Digital Video - May 2008 - (Page 16)

IN REVIEW PANASONIC AJ-HPX3000 good, but we rarely had occasion to use that on this movie. With the FilmLike1 gamma setting, I found the camera has an 8-stop latitude with 4.5 stops of underexposure and 2.5 stops of overexposure. The camera has a Dynamic Range Stretch (DRS) function, which is somewhat of an advanced auto knee function that helps to smooth the gamma curve in high contrast situations to protect the highlights more. For my taste, this isn’t something I’d employ for a narrative shoot as it compresses the highlights and doesn’t let anything blow out. That can give the image an overall flatness that needs to be fixed later. I’d much rather control myself what blows out or not. DRS is certainly a far cry better than auto knee, and has a number of applications where it would be a fantastic tool — namely in situations where you simply couldn’t control the highlights and didn’t want them to go nuclear on you. The camera has five P2 card slots, which gives about 175 minutes of record time at 1080 24p with 32GB P2 cards in either of the two highest formats: DVCPro HD or AVC-I. Now with the available 64GB cards, that should give about 350 minutes of record time — not too shabby. The HPX3000 has a couple of cool features, including CAC, Chromatic Aberration Correction, that will recognize certain lenses (eight, currently) and automatically compensate for chromatic aberrations known to those specific lenses. It also has a reversescan function to invert the image when working with a lens adapter. LEARNING CURVE There were a few frustrating aspects of the HPX3000, however. I’ll address the AVC-I format later on, but we’ll start by looking at DVCPro HD, the camera’s second-highest record format. The 3000 can record in DVCPro HD 1080 59.94i, 29.97p, 23.98p, 23.98pA, 50i, 25p and DVCPro50 480 in 59.94i, 29.97p, 23.98p and 23.98pA and DVCPro50 576 50i and 25p. Unfortunately, there is no variable-frame-rate capability with the HPX3000, even though all DVCPro HD is recorded at 60i (or 50i for PAL). Also, unfortunately, there is no 24p native in DVCPro HD or DVCPro50, only in AVC-I. Both of these were very disappointing to learn. I complained a bit about the LCD flip-out screen on the HPX500 and have to complain even more about it on the HPX3000. The physical position of the screen has moved forward into an even more awkward place — right at the operator’s cheek. If you’re doing handheld, this screen is absolutely useless while you’re shooting. On the HPX500, the screen was positioned further back and could be open behind the operator’s neck in a hand-held situation so an assistant, soundman, dolly grip or director could see the image. If they moved the screen slightly more forward, then it might be useful, but where it is now it is only workable on a tripod or for clip viewing between takes. There is still no color viewfinder for this camera. I just cannot understand this. For a high-end digital camera there simply isn’t an excuse for not having a color viewfinder. At the very least, offer it as an option. I would much rather pay an extra $20,000 to get an HD color viewfinder. 16 dv may 2008 The camera body is very similar to the HPX500 with a logical layout to standard functions. The HPX3000 has three handy userassignable buttons. For us we assigned one to switch between P2 card slots (when one is getting close to the end to attempt to avoid cross-over between cards) and I had one for the focus assist. I was very excited about the focus assist when I originally tested the HPX500, instead of doing just peaking or red outlines, the Panasonic focus assist brings up a kind of histogram that visually shows when the image is in sharp focus. Unfortunately it only works on the center of the image and only works under high contrast situations. In dark scenes, or wider shots, or shots that aren’t centered (which most of my photography is not), it’s less than useful. Jayson elected to set the “Get-Y” function to his second user button. The Get-Y function is very interesting as it’s almost a built-in spot meter. It will display the percentage of luminance for whatever is at the crosshairs and give you an idea of that object’s current exposure. FULL-RASTER CAM The biggest upgrade with the HPX3000 over previous HPX cameras in the Panasonic family is the integrated AVC-Intra (AVC-I) codec and ability to shoot full-raster 1920x1080 HD. Many cameras, including the Sony F900, utilize less active pixels on the CCD, capturing a reduced resolution and interpolating to get a full 1920x1080. Many cameras are actually capturing 1280 or 1440 pixels and then using internal algorithms to interpolate to 1920. The HPX3000 captures 1920 native in AVC-I codec with its three 2⁄3" CCDs (2010x1120 2.2-Megapixel) in 4:2:2 color space. AVC-I is an advanced version of the H.264/MPEG4 codec using intra-frame compression. The problem with this, as with all new-and-improved formats, is the lack of support in existing post workflows. AVC-I delivers full raster 1920x1080 4:2:2 10-bit imagery in nearly the same file size as DVCPro HD, and that’s a great thing. I can see, in a year or two down the road, when the kinks have been worked out and all the NLE programs support this format (which, hopefully they will — hint, hint Apple!), then this will be a fantastic production tool. For now, there was not enough of a gain from AVC-I to accept the liability of post issues, which are not insignificant. As was explained to me, currently only Adobe Premiere can work www.dv.com 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

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.