Which Cam to choose?

slow down, take a breath there...

1. YES. you can connect the camera via FW to your machine and it will appear on the desktop as a fw device and you can transfer your footage to the computer as you would from any other fw drive.

HOWEVER. your camera is down during this time and it takes about 10 min to transfer an 8 gig card. i cant imagine wanting to stop the shoot for ten + min to transfer cards - ive done that and its no fun.

2. NO, you cant edit from the connected camera as a fw device. at least not that im aware of...

so i guess i either buy 4 8gb cards or get the laptop. gotchya buddy.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

well, kind of but not really. 4, 8 gig cards would only gets you about an hour of runtime. once you fill that. you still gotta put the footage somewhere... what if you go over that in the field? youre screwed.

i say get 2, 8gig cards and a laptop. if you shop wisely you can probably get away with all that for + or - $2000

the way i shoot with 8 gig cards is only use one card at a time. once the card hits 2 min or so from full, i hand the card off to an assistant to transfer to the laptop. then just repeat that process over and over throughout the day. from an on-set standpoint the switch only takes about 20 seconds.

16 Gig cards are not hard to find at all...they are just on backorder until June 2007 (which means they will be released this month). For the price of $885 each ($188 more than the 8's), you get twice the recording time so it would be pretty ridiculous to buy 8 Gig cards at $700:

[www.taperesources.com]

- Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

thats not exactly accurate joe.

first of all. backorder = unavailable. you cant shoot dvcproHD to an order receipt from B&H. it might fit into the pcmcia slot, but the camera wont recognise it...

and if youre on a budget two 8 gig cards are much more useful than one 16gig card.

you can shoot to one 8 gig card while the other one transfers. buy one 16 gig card and youre dead in the water while its transfers.

wayne,

Thank you so much for correcting me (& for the witty retort)....but please read posts completely before you do:

1. There is a date there on the backorder (which I know the meaning of) which happens to be this month (June 2007). I also mentioned it directly in the post.

2. The store is not B&H...it is taperesources.com

Quote

...and if youre on a budget two 8 gig cards are much more useful than one 16gig card.

Agreed...but who said anything about buying only one card? You should buy them in pairs:

2 - 8 gig cards x $700 each = $1400
2 - 16 gig card x $885 each = $1770

$370 more for TWICE the recording time

Maybe I am not seeing what wayne is seeing here but for only $370 more for TWICE the recording time, I would find the extra money for the budget somewhere.

Thanx wayne!

- Joey

P.S. - here's an interesting bit of reading:

[gizmodo.com]

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

for anyone NOT the state of absolutely limited dollars or immediate need, yours joe is by far the most logical suggestion.

and sure, any jackass with common sense (and a few hundred extra bucks) can see that two 16gigs beats two 8 gigs. but what if that person doesnt have the extra few hundred bucks? or needs cards IMMEDIATELY?

i read your post completely (the B&H reference was rhetorical) but take your own advice and read MINE and the previous posts completely. corbett and i were discussing a limited (and possibly fixed) budget and the best use of that.

additionally, some people need to make purchases NOW, not later this month (or next, or the next as the case has been with the 16gig card release dates) so the discussion of backorder can often be (and in my recent personal experience has been) a moot point.

- as a side note - please be careful about posting possibly misleading information. you say in your post "You have to buy them in pairs:" YES. pairs IS advisable. but you dont HAVE TO.

You both have good points so lets agree to disagree and close the thread.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Thanks Mike...but there's no need to close the thread if you can avoid it. Dan's insights are awesome and would hate to shut this down now I would personally love to hear more from Dan about his experiences with the HVX in professional environments - it's the best stuff we've heard on this camera to date.

Hey Dan,

What are your experiences with overcranked shooting on the HVX? Good / Bad / indifferent? Tips / Tricks to get nice smooth slomo from it?

Thanks again for hangin' out with us, Dan.

Peace

- Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

ive made my points. i'll shut up now ; )

If this thread has not been shut down, i'd be interested to know what Wayne and Dan think of this article?

[www.dvuser.co.uk]

Wishful thinking...when might they come up with a camera that shoots to both tape and digital storage medium with matching timecode? That would be heavenly -- solving the whole backup issue with P2 cards.

But the trend is probably towards eliminating tapes altogether.


www.derekmok.com

Dan Brockett Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No question that for many of us, the HVX is the
> best choice for our needs. But they are all great
> cameras overall, compared to the last generation,
> this generation of camcorders are all capable of
> amazing footage in HD. We have come a long way
> from the PD-170 and DVX-100 and XL-2.
>
> All the best,
>
> Dan Brockett

Not to beat a dead horse, but I just had a friend ask me the same question about cameras and having just discovered this thread wanted to add my .02

As a Producer and Editor with my own production company working in the feature world, I have now used the HVX on the last two shows we worked on. We are currently shooting $600k features and using the HVX as a B-cam. Our A-cam is usually the Varicam or F900. Either way, shooting 1080p or 720p there is no other compact camera that can even come close to the HVX as far as utility. Multiple framerates, DVCPRO format, compact size and user friendliness, not to mention a really great image. At 720p we have cut footage from the HVX seamlessly with footage from the Varicam (keep in mind lighting conditions are important here). But think about it... if you have a PowerBook, a couple of P2 cards and an HVX for about $10,000 you are going to have a system that is CAPABLE of producing footage that you would be hard-pressed to distinguish from the upwards of $300k system the Varicam would require (Deck, lenses, etc.)

...and you will not have to purchase media!!! I know some people on here give P2 a hard time, but you just have to understand what you are getting into. P2 is like film. You really should have someone (other than the DP or AC) who is downloading the cards on set, maybe the editor, hell really a trained monkey could do it, it's not rocket science. FWIW, I have found the best method to use Disk Utility to create a disk image of the cards, this way I can archive each P2 card on an external and mount them when I want to ingest footage. This external becomes my "Master" in a sense for all P2 footage.

As others have mentioned: doc work, weddings, events... not the best venues for the HVX with P2. But for filmmaking, hands down there is no bigger bang for your buck!