The Video Forum

A forum to share ideas and opinions on the equipment and technical aspects of film, video and AV making.
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tom hardwick
Posts: 914
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:59 am

The Video Forum

Post by tom hardwick »

I've been at the Video Forum these last couple of days and took my Z1 with me to film through different converter lenses. It's a great place to do things like this - with so much under one roof. I've given today a miss though - I'm sure there's the wrong type of snow on the tracks and my train would never get there.

I liked the Canon A1 and many people asked how it compared with the V1 in low light. Anyone know? I guess they're much of a muchness, with Canon's bigger CCDs being offset by the fact that the 20x zoom is slower throughout the zoom range. I found its top screen a little too small though the big dials, dedicated buttons and knobs are a delight.

If you're a Sony man to start with then adding a Canon to your line-up of cameras is asking for - well, not trouble exactly, but a bit more hassle, in the field as well as in the office.

I tried again to like the HVX100, and I took along my Z1 and did a side-by-side comparison. That drew a little crowd, and the Panasonic salesman had to smile through clenched teeth rather. The HVX has been styled by Hovis, and this does it no favours. The P2 cards are still a joke price and the tape compartment should be occupied by a hard drive of sorts.

But the lens is lovely - starting wider than the Z1 and going longer - a great combination, but with an 82 mm diameter filter thread. My superwide Aspheron on the HVX looked amazing - giving the equivalent of 15.5 mm with no barrel distortion. Now that is what I call wide.

The HVX's side screen sounds a good idea - it's a letterboxed 4:3 screen with all the spam outside the picture area. But in filming practice I found it odd, and the under/overscan white lines I found distracting.

I think I've come down on Canon's A1. I'm still a Z1 fan but I sure do like that 20x zoom, and then there's Canon's 'focus assist' window too. But the Z1's top screen is better placed and better sized, and as I'm a screen lover it's the clincher.

I note that all the V1s had Sony's 0.7x bayonet-on wide-angle converter fitted, presumably because the V1 straight out of the box is a little light in the wide-angle stakes. But 0.7x? It's a lump of a lens for one so mild, and the barrel distortion was - as expected - a disappointment.

I tried Century's very heavy, very expensive (£800), very big 0.7x converter on the Z1. Lovely and sharp throughout the zoom and flare control into the high overhead spots at Earl's Court was excellent, but oh, those bendy lines. Their 0.6x has worse distortion, though is partial zoom-through and less than half the price. Canon's 0.8x (too mild to even bother fitting most of the time I'd have thought) again gave too much barrel distortion for my liking.

tom.
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