I am in the middle of pre-production on a music video and then I'm gonna go on and shoot a movie in Colorado. I'm down to two choices: JVC HD100U or the Canon XL-H1. I've been leaning towards the XL but have a few questions.

Is the chromatics abrations (spp?) really as bad as people have said?
Is the Lens on the 100U really all that bad?
How good is the picture of the 100U?

The lens is good enought for it's price, of course it has its limitations but is perfectly capable of a good performance. It has CAs but they can be avoided.

The picture of the HD100 is excelent, it is really a very good camera. Check this article:

http://dv.com/features/features_item.jhtml;jsessionid=I0T4LWPRXCS2OQSNDBCCKHSCJUMEKJVN?category=Archive&articleId=177103305

You'll have to be registered.

Hi David,

On this forum many people have already posted footage.
If you do a search you will bump into these posts and see some excellent video from this camera.

I looked at a number of HD100s at Videoforum today.

I think that the lens issue is one of quality control, some being far better than others. If you go with the HD100, I would try and test several at the dealers and make sure you pick the best of the bunch. One of the lens I saw today was REALLY bad. The worst CA I have ever seen! I asked the JVC rep if it was an older model and he said he didn't believe so. Another one was almost completely clear of CA in normal shooting. I viewed both on Pro HD mointors.

Has anyone else seen this inconsistency?

I just got back from a open house with JVC here in Tempe, AZ and was just blown away at the sharpness of this wonderful camera. Very solid camera too. I have looked at every other HDV camera and this is where my money is going.
I haven't decided to buy now with a free $1200 battery or wait until NAB to see if a newer version comes out. The AZ rep played stupid about it so if anyone knows if an updated version is coming out?
Hate to miss out on the special.

P.S. this is my first posting here I finally figured out how. yea

I was just at the same open house Joe attended today.
I agree, the HD100 is one heck of a camera for 6K.

They had an I-O Data ProHD DVD Player (SRDVD-100U) displaying footage to a JVC 1280x720 LCD. The player plays back the HD100's mt2 files on DVD-R. It also supports DVD (also upscales),WMV9,DIVX,MPEG1,MPEG2,XviD. They also had a ProHD deck too.

Most of the footage they displayed has probably been seen here or other forums. Most of all the shots really showed how well the JVC can perform. I was impressed how good the low light footage looked.

By the way Joe. It was great meeting you at the open house. As you know, I ended up buying a camera. I got back late so I have not had much a chance to check it out.

I'm looking forward to setting it up and testing it out tomorrow.

Steve

This is very good information. I am convince by testimony and example photage posted on this site that this is the camera for me. I will bother with a days road trip to personally pick the camera that has the least CA/SSE. One thing I hated about the canon XL1s it's a pain to shoudler mount -having to resort to a three point Varizoom harness. The H1, from what I hear is even more forward heavy. Everyone yaks about charts, signals, and technical issues. Face it, your gonna lug this thing around, so anethestics should be on the top ten as well.

Pete

I will be running some general tests today on my new HD100.
CA, SSE,dead pixels, overall function and PQ.

I'm not sure how anyone will be able to convince their dealer to rip open
their new HD100 cartons and let one decide which is the best.

I know for a fact, I would NOT buy and opened HD100.

Steve

I will be running some general tests today on my new HD100.
CA, SSE,dead pixels, overall function and PQ.

I'm not sure how anyone will be able to convince their dealer to rip open
their new HD100 cartons and let one decide which is the best.

I know for a fact, I would NOT buy and opened HD100.

Steve
Every box is already opened and retaped with packing tape so that QC can check it before it ships to the dealer. You wouldn't know the difference if it was opened at the dealership or JVC.

I will be running some general tests today on my new HD100.
CA, SSE,dead pixels, overall function and PQ.

I'm not sure how anyone will be able to convince their dealer to rip open
their new HD100 cartons and let one decide which is the best.

I know for a fact, I would NOT buy and opened HD100.


It sounds like many were opened by JVC quality control already, so it may not be too bad.

Put it this way, from what I have seen, I wouldn't leave the dealer WITHOUT an open box. The camera is just too inconsistent.

