HDR-FX1/Panasonic HDC20A 1080i

	HDR-FX1/Panasonic HDC20A 1080i by Jim Watt on Dec 21, 2004 at 1:11:00 am We tried a little anecdotal, non scientific comparison of out HDC20A 1080i camera and the new Sony HDR-FX1. We shot a number of scenes with the Sony set at 60fps on factory setting in our living room with an HMI 800 and a couple of other HMI's set up for fill and a little back light. Anyway shot several different sequences with skin tones, Christmas tree & lights, packages, etc.. Digitized the material with DVHSCAP and converted it with MPEG stream clip. The next day after it spent a couple of hours rendering did some A/B tests on an FCP timeline, viewing on a 42 inch Panasonic plasma and a 26 inch sony HD critical monitor. The results were nothing short of remarkable. A non television, or non technical person, simply looking at the pictures subjectively would not have been able to tell the difference. The Sony held up in the shadows of the Christmas tree, handled skin tones very well and was about equal in light sensitivity to the HDC20A. Particularly true when you're talking about a 96k difference in price. The Sony was a tad less crisp than the Panasonic, but not significantly so. Probably no more so than the Varicam compared to the 1080i Panasonic. It reminds me of when we tried out the first VX-1000 against our Ikegami HLV-55, but I think this little HD camera measures up even better. For what it's worth we were pretty impressed and considering we've released about 57 hours of HD programming in the last 4 years, we get to see a lot of HD. We're going to spend some time shooting exteriors next week & I'll give you an update. jw Respond to this post   •   Return to posts index

	Re: HDR-FX1/Panasonic HDC20A 1080i by Jim Watt on Dec 21, 2004 at 2:35:44 pm Spike, I just followed the instructions, but if I can I'll do it again in the next few days and see what is the routine. It was the first time we had opened up the program, so we were and for that matter still are, pretty clueless on the specifics of the program. Respond to this post   •   Return to posts index

	Re: HDR-FX1/Panasonic HDC20A 1080i by Jim Watt on Dec 21, 2004 at 5:45:06 pm Spike, I just open DVHSCAP and there really aren't many variables. You have machine control, mark an in and out and select capture. Respond to this post   •   Return to posts index

	Re: HDR-FX1/Panasonic HDC20A 1080i by Jim Watt on Dec 21, 2004 at 2:31:27 pm Re low light: We'll do some low light and possibly night exteriors, but the first tests we did were with the camera wide open, and some times at the end of the zoom range, so that's indicative of pretty decent "glass" and how it handles low light. If I can get to it today, I'll try to put some split screen images on our FTP site to look at or down load. As soon as i get them up I'll post the site here. Respond to this post   •   Return to posts index