I looked at this camera the Panasonic hvx200, the sonys, the jvc 200, and even Canon’s bigger brother the X1. I located this a single to have amazing evaluations on DVinfo.net, a excellent video forum. My concerns about 24f vs 24p have been addressed to my satisfaction- there genuinely isn’t a big difference. I like tape vs the HVX’s costly storage options. 1 concern I had was, will it appear like a pro camera? That is crucial in some circumstances where your equipment provides you additional credibilty with consumers and talent.

As quickly as I opened the box I was in adore! This is a genuinely significant camera. Specifically with the opt broad angle from Canon and the matte box supplied, this does not seem like your mama’s camcorder.

I really like the manual controls, so that you do not have to go thru menus to alter parameters. The layout of everything is excellent. I truly like the dual on/off and zoom controls- top of take care of plus rear appropriate side. Holding the take care of for low or medium height shots is very, very comfy and the controls are completely positioned.

Only down side- and it is incidental. The matte box is a bit flimsy- lightweight plastic. That aids with excess weight, but I fear about breaking it. Some might say that HDV codec is not as very good as DVCpro, but my eye does not see it. The colors are magnificent and it blows away many other cams in reduced-light.

If you are searching for point and shoot, this is not your child, but if you want a pro top quality camera for a actually great price- this is it!

Buyer Video Evaluation Length:: two:55 Mins

I use this camcorder now for all my filming (capturing with Last Cut Pro) and I hugely advise it.

About 1 year ago I bought an XL-H1 and a Sony HVR-A1U to do function on a documentary. Though the Sony has proved to be a wonderful camera in its own appropriate, it doesn’t cut nicely with the XL-H1, and the image good quality in vivid light was close to as good, in darker settings, items just fell apart. So I purchased this camera XH-A1. I believed when I purchased the XL-H1 I would finish up purchasing a second when I could afford it, but I discovered no compelling reason on a couple of counts. (one) Jack pack is fantastic if you are planning to haul close to a RAID array and a generator. I am confident this would be allot of enjoyable for the run a gunner like myself -) (sarcasm). Even even though I have heard people criticize the HDV format for compression and artifacts not witnessed as significantly with the uncompressed format you get from the HD/SDI output.. I personally think maybe its 1 individual in a 1000 who could tell the difference in the end (and they might be faking, I can’t). This pictures is Absolutely nothing quick of Beautiful period. (2) I believed acquiring two cameras that I could syncronize with the clocks would be actually needed.. but its truly not that hard to do in an editor by just discovering a synchronizing frame (like a handshake, and so on) and going from there. (3) I wanted the TC output to drive an external 24 bit audio recorder (this camera does not have it the HL-H1 does). Properly, after obtaining it to function, I in no way employed it.. I did lots of 24 bit recording, but like the video, it was effortless enough to synchronize externally in the editor later on. The autofocus on this camera is hugely improved above the xl-h1. I By no means run the XL-H1 in “automobile” something, this camera I do as it would seem to have more smarts, though I STRONGLY recommend placing the acquire into “Lower” not auto and setting it for -3 in the menu setups. Also, Usually do manual white balance. I even now favor operating about everything in manual as its better management and fewer unexpected problems, but I would trust this camera far more than the XL-H1 in car.

DOWNSIDES:
For me, there are only two downsides to this camera (1) Broad angle lens – I know there is a screw on offered, I haven’t attempted it.. but the K canon broad angle lens (virtually the very same cost as this camera!) is just remarkable, I wonder how fantastic this a single is. (2) Electrical power of the big camera.. as significantly of a joke as it may sound.. I have gotten numerous interviews and in many areas due to the fact the XL-H1 is large, pricey, and skilled searching. I have walked though safety at events because the guys “presume” I am with some thing official (just an independent doc), and have observed them quit guys with huge pricey still cameras, and so on.. its truly very funny, but if you realize human nature.. it can make men and women take you seriously. The XH-A1 performs each and every bit as great, but lacks that effect to the exact same degree (though it even now appears rather “skilled”). I hope that aids.

