Extensive HD100 / Mini35 Hands-On Test: Articles, Photos and HD Video
 

Howdy from Texas,

This past weekend, our own Charles Papert took a crack at the HD100 combined with a Mini35 image converter for a couple of days and put the combo through its paces. This is kind of a big deal, because the HD100 hasn't even been delivered to U.S. dealers yet... this is very much an advanced sneak-peek kind of thing. We figured y'all would be interested in the results, so Charles has prepared a bunch of explanatory text, still images and HD video clips for you to browse through. An HDV Info Net exclusive! Here are the links:

Link to Article -- Part One: The Camera
All about the HD100 / Mini35 combo and Charles' personal high-tech power modification.

Link to Article -- Part Two: The Shoot
DV Info members Barry Green and Nate Weaver join in on the fun!

Link to Images -- Behind The Scenes Photos
You are there! Well, virtually anyway. How it all went down.

Link to Images -- Still Frames From Video
See! Shallow depth of field, and the lovely Amy Jo.

Link to Video -- Downloadable HD Clips
Help yourself to these m2t files, but do yourself a favor and watch 'em on an HDTV.

Please use this thread to discuss what you find -- many thanks to Chas for putting this all together, and to Nate and Barry for giving him a big hand (our poor guy is on crutches and needed the help)! Props to Barry for assisting with the video clips, too. Enjoy,

Excellent work!
 

Many thanks to Brad, Nate, Barry and Charles. I believe this is the kind of test and review many have been waiting to hear about and see for ourselves. I am once again excited about the Mini35/HD100 combo. Great camera work also. Those are some nice images. Looked like film footage to me! Thanks

Wow now thats some nice stuff from the camera. We finally get to see what the camera can really do. I recently found another site with some very nice high quality clips from the HD100 but I cannot remember where it is right now. The guy even shot a bluescreen scene and it looks very nice.

Fantastic!
 

Thank you guys; this is what we all wanted to see! I'd shoot a movie with this setup...

Very nice footage. Certainly shows what this camera is capable of in the right hands.

I noticed a small circular smudge in some of the Mini 35 footage and was wondering if anyone knew what caused it. It's most noticeable in the closeup shot under the woman's left eye.

What's this, a spot on one of those prime lenses! Hey, who was the First AC on that shoot?

Shhhhhh.

I'm not a real A.C. anymore. I only play one on t.v.

I saw that the other day, actually. I'm thinking it's a speck of dust on either the front or rear glass of the Mini35. A smudge or dust on either the front or rear element of the Cooke would not focus like that....

Thanks! This is a lot to take in . . a lot of work all around . .


- Grazie

Finally!!!
 

The instruments in the right hands, with the right purpose... Thanks a lot!

Luis

I'd agree with Nate, a well-defined smudge would likely have been on the front element of the Mini35 relay. I don't think either of us were keeping an eye on that with everything else going on, and since we switched back and forth to the Fujinon a few times, there was plenty of opportunity for an errant thumb to get in there.

Well heck, better an errant thumb than an errant crutch, eh? *thwack* D'oh!

Speedy recovery to you, Charles!

Wow! The CUs are simply stunning. Finally some footage that lives up to the hype.

Who cares about a smudge when it looks like this? Thumbs up.

Great!
 

Well this look really pro HD100 footage. Calibrated, controlled, good DP, lighting just for being some test shooting.

1- May I ask if you used any on-camera filter or post processing calibration?

2- On my NLE computer (both LCD and TV monitor) the skin tends to be quite warm and reddish: How was your WB setup / JVC skin detection mode? Or maybe this color reprodution is inherent to the camera.

3- Night shot: Any gain used? how much Watts from lighting did u have?

4- Did you try to simulate the Mini35 depth of field by moving back the camera and tele on subject with the Fujinon's? How were the results compared with the Mini35?

L.

That's a no on both. Lens was clean...only "on camera filter" was the built in ND on some shots.

I do beleive we had the color level up a few notches, but Barry would know for sure. I know absoutely that the image looked MUCH flatter on the on-set monitor.

Gain was at 0db for all shots. The key was a 4-bank Lowel Caselight, the backlight was a 575 frensel.

Absolutely not. We went to great pains to match field-of-view when doing the Mini/16x comparison shots.