murrays 0 #1 May 17, 2005 Sony just announced the HC-1 HD camcorder that weighs 1 1/2 lbs. No price yet.-- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CTSkydiver 0 #2 May 17, 2005 The link you posted mentions it should be about $2000. F---ing Touch Screens! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vdschoor 0 #3 May 17, 2005 Now available in HD - the dropzone.com boogie video 2005 Too bad HD tv's are a long way from being standard... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PhreeZone 15 #4 May 17, 2005 Looks like the Wide Angle lenses screw into the plastic around the lens and not into a metal ring. Might cause a few to break in a hard opening. Sony needs to get a rep on this site so we can design the perfect jumping camera. Yesterday is history And tomorrow is a mystery Parachutemanuals.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CTSkydiver 0 #5 May 17, 2005 More in-depth preliminary review, here: http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-Announces-Under-$2,000-HDV-HDR-HC1-High-Def-1080i-Camcorder.htm Looks like it has at least minimal manual control via buttons ... and they mention a more expensive model with full manual control. EDIT: And here's an interesting quote comparing the data bandwidth of MiniDV and HDV (which uses the same tape): This might be important to consider. "The NAB announcements highlight the weaknesses of the HDV specification. While HDV video can record either at 1080 lines of resolution 60 frames interlaced, or 720 lines of resolution progressive scan video, it actually includes the same amount of information as the MiniDV spec. Both DV and HDV video formats use 25 Megabits of data per second, and the 720 lines spec for HDV only uses 19 Megabits of data per second. The HDV spec includes less color information about the picture than did the DV specification. Because of the downgraded amount of information, some prosumers have criticized the HDV specification. Panasonic's professional division has decided to break away from the consortium to announce a prosumer non-HDV camcorder. Their HDV camcorder which was announced at NAB can record 100 Megabits of data to solid state media, and can record 1080 lines of progressive video instead of just the interlaced video included in the HDV spec. " Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
murrays 0 #6 May 17, 2005 QuoteThe link you posted mentions it should be about $2000. F---ing Touch Screens! I missed that.....let's see, $2,000 for the camera and how much more for the upgraded computer??? The iMovie HD software on my Mac will edit HD but I don't think that my 3 year old G4 iMac is capable of it. It would be very cool but I won't be an early adopter.-- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PhreeZone 15 #7 May 17, 2005 Premiere Pro 1.5 has a free plug in to enable HDV.Yesterday is history And tomorrow is a mystery Parachutemanuals.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
murrays 0 #8 May 18, 2005 All the Apple software iMovie, Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro will edit HD out of the box. What I wonder is how much more processor, video card, display, and hard drive space will a person need? I think it will be pretty significant. If these new HD compatible disks like Bluray hold 45 gb a person will need a ton of room for the raw footage and projects...I'm thinking terabyte disks will seem cramped pretty quickly.-- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PhreeZone 15 #9 May 18, 2005 Don't know but my njew PC will be running a Terra so I'll let you know once the price becomes affordable and my cam dies. I hope the ports are not on a docking station like Sony has been moving towards Edit... it turns out that the recording bitrate for HDV 1080i is 25Mbs, same exact bit rate as DV, drive space is'nt an issue http://vasst.com/hdv/hdv-FAQ.htm#SonycamYesterday is history And tomorrow is a mystery Parachutemanuals.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
murrays 0 #10 May 18, 2005 Then why do these new HD compatible disks hold 45 gb? If DVD projects are going to be that large I can see a lot of space filled up fast. A t-byte....seems incredibly large but I had 340gb (on 3 drives) nearly full this winter when I was doing our year end video...a lot of that was backups....but the video was only 40 minutes long. My guess is we'll find out sooner than we think. Cheers,-- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PhreeZone 15 #11 May 18, 2005 There are two HD video formats right now, HDV and HDV-CAM. Same thing as DV and DV-CAM. the HDV-CAM has a uncompressed bitrate of 144Mbps so thats going to eat drive space faster then anything. Using 1080i for the HDV is same bandwidth so that should be cool, they are reccommending a 2.0 ghz PC or faster since it does use an codec during all the editing, so older PC's are'nt going to play nice it seems. A terra I expect to be filled up fast since its my archiving solution for my Digital camera also. Between the archive of the photo, video, scratch space and projects.. I expect to be at 60-70% of drive space by the end of the year. I'm currently using 1 gig of drive space per weekend on just photos already.Yesterday is history And tomorrow is a mystery Parachutemanuals.