GY-HD250U now shipping
 

Some of you might be interested in knowing that a few GY-HD250U's have been shipped in the U.S., and more are coming soon. The authorized dealers have pricing in-hand, and many have already ordered demo units. Please contact your local JVC Pro Reseller for pricing and to arrange a demo when available.

Regards,

Is there any difference in resolution/quality from the HD100?

Hi Brian,

Other than the many features differences between the HD100/110 and the HD250, yes, there are two significant improvements in the electronics that will benefit the image quality.

First, the A/D converter has been improved to 14 bit. Some benefits of this are better S/N ratio, better color gradients, more gamma adjustments, and more accurate output calibrations between the left and right sides of the image, even in high gain situations.

Second, the HD250 has a new MPEG encoder, dubbed the "Super Encoder". This new encoder will support two new frame rates in HD - 50p and 60p. Shooting at these new higher frame rates will yield smoother video when shooting fast moving subjects, or when there is a need to move the camera fast. Slo-mo and still frame sharpness also improves.

Regards,

Sounds better =) I assume shooting at 60P and slowing it down will give you a much smoother cinelike slow mo, which is in HD, not DV mode, correct?

Also, any idea if they will ever create a timelaspe mode? And more importantly, for me at least, will they ever give you a control button to control the speed of the frame in real time recording? i.e I can shoot at different speeds controlling in real time, for some super cool effects? If they haven't thought of it, it will be extremeley beneficial, since real film cameras allow you to change speed when recording. Raging Bull comes to mind for such effects.

Thanks

Carl,

You mention the A/D converter, pardon my lack of lack of understanding, but when going out the SDI on the new 250, is it still going through some form of A/D converter, or is it straight digital.

This is one of the problems with using the Black Magic boards and our current HD100 via component, no matter how clean a signal we can now capture on the side of the system via BM, the limitation appears to be the cameras DAC and component. Am I correct or incorrect in assuming that the 250's SDI out will avoid some form of DAC like component, and in turn will clean things up bit.

Also the 14 bit A/D converter improvement you mention, is it only via SDI out or is it to the Super encoder and MPEG tape stream. You mention both but it's unclear if they are working together.

Thanks in advance.

A/D conversion refers to taking the analog signals straight from the CCDs and converting them to digital for processing and encoding.

Does the HD200 have the same electronics? Does the HD110 get the same 14-bit A/D converter?

Hi Carl,

I was at NAB-NY on Wednesday looking and playing with the 250, and it is a great camera. The JVC rep told me that B&H will not be selling this camera, and I need to purchase it through a high-end dealer, suggesting that B&H is low-end, is this true? Will I be able to buy this camera from B&H? The reason I want to confirm this is that B&H usually has the best price.

Thanks.

Daniel, Stephan is exactly correct here. All CCD's output analog signals, and then the analog signal is digitized by an A/D converter. The higher the bit rate of the A/D converter, the more accurate the digital signal is compared to the raw analog signal.

The HD-SDI signal will be the best quality output from the camera.

The new 14 bit A/D is on the front-end of the camera electronics, so it affects and improves performance to tape, HDD, and to all of the live outputs.

Regards,

Hi Brian,

Due to the way long GOP MPEG works, I think it would be very difficult to do time lapse or single frame recording, as well as continuously variable frame rates. (We do now offer 5 frame rates in HD). But who knows, one day our engineers may find a way to add those features. Don't expect it anytime soon though.

Regards,

Carl,

Price is not the only consideration on a product that is as complex and feature-rich as the GY-HD250U. Please contact your JVC District Sales Manager to discuss any questions you might have about the best choice of resellers in your area. I will e-mail you the contact info for the JVC rep in the New York area.

Regards,

Daniel, whats the issue here?

We get a fine picture from our HD100 through component capture on a black magic multibridge extreme.

David, The GY-HD200 is planned to have the same improved electronics as the GY-HD250.

The GY-HD110U, now being the entry level ProHD camera, does not have the new Super Encoder or the 14 bit A/D. None the less, the GY-HD110 still produces a fine picture - better than any in it's price class.

Regards,

Thanks Carl, I know who my DM is. I also know that price is not the only consideration, but one must look for the best price, would you not agree?

So I guess it is true then that B&H will not be selling the 250?

Thanks.

Wow! That would realy suck if it were true...

Thanks Stephan and Carl,

I misunderstood how the CCD's processed the signal, I thought it was digital from the CCD and then went conversion to analog to go out the component. I believe I had it backwards Thanks for clearing that up for me.

It's good to hear that the 14 bit A/D is on the front end and that everything will equally benifit from this improvement. More the reason to upgrade for us then. Is Diana still our contact (South-East) to get a 250 in for some hands on testing?


Mark, we get a fine picture as well, better than we once did via HDV for sure, but I believe it can still be improved. When we are trying to squeeze every ounce (or pixel) out of a 1/3 inch CCD camera, so that we can do more in post... if SDI improves this even by a little, then for us it's worth consideration. Nothing comes close to the HD100 for the money and I would hope that the 250 continues to give us the same warm fuzzes. Not to offend anyone but we also have our money on RED, but it's yet to be released and we need working cost effective (all relative to budget) solution today. I'm ready to run the 250 through it's paces. ;)

The HD250's downright cheap even at list. Try pricing broadcast 720p camcorders some time and see what kind of numbers you come up with. And also take into consideration the fact that the market for broadcast equipment is incredibly tiny and manufacturers simply don't have the same economies of scale to work with as manufacturers of consumer products.