Last comment, unless of course you happen to be going to film (I think 24F is quite bogus) try 30F, looks considerably smoother and much better. Individuals fell in adore with the distortion of vinal recordings, but it was nonetheless distortion. 24F (p) is the same issue.. looks jerky, maybe much more like a film, but if you have a better technological innovation why on earth would you like one thing inferiour? My 2 Cents.

CineTech22′s info is right relating to powerful resolution, exposure latitude, and so on. Film is a chemical approach, and the amount of detail that can be delineated on primarily a molecular degree on celluloid is staggering, even with 16mm. BTW, DV resolution is 720×480, not 640×480, but your point nonetheless is made–WAY less information than film. As far as the focus operation is concerned, there is an aftermarket “comply with-concentrate” rig accessible to deal with this, but yes, the stock camera doesn’t allow you set your focus-pulling marks.


I would contend, however, that you’ve lost the forest for the trees. This camera DOES spell the end of 16mm as the favored medium for indie filmmakers. Premium Panasonic DV tapes are about /cassette (63 minutes). And are reusable. What does 16mm expense in stock and processing for an hour of footage?

The path to indie glory is no longer only “shoot in 16mm, blow it up to 35mm for festivals or limited release, get discovered”. Now we have “shoot in anamorphic DV, release on DVD, get found” as the new, considerably a lot more cost successful alternative. Another note: DV footage shot on a DVX100a appears fantastic uprezzed to HD, even far better than some low-finish prosumer HD cams out there, mainly due to its excellent colour skills.

I have employed each the DVX100 &amp 100a, and have run up against their limitations. Exposure and depth of area are the most significant and call for a lot of production compensation to get all around–lots of zoomed, broad open aperture shots with heavy ND filtering to get that truly cinematic appear.

Nevertheless, if you know what you’re doing, this camera is great. Audio is superb (phantom-powered XLR’s–yeah, child!!), 24p is beautiful to operate with, colour is quite “film-like”, and though it is easy to “bloom” the whites and “crush” the blacks, the assortment is far better than most DV cams, and each can be avoided by indie filmmakers who spend attention to settings and lighting.

Would-be filmmakers who want to go this route need two critical accessories: the 16×9 anamorphic adapter by Panasonic (AG-LA7200g), and Barry Green’s book/DVD package http://www.dvxuser.com/content articles/dvxbook . By understanding the camera’s strengths and weaknesses, you can get wonderful results from the DVX100a. If you are an independent fillmaker with a limited price range, buy this camera, the anamorpic adapter, Barry’s book, and do some test shots to figure it all out, Then devote the $ $ 00′s$ $ $ you have saved by shooting with the DVX100a and use it for greater lighting, production, script doctors, far better actors, and a lot more time in post. The result will be far much more impressive than 16mm accomplished on a shoestring–a turd that could more easily be blown up to 35mm, but is far much less likely to be really worth it.

That’s my take, anyway. This camera does for independent filmmaking what the Alesis ADAT did for digital audio recording in the 90′s–totally “democracizes” the field so that young, up-and-coming creative folks can create operate of amazing quality for very little funds and absolutely no “studio” manage.

So purchase this camera, indulge your innovative freedom, make your prize-winning indie film, and “stick it to da MAN!”

I have been employing the DVX100A in Iraq for over a year I had started shooting on the previous model, the DVX100 — and then upgraded to this a single. Filming in 24p(Advanced) letterbox format. Between the two cameras I have shot 300 hrs of materials in tough ailments. The DVX100A is a quite significant improvement more than the DVX100 — and the distinction lies in better signal processing that stretches the exposure variety of the camera. My materials shot with the DVX100A has considerably better latitude — the skies don’t burn out so a lot, detail is better, colors are richer — and the blacks are far nicer and less noisy.

I owe a excellent deal to Panasonic for producing a camera like this — it really is the very best low-spending budget filmmaking tool about. The quality is something like shooting on 16mm film — but considerably easier and a lot much less expensive. If you are a documentary filmmaker, or interested in shooting an indy film — this is an outstanding option. The only DV camera I would contemplate acquiring, in reality. Now Panasonic has released a HD camera with a comparable kind issue called the AG-HVX200 which may be a much better alternative for productions with slightly much more financing — but the DVX100A is going to remain close to for a although as the standard for what DV tape can do in SD. It stays a very viable camera for creating films.

