What camera would be the best option for indie filmmaking?
 

After the NAB news, I'm thinking which camera would be my option, as a filmmaker with under $10K budget.

Under your experience which one has the better specs and overall, best resolution, color sampling in the big screen.

In my personal analysis, these are the finalist.

Pana HVX 200
JVC HD 200
XDCAM ES
And maybe the mini RED,if the price and specifications it will be in this arena.

Regards!
Octavio Gasca

Well neither the XDCAM EX or the mini-Red camera exist - so count them out for the moment. As for the Panasonic and the JVC, both produce very film-like footage (for 1/3" sensor video cameras) from what what I've been told. With the cost of a P2 card or two, they cost roughly the same. But I imagine you'd be pleased with the result from either camera. I think the main question between these two would be which formfactor suits you best and whether tape or solid-state recording suits you best.

Hope that helps.

Well I wouldn't spend any money right now. I would hold fire for the EX. It should be a stunning performer. I have to say the HD100 does produce very pleasing pictures, but artifacts can be an issue with HDV in certain circumstances.

I'm going to have to agree with you Alister. If it ends up being twice the price of a Canon XHA1 I might just get the Canon and put up with tape, 1/3" sensors, and 25Mb/s - but if it's everything we're hoping it'll be (i.e. a compact version of the f330/350 with variable framerates)...

I think the choice will be pretty easy.

I think Sony should have a winner with the EX range. I can't wait to get my hands on one.

'EX range' you say?

I would get the Canon A1, if you are worried about the HDV codec you could still work your project in DV at 24F in 16:9 native. The money you save would let you complete your kit and then when the Red and th EX wil be out and have proven themselves you could reconsider and sell your A1 without loosing too much money. Meanwhile you could also discover that HDV is maybe not that bad.

Yeah that's my main issue, if I get the Canon instead, I can afford to buy all my other accessories. However for me the camera is more of an investment in building up my knowledge and familiarity with professional gear - i.e. so when I get in touch with producers (like I've been doing of late) I can confidently tell them that I'm familiar with working with professional equipment (the xdcam format is a pro one), full manual lenses etc...

I don't want to buy a prosumer video camera to make money with, I want it to create content that will impress people enough that they'll let me shoot stuff with real cameras.

Check into a rental house, and rent some different cameras to work with.

I don't know, but I would not be surprised if we see more than one version of the camera, maybe one with a more limited feature set and then more models in the future.

If you want to practice with professional ergonomics, I'd buy the HD200.

It looks the most pro IMO as well.

I'd love to get one, but down here the HD200 is about $13,000 - so it's somewhat out of my price range.

What I'm doing at the moment is arranging a try before you buy deal with a rental house, so I can test out 3 or 4 of the different cameras over a weekend each in order to figure out which one to buy - I'm getting the feeling though that 1/3" sensors and hdv isn't going to cut it when the XDCAM EX arrives.

HDV has a bit of a stigma attached to it – it was never quite fully trusted from the start. It analogous to the launch of miniDV – most people in the industry were very suspicious of it. I worked in UK TV news at the time, and we weren't allowed to broadcast more than short bursts of DV in case the UK Broadcasting standards watchdog took us to task!

However, XDCAM HD is light-years ahead of HDV (especially the audio), so I'd personally hang-fire on any purchases in the "prosumer handheld" arena until after we get the full low-down on what the EX will do for us at Sony's "launch" in July.

Talking about the results after the blow-up to 35mm. Any experience in projects shotted with JVC HD 100 or Panasonic 200 in the big screen?
And if you have any camera settings-editing-post technical advises for better results.
I really want to hear your experiences in this process from HDV or Panasonic HD PRO to 35mm

Well I don't know about HDV transfers, but I was rewatching a fantastic little Aussie Mockumentary called "Kenny" last night - that was shot on an old PD150 (or PD170) and they got a fantasic transfer to 35mm, The whole film looks really clean.

So I imagine, that if your footage is clean enough in the first place it should transfer across pretty well, especially when it has over twice the resolution of what you get out of a PD150.