Would a HVX200 and HD100 combo work?

[Thomas Smet]

If you had a 2 camera shoot and have a HVX200 and a HD100 would they in anybodies opinion look way off from each other and not mix very well.

Usually there is a small difference between 2 cameras from different companies but now we throw in different resolution and compression formats.

HVX200 uses 960x720 while the HD100 uses 1280x720 but with higher compression levels.

I know what the plus and minus is for each format but how does anybody feel they would look matched up for a 2 camera shoot. Perhaps converting the HD100 footage to DVCpro HD first might help even the results. This would at least give equal image resolution.

[Mikko Wilson]

I think you may have some of your data backwards. But regardless..

We (anybody) hasn't seen a picture form the HVX yet.. so it's impossibel to tell.

The HD100 will shoot only 720p. The HVX will shoot 1080 OR 720 (or SD of course..)

My instact would be to adjust (the adjustable) HVX to match the shooting style of the HD100 so that all yoru footage would be comon (resolution, framerate of course, and all the other image adjustments like WB, gamma, the color gains, etc..


- Mikko

[Thomas Smet]

Yeah I was talking about matching the cameras to shoot in both formats such as 720p at 30p or 24p. Even with the format the same however there are different compression levels and resolution to deal with. What data do you think I hav backwards?

The HVX200 uses DVCpro HD which at 720p uses a 960x720 anamorphic resolution. At 1080i/p it uses 1280x1080. DVCpro HD however uses a different type of compression that is like DV compression with a higher bitrate and better color space detail.

HDV 720p uses the full 1280x720 resolution but uses mpeg2 compression at a lower bitrate.

I am well aware of matching the cameras to get as close asyou can in terms of recording format but what I wanted to know is with everything the same how well would the 2 work as a 2 camera shoot side by side. I understand nobody has seen the camera working yet so this is hard to say. I meant for this to be a talk over the two recording formats and so much the cameras themselves. I have created simulated video footage where the same scene is rendered from 2 different angles. The first angle was rendered as a DVCPro HD 720p video. The 2nd angle was rendered as a 720p HDV video. I then did a multicam edit between the two and you can really see a big difference just due to the recording format.

[Chris Hurd]

Hi Thomas,

Just curious, is there a particular reason why you would choose to work this way? I think it would be interesting from an evaluative perspective to do a side-by-side shoot for testing purposes (like, say, for the benefit of this site's members, and I think that would be a great thing). But from a perspective of the actual production and post-production workflow, the challenges of mixing the two formats would be more trouble than it's worth. I've always held the belief that multi-camera situations work best when all cams are the same make and model.

[Thomas Smet]

I agree with you there Chris. I will be getting 3 new cameras in January and I have been thinking about getting a HVX200, HD100, and a Z1. The reason is to be able to shoot a wide range of formats for clients. I could shoot long form 720p with HD100 or 1080i with the Z1. The HVX200 would give me high quality DVCPRO 50 for SD projects and very high quality HD for 720p, 1080i or 1080p. While the HVX200 could work for long projects it would be a little bit harder than shooting HDV.

I also at this point would not be able to buy 3 HVX200's along with the extra amount of P2 cards.

[Bon Sawyer]

I haven't frequented this forum much, so maybe there's something I'm missing, but...

What about 2 or 3 HVX200's with FireStores (or similar)?

-Bon