A side problem:
A lot of individuals have commented that they favor to use an anamorphic adapter on this camera to give a 16:9 element ratio with out losing resolution — I think this is a toss-up. The anamorphic adapter itself will slightly lessen the sharpness of the image, and close-up focusing is extremely hard. I believe the selection of using “letterbox” or “squeeze” (the exact same issue, in terms of resolution) provides extremely great results without adding extra weight and optical concerns to the camera. It really is analogous to the distinction in between shooting Cinemascope and Super35 on film — Cinemascope uses the whole place of the unfavorable, but Super35 (which crops the best and bottom of the frame to get a broad aspect ratio) has much nicer optical resolution since you can carry on employing spherical lenses rather of anamorphic. I once asked Robert Richardson (ASC) about how he dealt with this issue when he was shooting widescreen on Super8mm film for inclusion in JFK — he favored to just letterbox the tiny frame and live with reduce picture res than mess all around with the focus problems of anamorphic lenses. The situation with the anamorphic adapter on this camera is similar — I believe you can get fine final results making use of letterbox format on the DVX100A, with fewer complications.

I just bought the DVX100AP to shoot a documentary, and I am so glad this camera is offered. I do not need soundmen, grips, or other crewmember to just shoot. The high quality of the photos from the camera, set on the cine-switch shot at 24fps are amazing – no, not 35mm film shot by a member of ASC with a 0,000 Arri package, but compared with the 16mm world, this Panasonic liberates filmmakers from the world of chemical filmmaking.

You do not have to wait days to see your function back from a lab you can plug in your firewire and capture to Avid Xpress. You do not have to pay through the nose for syncing, operate prints, answer prints, release prints which are really aside from the point for independant filmmakers anyway. If you have ever shot and cut film, you know what I imply.

No query: this is a pricey unit. No question, it is worth the money because even if the images are not absolute film quality, they are not simple video either. When I 1st opened the camera and starting up shooting, I couldn’t think what I saw in the viewfinder, not what I saw when I watched the footage on a television, or on my plasma keep track of. This camera loves to shoot effectively-lit shots also. If you take time to emulate film lighting of any variety, you will finish up with a wealthy, detailed seem that consists of richness in the shadows and a wide exposure latitude.

Whoever mentioned you can’t do depth of focus with the DVX-100AP ain’t making an attempt hard. The utter crispness of the concentrate I’ve witnessed knocked me out. Other excellent issues: two XLR jacks, firewire connector, and usable on-board mics, which although not fantastic for interviews, do a fine work for ambient and area tone captures, and in a pinch, with work in Avid, even interviews shot with no an external mic are not only useable, but very good. And nobody else need to have be there no unwilling family members, no film-school whiners, no untrained sound recordists, no Arrifascists hunting down at your Bolex.

I adore film I adore the smell of film in the morning but man, film is the crack of visual arts, and I have hocked blood to burn light onto Kodak emulsions. Freddy’s dead. DVX-100AP my ass, honey.

I received my 150 a small over a week ago. Bought it due to the fact I desired to move up to HD and get out of the tape business. It did not come with an SDHC card. Purchased an 8 GB to carry me over until finally my 16 GB cards arrive through Amazon. I am even now on the understanding curve on it. Specifically liked the large comfy color view eye piece. I was also amazed by the clarity of the video play back on my 48″ LCD display. Used the 3 cable output very first, that came with the camera( Video, Lt. Rt. Audio )

Extremely clear video, much clearer than my trusty old Canon GL-two It does not come with an HDMI cable. Bought a single locally and tried it. Plugged 1 finish into the HDMI out port on the camera and the other finish into the HDMI port of my Tv. I was blown away by how clear it was !! The video was clearer than some of the stations I view in HD.

On playback, you are provided a thumbnail of the 1st frame of every single scene you shot when you turned the camera on. On playback, you can skip around the scenes you want to view , or delete if needed. The concentrate help is another nice function. When you use it, it momentarily zooms in on the middle of your subsequent shot so that you can fine concentrate if necessary.

