JVC GY HM 700 Video Review
 

Finishing it off now. Will be online by the morning.

Phil, I love you as much as any man can love another man! Haha just kidding. Anyway, thanks so much for getting this review up so quickly, I thought the Hm700 had kinda died off until NAB.

It's done!

Philip Bloom Blog Archive Video review of new JVC GY-HM 700 HD Camcorder

Exposure room is still transcoding so if the link to the video review isn't working just yet give it a little bit of time and it will be there!!

Nothing wrong with a man crush...just keep it to yourself ;-) Especially when I come to Austin next month!!

Phil: saw some rather nasty CA on the first couple of shots in the video attached to your linked review. Can you confirm that the CA edging on the pagoda and tree branches exists in the raw footage?

yep, as mentioned in the written review and mentioned in the video review the fujinon lens is not good enough for this camera. the canon is way way better

Thanks Phil. I've told my retailer that I'm holding off until the Canon starts shipping despite a VERY attractive offer with the Fuji 17x. I think this footage vindicates that decision.

2/3 of the way through the viewing. Thanks SO MUCH for this Phil!

Def Shaun!

For a lot of shots it was fine, but anything heavily backlight CA was all over the place...I really don't think JVC should bundle this lens at all with the camera. It's the same one I have on my 2 year old HD201e and it wasn't very good on that either!!

The Canon is 10x better!!

Phil. Were you using the 17x5mm or 16x5.5mm Fujinon lens?

It's hardly worth trying to evaluate the HM700 with the 16x5.5 Fujinon lens since it will never ship bundled with this lens. JVC has made a few production bodies available to us in the media but that Canon 14x4.4mm lens just isn't available anywhere yet. The Fujinon 17x5mm will be the bundled lens until the Canon 14x4.4mm is available.

Unfortunately I don't have the Fujinon 17x5mm to evaluate either, just the Fujinon 13x3.5.

it's the 16x Tim. It's what JVC UK supplied me with.

Agreed this lens is no good for the camera, good news that it won't be shipping with the camera. How much better is the 17x though?

Have changed the opening shot of the video as it isn't fair to the camera. You can still see CA in other shots though...

Chromatic Aberration
 

I'm new to this forum, so "hello all". By means of introduction, I am freelance photographer, filmmaker and producer. I used to work as a freelance lighting cameraman in London in the 90's, before concentrating on photo. I have been back working mostly as a multimedia producer/director since 2003...

I just posted this note to Phil Bloom on his blog, but thought it might be useful to post here too...

**

Phil,

This review & film was excellent and your photography was beautiful, pat yourself on the back.

There is clearly a problem with chromatic aberration on the stock Fujinon lens, so I’d be keen to see if the Canon lens (which is supposed to ship with this camera according to the JVC website) does any better. The JVC site specifically discusses CA issues and says that the Canon lens is designed to resolve this, so why they let you loose with the Fujinon I don’t know.

Apart from this the images have a great film look and the advantages of CCD on skewing issue cannot be under estimated. On my last doco on the Nile, we shot on a Sony Z7 which has CMOS chips and every single long lens pan hit the cutting room floor - unusable. Low light performance will be an issue of course, but the advantage is that you get to wrap earlier and get a cold one in.

The fact that the machine is laid out and balanced up like a proper “big” camera makes a lot of difference as well to hand held work.

If you get the chance to re-shoot again using the Canon please let us know, but apart from that I’m pretty convinced that this is a good little machine and has to be worth the £4500+ VAT in the UK. With budgets dropping all over town, I am sure that a lot of shooters are going to snap up this machine for proper ENG & low budge doco work. I am certainly very keen.

Good job mate well done.

Andy

That's not the stock Fujinon lens... that lens is *not* bundled with the camera. See posts from Phil and Tim above for clarification.

Thanks for the review, Phil. You answered every single question I had remaining about the camera - especially the low light performance and the amount of detail in the 1080p image.

The JVC cameras can really take lovely, filmic images. Your video guide was excellent and I loved the shots you took. Gorgeous!

Thanks for the review Phil. I meant to ask you one last thing that I'm not sure if you mentioned in your review or not. I'll be upgrading from a Canon XL2, which means I'll have to either invest in an Anton or IDX battery solution. Which would you recommend? I think I saw an IDX Battery on your HM700.

Also, is the HD-SDI 8bit or 10bit 4:2:2?

Thanks for the review Philip, Looks like a nice little camera for sure.... Now, here's the $10,000 question.... Based on your experiences with the latest JVC, Panasonic, and Sony Cameras. If you were for the first time looking to purchase a new HD camera of the three, which would you choose and why?

Hi Phil,

Thanks for taking the time to post footage, but as it was shot with the 16x, I'm not sure it helps anyone that's really trying to make a decision regarding a purchase. The 17x that's being bundled with the camera is not supposed to be comparable to the 16x, and I think it really muddies the water for people who are trying to make a decision based on the images the camera produces. The CA is well-documented with the 16x, and according to JVC, the 17x is supposed to be 'true' HD glass, whatever that means.

