Learning Curve #3 -- HVX200: Features
This is why you buy the HVX200 – its features. And is it loaded! The HVX200 has features I’ll probably never use. For example, it has “NEWS GAMMA” to control saturation during quick camera moves common in electronic news gathering. My interest is in filmmaking, so I’ll tell you about the features that I’ve found (so far) that are relevant to filmmaking.
To organize my own thinking about cameras, I look at them in terms of the kinds of artistic control they provide. Anyone can take a consumer camcorder and shoot images. What you pay for in a professional cinematic video camera, in my opinion, is the ability to control those images. That’s what makes it an artistic medium.
Here are the things I consider: 1) Frame Control … Aspect Ratio, Perspective, Resolution. 2) Image Control … Exposure Features, Gamma Processing, Color Processing, Color Sampling, Enhancement (image sharpening). 3) Motion Control … Image Stabilization, Variable Frame Rate Recording, Shutter Speed control, Intervalometer (Time Lapse control). 4) Blur Control … Frame Rate, Progressive/Interlaced, Shutter Speed, Depth of Field (Lens characteristics).
I wish I had the space and time to go into detail about every feature of the camera and what makes the result more or less Cinematic. I’ll just provide a brief accounting and explain the main points that I think are most important or unique filmmaking features.
Frame Control
The HVX200 provides 16:9 960x720 HD recording that is stretched to 1280x720 in post. It provides 4:3 720x380 recording to DV tape. When you shoot “squeeze” DV mode to tape on the HVX200, it actually reduces the resolution from HD. So every pixel is filled with “real” information. Compare this with the DVX100, which letterboxes the SD image and then stretches the 320x480 pixels up to fill the frame, adding interpolated information with no extra detail. The HVX records in 1080i mode also, which provides about 20% more detail than 720p.
Film cameras normally have replaceable lenses. Video cameras commonly do not have replaceable lenses, the Canon XL-series being the noted exception. The HVX200 comes with a built-in 13x zoom lens that ranges from 4.2 to 55mm which is equivalent to 32.5 to 423mm on a 35mm lens. This is an improvement over the 10x zoom 4.5 to 45mm (32.5 to 325mm equivalent) in the DVX100 series. Although the lens is not replaceable, you can mount adapters in front of it to extend the range of the built-in lens. The HVX200 has an 82mm screw mount and an 82mm bayonet mount. That means the 72mm attachments for the DVX100 cannot be used on the HVX200.
I did, however, successfully attach a Panasonic Anamorphic Lens adapter and a +3 diopter Achromatic lens (close-up lens) using an 82mm-to-72mm step-down-ring. The Anamorphic Adapter allowed me to shoot in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio in HD resolution. The Century Optics 72mm 1.6x Teleconverter has a bayonet mount, so it can’t be mounted on the HVX, and the .6x Wide Angle lens optics stick out too far in the back to mount.
Image Control
Like the DVX100, the HVX200 has manual iris settings, in-camera neutral Density filters, gain (electronic amplification), and exposure and focus assistants.
When shooting with autofocus, whether in SD or HD, the camera operates as you’d expect. Autofocus works well, and you can turn it off for those times when you need the focus to hold still during a shot. For example, when I am framing a character on the edge of the screen, I usually point the camera at the actor to set the focus, then switch to manual focus, and then reframe the shot. Manual focus is also useful when movement in the scene would cause the camera to refocus during the shot. Because of this, I am in the habit of using autofocus to setup the shot and then moving to manual before recording. In these cases I’m not really focusing the lens by hand, but rather using the manual focus setting to disable autofocus.
But there are some cases where manual-focusing of the lens is necessary. For example, when performing a rack focus or other focus effect, or when you want a different focus in the scene then autofocus will provide. One example, when shooting a tree on the other side of the fence, autofocus will focus on the fence instead of the tree. Also, if you are using a 35mm lens adapter, manual focus becomes critical, because the lens can focus more finely than the increments of the autofocus control. In SD mode – manual focus is straightforward. But when you record in HD, the additional resolution really complicates manual focus.
See, the LCD on the HVX200 has a resolution of about 200,000 pixels. But when you are recording in 720p mode, the image is 1280x720 = 921,600 pixels. So if you try to manually focus, you are only seeing one out of four pixels in the LCD – not enough to get a sharp focus. The HVX200 provides a couple of assistants. The “Focus Assist” button magnifies the center of the image about 3x and displays it for a few seconds to give you time to focus on the magnified image. The camera also has EVF DTL (Electronic View Finder Detail – also called ‘peaking’) which draws a one-pixel white line around boundaries in the image that indicate objects that are in focus. Used together, these features enable the HVX200 to be manually focused in HD mode.
Unfortunately, the area that is magnified is a fixed section of the center of the image. It would be great if the magnified area could be scrolled around the image to enable focusing on objects that are not at the center of the screen. Instead, if you are manually focusing, you have to frame the object in the center of the screen, press focus assist, focus, and then re-frame the scene. A minor inconvenience.