It has numerous other features that I have not attempted nevertheless. On editing, purchased the Pinnacle 12 Ultimate since it is set up to deal with the AVHCD format and a Pc with the AMD quad Phenom processor with three GB of RAM. Waiting for a a lot more strong graphics card to arrive prior to trying to edit in this new format. The battery that came with it is tiny. Would recommend buying the bigger battery as soon as you can to balance it out. Correct now, it feels a little out of balance simply because of the smaller battery. Also liked the strong magnesium physique. No plastic anyplace ! Overall, I am impressed with this camera.

Panasonic AG-HMC150

I shoot weddings and I have utilized The HMC150, the Canon AH1.

From the beginning allow me first tell you in which my opinion is coming from – cost tag: 00

1st off, neither of these cameras are brilliant in reduced light. They have one/3 imagers. I never care if they are made of gold and there are 10 of them.
one/3 imagers are too modest to collect sufficient light, even if you connected the Hubbell telescope to them.

To place this kind of tiny sensors in a 00 is poor, inexpensive engineering specifically when SLR have bigger sensors, shoot HD and do not cost this a lot.

Who are these camera angled at?

Videographers and indie filmmakers.

As a videographer what are you most concerned with – Reduced light.
Why? Since you can’t management lights at weddings at parties, and so on. So your camera has to be ready to take care of it.

As an Indie filmmaker what are you most concerned with – The capability to look like film. It does, with 24p and film gamma, it really is about all you require. But you are having to pay a premium. But for me, equally crucial to film appear as 24fps is lens choice. Right here you get none. Whilst 24fps is what is ingrained in the everyone’s consciousness as what film should search like, they also don’t realize that shallow depth of area and variety of lenses is also. With these camcorders you get no option, a 13x zoom with really wide depth of area at most each and every focal distance, since it’s a zoom and because the imagers are tiny.

Excellent news The AG-HMC150 can handle most lighting situations.
Negative news – AVCHD codec, is noisy in even bright sunlight afternoons. The image is made of blotch.

Measuring image integrity by zoom aspect – at 100% AVCHD compression is clearly visible. 200% the image is a swarming, infected mess.
Though the Panny can holdup in low light. I shot in a dark club and there was nonetheless some thing to see.
It has a very weird automobile iris mode, that brings in much more light, even when you do precise settings in manual.
Do not know if there is a magic switch, didn’t have it long enough to function every little thing out.

The Canon utilizes HDV and as a substitute of compression codec noise, you get digital noise unpleasant grain (not like film), and washed out video at one hundred%. At 200% it is like searching at a digital still from a ten year previous point and shoot. And trust me, when an image is washed out and grainy, there is extremely tiny you can do (Some gamma correction will bring the shadows back to existence, but that noise is there to keep. And the drop down to SD does not do it any favors.

Bottom line the Canon sucks in low light, specifically in anything other than automobile mode. I shot in a reduced light room and the image was garbage. Regardless of some settings tweaking, which leads me to Canon’s 2nd most significant problem and a dilemma with these camcorders in general.

The LCD and the Viewfinder are also little to see how your image is holding up. Almost everything looked wonderful on the Canon’s 2.seven LCD…and then when you get it back to edit. Noise city. So you can only use the LCD for just simple image checking.

The HMC150 has a 3.five LCD, but the brilliant engineers produced it a four:three ratio! You have black matting in the image! The camera can only shoot 16×9 and they place a 4×3 LCD on it…so in the finish you only get about 2.seven” of genuine estate and you see as considerably as on the Canon, unless you are in concentrate assist mode which zooms in and makes use of the entire LCD.

So you have to know your settings and be shutter/iris paranoid, hoping for the very best image. What you see is not what you get, you have to know what you want, like with film and set the camera accordingly, knowing which settings will get you want in the Finish, not what you are seeking at through the camera.

The HMC150 certainly advantages from the higher rez. The Canon is 1440×1080. You can see the distinction.

The Canon is more professionally developed. Both plastic, but the canon feels much more professional, and weirdly the HMC feels like a Tonka Toy, difficult textured plastic, but like a light and chunky toy. I can hear the optical stabilizer clunking about in it. The Canon aesthetically looks far more specialist.