Steven and Joe, I might have missed you, depending on when you were at the Tempe showing. All I can say is WOW. Tim Dashwood taught me more in one post than the guys there could have. I was there early, and I ended up helping them set stuff up. If you have any questions this is the place to come. Now, this may have been due to them not having used the equipment before, and I am a massive tech-head, but it was still disconcerting.

They were showing the clips of the bus, and in the garden. There were soemthings that were newer clips that one of the guys had show in Montana of some Moose? Elk? I can't remember what he said, and I left before they showed it.

Pete, I got the AB mount for the camera, not the Varizoom, so someone with that will have to verify, but the camera is amazingly solid with the extra battery. I shot for 40 minutes straight with out feeling like I was shaking too much, if that is the type of stuff you do.

They also had the br-hd50 that I got to take home the night before and play with. I liked it, because I could hook up my crappy older tv to it, and it had an underscan feature in the menu that was nice. One thing that bothers me about it though, is if you rewind it all the way to the beginning, it will begin to record over your tape! I couldn't figure how to turn it off since they didn't give me a menu, and the JVC reps didn't even know about it. Any one else that has had a chance to play with this encounter this problem?

(Steven and Joe, what are you two going to use your cameras for, if you don't mind me asking?)

Is the chromatics abrations (spp?) really as bad as people have said?

You should read through the H1 list and look for posts about CA on the Canon lens. And, about the poor focus control.

Hey Steve and Peter, I have not purchased the camera yet because I read some other post that an updated version is coming at nab. Is this just B.S.?
If so I might purchase the camera soon to get the free battery rebate.
I was born and raised here in Phoenix and just spent the last few months in San Fransisco. I am starting out as a freelancer videograper and looking to purchase a camera.
I don't see much work in phoenix so I might be moving to San Fransisco in the spring.
Love to get together with you guys. I did lot of film work here in the 1980's but from what I have seen here nobody wants to pay much for your skills.
Anyways What accessrories do you have or plan to get for your JVC hd100?

I don't see much work in phoenix so I might be moving to San Fransisco in the spring.


There are a few guys supporting F900's in town. A lot of TV commercials get shot here. There's also corporate and wedding work. There's work out there but I'm sure it's competitive.

I was at the JVC event too. Steve T. and I were there for quite a while in the late afternoon and Steve walked out with one. Both he and I have been HVX200 guys up to this point.

I saw the HVX200 again at E.A.R. last night also. They had a great salesperson, probably better than the JVC guys. But again, the sales pitch as pretty much "specs". HDV bashing etc. Some of the stuff really wasn't super honest. Like "why would you capture in HDV when you're going to convert to DVCHDPRO on capture anyhow? It's a better codec.". Um... so you can compress it enough to fit onto tape for truly mobile recording? Yeah - it's a better editing codec.

As soon as you look at the HVX picture, even on their professionally shot demo stuff it doesn't look as good to ME as the JVC demo stuff. The highlights blow out worse and uglier and now I'm sure I prefer the noise of the JVC. They actually had some varicam stuff too and I noticed the same noise. So the noise is just my taste. I can see the next person saying the opposite. But the JVC's is better. ;-)

What's the BEST HVX feature? The lens doesn't breath much at all due to the chip moving to focus. But oh the focus system stinks. I couldn't focus it well at all... back and forth like a trip to the eyedoctor. Is this one better, or that one?

Which are you worried about more? Breathing on a really long rack focus (fix it in post if it really bugs you) or quick, accurate focusing like the JVC system serves up shot after shot? How much time and frustration does that save?

I don't think there's an HVX guy that's not running out and adding a monitor first thing - watch the forums, aren't they all saying that? The whole "blow up" the center of the frame to focus just doesn't work well. Try setting 2 focus points for your rack focus on a locked off camera with that. It ain't happening. You're using your external monitor... at video village. Nice mobile camera. ;-)

And you need a laptop for P2 storage. If you've got a laptop along why not use HDV Rack on a laptop with the JVC and get hard drive capture, 30 second precapture, a vectorscope, and a monitor with high enough rez to focus all at the same time? (HDV Rack doesn't work with the HVX)

Anyway, once you see the footage and do the math I can't think of too many shooters the HVX is better for. Macro is great on the HVX. A 35mm adapter other than the P&S would work better on it too due to the form factor and macro focus, but people are using them with the HD100. Low frames rates and intervolometer? The first is easy in post, the 2nd is better with a still camera. Now fast frame rates are cool. But a lot of motion can be slowed in post really well. Very fast motion... like maybe a golf shot in a sand trap should be much better on an HVX. Rent one or a varicam for that shot if tests with the JVC aren't good enough.

