the hv30 does 30p - the hv20 doesn't

if it was only a difference of 100 dollars i'd get an hv30

there are a couple of other little improvements - one being the size of the little zoom control
it's also black vs silver if that matters


trish

Greg, I found the hv20 and 30 to be about the same price. The 30 is now down at $760.00 through amazon with free shipping. This is from Amazon as the seller/shipper as well, not an amazon as middle man purchase. I normally buy through B&H but found i could save a few more dollars through amazon.

And correct the big difference in the models is 30p not available with the 20.

I've been playing with the 30 all day at work, its like a fun little brother to the A1. I just finished reviewing test footage with different settings, looks great.

Not sure if you've seen this vid, i just ran into it this afternoon. Side by side A1 and HV30.

http://www.vimeo.com/898785?pg=embed&sec=898785

Just something to add - as an HV20, HV30, and A1 owner (!), here's my 2 cents. MY (and it may be sample specific) HV20 exhibits some chromatic aberration at the tele end of the zoom range, while the HV30 does not and thus appears tack-sharp at longer zooms, it's a clearly noticeable difference on my 1080p projector (Mitsu HC4900).

While many people have said the HV30 runs neck-and-neck with the A1 in bright outdoor settings (which is most of what I shoot), after EXTENSIVE tweaking of my A1 and comparison testing I can unequivocally say this is not true. When properly adjusted, the A1 is sharper, more three-dimensional, has better dynamic range, has more accurate colors without blooming/overblowing the color, and looks more "3d" yet more natural/organic at the same time. I am simply amazed at the images I am getting from the A1 after extensive testing of image adjustments.

That said, the HV20/30 are the bargains of the year! I am using them as B-cams, and for more dangerous stuff that I don't wanna risk my A1 on, like underwater shooting, shooting from a waverunner, etc. When properly colorbalanced, the footage can be intercut (I'm editing using Premiere CS3) and all but the most picky videophiles probably won't notice the difference. But I do!!! :)

Patrick

PS- back to the original question - I do use my HV30 as playback deck of unedited footage, for the reasons of both saving head wear on the A1, as well as that the HV30 has an HDMI out which I can run straight into my projector.

Got my HV30 yesterday and played a few hours with it. What a little marvel! As you point out, it even has an advantage over the A1: the HDMI-out. I agree that - on first sight - the general image quality does not seem to be quite as good as the (intensively tweaked) A1's. But for the price, this is an absolute beauty. And now I have an extra player. BTW, thanks Jim, for the interesting link to the comparison video. Amazing!

HV30 playback digitizing problem with A1 footage
 

Hey all,

I don't mean to cross post, so I'll just put a link to my original thread:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=122324

The long and short of it is that tapes from one production (using two XH A1s) will not digitize from the HV30 in HDV with Final Cut Pro. They will digitize using other codecs (Apple Intermediate Codec, ProRes) but for some reason HDV is not working.

Other tapes from other jobs shot on the XH A1 digitize just fine in HDV, but for some reason all the tapes from this one job are acting odd. Any insight much appreciated.

Michael Blieden

Just in case you guys have not figured it out already (in regards to the rattling inside your HV20/30 when off) ...it is your OIS lens dancing around in there. When your machine is off you will here it....once powered on it goes away. All cams with OIS exhibit this type of behavior.

I use the HV30 purely as a player, that means: to play and show edited tapes with it. I do not use it to capture footage. That is still done from the XH-A1.

I'm using XH-A1 as the main cam. one HV30 as B-roll camera. Then another HV30 mounted on Steadycam Merlin, as well as using as playback deck. I mostly shoot all in 30F and 30P.

For a while I have HV20. So I shoot both XH-A1 and HV20 in 60i. Then I also tried both with Tv mode 1/30 setting for the progressive look. It works very well.

May PAL-version has 25f, so I suppose the NTSC-ones have 30f. Please confirm, someone. More important: from june 1st on, in Europe the HV30 sells cheaper than the HV20, thanks to a cashback action from Canon. I'm not sure if they do this worldwide, though...

Yeah HV30 NTSC version has 3 frame rates 60i, PF30 and PF24.