Audio on the Canon is much better, it has significantly better limiter, I do not even believe the HMC’s is helpful, but if you plug one particular xlr mic into the Canon…the onboard becomes unusable. HMC lets you assign channels for the onboard. Negative news is the onboard mic on each sucks, the Canon sounds better due to the fact the HDV format has greater rez than the compressed AVCHD codec.

The HMC and it’s tapeless/AVCHD codec does not save a lot time, the transcoding takes virtually as lengthy if not longer than actual time (HDV tape) and sometimes there are errors, especially transferring from camera, the footage speeds up, the audio remains continual and you have shorter clips. Happened continually. My guess, USB and it is…

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A single thing you want to keep in thoughts is that editing AVCCam/AVCHD is a P.I.T.A. I am using CS4 on a 2.four quadcore with 8gig of RAM and Vista64 and it really is sluggish with frequent lockups. I am obtaining Cineform ProspectHD v4 when it comes out to compensate. Vegas 8.0c and Edius performs effectively I’m told, and FCP require to convert it to ProRes (or what ever it is called). I believe Avid needs to convert it to a native codec as well. Panasonic does provide a cost-free converter to DVCProHD on there website

[Update six/five/09... Premiere CS4 4.one update is out, and editing is considerably simpler. Also, Prospect v4 is out, and editing with the demo I've been attempting has been a joy]

That stated… the camera itself is awesome. Genuinely. I am coming from the DVX, and this is leaps and bounds above that (which is saying something). The images I am getting are lovely. I am organizing on going out now on my days off to shoot just for the entertaining of it.

I really can’t add anything at all that hasn’t been stated currently by other individuals. But if you’re searching at the HVX200a or HPX170 (they all share the very same chips, and the HMC shares the identical glass as the HPX), but do not want to deal with the fees of P2 or need to have all of the functions of the HPX or HVX, I would Highly advise buying this rather.

Just be prepared for some editing headaches at first (the issue with bleeding edge technology is at times you need to have to get stitches).

O.K. I have been taking a beating from camera rental houses this past year, so when I essential to finish a project that was dragging on and forcing me as well shoot on many various days, I said “what the heck”, and put down the income for the XL2. I was a reluctant purchaser not excited at all about purchasing a DV camera. I was ready to be disappointed by one more crappy and expensive DV camera.

Two months later, I’m glad I bought it, and I’d say that it is the best prosumer DV camera out there, period.

Here are some of the positives and negatives about the camera primarily based on knowledge.

Positives:

one) Clean signal: Whilst not as good as some thing like the Sony DSR 500 its a cleaner signal than the VX2000, PD150, and the Panasonic DVX100a. Of all the DV cameras I’ve shot on I like the XL2′s signal the greatest.

2) Interlacing: I’ve shot a excellent deal on Sony cameras. Especially the DSR 500, and The Sony image is constantly funky, the interlacing is always visible specifically in specifics like hair and what not. Even with all the menus set effectively by a great DP the Sony cameras usually have a quite challenging and interlaced appear. Even When shooting in 60i mode The XL2 does not have this and it handles fine specifics better than the Sony cameras I am utilised to.

three) Buttons and menus: The design of the button lay out and menus is extremely excellent. If you have shot on the Panasonic DVX100a you will really take pleasure in how the canon is laid out, you don’t have to go deep into the menus for each shot on the XL2. The 1 actually negative decision was putting the film grain and colour bars on the identical button. THAT was a mistake. Why they hell does this camera have a film grain button anyway?

4) BNC output: A small but genuinely beneficial addition to the XL2 is that it has a BNC out. For anyone who understands how those BNC to RCA adopters have a tendency to fall off or get lost its about time that a pro-sumer camera incorporated this simple issue for folks who use an external monitor.

five) The custom menus:
For pros: If you have shot on pro cameras you will naturally appear at the customized menus as a joke, a pro-sumer “toy”. I won’t try to inform you that they are not a “toy” But they do really work! Which is a fantastic surprise. I have utilized the camera on sets and on outside documentary sports shoots. I uncover than points like the black stretch and the knee perform and are useful, they are not like what you discover on a Beta camera for illustration but they are a lot better than what else you can discover for the cash.

