I have GS400 in hand in NTSC Canada - here are early impressions

Mark Kubat · August 15th, 2004, 09:17 PM

We just shot some film school camps with junior high school kids using the dvc30. We got the gs400 into our hands Fri. afternoon and all the instructors gathered around and agreed hands-down: the picture was sharper on the GS400 compared to the DVC30. Procinema on the Gs400 looked better than on the dvc30... Unless I needed infrared sns, I'd take the Gs400 over the DVC30 any day.

Just our impressions. I'm back from my trip. Have some nice procinema footage - will work on getting to Chris Hurd/Guy Bruner via ftp tomorrow.

Guy, re: Vegas 5 and 30p frame footage - yes, I know about setting the project preferences and I've done all that. Nevertheless, when you play out through firewire for live preview on ntsc television during editing of captured 30p frame clip, there is still a "stutter" - Vegas is still having to do something to handle the footage when you play out live during editing to the firewire preview on a television - on the little computer preview window, it looks fine... it's a fine point, nothing too significant - but definitely not looking the way it does after you "render" the clip in the timeline: then it looks very filmic.

More tomorrow folks - gotta hit the hay.

Mark

Andreas Winkler · August 18th, 2004, 01:08 AM

OK, I got my GS400 yesterday. In general I'm very satisfied so far!
But as everybody seems to post only positive responses here, I'd like to let u know some negative aspects (IMHO)! ;)

- the "soft skin" feature is rather useless
- the clock on the NTSC model is only 12hrs AM/PM, not switchable to 24hrs mode
- the "five-button-cursor-field" on the left side is too small, although there would be sufficient free space available to make it a bit larger (not so easy to navigate with my clumsy fingers)
- the frame mode is a bit jerky on fast movement, I guess it would be better if the exposure time could be set to 1/30s instead of 1/60 as longest, as this would produce more motion blur
- in photo mode the longest exposure time is only 1/2s, at least 4 or 5 seconds should be possible

...but as I said, it is a quite good cam! ...nothing is perfect though!

August 15th, 2004, 09:17 PM	#16
Mark Kubat Major Player Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 375	Guess it's a matter of opinion... We just shot some film school camps with junior high school kids using the dvc30. We got the gs400 into our hands Fri. afternoon and all the instructors gathered around and agreed hands-down: the picture was sharper on the GS400 compared to the DVC30. Procinema on the Gs400 looked better than on the dvc30... Unless I needed infrared sns, I'd take the Gs400 over the DVC30 any day. Just our impressions. I'm back from my trip. Have some nice procinema footage - will work on getting to Chris Hurd/Guy Bruner via ftp tomorrow. Guy, re: Vegas 5 and 30p frame footage - yes, I know about setting the project preferences and I've done all that. Nevertheless, when you play out through firewire for live preview on ntsc television during editing of captured 30p frame clip, there is still a "stutter" - Vegas is still having to do something to handle the footage when you play out live during editing to the firewire preview on a television - on the little computer preview window, it looks fine... it's a fine point, nothing too significant - but definitely not looking the way it does after you "render" the clip in the timeline: then it looks very filmic. More tomorrow folks - gotta hit the hay. Mark

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August 18th, 2004, 01:08 AM	#17
Andreas Winkler Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Kaohsiung, Taiwan Posts: 125	OK, I got my GS400 yesterday. In general I'm very satisfied so far! But as everybody seems to post only positive responses here, I'd like to let u know some negative aspects (IMHO)! ;) - the "soft skin" feature is rather useless - the clock on the NTSC model is only 12hrs AM/PM, not switchable to 24hrs mode - the "five-button-cursor-field" on the left side is too small, although there would be sufficient free space available to make it a bit larger (not so easy to navigate with my clumsy fingers) - the frame mode is a bit jerky on fast movement, I guess it would be better if the exposure time could be set to 1/30s instead of 1/60 as longest, as this would produce more motion blur - in photo mode the longest exposure time is only 1/2s, at least 4 or 5 seconds should be possible ...but as I said, it is a quite good cam! ...nothing is perfect though!