HD For Indies

Updated - see bottom

Hey all - I recently helped James Mathers of the Digital Cinema Society do a roundup on the status of sub $10K HD camcorders. Below is what he published in their newsletter, with a few tweaks:

HDV/Prosumer HD Camera Round Up

Excerpted from Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter

by James Mathers, President & Cofounder, the Digital Cinema Society with the assistance of Mike Curtis, Editor of HDforIndies.com

The fundamentals of our industry are changing as the digital tools of our trade become more affordable and accessible. The potential for a Filmmaker to step up to the plate and create a feature on a very limited budget is becoming ever more possible. More features are sure to be made, but this doesn’t necessarily mean there will be more good movies. As I’m always quick to point out, it’s what you put in front of the camera by way of quality acting, production value, and the filmmaker’s ability to tell a story that makes for compelling entertainment. There are also hurdles to getting a project distributed; and it doesn’t matter how great a film may be, if nobody ever sees it. Yet the amazing progress being made in the world of Prosumer HD deserves some closer examination. This month I am aided by DCS Advisory Board member, Mike Curtis, Editor of HDforIndies.com, as we present a roundup of the highly affordable new HD cameras from Sony, Panasonic, JVC, and Canon.

As a Varicam owner, I’m relieved to say that these under ten grand cameras still don’t offer serious competition for the higher end HD models; but I do have to admit that there has been a tremendous amount of progress in the lower end segment over the last couple of years. JVC's initial foray with HDV in 2003 with the GY10U was a false start, but Sony's HDV cameras first introduced at the end of last year, (the HDR-FX1 and the HVR-Z1U) have proven themselves as viable candidates for indie film production. While they lack a true 24p mode, they can shoot a decent image in High Definition at a reasonable price point and can be converted to 24p in post via software.

There are also a slew of new cameras coming to market. Already shipping is JVC's second round HDV camera, the GY-HD100U, still using 720p rather than 1080i as Sony does, but with interchangeable lenses and a true 24p mode. In September, Canon announced the XL H1, their first HDV camera, due to hit the market by the end of this year. It purportedly has a 1440x1080 non-progressive imager, and will record 1080 interlace HDV, (again, no 24p). Interestingly, it is also said to have an HD SDI output, which offers the potential to record 10 bit uncompressed to an outboard disk recorder, or VTR, such as Sony’s SR. And, as a $600.00 option, Canon will also offer a software package that will allow all of the cameras electronic controls to be accessed, as well as the output of the camera to be recorded, via firewire. Thus, your laptop will have the potential to be a complete CCU, as well as a disk recorder. Being that Canon is an industry leading lens manufacturer, you can rest assured the new H1 will also have an extremely high quality interchangeable lens configuration.

Never to be outdone, Panasonic also has a new, Prosumer HD camera soon coming to market. With the HVX200, they have opted to record on solid state removable storage known as P2 cards. This new Panasonic will probably be the most flexible camera out there in terms of recording formats - 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p. 24p, 25p, 30p, 50i, 60i. It is also said to be including multiple selectable frame rates, although the exact speeds have yet to be announced. In addition to the P2 cards, and similar to other manufacturers’ HDV models, it can also record standard def to regular DV tape. A direct-to-disk via hard drive solution is also said to be coming by February of next year from Focus Enhancements. This is the camera that has the most buzz right now - better color resolution (4:2:2 rather than 4:2:0 of HDV), true native 24p that is supported now by NLEs, and extreme flexibility of recording size & frame rate. The HVX200 is also the only one of these cameras that I'm aware of that will also record DVCPRO50, (similar to the SDX900), a 4:2:2 standard def format, which separates it from the rest of the crowd.

As you can see, manufacturers are packing a variety of great features into highly affordable systems, however, the Holy Grail of inexpensive HD indie camera isn't quite out there yet. No one camera does everything, and it'll be a matter of finding the correct system for your specific project's needs.

-Want true 24p? Look to the JVC GY-HD100U or the Panasonic HVX200.
-Want 1080i60? The Sony HDR-A1U, the HDR-FX1, or the HVR-Z1U; the Canon XL H1, the Panasonic AG-HVX200 sort of (likely upsampled to 1080i60)
-Want 1080i50 and 1080i60 in one camera? Sony HVR-Z1U, or The Canon XL H1, but only with a factory modification. The Panasonic might offer these formats, but upsampled.
-Want interchangeable lenses? The JVC GY-HD100U or Canon XL H1.
-Want Variable frame rate options (moreso than 50i/60i?)? Check out the Panasonic HVX200
-Want HD-SDI output to record to a better than HDV format? Canon XL H1 (but the others offer analog component outputs, using an AJA HD10A converter or similar will give you an HD-SDI for not as good results)

As an aid in comparing these new models, we have compiled the following DCS Camera Rundown. Please note that many of these models have yet to be released, and although this information is from what we consider reliable sources, it is UNOFFICIAL and not to be relied on without further investigation.

Sony HDR-FX1
-Price range: $4,000.00
-3 CCD 960x1080 sensors (uses pixelshift, Sony claims effective 1440x1080 resolution)
-Format: HDV 1080i50 or 1080i60 (1440x1080 to tape, 4:2:0 YUV long GOP MPEG-2), frame rates supported: either 50i (PAL markets) or 60i (NTSC markets)
-Lens: Fixed
-XLR Inputs: NO
-True 24p support: NO
-True timecode support (24 hour timecode): NO

Good: less costly than Z1U, same basic imager & lens.
Bad: No XLR inputs, no true 24 hour timecode, no 1080i50 mode, no true 24p mode, controls don't give as much control as the ones on the Z1U , such as fewer presets, etc.

