HVX or EX1?

[zen fx]

I'm getting ready to buy a camera and am torn between the reliable and proven HVX and the new Sony EX1. Some people have been trying to tell me that the Sony will have a better image because of the larger chips and some tell me that it looks less film like than the HVX. If you guys with the HVX were buying today, which would you get?

 

Also, anyone have any idea when or what Panasonic will come out with to replace the HVX?

[Stephen Press]

I?ve shot a bit (reality shows, short films and music vids) on the HVX and only had a brief play with the Sony but if I was buying today that?s what I would get. It kicks the snot out of the HVX in every way.

It?s still a handycam with all the problems that goes with that but it just does everything a bit (and in some cases a lot) better than the HVX.

 

I don?t care what Panasonic replaces the HVX with, P2 is still stands for Problem Squared. If I sound bitter it?s just I resent that the ?simple workflow? that was promised seems to always end up adding at least two or three hours to my day and/or the loss of a useful crew member to accommodate the mostly useless ?data wrangler? who seems to sit on their ass all day occasionally surfacing from behind a laptop and holding everything up when they can?t get the cards ingested and then wiping the settings on my personal memory card, camera setting that I hunted down over the year, then resetting all the setting on the camera that I spent 40 min manually punching in without telling me? sigh.

 

At lest with the EX1 for a reasonable amount of money you get a decent amount of storage on the card so you have less need to stop everything while it decides if it feels like being ingested today.

[Ramon Engle]

Hi Eric. I've had a ton of experience with the HVX and recently played with the EX1 for 10 days.

The Sony has several advantages

LOW LIGHT SENSITIVITY: The sony out performs the Hvx by a mile on this one. Not sure if it's better optics or the 3 1/2 inch performance.

BLACKS: The sony again delivers richer blacks with less noise.

FOCUS. This is a biggy if you are planning on flying the EX1 on a sled. You can engage the focus ring to have hard witness marks instead of a focus ring that has no start or stop. You can disengage the ring and go back to auto with manual fine tunning which is another nice function

PEAKING: This is a great function. You can assign a color to the peak function in the finder. Say you assign RED as the peak color. As you roll focus the objects in frame that are on the focul plane will have a red cast. This allows you to know when you are dialled in on the focus. If sony would only let you output this function beyond the finder your AC could have a handheld monitor and know exactly when he/she is sharp on the focus.

IRIS: Again sony has provided a real Iris ring instead of non marked dial that continually spins.

 

The main draw back is that it needs a downconverter to get as standard def image out.

There also has been some scuttle butt about lens issues between 10mm and 20mm at certain aperture settings. Not too informed about this one.

 

To me it seems that Sony has broken their bad habits and finally listened to the needs of the market place.

I'm taking 3 EX1's to the carribean for a month. Lots of underwater stuff. Should be fun but hard work. We'll be on Nitrox to up our bottom time.

Hope this helps.

 

Ramon

[Mike McGowan SOC]

Havnt used the EX yet but I have used most of the other Sony's. I have used the HVX a bunch and actually shot a 250k kids movie with 2 of them. I found the work flow pretty good, liked the image quality and totally dig the variable speed and shutter on the HVX.

 

My 2 cents however is to go with the Cannon (XLH1) which to me has the most film like image using its 24F mode (like doubble interlaced).

 

mm.

[mark morgan]

have a look at the jvc gy-hd 100,110,200,250 series

lens options are very nice

and it seems like the first full length feature (gabriel)

was done with this camera

the steadicam flyer will handle this camera no problem

for alot of info on the dv style cameras

go to the dvi forum

loads of info

 

best of luck

 

 

 

 

 

I'm getting ready to buy a camera and am torn between the reliable and proven HVX and the new Sony EX1. Some people have been trying to tell me that the Sony will have a better image because of the larger chips and some tell me that it looks less film like than the HVX. If you guys with the HVX were buying today, which would you get?

 

Also, anyone have any idea when or what Panasonic will come out with to replace the HVX?