Looking to buy AF101, HPX250 and HPX370

[Gary Nattrass]

I have found that the noise and skew issues were more prominent when I switched the 301 to NTSC or 24p modes, PAL 25p and 50p have always been acceptable to me on the 301 and 371 with PAP 2 selected.

[Svein Rune Skilnand]

Pardon me for being ignorant. Is PAP2 a fix for these issues? Is this something I would have to download after having bought the camera?

Today I actually contacted the dealer and wanted to buy the HPX371, but the salesman advised me to wait till after IBC was over. Maybe because I am insecure. Or is there something new coming? Makes me wonder, though I don`t want to speculate. Anyway I took his advice and will wait and see what comes out of IBC.

[Konstantin Kovalev]

PAP2 is a fix for the ghosting and noise trail issues on the 370 cameras, I'm assuming a new camera should already come with the latest firmware pre-installed, otherwise you just have to update the camera with a download from the Panasonic site to enable this feature.

As for something new coming out... Panasonic already has solid options on the high-end with the 3xxx series cameras, and the newly announced HPX250 refreshes their low-end. Now the 370 may be a few years old already, and is basically a refresh of a design that's even older, but Panasonic has spots in their lineup that are in much worse need of updates than the 3xx series.

The real question is: "do you need this thing now?" If you feel it's going to buy back it's purchase price and improve the results of your labor, then waiting is just wasting the time you could have been using it. Even if something is announced, you'd have to wait for a few more months before it's even available for purchase. The 370 won't suddenly become unusable from envy as soon as something new comes out.

[Sanjin Svajger]

Originally Posted by Konstantin Kovalev

If you mean that this effect is not as prominent in PAL modes, I'm really not so sure.

Yeah, that's what I meant. I know what the number on the cameras mean, don't know why I wrote that...:)

Anyway my post was regarding the bad skew the camera had. As I understand it was most prominent in 24p. As for the noise I researched that the problem was on both cameras...

Panasonic doesn't have a competitor for the Sony 350 EX camera. Panasonic isn't really interested in developing cmos sensors in my opinion. Just look at how much time they needed to lunch the HPX250...and also the 301 for that matter...

[Konstantin Kovalev]

Panasonic doesn't have a competitor for the Sony 350 EX camera. Panasonic isn't really interested in developing cmos sensors in my opinion. Just look at how much time they needed to lunch the HPX250...and also the 301 for that matter...

Oh, you don't have to tell me about that, the pain's been there for a while now. Spend 20k to fully outfit a HPX370 top to bottom, from tripod on up to sound and lighting gear, or spend even more on just a PMW 350K with ext. recorder.
The HPX500 is just too old, and the 3100 is just too expensive, despite being a breakthrough camera in terms of price given that it's a 3700 in a 370 body. If the Sony 350 had at least 4:2:2 50mbps recording to SxS like the PMW 500, we'd be having a very different conversation right now.

[Sanjin Svajger]

20k to outfit the 370. That seems a bit to much... What are you buying? Diamonds:)

Anyway...yeah, Panasonic has a big hole between the 370 and 3100. They are not addressing quite a substantial amount of the market. They would have to design a brand new sensor to that.

[Gary Nattrass]

Originally Posted by Sanjin Svajger

20k to outfit the 370. That seems a bit to much... What are you buying? Diamonds:)

Anyway...yeah, Panasonic has a big hole between the 370 and 3100. They are not addressing quite a substantial amount of the market. They would have to design a brand new sensor to that.

Yes I think I invested around £14k in total for my camera, sound and lighting kit.

A new sensor well, there is always the possibility of an HPX600/601 with a 4/3" sensor that they already have, it probably will only resolve the same as the AF100 but I would personally prefer a triple chip camera.

[Sanjin Svajger]

Originally Posted by Gary Nattrass

A new sensor well, there is always the possibility of an HPX600/601 with a 4/3" sensor ...

And how would a 4/3 ENG lens look?:)

[Sanjin Svajger]

Originally Posted by Konstantin Kovalev

The HPX500 is just too old, and the 3100 is just too expensive, despite being a breakthrough camera in terms of price given that it's a 3700 in a 370 body.

Does the HPX500 have the "film-rec 600%" function?

[Gary Nattrass]

Originally Posted by Sanjin Svajger

And how would a 4/3 ENG lens look?:)

I think it may look rather front end heavy! ;0)

[Konstantin Kovalev]

20k to outfit the 370. That seems a bit to much... What are you buying? Diamonds:)

Yes I think I invested around £14k in total for my camera, sound and lighting kit.

Ok so... $7,200 HPX370 w/ rebate, $1400 tripod, $220 plate, $900 battery + charger, $1250 2x 64gb p2 cards, $2,400 SD302 mixer + headset + microphones, $1,200 lighting, and maybe a couple hundred more on other stuff like cables. So about $15,000 at current B&H prices, which a bit lower than what they were last year when I got the camera.

Ok, so maybe 20k was an optimistic statement, but you get the idea. When you buy a pro camera it comes pretty much naked, which can be hard on the wallet if you have to start from scratch because you don't already own any video equipment, as was my case.

14k gbp is about $22k, so Gary is clearly better kitted out than I am, though I still need more audio gear, extra battery, extra, extra, extra...

Does the HPX500 have the "film-rec 600%" function?

Doesn't seem so, only 2xxx and 3xxx cameras have film rec.

And how would a 4/3 ENG lens look?:)

Ask Ikegami, they seem to be working on a new 4/3 ENG camera, so it would make sense if they also had a good idea of which lenses it would be using. But yes, if it's going to use a more than 10x zoom, I suspect there will be a lot of early footage of floors.

[Sanjin Svajger]

Garry doesn't necessarily have more equipment than you. Everything over the great "pond" as we call it cost way less. The lowest price that I can get on the 371 is 9000€ which equals to 12300 dollars. If I could get the 371 for 7200 dollars (+ WAT ?) which comes out at 5200€ I would buy the camera tomorrow!

As for the HPX500 I wouldn't call it a 3700 in a 370 body if it doesn't have "film rec". Wait, isn't 3700 a new camera. It's a new chip and it records AVCi doesn't it? If so than I don't see at all how the two cameras could be compared...

Anyway, yeah, a ENG lens for a 4/3 sensor would be a beast:)

[Gary Nattrass]

Yes sadly everything here is rather expensive so my HPX301 with four cards and a portabrace body armour worked out at around $15k

I bought a lot of my other kit second hand and already had v-lok batteries and a portabrace case, if I were to get another 371 I would get it from the USA this time as you guys seem to get all the best deals.

The 500 and the 3700 are two totally different cameras so cannot be compared but they are both great at what they do.

[Konstantin Kovalev]

Hmm, probably would have been cheaper to just cross "the pond" and get the stuff yourself there, I've been doing that with nearly all the tech I've been buying the last 5+ years. Unless whatever it is you're trying to stuff in the plane is bigger than a standard luggage, I doubt anyone would bat an eyelash. Just in case, I always set everything up beforehand to make it seem as something I've been using for a while, not that I need any of the bulky packing it comes in; the 370's box is big enough to fit a couple small TV's in there.

And I didn't say the 500 was a 3700 in a 370 body, I was calling the 3100 a 3700 in a 370 body, minus it's 4:4:4 recording option.

Speaking of which, I still need a Portabrace, why did I forget that?..

[Sanjin Svajger]

Oh, don't know why I thought you were from US. So you bought all your equipment in the US...did you have any problems at the customs? What about warranty?

Yes I see that you were comparing the 3100 to the 3700. Sorry:)

Portabrace The list of equipment newer stops!:)