A few months ago, I essentially orgasmed over a (then) new camera called the Sony PMW-EX1. Since then, I've gotten to actually try the camera, and play around with some of its actual footage. Let me tell you, it's really beautiful, and the camera is great... Though I personally hate the ergonomics - or lack there of. I feel little need to whine about that here, since this blog isn't devoted to cameras, but it DOES devote itself to video quality, and there's something I've been following in the last few months that has just come out from Panasonic:
Panasonic's HMC-150
I'm very excited by this for a few reasons. I am a big fan of Panasonic's awesome, but aging, DVX-100 series, and despite my love for it, I simply will never buy one since, to me, HD is the way to go.
Now I've never liked HDV; the idea of 25Mbit MPEG2 makes me cringe, and HDV footage just sucks for the most part. DVCPROHD P2 is a bit hard for students (read: me) and low-end videographers to afford, despite being a great format and workflow. I've seen the footage, and it is beautiful. When the EX1 came out, I was excited for what was essentially a cheaper form of P2 media (SxS cards), while still using MPEG2 (albeit at a much more acceptable 35mbits... and yes, 35mbits does do the job), but it seemed like an easier format to manage in terms of hard drive space (not to mention interframe editing isn't as horrific as it used to be due to fast transcoding times).
That brings me to the HMC-150. It uses MPEG4 AVC, which many (hahahahahahaha) readers will know is my favorite codec. Consumer cameras have been using this for a while actually, and naturally, editing is not the smoothest operation around (though I haven't tried it myself), since the codec is much more processor intensive. So anyway, the HMC-150 compresses 1080p footage using a 21mbit (24mbit max) bitrate. This sounds lower than HDV, and it is, but MPEG4 AVC is fucking amazing, you can take my word for it. The greatest part? Footage is stored on SDHC cards, and with such a compression ratio, there is an estimated 3 hours to a single 32GB card. Now, 32GB cards are still about $60-70 depending on where you go, but compare this to a $500 SxS or P2 card (which only get MINUTES to a card, not hours).
Sorry Sony, you tried, but please kill HDV already.
Now I've never liked HDV; the idea of 25Mbit MPEG2 makes me cringe, and HDV footage just sucks for the most part. DVCPROHD P2 is a bit hard for students (read: me) and low-end videographers to afford, despite being a great format and workflow. I've seen the footage, and it is beautiful. When the EX1 came out, I was excited for what was essentially a cheaper form of P2 media (SxS cards), while still using MPEG2 (albeit at a much more acceptable 35mbits... and yes, 35mbits does do the job), but it seemed like an easier format to manage in terms of hard drive space (not to mention interframe editing isn't as horrific as it used to be due to fast transcoding times).
That brings me to the HMC-150. It uses MPEG4 AVC, which many (hahahahahahaha) readers will know is my favorite codec. Consumer cameras have been using this for a while actually, and naturally, editing is not the smoothest operation around (though I haven't tried it myself), since the codec is much more processor intensive. So anyway, the HMC-150 compresses 1080p footage using a 21mbit (24mbit max) bitrate. This sounds lower than HDV, and it is, but MPEG4 AVC is fucking amazing, you can take my word for it. The greatest part? Footage is stored on SDHC cards, and with such a compression ratio, there is an estimated 3 hours to a single 32GB card. Now, 32GB cards are still about $60-70 depending on where you go, but compare this to a $500 SxS or P2 card (which only get MINUTES to a card, not hours).
Sorry Sony, you tried, but please kill HDV already.
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