Digital Video - September 2007 - (Page 17)

reviews The camera’s versatility—recording in more than 30 HD and SD formats—and excellent performance definitely set it apart. “Cinelike V” setting much better. Moving into the “Cinelike” gammas, the color saturation increased slightly and was nearly dead-on to my eye when comparing the Gamma & Density chart—with the reds slightly oversaturated in the higher contrast “Cinelike V” mode. After testing, I put the camera’s base ISO/EI at 500. In the “HD Normal” gamma setting, I found the camera’s latitude to be 8 1/2 stops, with 5 stops underexposure to loss of detail and 2 1/2 stops overexposure to loss of detail. At 5 stops under, it was too noisy for my taste. In the “Cinelike D” gamma setting I found the same 8 1/2 stop overall latitude, but with a more even dispersement of 3 1/4 stops over and 4 1/4 stops under range. “Cinelike V” mode, quickly becoming my favorite, yielded the same total 8 1/2 stops, but slightly more high-end at 3 1/2 stops overexposure detail and 4 stops underexposure. From this point forward I left the gamma at “Cinelike V.” In the “Cinelike” modes, even at 4 and 4 1/4 stops under, the image remains clean with little noise. All of these tests were, of course, conducted with 0 dB of gain. There is no negative gain setting on the camera, which is somewhat disappointing. The low gain switch cannot be assigned—it is always at 0 dB. One minor quibble I found—I’ve seen this on many other cameras, and have never really understood why—is that the gain selector switch runs counterintuitive: the high-gain setting is at the low point of the switch and the lowgain setting is at the high position. Generally when I find this, I merely assign low as high and vise versa, ignoring the labeling— but as the low setting is unassignable on the HPX500, I didn’t have that choice. Mid and high gain are both assignable and can be set from +3 to +12 dB. Surprisingly, +12 dB is not as noisy as I’ve seen on other cameras—it’s a setting I may actually use. In addition, +18 dB is available when shooting in 60i/p or 50i/p modes. The HPX500’s image is clean and sharp. Like the HVX200, it employs a spatial-offset algorithm to achieve full 1920x1080 resolution, but with the larger chip size and 4:2:2 sampling, there is no discernable image degradation. by switch, which is positioned precariously next to the gain switch. (The camera will continue to record if you accidentally hit the standby switch while shooting.) Sliding doors conceal another three user-assignable buttons. A six-scene preset dial provides quick access to up to six different “looks” that have been set in the scene file menu. An SD memory card slot is available to save and load scene file settings. Menu controls are clear and somewhat intuitive to navigate: I found myself going into the “Camera Setup” mode to switch things like frame rates and gamma settings, only to discover (time and again) that I needed to go into the “Scene File” menu. I finally understood that all changes in this menu could be saved and easily accessed (so why not put all the main adjustments in there?). But while the menu structure may take some getting used to, the degree of Settings and controls Switches and controls are easy to reach and well placed—though I would have liked to see some kind of safety cover on the stand- below: Switches and controls are easy to reach and well placed. WWW.DV.COM DV SEPTEMBER 2007 «« http://www.dv.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Digital Video - September 2007

Contents News AG-HPX500 HD Camcorder First Look: Color V8000HD 8" LCD Monitor Shoulder Mount System Instant Expert Close-Ups Fest Cercuit Q&A Flight Plan Cutter's Way Imagination in Action Motion Graphics Production Diary

Digital Video - September 2007

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.