My friend Phil Geotz from Texas Media Systems invited me to a small filmmaker get together where I met fellow Austin filmmakers Matt Iha and Rod Cole. We all got to speak with Scott A. Burch, one of the JVC district sales managers from Texas. Scott recently returned from NAB 2009 and provided us with some hands on experience with the JVC GY-HM100 and its older brother the GY-HM700. Allow me to post some fun facts about this camera.
JVC GY-HM100 with Mic
JVC GY-HM100 without Mic
Matt Iha & HM100
This camera is TINY! And when I mean tiny, I mean about 3 lbs. This little guy packs a punch for its size and and it doesn’t call attention to you. I really wish I could have had this camera last year when I went to Italy. I could have easily taken this thing with me to the Vatican without raising an eyebrow. The HM100 has 3-CCD 1/4″ 16:9 Progressive Sensors that use Spatial Offset to achieve both 1280x720p and 1920x1080p resolutions. The camera also has a fixed Fujinon 10x Lens, 3.7-37mm. I wonder if a Redrock or Letus 35mm adapter would fit on this thing?
One of the best things about this little camera is that they included XLR inputs, which means you can get some great audio from this camera. In case that’s too bulky, you can also remove the XLR handle and just shoot with the camera itself. The on-board mic will take over as the primary source of audio now. If I ever need to shoot a documentary that requires me to sneak around behind enemy lines, this is definitely the camera I would like to use, especially if your projects require you to travel.
It’s big brother’s turn. This feels more like the JVC I know. It’s a little longer than the JVC GY-HD110 and just a bit shorter than the JVC GY-HD200. The HM700 uses 1280×720 1/3″ CCDs and also uses sophisticated spatial-offset technology along with Adaptive Pixel Correlation. This is great because when we shot our feature “Hands of God”, the JVC GY-HD110 had a big problem overheating, causing hot pixels to appear in our footage. The result is high resolution imagery comparable to full-resolution CMOS sensors without the known problems associated CMOS, including skew and “wobble”, making the camera an ideal for tool for sports, event coverage, and news gathering. Again, if you are working on documentaries, this is the camera to get because of it too also uses SDHC cards and can give you long record times at amazing resolutions. Oh and the LCD Screen? Amazing! This this the kind of LCD screen I wish all HD cameras had. It’s sharp and you can use it to focus perfectly with JVC’s patented Focus Assist.
18:1 Fuji Lens
18:1 Fuji Lens
Sharp LCD Screen
Did I forget to mention that these two cameras shoot native quicktime .MOV files for us Final Cut Editors? This is a great feature because you can edit right away without losing time. All you need is a USB reader with your SDHC card and a laptop if you are on the go. Not only that, but there is no log and transfer needed since the files can be brought into Final Cut and edited natively. To be honest, I don’t know how to feel about this. I’m editor first, and I always log my footage so that I can edit faster and mold a story with exact shots that contain specific information. By bypassing this step, your are left with all the fat on the clips and have trim everything on the timeline. Then again, most people who will use this camera are either Director/DP types who aren’t editors and don’t really have organization skills in the editing field. To each his own I guess.
Speaking of being an Editor, another drawback about these two cameras is that they use the XDCAM EX codec from Sony, which is a 35Mbit 4:2:0 MPEG2 Long-GOP codec. Not only is MPEG2 outdated, but it also means that not all of the information is there since it uses Interframe compression. As an editor, Intraframe codecs like Panasonic’s DVCProHD and AVC-Intra, which shoot 4:2:2 and are better codecs for Non-Linear Editors. Again, you are only going to care about this if you are an editor first like myself.
Currently, the street price for the HM100 is $3495 and the HM700 will go for about $6995 with a 17:1 Fuji Lens. The Canon 14:1 lens is due out in June and will be shipping with the HM700 as the stock lens.
Just got a Sony HDR-FX1, have you shot with this? How does it compare to the JVC’s? The price is similar to the HM100.
I haven’t shot with the Sony HDR-FX1 but from what I’ve read about it, it only shoots 1080i and the HDV compression is 19-25Mbits and shoots to miniDV tape. The JVC HM100 shoots to SDHC cards and uses a 35 Mbit VBR codec that Sony uses with their EX1 and Ex3 cameras. Also, the HM100 can give you 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. The frame rates can be either 24p, 30p, or 60p (720p mode) and 24p, 30, and 60i (1080i/p mode).
As a DP/Editor I am drooling over this camera. I am coming from a XL2 and not having to deal with capture issues that occur with DV is wonderful! A fixed lens means having to go to 35mm adapter for a nice shallow DOF in 35Mbits HD! I will miss the good old 16X manual servo lens. Here is a tip about your logging woes. With the Log and Transfer feature in FCP you can log as you would normally from the HM100 or SDHC card and then batch capture them. FCP handles the footage in a different codec though. The drag and drop feature of native Quicktime files is amazing. Think about not having to have a 1:1 downtime for capturing anymore as with DV tape. No transcoding or rendering. Brilliance!! Keep your eyes on the top third for more technoblah.
[...] can do with SDHC and SxS workflows. Check out my previous blog review of these two cameras here: The JVC GY-HM100 & JVC GY-HM700 I want to take the time to go over a few more things that I both love and hate about these new [...]
Hi
I just bought a hm100 and I’m using Final cut express. When I transfer from the sdhc card to the mac. I get the audio but not the video and this is in qucktime. When I open Final cut express I get the same thing. Still learning but not sure what I’m doing wrong. HELP
I don’t think the HM100 or HM700 work with Final Cut Pro Express. They use the Sony XDCAM EX compressor and I don’t think Express supports that. I think you will have to use Final Cut Pro instead. Check the discussion boards at Apple to find out more: http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=936
Thanks for sharing Carlos. Your info is helpful.
But how well do the 100 and 700 play together?
Would you be happy editing a project with footage from both?
How noticeable is it?
hey.all of a sudden, my mov files have a 3 minute still frame at the end. any idea what’s up? thanks…….bill a.
Digital Memory sure is becoming cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. I’m curious as to when we will finally reach the rate of $0.01 to 1 Gig.I can’t wait for the day when I will finally be able to afford a 20 TB harddisk . But for now I guess I will be content with having a 32 gigabyte Micro SD in my R4i.(Submitted using NetBlog for R4i Nintendo DS.)
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I’m ready to buy the JVC GY-HM100 but I really miss the firewire conection. Does anybody know why they don’t put that anymore?