Go Naked
Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 12:01AM As I type this, the Canon HV20 is available on woot.com for $550. The sale will probably be over by the time you read this (Woot features one deal per day), but its successor, the HV30, is only $760 on Amazon tonight, and the AVCHD-shooting HG10 is only $635.
And while I'm a fan of burying these Coke-can-sized 1080p24 shooters under a ton of accessories, sometimes the DV Rebel needs to focus her limited budget on stuff that goes in front of the camera. Just as often, agility is more conducive to production value than shallow focus. Lest you ever allow the perceived need of fancy lens adapters and Nikon glass to slow you to the Just Do It phase of filmmaking, keep a 720p MP4 of Ayz Waraich's teaser for White Red Panic on your desktop for a quick refresher on the power of going naked.
Reader Comments (23)
As an "HG10" Rebel, i'm inspired by this post. Thanks.
As an "HG10" Rebel, i'm inspired by this post. Thanks.
You can get the http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-HDC-SD9-Definition-Camcorder-Stabilized/dp/B0011FTKFY" REL="nofollow">Panasonic HDC-SD9 on Amazon right now for $555. It records AVCHD to SD cards, is 3CCD, and can shoot 1080/25p.
I haven't tried any of the above cameras but this one seems comparable in quality.
Stu,
Thanks for the HV20 heads up! Just bought another one.
Thanks, Stu. That little clip just made me stop whining about not having a 35mm adapter.
Coincidentally I had just checked out this trailer today before I saw your post and was blown away by it. And was surprised that there was no lens-adapter hijinks involved, just some good lighting and presumably some able color correction. Time to use the HV20 for more than just video podcasts.
wow so thats just straight up naked HV20?!
sweet. looks really really good.
ok, you convinced me. Just ordered one myself. Now I can have a 2 camera set up!
Yeah, when I saw the HV20 on Woot I wanted to take up a collection...
But ultimately; it doesn't matter. I'm a gearhead so it's hard to remind myself but it doesn't matter. Tell a story. Create compelling character and put them in interesting situations. Story works is SD, too.
very interesting thing I saw in his comments: He shot in Tv mode (though he would have liked to use Cine) but he wanted to control shutter. He always shot at least 1/60th shutter, saying 1/48th wasn't enough.
Good camera movement trumps shallow depth of field every time, as this clip shows. Shallow depth of field is really only part of the equation on fairly fixed close-up shots (not tremendously visually interesting at any rate), at which point it's nice to isolate characters from the background.
Hey Stu! What about this shutter thing... would you recommend to shoot 1/60 to improve sharpness? Thanx!
Im a big fan of the guide.
Hi Gustavoseabra—if you're a fan of The Guide then you know that I recommend using a 1/48 shutter for 24p. If you want that narrow shutter look then by all means go faster, but never go slower or you'll get something that looks like video.
Sharpness is overrated.
It really is a bummer that there isn't better shutter control in Cine mode on these little Canons.
Check out the HV20 footage from this (albeit +Brevis)...
http://www.pangeaday.org/filmDetail.php?id=74
Curious, is there a hierarchy of preferred features in a consumer camera? The HV20 has 24p and somewhat manual control, but it shoots with a single CMOS chip (rolling shutter, no good for masking). Wouldn't the 3 CCDs of the HC9 make that the superior camera for that use? Or would the inferior AVCHD compression offset that?
Maximalist, in terms of quality, even after a year of its release, the HV20/HV30 have superior quality pixel for pixel compared to any AVCHD consumer camera out there. Plus, it's so popular that a lot of accessories exist for it now, and its manual controls are not tooooo bad.
I never had problems with the rolling shutter under normal circumstances btw. Also, I like the single CMOS chip because it's 1/2.7", which is considerably larger than the tiny CCD chips found on the other consumer cameras. And bigger chip means more background blur when you need it.
So overall, the HV20/30 are a great buy for the DV Revel -- even for some professionals as a test camera.
anyone have any experiences using the canon HF10?
i read on camcorderinfo.com that head to head the footage is pretty comparable. i bought an hv30 and havent opened it yet because i am thinking of getting the HF10 instead.
i figure i wanna get used to a tapeless workflow before i buy a red scarlet next year.
so dv rebels, any AVCHD rebels out there???
Ironic that you post this just as I'm building my own 35mm DOF lens adapter. :)
Of course, it's the results and not the tools that matter in the end, though the tools can be fun!
@t, Thanks for the link to A Thousand Words -- A great short!
Stu: ...I recommend using a 1/48 shutter for 24p... but never go slower or you'll get something that looks like video.
Really? I usually set the shutter to 1/24 when I'm shooting 24p and get beautiful film-like results with lots of motion blur. I might run out right now and do some comparisons between 1/24 and 1/48. I'm doing the 48 Hour Film Project this weekend in Austin, so I need every trick in the DV Rebel bag to get me through the weekend and hand in a quality short.
... well it turns out my cam (HVX200) doesn't have a 1/48 shutter setting. it goes from 1/24 to 1/60. That strikes me as really weird that a cam with a 720/24p native shooting mode doesn't have a whole mess of shutter speeds in multiples of 24...
Anyways, I've spent the afternoon browsing through the manual, and picked up on a thing or two I didn't know about before, so it's been worth it regardless.
Hey jimb, here's a helpful link on the confusing HVX settings:
http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=95837
Here's more on the importance of a 180º shutter:
http://rebelsguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=240
thanks for the links, Stu! Okay, I've got everything figured out, I think. Also, I think that what I was thinking of as "video look" was different from what y'all were saying is "video look." This morning I am going to go do some tests to look at the difference between 1/24 and 180.0d.
does any one have any good bookmarks for the hv30
haven't been able to fully crack the surface and get the kind of manual controls i was hoping for, but seem to obliquely hear about
great post, as always