For Consumers: This camera comes with a lot of attributes that you will not use if you are a point and shoot, “Let the camera do it for me” type of particular person. However, if you are willing to find out or interested in videography, you will uncover these features interesting and with a little practice down right beneficial.

6) Color functions:
To the specialists: These work as well, you don’t get extremely deep manage of the color acquire and the RGB settings but you get some and they work rather nicely, which is saying a lot for a camera underneath $ five,000! I am establishing a preference for shooting with the color acquire and RGB settings set pretty substantial and then pulling them down in color correction, if needed. Desaturating in post making use of right after effects provides wonderful results, but it has not been necessary all that frequently, and I’d rather take the color out rather than attempting to put it back in.

For the buyers: The color controls are far better than on any other camera you are thinking about, most of which will have none. The XL2 provides you noticable manage over the saturation of the colors as nicely as how a lot red, green and blue you see in the image.


7) Sound: I don’t know what it is, if its the mic or the signal processing but the XL2 has greater high quality sound than you would expect from a DV camera out of the box. Use a actual mic and the final results are great.

Negatives:

too several rip off artists trying to sell this camera. Purchase the camera only from a trusted and properly recognized retailer, no exceptions, you will get ripped off.

1) The lens:
For Pros: You do not want this lens considering that it has no witness marks and so on. Acquire the physique with out the lens and place on the 16X manual servo zoom. It will price a bit a lot more but it will be worth it if you need to have any percision in your shooting.

For shoppers: The regular lens is better than any other lens out there, I assume you’ll locate shooting with it a great encounter .

2) The eyepiece:
For buyers: If you are a client do not worry about it, its fine. Its only an concern in certain situations that pros encounter because of they way they shoot.

For pros: Its Actually challenging to make focusing selections with the eyepiece that comes in the box. Its not so poor for run and gun doc perform but if you are doing dramatic operate or pulling concentrate you will want to…

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Let me just say straight up that this would be a five star camera if the cost was $ one,000 less.

I do not claim to be an expert on substantial high quality digital camcorders. I’ve just dome some reasearch and thought some whould be interested in my viewpoint.

This is the greatest picture high quality semi-pro (among 00 and 00) camcorder availiable. Several believe that this also will be the last of the semi-pro cameras to come out ahead of the entire format switches to Higher Definition. The explanation why the XL2 has been finding bad testimonials on some internet sites is not due to the fact of the camera’s quality but because just about all of the press and several skilled videographers have been expecting the XL2 to have higher definition instead of progressive scan.

The progressive scan high quality of the XL22 is much more than several will ever need to have, which includes myself. Unless of course one can afford a best high quality Television that plays high definition you will by no means see the big difference between XL2′s picture and a HD picture. Not to mention that all of the a computer editing applications whith a sensible cost do not assistance higher definition yet.

At present the only camera that can compete with the XL2 is the PanasonicDVX100A it has slightly poorer picture top quality (almost unnoticable) and it shares the nearly magical 24f and 30f progressive scan modes. It make what you shoot appear like a film. When you watch these modes for the firt time you will not be ready to decribe the big difference it helps make but you will see it and fall in enjoy.

The explanation why I chose the CanonXL2 above the DVX100a is simply because no camera presently on the market comes close to having the XL2′s amount of manual characteristics and choice of lenses. This camera is for folks wanting to experiment with the visual style of filmmaking, attempting to acheive art on the screen.

For these who are hunting for a substantial high quality camera that is much less hands on and more automatic (some thing you can pull out and immediately get great image) and are not intrested in digital film as an artform but 1 of these who just would like to get the very best picture for loved ones occasions and weddings the PanasonicDVX100A would be a greater choice as it is an less difficult camcorder to discover and has picture high quality that nearly matches the XL2, not to mention it is 00 less costly based on exactly where you look.

I will stick with my CanonXL2, even though, as I hope to join the film buisness one day and I need the freedom of manual features this camera provides.

I welcome an oposing opinion.

This is an superb camera definately worth the 00. Nonetheless, if you see a seller selling it brand new for much less than 00 beware. Watch out for any person asking to be emailed prior to hand or anyone wanting western union or any kind of Escrow service. Be absoultely optimistic prior to sending any payment.