GY-HM100 arrived today
 

And I have to say I am more than pleased with it. Picture quality is stunning. The LCD is not the best I have seen, but it does the job. I just encoded 5 minutes of footage to H264 and replayed it off a memory stick via my WD TV Media player, to a 42" HD TV, absolutely superb.
Could I pick the brains of some of you guys who have had your cams for a week or 2?
1.What difference does the audio reference level make. ie -20 or -12
2.do you think shooting 720 is the sweet spot for downconverting for SD DVD
3. I am trying to get my head round the post workflow, its all new to me, coming from tape.
what is the best way to use clip browser. I seem to have to open 3 folders to get to the file, whether I use clip browser, or take the files directly into Edius 5 from the SDHC card. I am probably missing something, but as I say it is a completely new ball game to me.
4. When I use the focus assist function, I see the coloured outlines when the lens is wide, but as I zoom in tight to get focus the markings gradually dissapear, is this normal?
I would greatly appreciate any advice/pointers on the above.
Meanwhile I will stick my head in the manual, and the menu system.
This cam, IMO gives a better picture than anything I have used in this price bracket, and above, for many years. Love it.
BTW. Edit programs I use are Premiere CS4, Edius 5 and Vegas Pro 8.

1: You set how loud the mics are recorded when they make the change to digital. -20 gives you more head room and -12 is 6 dB louder.

2. Probably. It is easier on your computer to display and for effects and still 3 times the resolution of a DVD.

3. I use FCP and QuickTimes and I do have to get in those folders to get the files but then I just copy them to a hard drive and don't copy all the camera files over.

4. The more you have in a shot that has high contrast the more color fringes you will see for your focus. If you zoom in on something the camera perceives as low detail it won't have anything to put color around.

Elvis, your a star. Thank you for the concise explanation.

Keep in mind that Depth of Field is greatest at wide angle lens position, therefore you will see more "in focus" items indicated by Focus Assist. Depth of Field becomes increasingly more shallow as you zoom in (ie. a telephoto lens position) to your subject. If you aren't seeing Focus Assist markings on high contrast edges while in telephoto, you aren't in focus.

Regarding the workflow: I use Vegas 8 and the Sony file browser. I shoot in mp4, insert the SD into my computer and open the file browser. It will show me all the clips on the SD card and play them in a pre-view window, if I want. I can now either choose in-points and out-points or export the hole clip. While it gets exported to my HD it will get re-wrapped to a format that allows me to drop the files on the timeline directly - and the editing starts. Supposedly Vegas 9 will allow us to use the .mp4 files natively but I also read about people having problems with it, so I´m not sure. I took a look at the JVC file browser but found it to be not very useful and confusing and decided to go with the Sony, which is a free download too. Now, when it comes to archiving all the material, that is a whole new can of worms that I haven´t really opened yet...

Colin,
Have you tried editing with Edius yet? Can you just copy the mp4 files from the SD card and place onto the timeline w/o conforming or converting to an intermeditate codec?

Thanks,

Mark

DV camcorders used -12 while HDV and other HD camcorders used -20 because it allowed greater headroom. I suspect JVC gives you the option so those used to a DV workflow have a way of staying with it. And, until now, one could shoot DV or HD.

Steve,
When should we look for your new HM100 handbook?

Look for the link to the manual in the other thread,
there's a Downloadlink and before you can choose
your language.

He is not talking about the manual, he is talking about a HANDBOOK. The JVC manual does only explain very basic functions but not much else. So a thoroughly compiled handbook would surely be a good thing to have...

Thanks, everyone for your input. I am getting my head around all this, on my second day with the cam. So far, I like what I see.

Hi Mark. I cant take credit for this, Matt San, a forum member, very kindly e-mailed me these instuctions last night, and it works. Just like using .mov files in FCP. Once again, thanks very much Matt.
Quote.
To get the clips from clip browser into an Edius bin - simply openEdius and JVC clip browser - then select all the clips in the clip browser window. DRAG WITH MOUSE FROM CLIP BROWSER into Edius bin (do not use windows explorer)
Thats all there is to it. You can edit directly from the SDHC card. Wonderfull.

Good to hear. Sounds like a "smooth" work flow.

I did some tests and shot 720/50p. Edited a minute together in FCP by dragging the .mov files onto a 720X576 anamorphic timeline, then my usual of outputting via Compressor as a .mpeg file. Then uploading by mobile broadband to an FTP server at a broadcast client's facility. Later I examined the pics on an AVID Newscutter after they popped through FlipFactory. Sounds convoluted, but I needed to check it all worked as that's the required workflow. Everything looked and sounded great.

If the above is gobbledygook to you, apologies.

Good luck with the camera - I knew you'd like it ;-)

Cotty

I've got to turn in a HM700/HM100 review to Broadcast Engineering by the end of the month. So it has priority.

Has anyone else imported .mov files into Media Composer? I'm not getting audio and there are glitches in the video transcoded to DNxHD files.

The same file works perfectly in FCP.