I think both the HVX and the JVC will create a lot of nice stuff, but I think the JVC works better today. In a year P2 might be awesome... but there will be a lot of other technology then too. Who's to say we won't have Compact Flash raids via firewire that snap into the hot shoe for the JVC? Or Red?

Now this post is coming from a guy with 2 unused HVX batteries from the "other" website and pretty low on the EVS list.

Joe,
If you want to hook up, shoot me an email.

Yes, I wouldn't be surprised if JVC came out with something else, hence
the IDX promotion. We kind of talked about it at the open house.
One thing for sure, the camera is very useable as is.
I shot a few tests today and it looked good.

Well, my overall plan is like yours, but want to
focus mainly on event type. A person I work with is buying
the camera too. Ideally, I want another.

I am also aiming for music videos.

I'm still going over the camera trying to get a feel for its abilites.

I have yet to run into any SSE (knock on wood), or dead pixels

Never used the new Cannon, but there are workflow problems, lens problems (ie - just not as responsive as most shooters like), and it does not shoot true 24p.

As for HVX - you can't - as of yet - actually buy one. And, I have read many reports that the noise level on the HVX is similar to the DVX (which many people consider to be a very noisey camera).

I see very little noise on the JVC. The fact is, all three cameras (including the Sony Zu1) are excellant for their 10 grand or less price point, but each has their problems. I think it depends on what you intend to use the camera for.

Personally, T thought the price was right for the JVC (almost $5,000 less then the Cannon, or HVX (w/Lap top + 2 8 gig cards). Rmember if you order one now from most dealers (before end of Feb), you get a coupon for a thousand dollar battery pack/charger system.

John

all three cameras (including the Sony Zu1)

You just reminded me that the HVX sales pitch we saw included a comparison of the HVX200 vs. Sony resolution and the guy said... the HVX is keeping up pretty well considering how many pixels the Sony's chip is.

He said the Sony was slower than the HVX because they had more pixels. That's the trade Panasonic chose to make. What's weird is in a perfect world it seemed like you might be able to dial in -3 gain on the panasonic to decrease noise but make it slower. It's "almost" as if +3 gain is labled 0 gain and they are saying "we've got a more light sensitive camera". Dial up the gain in the Sony to match the noise level in the Panasonic and I'd be curious to see if it's still slower. (warning I'm not a technician)

Golf club manufacturers did that. They started delofting clubs and saying "see, ours go farther". Kinda sneaky.

It's "almost" as if +3 gain is labled 0 gain and they are saying "we've got a more light sensitive camera".
Oh yeah, the old -3dB issue... it has been a trick of the manufacturers for years and discussed among shooters to death. I am actually suprised that ANYONE would bring it back - did Panasonic actually include the -3dB setting on their HVX? It only makes comparisons between cameras more difficult, as that way there is no reference point and salesmen can argue the sensitivities of cameras for ever.

id Panasonic actually include the -3dB setting on their HVX?

No - we were wishing they did.

They also had the br-hd50 that I got to take home... One thing that bothers me about it though, is if you rewind it all the way to the beginning, it will begin to record over your tape! I couldn't figure how to turn it off since they didn't give me a menu, and the JVC reps didn't even know about it. Any one else that has had a chance to play with this encounter this problem?



Peter,

Our BR-HD50 has NEVER done that, I would have freaked if it had. That's not normal as far as I know, I'll check into it anyway, I have the deck & docs at work.

Hey Steve I'll Shoot you an e-mail and will hook up. Love to check out that new camera. I was going to buy one but a $6100 quote was a little high. I think EVS could do better.
The open house was great. Just a few people in a room and all the time you want to ask question and play with the cameras.
Love to know if I could make a living here before I sell my house.
If anyone is in the market to purchase a 5 grand plus camera, They owe it to themselves to check out the JVChd100. Simply blown away by it. VERY sharp.
I wonder how it looks in SD?
Also what would be a good tripod for this camera?

Thanks.

P.S. Steve how do I get your e-mail?