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mccordia 73 #12 May 18, 2005 We've recently gotten a decent budget to shoot a short film (not skydiving related, sorry) We're shooting it on HDV and the final result wil be transfered to 35 mm (film). The tests we've seen (shot out to film) look incredible, and withstand the comparison with footage shot on 35mm. In terms of color and clarity , it actualy looked better then the Panasonic HD pro-sumer camera that's already out there (that's supposedly better) nerdy stuff : What's quite cool is that, you can also decide to shoot interlaced (25 fps PAL/30 fps NTSC), and due to the higher resolution of HDV, splice the fields appart into 50 fps PAL/60 fps NTSC DV footage, that looks as good (or even better) then what you'd get out of your normal DV camera's. So fluid slowmo's are possible when working with an end result at DV res.(if your final product is going to be DVD anyways) We're also doing a lot of specialeffects work, which is cool, because you have way better resolution then DV, but digital files to work with (and expensive extra step, film>digital transfer is no longer needed) We're buying a a Sony HDV (PAL version) for this production. In time, we'll probably also give it a try in the air. we'll post a review as soon as we have it.JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OmarPR 0 #13 August 29, 2005 My friend Scotty "GoFast" Burns and fellow video wingman just got his. We were going to try it out today but this damn hurracane weather didn't cooperate (Z-Hills, Florida). We'll give it another shot some time this week. WINGSUIT ACROBATICS team O zone ZF#5 , HISPA#70 Blue Skies... ...Big Fat Clouds Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MB38 0 #14 August 29, 2005 QuoteMy friend Scotty "GoFast" Burns and fellow video wingman just got his. We were going to try it out today but this damn hurracane weather didn't cooperate (Z-Hills, Florida). We'll give it another shot some time this week. When you get some footage, could you actually post it in HD? Use H.264 compression in Quicktime for it, the file size will stay nice and slim so it won't chew up bandwidth. I'd just love to see how it looks.I really don't know what I'm talking about. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OmarPR 0 #15 August 29, 2005 You got it. WINGSUIT ACROBATICS team O zone ZF#5 , HISPA#70 Blue Skies... ...Big Fat Clouds Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freeflydrew 0 #16 August 29, 2005 We're using it here (on the ground) and it's absolutely a whole different ball game... The video is really incredible. However, when the subject has a lot of movement, the camera doesn't take a crisp video. Once the subject slows down a bunch, or goes still, you can see an incredible shift in color and clarity. Assuming it performs well in the air, it's definitely within the acceptable weight limitations for a camera helmet, and with little to no snag points, it should be great for skydiving... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
newshooter12 0 #17 August 30, 2005 one of my co-workers who freelances for NHL games noticed that too when he got the chance to shoot a game in HD. your moves have to be more delibrate and slower. partially he said because there is just sooo much for your eyes to take in that it can get overwelhming for the viewer if you're moving too quickly. as well as partially because any compression added later will render any movement more choppie. matt Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mccordia 73 #18 September 6, 2005 The motion-problems refered to in the post above occor when you shoot on HD, a different format then HDV. HD is 24 fps and at 1920 x1080 (non-interlaced) It's mostly ment for cinema/features, and often transfered to 35 mm film for a final screening print.. But that aside.. I recently got to do a (non skydiving) project involving footage shot on HDV, and it simply looks amazing. A de-interlaced still-frame looks like it came from a good digital photo-camera. The color-information is also much better preserved then in DV/DV-Cam footage, which makes keying/effects (such as blue/green screen) much easer..(especialy if you're going for an end result on broadcast-res) Even when converted back to normal DV/Broadcast res, the colors and sharpness way surpass anthing that you could get out of any normal consumer DV camera (1 or 3 chip) I've heard of several people knowing someone that knows his friends sisters' mothers' aunt who has a nephew that's going to jump one anytime soon..but has anyone actualy jumped it yet? I know how the footage looks, I'm just curious how the camera handles the abuse in freefall (in terms of skips and hickups/bumps)JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