I can't say which is better - the Canon or Fujinon, but I don't think this is a very fair assessment of the camera's image capturing properties.

Hope you get your hands on one of the other lenses soon!

Best ~ Lee

All things considered the overall image looks great, even with the Fujinon 16x5.5 lens.

I'm sure Canon wouldn't put out a bad lense based on their reputation, so it will most likely be fine. It should make really sharp images.

Thanks for the in-depth review, very nice imagery that will help me convince my NASA video production customer to purchase 2 or more HM 700's.

Thanks. David

That's weird, not getting notifications of replies again...

Am sure both the 17x Fujinin and 14x canon will be way better than the 16x I tried. Am surprised I was supplied with it for the review, oh well...I made the best of it!

It's a shame the Canon is only 14x, having that extra length does make a difference when trying to knock that background out of focus...

Brian, all three are so different and in different price brackets. The Panasonic is probably the most expensive, couple with it's media. Shoot a great codec but has problems with rolling shutter that hopefully will be resolved in the production model.

The EX3 for my money has the best image, 1/2 chips, best low light performance, least noise in image and the great SxS cards, but you don't have the 10 bit of the Panny or the 4:2:2 and the form factor sucks compared to both the JVC and Panasonic. They need to bring out a shoulder mounted EX5 soon!

I like the JVC and if you intend to do lots of fast moving work, like sports, then it is only one to go for as it is CCD and has no issues with skewing. Not great in low light though...

I believe the US version will ship with the Anton Bauer mount and the European one with the V mount. Easy to change though. I have iDX batteries for all my big cameras. Take into account the cost of batteries and a decent charger though. They aren't cheap!

Agreed. Phil's composition and exposure are exceptional.

Phil,

I got the impression you really liked this camera. Having had a play with both the hm700 and the hpx301, ...did you have a favourite?

I reckon these two will be in main competition with each other given the similar price, chip size etc.

Of course. Thanks Phil for taking the time to share this with us. Got sidetracked when I noticed the fringing and forgot everything else.

I'm SO glad I found this forum back when I did the FIRST time and even more glad that when I went looking for an HD solution that I landed here again. You folks have been an absolute WEALTH of knowledge.

Now, if only I could justify the $15k for the Fuji 18x with extender...

Now that would look nice with the JVC. I like both cameras but the Panasonic would probably be my favourite due to its AVI intra etc...mind you, having a camera that you can whip around is cool!

I have the 17x fujinon lens on my HD200, and can assure you it's a significant improvement over the 16x lens from the HD series. Much more glass. The extra zoom range is on the wide end, but not as wide as the 14x canon. The real difference is at telephoto, where the image doesn't deteriorate outside the sweet f-stop range (or not to the same extent anyway!).

Question for you, Phil. In your review you say:
"Can stream DV or HD out of the mini firewire port. Including 35mbps HD."

That was certainly not the impression I had from Tim's review. Is this verified? It opens up the possibility of a "firestore" type hard drive device for long or secondary recording at the all important 35mps.

I especially liked your clear explanation of the pros and cons of ccd vs. cmos. Thanks!

Btw, I just a got a confirmation from E.C. Professional that the JVC GY-HM700 does 10bit 4:2:2 out of the HD-SDI out. Yay!

This is great news. Puts JVC back in contention in the under 10K camera club.

1440x1080 and 1280x720 resolutions at "SP" quality can be streamed as HDV out of the firewire port. As far as I can tell all modes and bitrates can be downconverted and streamed as DV, but I haven't had a chance to personally confirm this.

as Jack would say, looks like I had bad intel...

to make up for it have thrown together those pretties I shot with that rubbish lens into a self contained edit available for download if you join XR

Philip Bloom Battersea: Test shots with JVC GY HM 700

jvc uk said they will do their best to get a 100 to me to test in next couple of weeks. keep your fingers crossed. Got mad idea for a review video!!!

"jvc uk said they will do their best to get a 100 to me to test in next couple of weeks. keep your fingers crossed. Got mad idea for a review video!!!"

Hope you can get to test it's low light capabilities.

I really hope its good enough for reception work, I'm getting old and wanting something lighter than my EX 1 for weddings. (Not holding my breath though).

Cheers ,

Vaughan

I doubt it will be very good in low light. The 700 isn't great and the 100 has even small chip in it...we shall see though!!!

That´s going to be the 3,500-Dollar-question... And what "very good" means. It´s obvious that the Ex1/3 will be better, but maybe LoLux can at least pull off some decent noise reduction? Hopefully. Because, why would you want to have a cam you can use for non-obtrusive shooting if you need to bring a lighting truck at the same time to make the pics look acceptable...

Right... This is what I understood. HDV (19 or 25) or SD DV only through the firewire. Theoretically, we could sustain the higher bit rate, and even go to FW 800 for ProRes type bit rates that are still reasonably compressed. There is an attraction to having extended high quality storage in a remote drive for long form doc work etc.

