Canon HV20 or Sony HDR-HC7 camcorder

	Re: Canon HV20 or Sony HDR-HC7 camcorder by Todd at Fantastic Plastic on Jun 8, 2007 at 1:42:07 am We usually shoot with the XLH1 (with cine lenses and P+S Technik converter), but have just bought an HV20 as basically a "crash cam." Actually, we had to send a crew member across country for a very gonzo run-n-gun shoot and wanted to give him something that he could just carry on the plane, not have to check or ship ANY equipment, etc. We've only had it about two weeks (and it was out of house shooting for a week of that) so I really haven't had my hands on it much... but so far I must say the little HV20 is AMAZING. The picture is just unbelievable. It would be pretty great even if it wasn't only a thousand bucks, but the price tag makes it doubly so. We also bought a little XLR adapter so it could use our mics, which works very well. Now, that being said, keep in mind this is definitely a CONSUMER camera... not pro gear by any stretch of the imagination. That mostly translates into no purely manual mode (although there are ways to trick it), very heavily menu driven stuff instead of buttons, consumer connectors, etc. But for the money it is amazing. One of the drawbacks that I have found is that if you want to shoot 24P you MUST shoot HDV... you cannot do 24P in standard-def like you can in the XLH1 (which we frequently do). T2 __________________________________ Todd Terry Creative Director Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc. fantasticplastic.com Respond to this post   •   Return to posts index

	Re: Canon HV20 or Sony HDR-HC7 camcorder by Todd at Fantastic Plastic on Jun 8, 2007 at 1:32:39 pm [gnomebard] "How about low light?" Hmmmm... I really couldn't say. We were only shooting exteriors with it, and whenever we DO shoot interiors it's always with pretty complete lighting (as I said, we usually shoot with the XLH1 with a P+S Technik converter which is a bit light hungry, so we are used to lighting plenty). However, just walking around with it here in the office it looked pretty darn good in interior available light. However HOWEVER, since it lacks much manual control what it DOES do in low light is jack the gain up without your permission (or knowledge for that matter), which of course is not usually a good thing. There are four things going on with the HV20 that affect exposure: iris, shutter speed, gain, and an internal continuously-variable neutral density filter. Unfortunately the only things you have manual control over are iris and shutter speed (but only one at a time, there is no mode where you can control both). But on the upside, when you shoot in the "cine" mode AND shoot 24P the camera will try its best to stick to 0dB gain and 1/48th shutter speed. In addition, there are ways using the exposure lock to "trick" the camera into staying at the proper gain and shutter still giving you some manual control. Far from ideal, I will agree... but for a "B cam" at literally a disposable throwaway price it's something we can live with. Again, I will say that this thing was NOT designed to be a professional tool. It's very definitely a consumer palmcorder designed for your father-in-law's home movies of the grandkids. BUT it produces such an unblievable picture that it's worth the workarounds if you are in need of something afforable and INCREDIBLY small (if you haven't seen one in person, this camera is literally only the size of, say, a large man's fist). T2 __________________________________ Todd Terry Creative Director Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc. fantasticplastic.com Respond to this post   •   Return to posts index

	Re: Canon HV20 or Sony HDR-HC7 camcorder by Todd at Fantastic Plastic on Jun 9, 2007 at 1:46:24 am [tmvc] "i have never tried to use canons and sonys together simply because their colour rendering just doesn't match" I would tend to COMPLETELY agree with that... in principal. But at least here in our shop I've found that in practicality sometimes its just the luck of the draw with particular cameras. For years we shot with a Sony DSR-200 (full-size DVcam) as our primary camera, and when we needed multi-camera we would add a Canon XL1 (back when that was the only one in the XL series) to the mix as the "B" camera. Ours happened to match absolutely positively perfectly. You literally could not tell they were not the same camera. I think I may have gotten lucky though, I've heard of similar people trying the same combo with results slightly less perfect than ours. Sometimes the world is a crapshoot... T2 __________________________________ Todd Terry Creative Director Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc. fantasticplastic.com Respond to this post   •   Return to posts index