Digital Video - May 2008 - (Page 14)

IN REVIEW PANASONIC AJ-HPX3000 TRIAL BY FIRE SHOOTING A FEATURE FILM IN AVAILABLE-LIGHT SITUATIONS WAS A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO TEST PANASONIC’S AJ-HPX3000. PHOTO BY SHANNON LEE Hefting an HPX3000, Holben confers with director Jamie Neese. BY JAY HOLBEN L ast year, I had the opportunity to work with the Panasonic AJ-HPX500, and I fell in love (see review in DV Sept. 2007). I hadn’t been that blown away by a new camera since the Panavised Sony CineAlta F900 nearly a decade before. Not only was the AJ-HPX500 everything I wanted, the price was unbelievable. Quite simply, there wasn’t a better camera package on the market even close to the price range of the HPX500. With that understanding, I was very excited to get a chance to work with Panasonic’s new AJ-HPX3000, their flagship fullraster 1920x1080 P2 2⁄3" camera. Generally, when I test a new camera, I don’t like to just set up a couple charts and call it a day; I like to put the gear through its paces on a practical shoot to really get a feel for how it performs in a real-world situation. The timing worked out quite perfectly for me to test the HPX3000 on a feature comedy called Two Million Stupid Women that I was producing and shooting for first-time feature director Jamie Neese. Along with co-director of photography Jayson Crothers, we shot for two weeks with dueling HPX3000s and put the camera through its paces on a shoot that consisted of all practical locations, night exteriors, clubs and bars — all handheld and nearly all available light. GEARING UP We secured our second camera through Birns & Sawyer in Hollywood, and I started testing by determining the base ISO. Like the HPX500, the 3000 has several gamma presets including the VariCam FilmRec (for film output) and three FilmLike modes (for a “cinematic” look to digitally finished projects). To my eye, FilmLike1 was the most pleasing. I started with a default master gamma of .45, 0dB of gain and 180-degree shutter. I was quite shocked to find the ISO at a solid 250 — about a third stop less than what I had assumed would be the worst case scenario and 2⁄3 of a stop less than I had hoped for. As we were embarking on a project that would be nearly all available light in dark locations — this was not good news. Most digital cameras fall into the 320 to 400 base ISO range (including the AJ-HPX500), so this was a bit of a surprise. Altering the master gamma to .4, making some tweaks to the matrices and shooting at a 270-degree shutter or a 360-degree (off) shutter for most of the film put us up at 640 ISO. The camera’s imagery is incredibly clean and sharp. I found that we could easily run +6dB of gain without objectionable noise, but +9dB was a bit too much for me. The HPX3000 does have a -3dB setting, which is www.dv.com SCORE PANASONIC AJ-HPX3000 PROS: Excellent images, great versatility, advanced AVC-I capability, more P2 slots. CONS: No 24p native in DVCPro, no variable frame rates, LCD flipout is poorly placed, low base ISO. BOTTOM LINE: The HPX cameras are all fantastic tools, but it’s unfortunate that they can’t all be combined into one that simply does it all. Price point would still be much less than the competition! MSRP: $48,000 base price CONTACT: www.panasonic.com/ business/provideo/cat_camcorders.asp 14 dv may 2008 http://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/cat_camcorders.asp http://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/cat_camcorders.asp http://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/cat_camcorders.asp http://www.dv.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Digital Video - May 2008

Digital Video - May 2008 Contents DV Update Close-Up AJ-HPX3000 Camcorder Sidecar Raid Zoom H2 Recorder Instant Expert 324 Flat-Panel Display Extreme 35MM Adapter Type-S JIB How Slow Can You Go? Global Gastronome Mixing It UP Long-Distance Runaround Tools & Technology DV 101 Production Diary

Digital Video - May 2008

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