD. Price it around $4,500.00 to start. And if Sony allows, record in mp4 and QT.

Cheers.

David, this sticky was started mostly for people, who already own this camera and are seeing major shortcomings, like lack of 1/120 shutter or lens issue. If I want a larger camera- size of HMC150 with XDCam codec I would have bought EX1. However the point of this camera is the size, but it looks like even the idea was a very good one, the things fell apart during the design phase. Lets focus on a topic at hand not a new design.
BTW Canon fixed a lot of issues with firmware, so did Sony. I think the only right thing to do is to address some of these issues by JVC. But for now I would like for users to stay on the topic instead of drifting into a field of new design and product pricing.

The camera already shoots video size stills. It should be possible to program the camera to shoot these stills continuously at a selectable interval... so the result would be the same as using a stills camera (and the HM100 is already sold as a stills shooter, with special mode and everything).

This is a reasonable feature to add, and it won't compete with an other JVC products that I am aware of.

The idea of HM100 competing with other JVC products is simply without merit. HM100 is a 1/4 inch chip size camera with rather limited lens (46mm). So the notion of this camera taking a share of HM700 is simply ridiculous and if it is promoted by JVC is down right self destructive. A 1/4 inch camera will never produce picture of 1/3 inch, as 1/3" will never produce as good of the picture as 1/2"... and so on. It should have exactly the same features, so the pictures could be matched.

Sorry. This is for JVC not you Robert. If this is offtopic then Chris or Tim can delete it. BTW, I'm about to receive my open box HD 100 from B&H. After I shoot with it on Saturday
then I guess I'm qualified to post my opinion?

David

I did not want to sound rude David, however what I would like to see is to have existing issues and design omissions fixed. I also wanted to point out that camera pretty much described by you already exists: EX1. It is about 1/3 larger and 2 times in weight, however it produces remarkable picture, hence even "stingy" Discovery Channel will allow it as a broadcast quality. I was amazed both by quality of footage and by quality of the unit. The camera used on the shot had almost 500 hours of usage and was never in the shop for a repair! The LCD is truly amazing- sharp. I am sure I will want to own one in the future, particularly with ability to avoid usage of SxS cards. BTW "rolling shutter" issue is overblown out of proportion, unless you shoot something like weddings. However in a light controlled settings I don't think it is an issue at all. So if you are looking for a camera described in your post: XDCAM codec, separate zoom and focus, sharp lcd and so, look no further and just buy EX1.

I am involved with shooting a pilot about Mt Rainier. Our permit allows only 2 people on a shoot at one time. I carried one time HVX200 all the way to the summit, my second and third trip we used HM100 above 10 000 feet. Huffing relatively small HVX200 with some sound gear and a tripod is a back breaking experience (you also have to add all the climbing gear, tent, food and cooking stuff): on my first trip my pack was close to 75lbs. That's the reason I was extremely excited about HM100. Now comes bad: HM100 lack of basic features and lens design. I spent over 30 minutes trying to screw on a polarized filter! Then the ND filter- why only one setting? For majority of folks it will not matter, but if you shoot on snow you need polarized filter, plus ND screw on, but this combo produces vinigating. Lack of safe areas for even 16x9 shooting eliminates my estimate if the edge of the filter will show or not. Then for some fast moving shots I switch to 720/60p only to discover there is no 1/120 shutter. Now these are HUGE design/engineering problems.

I'm not quite sure what this means, that you have to have a camcorder with an intra-frame codec to record time lapse? I have an EX1, which is the same inter-frame codec as the HM100 (which I also have) it has a pretty decent 'intervalometer' or time lapse capability.

In addition, many camcorders feature still image capture, and many of those have intervalometers, for example, my Sony HC1 which is a HDV tape camcorder, but also has a an intervalometer for stills captured to it's memory card.

Anyway if 'intervalometer' means the above functions, yes, I'd really like one in my HM100, and I don't think it has it.

While I am just an amateur, I definitely vote for a better working zoom, gridlines, and intervalometer. Although I will probably be using my Nikon D700 for any time-lapse stuff.

The screw-on filter slot is definitely a joke, and the JVC wide angled lens don't have threads, though the lens hood does have 72mm threading.

Today I read the message from JVC, so many people want a better HM700 and JVC hear it and makes a new HM700-version, should be released after the IBC at Amsterdam.

Did a shoot this weekend with my new HM 100 as b-cam and a rented HM 700 as a cam.
First off the quality of both cameras resolution wise are close enough to be used together.
That in itself is pretty amazing.

However, i was surprised that the 700 had noticeably more noise in the blacks. It may have been the way the camera was setup, but at 0 db and 9, there was noise. The 100 looked cleaner in that respect. Maybe that is why the 700 is getting a new noise reduction upgrade. It really surprised me.

The 100 really loves red, I mean saturated red, but once I turned down red in white paint and color gain down, it looked closer to the color of the 700. Not exact but close enough for cc in Avid. But even then reds really popped on the 100. Overall, though it makes a nice picture.

A lot of people have made reference to the zoom control, but I thought it was comparable to the Canon XHA1. I don't zoom except to line up a shot anyway.

However for me, i do wish the focus/zoom ring was a focus/iris ring. The iris button on the back isn't bad, but out of habit I kept grabbing the ring (in auto focus) and of course i would zoom unintentionally. This really does suck. For professionals, an iris ring is much more important than the ability to zoom with the ring.

So, overall it is a great broadcast quality camera that is really small, but for my wish list:

Please change the ring to be a choice between focus, zoom, and iris control.

Thanks, David

Can you tell us anything more? Like a whole new camera, or more firmware updates?

JVC in Germany say new model,
but it's a firmware upgrade to version 301
with MP4-recording on the SDHC-cards without
the KA-MR1000 SxS-Adapter, further new DNR
and the wellknown update for 10x SDHC-cards
known from the firmwareupgrade to V201,
end of august '09.

To JVC
 

I was wondering if we are going to hear from JVC on issues raised in this topic. HM700 had one important firmware update to unlock recording MP4 to SDHC cards. I was wondering if the company is taking any steps to fix some of the issues with HM100 raised in this topic or if it will just leave us stranded because we didn't spend enough money?