Also note that the HD250 is about the same price as the XLH1. If you could get either the XLH1 or the HD250 for the same price, which would you choose? For me, progressive scan and a proper lens just can't be beat.

Will the 200 be available through B&H?

I don't know if this was asked before, but are the HD-100/110 scene files (.SCN) compatible with the 200/250?

Daniel,

Please send me an e-mail so I can e-mail you the info you need to arrange a demo of a GY-HD250U.

Regards,

Marc

Good question. I'll try to find out.

Thanks,

Thanks, done.

Hi Carl,

The dutch JVC Pro distributor told me today that the scene files aren't compatible. I think that HD-200/250 user can use the recipes and enter the compatible parameters manually.

Speaking of highend HD, I just had a demo of the new HDX 900 2/3 DVCProHD camera. While the form factor and imager is really excellent.

The image isn't noticably better than the better than the HD100 when set up side by side. When you consider the $42k price with lens and viewfinder, it makes you realize what great value the HD including the 250 series is.

Dave Beaty

Thanks for all of the updates and info.

Can you speak to the light sensitivity? Similar to the HD100 (I thought that was F8@2000)? I didn't know if that was in 24p with 1/48th shutter or if it was 30p at 1/60th either.

Shy to discuss this - but is the front end similar as well? Of course there was a lot of conversation about SSE 'back in the day'. My HD100 was tweaked to accommodate & optimize against it. Just wondering...

Glad to see the release - great set of cams...

With the GY-HD series cameras having the same native 1280 x 720 resolution as DVCPro HD cameras, and with the GY-HD250U's new 14 bit A/D and new encoder and HDSDI out, I think that with comparable lenses on both cameras, it would be very difficult to see much difference.

Hi Shawn ,

Light sensitivity of the GY-HD200 and GY-HD250 is about the same as the GY-HD100 / 110 cameras.

SSE is a non-issue now - resolved a long time ago. And, with the new camera's 14 bit A/D, we can make even more accurate calibration adjustments than ever before.

Regards,

Man,
I'm having a hard time reading this thread.
I'm now wishing to own the HD200 or HD250!

Although, I'm still really pleased with the HD100.

Steve

Carl, when will we get details about the inner workings of the lens converter?

It seems that JVC is "intentionally" not promoting the release of the HD200 so much, as if not to sour or discourage people from buying the HD110. I for one, instead of getting the HD110 will wait 'til the HD200 comes out because all the improvements make it worth the wait, especially the image inversion, as I use a 35mm adapter and flipping the image will make life so much easier.

As soon as we have the info. Sorry to be vague, but we have not been given the details yet.

Hi Carl and everyone else!
It's great you are here to answer our questions.
I wonder in particular if there any improvements in dynamic range (comparing to 110). And if so, any image please?
Thank you.

We received a 250 yesterday. I'll try to post some images soon.

Greg, looking forward to those images. How much did you pay, if I may ask?

Greg: Some may recognize me from the XL H1 side of this forum.. I love my H1, it takes terrific pictures, no complaint there, but am seriously considering a 250 for ergonomic reasons, plus I dislike the finder on the Canon - and use a manual 16x most of the time because I don't like auto lenses...

I make documentaries, mostly handheld, and admired JVC for the intellegent physical design of their camera.. in fact, I almost bought a 100 last December, but shied away because of the split image issue and bad reports on the supplied lens, so I went with the H1...

I'm excited about the possibility of getting a 250 with a Canon lens after December... That's a new camera every year for 5 years for me!.. When is it going to stop?

I will be very interested to hear your feedback on this new version..

I'm thinking that the new 14 bit A/D may increase dymanic range, but no testing has been done yet to compare it to the 110. Perhaps some new HD250 owners out there can comment once they have had a chance to shoot some test footage.

Capabilities of GY-HD200U?
 

Carl, could you shed some light please:

1. Canon has an adapter for XL2 and XL H1 cameras that allows attaching 35mm EOS lenses (with understanding that it has about 7x effect, so the lenses would be very much telephoto regardless of the focal length). Is GY-HD200 compatible, i.e. can I use that Canon adapter with it to shoot with Canon 35mm EOS L-quality lenses?

2. What exactly are the differences between HD250U and HD200U? What does one have (or can do) that the other one doesn't? Electronically (CCDs and the rest of the tract) they are the same, correct?

3. Will HD200U be sold by B&H Photo and Video?

4. Is Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 compatible with the output from this camera? How does one move the footage from it to PC with Premiere Pro? Any particular settings prescribed?

5. What does HD200U record 720p60 to? Tape? Hard disk drive? How to record it, and how to transfer this footage to computer? What's the recommended workflow?

Thank you!

I don't know. Does the Canon mount use the same 1/3" mount as our cameras?

CCD's, imaging processing and encoders are the same. GY-HD250 adds genlock, full CCU control, time code in/out, pool feed, HDSDI output.

Please ask them.

I have heard that Premier Pro can handle all of the frame rates of the new cameras, but I do not know for sure. Perhaps a Premier expert can chime in. You would connect to the PC with either firewire, or component / HDSDI with a capture card.

720p60 can be recorded to HDV tape or the DR-HD100 Hard Drive. From here, you then transfer footage to a NLE that supports 720/60p (there are several), and edit normally.

Carl, thank you! As for setting the quotes - you put [ QUOTE ] (without blanks) in the beginning of the quoted text, and [ /QUOTE ] at the end. Click "Preview Post" to check whether it looks the way you want, and adjust if needed.

That would be annoying news. Carl, can you confirm this?