11.12.07
Bach, Austin, HD, Canon HV20, Panasonic DVX-100B
I decided to experiement with HD even though the technology is young. It is not possible yet to burn an HD DVD easily, and HD requires copacious disk space and time to render. But the hyper real look, 16:9 aspect ratio, and eventual adoption as standard are reasons to consider it. Also, raw HD has stunning detail.
I am not decided yet, but this is my first video using the Canon HV20 Camera, purchased at BH Photo in New York City. I highly recommend B&H, I purchased both cameras from them and numerous accessories. I set scenes of Austin, TX to CPE Bach’s Solfegietto. I will take this camera to Europe most likely, but am not sure I will use it in Japan. My Panasonic DVX-100B has many more controls, three chips for better color, DAT quality sound via XLR inputs, and a better lens. The video below is taken from the HV20 only. I think it came out well. But the DVX-100B has a depth and rendering of shadows and textures that gives a 3-dimensionality. What do you think of this edited HV20 footage?
Technical Considerations:
After burning a DVD with this footage the advantages of the DVX-100b are clear: depth of field, shadow, color, clarity, contrast. The HV20 does very well for a one chip camera and is useful for an inexpensive foray into the HD arena. But until pure HD DVD’s are an easy reality I think a good, professional quality, standard definition camera has advantages. To be fair, I have not tried to HV20 with 24p since I am using Final Cut Express and it has no 24p capability. I experimented with the CINE mode and regular. With DVX-100b is always use 24p and custom settings for gamma cine, pedestal, and thin detail. It is also great to be able to set iris, shutter, and gain (which I don’t like to use) on the side of the camera. The HV20 requires menu and joystick searching to change these settings. The MPEG 2 sound of the HV20 in HD mode, PCM (higher quality) in DV mode on this camera, is a negative if one is serious about pro sound and video. For the average video project where sound is not essential it might be ok. But sound is half of video and movies. If you add sound in post it is a non-issue.
It is harder to edit on an HD timeline since rendering is required, disk space is greater, and the connection with the footage is not as great as with standard definition. The apple codec compress the footage further, as in DV, but with DV my edits were cleaner. I use a Pentium IMAC 2.0GHZ with 1 Gig of ram. I know it would be better with more ram. I am not sure about the quality of IDVD disks and the ability of this application. I have the settings at the best quality, but I don’t have access to the pro DVD application.
If one does not intend to edit I think the HV20 is great. Plugged into an HDTV via HDMI, the footage is clear, with relatively good colors and motion. It also looks good on a computer monitor if you deinterlace the footage. I just got the camera, so to be fair, I need more time to do the best with it.