The HD-SDI output is a great opportunity for expansion, but not the same as having access to that 35mps stream. I suspect the EX-HD format was never specced for this. Still, I'm not crushed by that omission.

With the price of SDHC media, I think it's becoming a non-issue, and that is a real revolution in tapeless acquisition. $500 worth of media now will go a LONG way. It's reasonable just to charge clients for the media they use in many situations.

Meanwhile, I'm still not happy with archiving tapeless footage. Redundant hard drives aren't so expensive either, but it's far from ideal and the media isn't quite cheap enough for that yet on long form projects anyway. Editing from my DR-HD100 drive, and archiving raw footage from the simultaneous tape recording was was working out well.

I know that JVC is not know for good low light performance, and being very noisy. Did anyone of you that evaluated the HM700, have any footage? If not, would you say that the HM700 and the GY250 are pretty much the same in low light?. And how would you compare it to other cameras, like the Pany HVX170?

I've just come from a local dealer and queried the lens choices. The cam I looked at had the 16X Fuji on it, and as I was there, the JVC rep called and told the dealer thats what they are shipping with, with the 20x as an option, no mention of the 17x. Dealer asked about the Canon 14x, and was told no plans to ship with it. Wonder whats going on here ??


Stuart

Frederik - Did you watch Phil Blooms video review? I think that gives you a decent answer.

Stuart - I suspect that someone in that chain is misinformed. In the States the lens situation is quite clear (shipping now with 17x, 14x package available later). The 16x lens would be a disappointment on this camera if UK went that route. In any case the 20x lens is more expensive than the camera alone. The 13x wide angle should be available there and is a nice option for many type of project.

that is nonsense. All the info I have been told is 17x Fujinon as standard. 14x Canon is extra. I have emailed the main man at JVC UK to get a clear definitive answer. Not just for the UK but for the world. As soon as I get a reply will let you know. It's the end of the financial year so everyone is mad busy.

hm700 footage
 

anyone willing to share their experiences with the camera, particularly in reference to the jvc hd 200 series and the sony ex3.

particularly perceived resolution, noise level in picture and low light performance.

I think you will see a flood of HM700 footage from the early-adopters this coming weekend, but empirical comparisons to the other cameras will come later.

hm700 footage
 

thanks Tim,
yes I would expect to see a flood of footage posted these coming weeks,
but I was hoping to hear from someone like yourself,having had a history with the hd100, then the 200 series (having already commented on the disappointment with noise level of picture with this series of camera)...how the new cameras compare with the previous models,
as I have said I think the hd100 was a great camera.

put it this way as soon as someone says the noise level in picture is no better or worse
than the 200 series, I am back in the sony camp.I can live with less sensitivity in low light, but not that horrible noise pattern, reminds of the disasterous days when svhs cameras tried to become professional in a credible way.
If it has improved, I will definitely stay in the jvc camp.

I agree Phil, its a bit of a nonsense when it seems dealers and reps dont know whats happening. However, I can only relay the events and comments made to me yesterday. I actually held and used the camera for a very short while, and it deffo had the 16x Fuji on it.

However, I have since spoken to JVC themselves, and they have now confirmed that from around June, they will ship with the 14x Canon, but they will be more expensive than with the Fuji 16x option. They have no intention of packaging the 17x Fuji, but you can buy the cam body only and then purhase the 17x or indeed any other lens you wish separately. I have literally just come off the phone to them. I pointed out other countries seem to be shipping with the 17x, and the reply was they are totally different companies, ie JVC UK, JVC USA etc. Maybe JVC UK want to use up any stock of the 16x Fuji they may hold, I dont know??. Seems a shame to 'downgrade' what appears to be a nice cam with this apparently lower grade lens. But hey ho, lets see what transpires if anyone can actually run a 700 with the different lens options, and an EX series side by side, so footage can be compared. This is something I would like to see before making any decision to spend what is a lot of money to me, on a new cam.

Stuart

Utility of the DR-HD100
 

A followup, as I mull the prospects of using my DR-HD100 with the new cameras:
Does the firewire stream continue to operate with downconversion when shooting in HQ modes. For instance, Can I shoot 35mbs onto the SDHC cards, while recording 19mbs onto the DR-HD100? Will 1080p downconvert to 720p, 1080i, or not at all? This would potentially be for "emergency" card & workflow backup of footage.

One cannot record SD DV to the cards, but you do have a relatively quick path recording downconverted SD DV codec to the DR-HD100, I assume with the camera in 720p mode. This footage could then be streamed immediately in real time to a deck to get a standard DV tape to a client that needs this workflow. Shooting with post downconversion processing would add time/money to an SD handoff gig, although these are dying off slowly for me.

The first scenario is theoretical, and not deal-breaker material, but the answer will let me decide whether the DR-HD100 will be a worthwhile utility to keep, instead of selling this with my HD200.

EDIT: Found the answer to most of my original posted question about the FW output here:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/1011033-post150.html

The 35mps > 19/25mps downconversion is the remaining issue which Tim might have now that the camera is in his hands.