newshooter12 0 #19 September 6, 2005 I understand what you're saying there with the 24p style, but fact of the matter is that over here there isn't a true standard yet for the HD industry. Some companies have productions trucks packed with 1080i cameras & others have 720p with variations of all sorts. So the artifacting i was talking about is directly tied to the compression. a local news station in town shoots in 24p... well at least that mode. and you can see what you are talking about on their air all the time. they have a couple good shooters, but most are sloppy with PAs doing a lot of the editing so all sorts of pans and zooms end up on air that only detract from the quality of their product. matt Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AndreVideo 0 #20 September 6, 2005 Hi guys. I have over 50 jumps with this camera. Works fine. It runs 60 interlaced frames per second, like all standard DV camcorders. Records frames in size 1440x1080 pixels, displays 1920x1080i. It can output video via IEEE1394 in standard DV format (720x480) in anamorphic 16x9 shape. On standard TV image looks slightly squeezed but nobody figured it out! Hey, there is no good reference shape in freefall. Similarly component output can be in HDV or DV format. Easy to record, straight to a Philips 615 DVD recorder. Quality - very good, even after conversion to DV. Single chip? It is a CMOS and handles sun like 3 CCD camcorders - no vertical line. And ... HD video on a big screen looks spectacular. Resolution - higher than on my old JVC HD1 camcorder that was much better than any DV crap. Welcome to the future. AndreQuote Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
newshooter12 0 #21 September 6, 2005 thanks for the input.. that's exactly the type of thing i was waiting to hear. one more thing to add to my "wish list" matt Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
434 2 #22 September 6, 2005 What kind of lens(es) have you used? Im going to buy lenses, but so far I have only used the ones I had for my pdx10, Century precission ultra fisheye MKII, and sony VCL-HG0737X Thank you! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
videointhesky 0 #23 September 7, 2005 I want to also thank you for the report on the HC-1 HD camcorder. My Wish List Canon 5D Sony HC-1 HD Camcorder Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
base428 1 #24 September 7, 2005 I just got my HDR-HC1 yesterday and played with it most of the evening. After shooting five minutes of random footage and playing it back on my 50" HD LCD TV, I was very pleased with the quality. I was not "blown away" by the quality - probably because I'm used to watching HD on TV everyday. I can definately see how most people would have to pick their jaw up off the ground after viewing the footage on a good HD TV. The quality is FAR beyond your normal miniDV camera. The camera is MUCH smaller than I originally thought. I was used to 3CCD's and a ton of manual controls, so switching to a CMOS 1CCD bottom loading camera is a stretch for me. I guess I'll have to sacrifice a few features in order to take advantage of the great quality. As noted in the online reviews, the zooming function is hard to control and slow zooming is nearly impossible. The dust covers for the iLink, Component and RCA out jacks are very easy to work and should last awhile. I think this camera will work fairly well in skydiving and base jumping, as long as the bottom loading feature doesn't drive you insane. I had no problems hooking it up to my 1080i 50" HD TV via the component cables and I'm really looking forward to trying it out at Bridge Day and the Moab Turkey Boogie. Of course, capturing the smile on my 4 month old daughter's face is reason enough for the purchase.(c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted. <==For the media only Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
434 2 #25 September 7, 2005 The only problem I had so far, was the lcd screen, and the cover locks opend during freefall and after opening shock! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
