FX1 vs DVX100 vs DV5000
 

Aloha,

We got our FX1 on Friday and have been super busy with work and testing.

We did some side by side tests of the FX1, JVC DV5000, and DVX100.

Resolution
There was NO competetion. The DV cameras looked like crap compared to the FX1. We watched the footage from all cameras on an SD TV and on an HD TV. On the SD TV the the FX1 jus thad less noise and looked slightly sharper. On the HD TV the DV cameras looked horrible next to the FX1, especially the DVX100. I think an XL2 would hold up better, but we don't have one.

Color
We shot color charts in different lighting and the FX1 has GREAT color in my opinion. The DV5000 has good color, but the FX1 looked better. We looked at the FX1 footage in FCP scopes and it looked great. When I get time I will upload some stills.

Temporal Rate
We shot mostly 30P on the FX1. Compared to the DV5000 which is 60i, the FX1 didn't look as much like video and motion was good. The 24P DVX100 just has a cool look to it. We shot a lot of ocean with the FX1 at 30P 1/60 and it looked odd. Like it was in slow motion.

Compression
For those concerned about the compression of the FX1. We shot the road out the window of a car doing 60MPH at 30P 1/2000 shutter and exported a couple seconds of stills. Every still is razor sharp. Trees in the distance, groves in the pavement, everything. You can see the chips in the paint on the white line on the side of the road. Those concerned about fast pans, if you don't pan faster than 60MPH you should be okay.

When I get a chance I will put some foot out for people to download.

30P?
 

i don't believe the fx1 has 30P (as in progressive mode). is this true, i'll have to check myself.

any pics from your tests?

anyhow, i'm about to order one. thanks for giving me extra reassurance.

Here are some stills.

http://www.sandust.net/hdr-fx1/

Everything here is shot with the HDR-FX1 on 30P and 0db gain. This color chart is not very good. I will upload another one latter that we paid more attention to exposing.

I'm assuming he means the Cineframe 30 mode. Fake progressive like the XL-1's Frame mode.

I am not sure what you mean by "fake progrssive mode", but this doesn't look anything like the 30p I have seen from an XL1.

I don't know exactly how Sony gets the 30p in it's Cineframe 30, but it looks very good.

Look at this image and tell me what is fake about the progressive.

http://www.sandust.net/hdr-fx1/hdr-fx1_30p_1over2000_shutter_Sequence%201051.png

I know it is too dark, but we were shooting 1/2000 shutter at late in the day. This is going 60mph and the concrete wall is about 20 feet from the car. If you look in the directory, there is an 10 frame sequence of these.

Just that it's an in-camera deinterlacing or however you want to describe it, rather than true progressive. Not that it's done the same way as the Canon or gives the same results.