Nice Video Overview of the Upcoming 600 Series Cameras

[Mike Beckett]

JVC are on the ball. I need is to find £3500 and I'll be happy. That is something JVC can't fix quickly!

[Michael Warren]

Originally Posted by Mike Beckett

JVC are on the ball.

That is an excellent response on the part of JVC. If only they'll announce a firmware upgrade to AVCHD2 I'll have my wallet out in a flash.

[Michael Warren]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Mike?? I wonder if this might be a better tool for our ELN614 and his horses?? 'extremely responsive' at full zoom sounds encouraging???

Indeed. And what looks like good low light performance might even have you considering a couple next year when you've got over the AC130 pain. :)

[Chris Harding]

Hi Mike

Sadly no!! I would suspect with 1/3" chips the 600 will have the same sort of exposure system as the Panasonic AC-160 with just autoiris control and external ND filters. I do weddings solo with two cameras and I really need my main cam to be able to look after itself exposure wise should a cloud go over the sun..the AC-160 simply runs out of iris and requires a manual ND change! If I can get to the camera and change the ND I then get a nasty flash on unrepeatable wedding footage. I'm doing run 'n gun stuff too so I often need a camera that with change both iris and shutter for me!!

I also do a lot of realty properties filming inside rooms so I have situations where I am in fairly low light filming a wall and then come to a window with bright light... My HMC82's have auto iris, shutter and ND so then can go from an open iris and 1/50th shutter and then almost instantly auto right up to F10 and 1/2000 shutter and full ND without touching the camera controls..yet it still has full manual too .....Don't think the 600 can do that!! but I could be very wrong

Chris

[Craig Yanagi]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

...I would suspect with 1/3" chips the 600 will have...just autoiris control and external ND filters...

The GY-HM600 and GYHM650 have both manual and auto iris control as well as three ND filter selections.

[Chris Harding]

Thanks Craig

In autoiris is just the iris controlled or does the camera also change shutter too...with realty work I do need to be able to film the interior of a room and when the camera sees an open window and closes the iris it also needs to up the shutter as the light difference is huge. I didn't think that any 1/3" chip cameras did this?? On my current cameras I will often go from 1/50th and F1.9 and when it encounters a window opening with bright light coming thru the camera will go right up to 1/2000th shutter and F10 iris to cope with the huge light increase.

Chris

[Michael Warren]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

On my current cameras I will often go from 1/50th and F1.9 and when it encounters a window opening with bright light coming thru the camera will go right up to 1/2000th shutter and F10 iris to cope with the huge light increase.

Making auto shutter an option, although not suitable for every use, would certainly be useful for the sorts of situations you mention, especially on slow moving subjects where the side effects of a high shutter wouldn't be so noticed by most viewers.

I can't imagine your HMC82s are really going to F10. I would expect the picture to be a fuzzy mess at such a small aperture. I guess it's being faked by the auto ND.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Mike

Quite correct..1/3rd chips start losing it above F8 so I would suspect 1/4" would lose it probably around F3.5!! The F10 is definately a "pseudo" reading ..Barry Green I think once said that the ND's actually start kicking in as low as F2.8!! I guess to make the display simpler it shows the range from open to F10 but the iris itself never really closes more than F3.5 so it's a combination of say F3.5 and 1/64 ND ...that would take up complicated display room so they simply show it at an effective F10.

My AC-130's used to even show definate image resolution drop at F8 so I never went more than F5.6 ..that is supposed to be the sweet spot for 1/3rd chip sensors aparently?? so on 1/4" the sweet spot would more than likely be no more than F2.8 .... Yeah at a genuine F10 it would look like VHS!!!

Chris

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

In autoiris is just the iris controlled or does the camera also change shutter too...with realty work I do need to be able to film the interior of a room and when the camera sees an open window and closes the iris it also needs to up the shutter as the light difference is huge. I didn't think that any 1/3" chip cameras did this??

The JVC does have a full auto switch on the side, I expect it to do somewhat the same as on my xh-a1, with that camera I can also go from pitch black to very bright in one go in full auto mode, only I don't see what it's doing then because there is no cameradata visible in that mode. I understand why you need a camera to do this but there is a reason why this is not even possible on professional camera's. If you are letting the camera control everything you are also accepting the fact that your colors might be off, that your image might turn soft, that your exposure might not be correct or that your footage have a smeary or strobing effect. There is a reason why ND filters are not a luxury but a necessity on a professional camera, they allow you to control the image without all the side effects.

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

with realty work I do need to be able to film the interior of a room and when the camera sees an open window and closes the iris it also needs to up the shutter as the light difference is huge.

Normally when I'm inside a room and get a window in my view I expect the iris to remain the same, unless I need to see what's outside, that's why I don't like the iris or shutter to change all by itself, unless I want them to.

I guess in your (an my) line of work you need to choose a camera that fit's your needs and that often won't be a professional camera, I also use camera's with typical consumer auto functions for paid jobs, not because I like the fact that they are missing most of the features professional camera have, but because they fit my workflow and output the result I expect, they are not perfect but they do the job. A professional camera would probably cause me more problems in certain situations (like leaving it filming unmanned) but I accept the reason that they are not build to do that since they expect an experienced operator on the other side, my consumercamera's are build to do that but with side effects, but those side effects are still within the margin of error I can live with (as I have no other choice) and that is acceptable for my type of clients.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Noa

With these shoots I am actually recording the condition of the property so I need clear shots of the walls then straight into the window frame and glass so they can see the glass is not cracked or damaged...On a fixed or limited iris the camera pointing straight out thru the window glass would just go white as it grossly over-exposed. Most camcorders handle that nicely..I actually used my Panasonic GH1 to see how that worked and it too, it IA mode correctly exposes the walls and then rcorrects quite fast when you get to the window glass...It's not exactly creative shooting but it pays the bills during the week for me

Chris

[Randy Johnson]

Damn I told my self I would NEVER buy another hand held camera again...but it does look pretty tempting.

[Michael Warren]

Kris from JVC has posted the link to the operator manual for the HM600:

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