HPX500: Choice of battery, Lens and Archiving
 

I'm considering the HPX500 and would welcome any opinion on battery and lens options. My main purpose is ENG/documentary & Industrial but we will be shooting an indie feature with it very soon.

Having mainly worked with Sony BL batteries I'm unfamiliar with the range of Anton Bauer Batteries. Robert Lane was happy with the Hytron 120 that shipped with the camera he used. Is there any advantage to the other AT batteries in terms of weight ballance?

My other question was in regard to the glass. At this price point, getting an HPX500 will allow me to put a little more money on a better lens. Between the two 2x CAC options (Canon KJ16ex7.7B IRSD PS12 16X and Fujinon XA17x7.6BERM-M58B 17X), is there any advantage to either one, is there an availability issue?

Lastly, for documentary and indie film, arching this is clearly a concern. Has anyone tried the Quantum data storage system, how does it compare to other options like a Blu Ray drive?

thanks

B&H has some nice packages, maybe you've already seen them. I've decided on the HPX w/Canon CAC Lens w/2X extender. I'm not sure on the quality difference of the lenses, but i'm sure if the Canon is the most expensive of the bunch it should probably be the best of the CAC lenses!? They are all pretty wide, i think the Fujinon 17X 7.6 is equivelent to the 4.2mm (on the wide angle) on the HVX200. So thats pretty nice, i think the Canon is 16X 7.7....so not that much difference. As for shooting a feature, perhaps looking into a nice Prime lens might be good. For storage i've decided the best method for me to archive is to use Hard Drives. I think they are actually the cheapest per Gig of storage of all the methods. A 500 Gig HD could be bought for roughly 150.00 Canadian (where i'm from). So not bad at all....well maybe until Blu-ray disks are as cheap as DVDs.

Just to be clear; I wasn't *happy* per-se with either the lens or battery, I simply didn't have a choice as to what the camera shipped with for shooting demo footage.

I would have preferred - and will purchase for my own 500 - the Dionic 160 instead of the Hytron series. The Dionic while more costly is much lighter and has longer runtime.

With regard to lenses: The 2x "CAC" Canon (which is the most expensive of the package offerings) did a fine job considering it's price-point and intended mission. I was especially impressed with it's Macro capabilities however, it was in fact the lens that was the limiting factor for just how good the 500 footage could have looked. Even though the CAC circuity did a good job of limiting fringing it was still obvious with "point-light" such as reflections and with backlit objects. Had I been able to mount either some cine-primes or, HD-spec zooms the visuals from the 500 would have really come alive and I was quite sore that none of those lenses were available to rent during my short time with the 500.

If you have the budget for good glass and really want your HPX500 footage to look as good as possible then I would not suggest any of the *kit* lenses; instead ante-up for HD-spec zooms or primes, which type will of course depend on your shooting style and the project type.

For me, I'll be building a lens system around the Pro-35 adapter with bright primes (35mm f/1.4; 85mm f/1.4; 200mm f/2; 600mm f/4) and one HD-spec zoom such as the Canon HJ17ex7.6B-VRSE e-HDxs for anything not requiring a film-look or when I need the versatility of a general purpose zoom.

Archival methods were probably one of the most asked questions in our section of the booth at NAB; the good news is that with all the options available today you can pick whichever media type best fits your current workflow and budget. There is no "best" method, it all comes down to your budget, what your current archive library is built around, what your cataloging methods are and your own comfort level with any particular media.

Thanks Robert, your insight is very important for those of us having to make choices now, especially if we are switching over from another brand or entering the world of full sized cams for the first time.
kalunga