HD100 and Varicam make a great team
 

Last week I DP'd a project with the Varicam... I brought along my HD100 to use as a second camera. I mounted it on a highhat and placed it in various locations. Man was I pleasantly surprised with the results. Check out this video clip... The over the shoulder shot and the locked down shots are the HD100. the Jib and hand held stuff are the Varicam shots. Some color tweaking would be required for a perfect match but you'll get the idea I think.

www.dejaviewmedia.com

Look in the news section for more info and a QT or WMV file

I used Stephen Noe's Bright Day scene file. 24P

Looks great! Our little camera continues to surprise.

Wow, maybe you can payoff a good portion of the 2nd by going all JVC... :)

It's a real treat for me to see this work. Looks great.

Did you use the stock lens on the ProHD camera?

That is great how well the two cameras work together. That varicam footage was just fantastic. I always knew the hd100 was kind of varicam-ish.

I hope you post the finished piece on your website. I love your work, it's my kind of style.

Thanks,

Jonathan

maybe I'm just under fueled this morning, but I can't find the clip you are referring to, and I'm real interested! The portfolio and projects are real nice, I've looked at a bunch, but nothing seems to be dated as recently as your post suggests on the news section of the homepage supplied.

Use this link to read more on the production and to view the clip.

http://www.dejaviewmedia.com/racingspot.html

It's cool to know that in certian situations the two cameras match up pretty well. You can bet I'll bring the HD100 along as a second camera from now on.
Stephen I am using the stock lens on the JVC. Your scene file works well in bright days. Before I loaded it I'd been dissappointed on more than one occassion where the HD100 couldn't handle the contrast on bright days, but your set up seems to smooth that out a bit. Thanks.

Great stuff. I could see that first two opening shots of the cars look like JVC footage, how close am I on this?

When the JVC was introduced, I remember reading a post of someone that claimed that the footage could've well have been CineAlta. And now this...

But it has to be said that technology is capable of remarkable things. Why shouldn't the HD101 be comparable to the Varicam? Obviously it is cheaper - but that doesn't automatically mean it's lower end (well, it is a bit lower end of course - but the price might reflect a bigger difference).

At the end day, the Varicam had older (DSP) technology on board, and fewer pixels on it's CCD's. Therefor the advantage it has because of the 2/3 inch CCD's etc is compensated somewhat (not all of it, the varicam has other features, I know - just trying to make a point). In time, when more higher-end lenses for the 1/3-inch will be available the difference in perfermance between the 2 will only drop.

If I need to shoot in 24p or 25p, there's enough light available and I have a high quality lens available for the HD100, I don't see the point in using the varicam, I really don't. I admit there will always be arguments that speak for the Varicam over the HD100, but the other way around it's just the same. (for me personally: if the Varicam wasn't limited to 960x720 instead of having full 1280x720, it might be somewhat different. But exactly that fact keeps bugging me)

I was pretty sure the Varicam used 1280x720x60 CCD's. It was only the recording format that down sampled to 960x720.

"If I need to shoot in 24p or 25p, there's enough light available and I have a high quality lens available for the HD100, I don't see the point in using the varicam, I really don't. I admit there will always be arguments that speak for the Varicam over the HD100, but the other way around it's just the same. (for me personally: if the Varicam wasn't limited to 960x720 instead of having full 1280x720, it might be somewhat different. But exactly that fact keeps bugging me)"

I agree and thats what I've been doing. However there are many times when I prefer the varicam. For instance if I'm doing interviews and really want a shallow DOF, the varicam achieves this much easier. Of course in dark situations and high contrast situations, the latitude of the camera can handle those much easier too. Then there's overcranking and undercranking which is very simple with the varicam.

Today we were looking over some recent footage of interviews and comparing both cameras. Besides the DOF difference they looked equally stunning.

As for the 960 X 720, that is a bummer but we've done some capturing via KONA 2 at 1280 X 720 and it looks great.

Daniel: Yes the racing footage is all JVC, plus the over the shoulder shot of the crew chief and the locked down shot were the car slides into the pit and the reverse where the car exits the pit.