HD100: brief impressions

[Heath McKnight]

With the motion smoothing on or off, it looked the same in 24p: VERY smooth, very very smooth. As in, not entirely like 24p, in my opinion. But not like 30p, either, and you could tell the difference.

Lots of menu options.

I like the focus guide (things go black and white and as an image comes into focus, the edges turn blue, green or red--cool!).

While better than the HD10, the LCD and viewfinder on the HD100 aren't good at all. It's hard to get even a somewhat accurate look with it. DEFINITELY use a calibrated HD monitor (or even an SD monitor).

JVC says the 720p24/30 pro deck is okay with Final Cut Pro 5, but not the camera. So Jon F. and I couldn't capture anything. Sorry! We didn't shoot much, to be honest--no time to really work with it. Instead, we shot stuff with the Z1 for a 24p test (only in 1080i mode).

When Jon can get his hands on the HD100, he'll have a better review. I hope to use it again soon and more extensively.

heath

[Tim Dashwood]

Originally Posted by Heath McKnight

With the motion smoothing on or off, it looked the same in 24p: VERY smooth, very very smooth. As in, not entirely like 24p, in my opinion. But not like 30p, either, and you could tell the difference.

You have to actually digitize the footage to see what the 24p motion looks like. I haven't quite figured out how JVC does it, but the HDV live uncompressed 720p60 output looks very "smooth" like 60p, even though you are recording in 24P. However, when in DV mode the 24P motion is shown on the live output.

JVC says the 720p24/30 pro deck is okay with Final Cut Pro 5, but not the camera. So Jon F. and I couldn't capture anything. Sorry! We didn't shoot much, to be honest--no time to really work with it.

It is true that FCP 5.0.2 can't digitize 720p60 (it currently will do 720p30) but an update should be out soon (rumoured possibly within days)

I have had good luck using HDVxDV or DVHScap to capture the 720p60 streams. Then I use MPEG Streamclip to convert to Apple's intermediate codec - but the files become very large.
The problem at this point is that you have a 720p60 file with 24p 2:3 pulldown, but Cinema Tools currently can't remove the pulldown in a progressive frame pattern within 60p. However, when you edit the 720p60 into a 720p24 sequence, the pulldown frames are automatically removed.

I'm anxiously awaiting FCP 5.0.3!

[Heath McKnight]

I gave back the HD100 to JVC, so now I'll have to wait. We only got around 4 minutes of footage--our batteries kept dying. The HD10 batteries fit, but my HD10 is 2+ years old, so maybe the batteries were having issues holding charge. The HD100 battery did well in the set up, but after more than an hour of that, it died--close the LCD!

I know Jon F. will be shooting with the HD100, hopefully very very soon. He'll have more to say.

In the meantime, I'm doing tests with Z1 and FX1 1080i60 footage and converting it to 24p with some software apps. This is mostly for research and also as tests for my next feature film 9:04 AM, which we shoot next Spring/Summer.

heath

[Heath McKnight]

I'd like to thank JVC, ProVideo Sales, Palm Beach Film School and Matt Miller for all the help with the testing yesterday (Sunday Sept. 11, 2005)!

heath

[Chris Hurd]

Did you take any photos during that shoot, Heath?

[Heath McKnight]

A couple, but since the batteries all died, most (if not all) of the photos ended up being of the Z1 we were using with a Chroziel Matte Box and Follow Focus.

heath

[Chris Hurd]

Well, I was just gonna say, since you're one of the wranglers here, you can always use the Image Gallery upload feature to your heart's content.

[Heath McKnight]

I will then!

heath