No sir, no color grading was done at all; these images were merely slapped together on a time line and uploaded onto my server as soon as I could jack my new baby into the 1394 port!
I'm supremely happy with this lens. I'd been wrestling with the idea of buying the pro35 adapter... you know, will 2/3" give me enough DOF, will this zoom look videoish or compromise the theatricality of my shots in any way (thankfully after shooting with it the answer to those questions was YES, and a resounding NO to the last one)? But I decided I just can't stand the limitations that the adapters place on you (well, I've only worked with the redrock to be fair)... image softening, loss of exposure, and that annoying effect you have to battle when you're shooting into a light source (I've even seen that multiplexing crap from an overcast sky)!
Also, I think that too many people are just trying to get the tiniest sliver thin depth they can because it's a new toy, or tool, or whatever may have you, but it's not always necessary, in fact, rarely necessary. And I've been working with the 1/3" cameras for so long now that I consider myself a pro at squeezing out every last bit of shallow DOF from cameras generally considered to be deep focus performers. But I'm almost getting sick of seeing the overly soft focus hunting in the redrock/HVX videos. So... with that I decided that I upgraded to 2/3" for the native depth characteristics, the superior latitude and light sensitivity, and the ability to have all of that with a crisp image. With digiprimes just out of my reach I went for a high end cine zoom that maintains a T2 throughout the entire zoom range.
As for the tripod, I LOVE the 526 head, it's smooth as butter and I most definitely did invest in the 528XB legs... it's good to know I made the right choice! My only problem is I neglected to notice that my camera package did not come with a tripod quick release plate so I've got to figure out where the heck I can pick one up and fast.
For anyone who wants to see the test shots in full resolution you've got two choices at the moment (I'll try to have a H.264 compressed version at higher res sometime next week, but until then... ), you can save any of the stills on my site to your desktop and they are actually full res (my web template resizes at least on Firefox for general viewing, but the information is there if you download it or view the image independently).
Also, if you have time for a monster 777mb download, you can DL the DVCPROHD 720P file from my server at this link:
http://www.harrisfilms.com/videos/HPX500_clips.mov
Lastly, on my opinion of the HPX500 and it's 1080P performance... I'm quite pleased! I've been shooting 720P 24PN since I purchased the HVX200 when it came out because the card limitations when shooting with a pair of 8gb's didn't really make 1080P a viable shooting option. However, I'm shooting on four 32gb cards now, so that's become a possibility. I did about a third of my test shooting in 1080 24PA and I'm really happy with it. I would never shoot anything on the interlaced modes, but 1080 24PA is what I'll be doing all my narrative work on from now on. Don't cry 720P, I still need you for those sexy overcrank shots we all love so much!
Thanks for the input guys, I look forward to post more as I start running this puppy through the production circuit.
Nick Harris
Harrisfilms.com