Sony HVR-Z1U
-Price range: $5,000.00 ($4400 best street price I've seen)
-3 CCD 960x1080 sensors (uses pixelshift, Sony claims effective 1440x1080 resolution)
-Format: HDV (1440x1080, 4:2:0 YUV long GOP MPEG-2)
-Frame Rates supported: BOTH 1080i50 and 1080i60 in the same unit
-True 24p support: NO
-XLR Inputs: YES
-Lens: Fixed

Good: Decent image quality, shoots 1080i50 as well as 1080i60 (so can shoot 1080i50, deinterlace to 25p, reconform to 24p), true 24 hour timecode, XLR inputs, pretty good image quality for the price
Bad: No true 24p mode, be nice to have interchangeable lenses (but not expected at this price point)

Canon XL-H1
-Price range: $9,000.00
-3 CCD 1440x1080 sensors
-Format: HDV 1080i60, 1080i50 possible with factory/service center modification (1440x1080 to tape, 4:2:0 YUV long GOP MPEG-2)
-Lens: interchangeable
-XLR Inputs: yes
-True 24p: NO - 24F mode sounds like it will be sampling at 48Hz and then frame blending - better than what you can do with Z1U, but not quite the ideal solution - still not true 24p
-HD-SDI output: YES

Good: 1080i60 & 1080i50 (with mod), 24F mode is easier solution for pseudo24p than Z1U's options, XLR inputs, ONLY camera with HD-SDI output in this price range, interchangeable lenses (pricey though)

Bad: no true 24p mode, hasn't shippped yet so we don't know what to expect in terms of image quality, but expectations are high. I'd also expect some issues with 24F - how exactly do you capture and edit? Cinema Tools for FCP? Unknown.

JVC GY-HD100U
-Price range: $6,300 list
-3 CCD 1280x720 Progressive
-Format: HDV 720p24, 720p30,720p60 out of camera but not recordable to onboard HDV
-Frame Rates Supported: 24p/30p/60p for HD
-True 24p mode: YES, but spotty support from NLEs at this time (not all, not natively), so plan carefully
-XLR Inputs: YES
-Lens: Interchangeable

Good: Interchangeable lenses, true 24p, XLR inputs, reasonable price

Bad: only 720p res not 1080 res; no NLE natively supports ProHDV's 24p mode yet.

Panasonic HVX-200
-Price range: $6,000 for the bare camera with only DV recording capabilities; a $10,000 bundle from Panasonic to include two 8GB P2 cards; and in Feb 2006 or later a $2000 Focus Enhancements portable on camera direct to disk FireWire recording option
-Format: DVCPRO HD 720p24, 720p25, 720p30, 720p60, 1080p24, 1080p25, 1080p30, 1080i50, 1080i60 - also DVCPRO50 4:2:2 standard def
-Records to DV tape DV 480p/480i, but records to P2 cards for DVCPRO
-50 24p/30i, and all HD formats. Optional third party hard drive recorder due Feb 2006 for about $2000
-True 24p mode: YES
-XLR audio inputs: YES

Good: all kinds of frame rates and frame sizes (including DVCPRO50), 480p/480i/720p/1080p/1080i, 23.976p/25p/30p/50i/60i seemingly for every size, only camera in this lineup that includes a 4:2:2 color space at all, as well as 4:2:2 for BOTH SD & HD. Easy native FireWire acess or P2 card file access (only uses tape for DV). Personally, I'm all kinds of excited about this camera. XLR inputs as well.

Bad: P2 cards are VERY pricey. Image sensor likely to be 960x720 (unconfirmed), so 1080p/1080i modes are upsampled (not true native resolution). Non-interchangeable lenses.

(Note: All of these cameras also support standard DV in both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios.)

For a free trial membership in the Digital Cinema Society please visit: digitalcinemasociety.org

-mike

UPDATE:

Ben Derydt has some good commentary based on usage stuff other than indie filmmakers (such an indie doc makers) that you should take into account, too:

http://benderydt.com � Blog Archive � Cheap HD camera matrix

If you're looking for run-and-gun, ENG or documentary camera, the Sony Z1 or the more expensive Canon XL-H1 will be hard to beat. The JVC HD-100 needs attention to get good images out of it (manual focus and iris) and has lousy low light performance. Battery perfomance is awfull, it won't record 720p60 or 720p50 and there's also the split screen issue. Panasonic P2-media is expensive and holds only 8 minutes at highest quality. You will have to fiddle with hard disk recorders and/or laptops if you shoot hours of footage a day with a Panasonic HVX-200.


Read on for more good info.

As always, buying a camera is about much more than just the specs. How is it to shoot in the field with, does it match your shooting style, is it comfy to hold/support for the type of shooting you're doing (such as handheld), is it small enough and pack up tight enough for your needs, is the battery situation acceptable, what's it cost to get the battery situation acceptable if not, etc. etc. etc. All my nerding out about specs and format quality are kinda meaningless if the camera is too awkward to shoot with or the battery poops out before one tape is shot.