View Full Version : Which cam for action shots?


Matt Buys
May 9th, 2009, 12:05 PM
I've been itching to do high speed stuff ever since the Sprint V-3 footage came out. I have a couple HV30's that I love but I'd like to get into some high fps shooting. Kids wake boarding, playing baseball, etc., If the cam only provides it in bursts that's fine. The budget is anywhere from 1k to 6k.

Robert M Wright
May 9th, 2009, 01:33 PM
How high speed do you want to get? 720p60 is great for action. The HMC150 and HM100 come to mind.

Matt Buys
May 9th, 2009, 03:59 PM
I wouldn't mind getting up into 120fps. But 60 would still be a step up from the HV30's 30p.

Tripp Woelfel
May 9th, 2009, 08:25 PM
720p60 is great for action. The HMC150 and HM100 come to mind.

720p60 isn't a whole lot different than what the HV30 gives you if your NLE can split out fields. For example, Time Remapping of 1080i footage in Adobe Premier Pro CS3 (and likely CS4) will break out fields so at 50% speed what you get is roughly 720p. It will render out at 1080i footage but in reality it's interpolating the 720 lines to make 1080 out of it.

I'm not sure how much more you might get out of 60p cam at 720 lines, but if you're hoping for a two fold increase, you just won't get it. There are a number of variables at play here so I cannot say that my scenario will yield the same quality as 720p60 but I don't think the difference would be enough for me to plunk down hard earned cash for a new camera just for that.

You might be better served by shooting with what you have and using a software tool like After Effects' Time Warp to interpolate frames. Depending upon what you're shooting, you could get to 1/4 speed with good results.

That said, there are other reasons why those JVC cams would be a good choice.

Lutz Dieckmann
May 18th, 2009, 05:53 PM
Hi,

I shot some slomo with the Sony EX1 and the JVC GY-HM700. Both great cameras and great slomo. I guess you should go for this mode, you will not regret it and the price is (to my mind) affordable.

Best

Lutz

John Peterson
May 21st, 2009, 07:34 AM
You will need to be able to increase the shutter speed to 1/250th or 1/500th of a second for fast motion.

There was another thread on the subject you might like reading here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/these-people-your-neighborhood/138191-really-good-camera-videotaping-sports.html

John