HD For Indies

DV - Columns - Exploring The Panasonic HVX200

I linked to this briefly in a prior post, but this is worth singling out - Adam Wilt gets my kind of nerdy all over the HVX200. Turns out we made some poor choices at the Texas HD Shootout last year, but that was not determinable until Adam spent some time with the camera. LOTS of specific bits of advice, LOTS of test shots.

Adam does it right.

Some of the things noted:

The HVX200 has 960 x 540 CCDs, so its limiting resolution is low; adding detail enhancement improves the apparent sharpness of the image. In Texas, we used -7 (detail off) and the image suffered for it. Set detail to +7, and everything picks up harsh edges. I usually use -2, which crispens the picture without adding too many objectionable outlines and halos, but others (for example, DP Chris Oben; see www.chrisoben.com/hvx200article.htm) opt for higher settings like +2. Why so different?

While repeatedly going back and forth between settings, I discovered that the Cinelike gammas have roughly half as much enhancement applied for any given detail setting as non-Cinelike gammas do.

....

Contrasty glass and metal that have specular highlights often looked better between -4 and -6; brightly sunlit scenes improved with a setting of -3 or -4, whereas similar scenes in the shade might warrant a setting of 0 to +2; +7 gives you an exaggerated "TV news" look.


...and so forth. Read on. If you have one of these cameras or are planning on shooting with an HVX200, this is a must read.

-mike