Panasonic HVX 200 or Canon XL-H1?

[locomonker]

I will be shooting a short adventure film soon. I have the choice between using the HVX 200 and the XL-H1-- which would you suggest? What are the pros and cons of each?

 

[Lerg]

HVX all the way. And that's not just 'cause I'm a hard core Panny fan for the heck of it. I like the HVX WAY better than the XL-H1 for these reasons:

1) HVX uses solid state P2 cards. XL-H1 uses HDV. HDV is a heavily compressed format. P2 cards are much less compressed, so the picture is better.

2) The HVX200 has a real 24p mode. The XL-H1 just has what Canon calls a "24f" mode, which, according to Canon, looks the same. I don't know about that....

3) If, I'm correct, which I may not be, the XL-H1 only has a 1080i mode. No 720p mode. It can't shoot progressive at all for that matter. It can only shoot interlaced at 30i and 60i. That is a big no-no for me at least. I really like progressive. Especially at 60fps, which is available on the HVX in its 720p mode.

A few cons of the HVX:
1) The XL-H1 has interchangeable lenses. You can't do that on the HVX.
2) P2 cards don't hold as much as miniDVs. You could always shoot in HDV on the HVX though (it lets you do both)

 

[Taylor Rudd]

I've only shot in the studio with the HVX200, but have had more experience with the XL-H1 than I care to share (I also own the XH-A1, the H1's little brother).

The HVX is a solidly built, but the recording medium kills me. The P2 files are huge, which would be great if they were truly HD. However, the HVX's sensors are only 960x540 and they use pixel shifting to achieve "720p". The XL-H1, though heavily compressed, has sensors that are 1440x1080 ...still not true HD, but at least you have the option of taking the HD-SDI line straight to a tower and record the signal at 1.485Gb/s.

In terms of image quality, neither are really ideal. I'll take HDV over P2 for storage reasons alone.

A better question, though, is why aren't you considering the Sony EX1? It is cheaper than the XL-H1, has full 1920x1080 raster, 1/2" sensors, records at 1080p, can under/overcrank from 2-60fps (I think) at 720p (same as HVX), has a killer Fujinon lens, solid state media records at 35mb/s, etc. My school is preferring the EX1 over our Sony F900 because of its full HD raster (the F900 is only 1440x1080 as well).

As a side note, Canon's 24f mode is actually pretty good. The kicker is that it is proprietary to Canon's HDV cameras. Once I stomached that, I was pretty pleased with its performance. There is about a 10-15% decrease in resolution when you take Canon's HDV from 60i to 24f, but I'm willing to lose the resolution for the gain in the look.

 

[Lerg]

Taylor has a point. The EX1 is better than the HVX or XL-H1, and still within that price range. You still have the same storage problems, as the HVX though. The EX1 is the only prosumer camera that can shoot in true 1920x1080 res. The HVX comes closer because of its lower compression on the P2 card (lower than HDV at least), but goes through considerable pixel shifting to get to full res, so it's not true 1920x1080. EX1 is.

Another camera to consider is the Red Scarlet for $3,000.

 

[DS Williams]

HVX

True progressive imagers, 23.98 native, whereas H1 shoots on interlaced chips.

 

[DS Williams]

Taylor has a point. The EX1 is better than the HVX or XL-H1, and still within that price range. You still have the same storage problems, as the HVX though. The EX1 is the only prosumer camera that can shoot in true 1920x1080 res. The HVX comes closer because of its lower compression on the P2 card (lower than HDV at least), but goes through considerable pixel shifting to get to full res, so it's not true 1920x1080. EX1 is.

Another camera to consider is the Red Scarlet for $3,000.

The Scarlet is vaporware. Think about it a year from now when it's close to release. As of now look into HVX200 or HMC150k or shoot for the new HPX300, a worthy competitor to the EX3.

 

[DS Williams]

A few cons of the HVX:
1) The XL-H1 has interchangeable lenses. You can't do that on the HVX.
2) P2 cards don't hold as much as miniDVs. You could always shoot in HDV on the HVX though (it lets you do both)

You're wrong there. The HVX doesn't shoot HDV. HDV is a consumer answer to pro HD codecs, designed to fit more pixels onto miniDV tapes. 4:2:0 color subsampling, low bit rate (25mbs), 8 bit, resolution subsampling, ect. DVCPROHD is FAR superior to HDV's longGOP mpeg2 compression