720P B Cam for HD101?
 

Hi,
I know someone had asked the similar questions before, but I still can't find the correct answer yet. I have a wedding videography business and need to get another cheaper B roll camera that can record 720P30 as my main cam is HD101.

I wonder any camcorder on the market now can do such job? My budget is around $1000 to $2500. From my research, it seems only JVC HD10 can record 720P30 on the market right now. Also, can this cam playback the tapes from HD101?
Thanks in advance.

Ed

I am in almost the exact same situation, using my HD-110 for weddings and looking for a less expensive camera to partner with it to get cutaways and such. Right now I'm doing everything in SD 16x9 and using the sony pdx-10 as my second camera which is working pretty well. However I will need to get a second HD cam before I can shoot an all HD wedding.

The camera that is at the top of my list right now is the JVC GZ-HD7. It is a consumer camera but it has 3 chips and fairly good manual controls with a manual focus ring. Also it is 1080i, but I have transcoded 1080i video to 720p and intercut it with the JVC stuff before without too much noticable difference... especially if your more than 6 inches form the screen.

I've given up looking for a second camera that records 720p. It just doesn't seem like there's a good one out there.

The HD10 will record it, and it does playback the 110's material, but overall it's a weak camera.

At this point I'm going to buy a 1080i camera and cross convert the material to 720p in the editor. Santos Ramos and Steve Mullen confirmed on this forum that the Sony H5 will playback the 1xx and 2xx series tapes so right now I'm looking into that unit.

If it's just a second camera it will probably just be on a wide shot any way where the conversion will be unnoticable.

I sure wish that we had some better options, but it doesn't look good right now.

Ben

Had lunch with JVC at NAB and pushed/pleaded for a low-cost handheld 720p camcorder. They really do understand that is the next product they need.

An HD7 will arrive in the next few days for my review.

In theory, since the HD7 CCD's yield 1920x1080 at 60p -- they could generate 1280x720 at 60p. No problem recording this to HDD.

Likely no issue to also get 720p30. Harder to get 720p24 unless 2-3 pulldown was used. Which is perfectly acceptable.

Since these 960x540 chips cannot really generate much more than 540x540 TVL -- they are far better matched to 720p than FullHD. In fact, FullHD is a bad joke.

UPDATE: The HD7's real resolution should be almost exactly what the HD1 and HD10 deliver. If you use it in the 1440CBR mode -- identical to 1080 HDV -- you could scale it down to 720p. But, would you get p30 or p60?

The real issue is the HD7's low lattitude. Without a full redesign to 1/3-inch CCDs I can't see it being sold by the PRO division. Unless, they can tweak the firmware for better gamma and a smarter dynamic knee.

I think this is one area that Sony catered to very well over the past ten to fifteen years. They created the PD150 and also had the PDX10. That was a good camera to compliment their main prosumer unit. I would like to see the other manufacturers follow suit and provide a prosumer, small handheld unit to compliment their mid sized lineup.

Ben

Thank guys. I checked out HD7 before and realized it doesn't really record 720P. Most importantly, I don't think it could read the tapes from HD101, so it wouldn't take the load of the drum hours of my main cam. Yes, I really want JVC to make some cheaper version of 720P cam....There are more than dozen of 1080i prosumer cams on market now. It seems HD10 would be the idea choice for me which can record 720P30 and read the tapes from HD101.

Ed

I too am looking for a cheap 720p HDV1 camera to compliment my HD100.

It seems the HD1/10 series is the only option but why pay over $1,000 for a 1-chip camera?

Perhaps one of the cheap 1080i cameras is the answer but again, I can't use it as a capture deck for my HD100 footage and I would have to pay $500 to upgrade to FCP 6 which has the open timeline.

The HD7 has no tape transport.

I've got a HD10, and going to try 30p at 1/30th or at most 1/60th, but I don't have high hopes dropping 30p in a 24p timeline. What about a Canon HV30 at 24f or the JVC HD7 1080i to 720p 24p conversion? Anyone?