Gold Rims on the Hoopty
Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 1:22PM 
Is this what the DV Rebel Rig of the future looks like?
It's hard to dis the HV20. It may not have the control that more expensive cameras offer, but the subset of controls it does offer might be OK for most DV Rebels. I knew we wouldn't have to wait long to see someone put an M2 on one, but Taylor Wigton has posted the first full-res before after stills that really sell this as a viable option.
It's hard to look at these images (the full-res originals are here) and not start doing some simple math—the HV20 plus the M2 and a couple used lenses comes in well under the cost of a stock HVX200 with two P2 cards.
I couldn't help but run Taylor's stills through Colorista. And while I was doing that, I thought of another fun thing I could do. See, as much as I dig shallow DOF and adapters like the M2 and my own Go-35 Pro, I know they're not for everyone. They reduce the DV Rebel's agility considerably, and that's unacceptable to some. So I ran the "naked" HV20 image through the new Magic Bullet Looks, with an eye toward roughly matching the M2 image.
Not a replacement for the M2 by any means, but something to think about. See you at NAB!
Reader Comments (11)
def feeling that hv20 and the red rock.
even though im gonna get my RED end of summer, im stoked to see what else is out there for great prices and great imagery.
have you seen this?
http://www.reel-stream.com/
its a hack for the HVX (like the andromeda DVX hack) that gives you 2KHD full frame rates. nuts.
i love technology.
j
Awesome! see you in Vegas
Hey Stu, don't forget about this option: http://www.cinevate.com/ There's sample footage on the site that's pretty impressive.
Great stuff as always Stu. If you're going to be at NAB, I'd love to stop by and say hi. I've got one of the "other" 35mm adapters ; ) and there awesome.
Cheers,
Andrew Kramer
VC
Heya Stu - thanks a million for all of the wonderful content and breakdowns over the years. I'm a 3d guy based in Ireland and I'm involved in making a test car commercial with a photographer that wants to get into directing. There will be a green screen shoot of two girls to be put into a clean white joseph kosinski style house and then shots to stick into our cg car - have you ever seen anything like this used to capture green screen stuff successfully? I'm well aware of dvs limitations in colour res but i'm wondering if shooting at 1920 and then down sampling would give me enough quality to mantain a good edge at 720 pal? I like the idea of actually buying a camera and having its use afterwards rather than renting a camera for a day shoot (film is out of the question unfortunately) but if we don't use the best possible quality acquisition then we're bringing in the garbage in - garbage out factor. Do you reckon any of the prosumer hd camera are up to the task?
It's cool what you can do in magic bullet... but it looks nowhere near as clean as the M2 + HV20.
Have fun at NAB!
there's some good discussion with video footage from the hv20 attached to the Cinevate 35mm Brevis adapter over at their forum.
http://www.cinevate.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=559&sid=0ad278553ce518f9aa3f4844b600461e
def worth a look if your into this
That is a beautiful thing indeed, exactly the kind of setup we're considering for our next project.
Hey Stu, for those of us who are really broke, any chance (or hack) of getting Magic Bullet to work in Final Cut Express? I tried the demo but it wouldn't install because the filesystem paths are different. Other than that, is there any reason it can't run just like any other Final Cut plugin in Express?
BTW "The Guide" is beautiful and convinced us that there might be a brighter future for action films.
Actually it turns out this camera kind of sucks for post according to russ anderson, writer of the 3d tracker syntheyes - the rolling shutter on it renders it useless for 3d tracking - http://cybermessageboard.fatcow.com/ssonte/viewtopic.php?t=478
We have that same combo (HV20 & Redrock M2) and it rocks. I can't believe the images we're getting. It's truly amazing!
Motion tracking is only one miniscule aspect of post. A more correct statement would be "Syntheyes sucks with footage shot with a rolling shutter" and not "hv20 footage sucks in post."