Roger Smith

Canon XH-A1 or not . . that is the question? I've had multiple Panasonic HVX200's, HVX200A's and Sony Z7U's and this much I can say in comparison to the Canon XH-A1, switching to the XH-A1 has a been a blessing. Simple to operate, absolutely amazing images, and a work flow that is as simple as SD but with image color depth and flexibility that is truly nothing short of amazing . . AND . . you still have tape for 100% archive and backup. With the HVX's the workflow in DVCProHD100 is atrochious with lots of storage required, no back up on the fly, and not real NLE friendly, let alone why upscale to 100Mbs when in order to render one will have to choose an MPEG2 rendering codec for their computer to keep up which will defeat the whole purpose. Moreover, the P2 cards are expensive and the cameras imager is only a 960x540 with math to get you to 1920x1080 and again mpeg codec for rendering equals no big improvement over HDV . . BUT . . without back up on the fly and a workflow that often required us to have an IT person in the field plus the HDD transfer time which is just about equivilent to digitzing HDV. Then the Z7U is great with it's external lens which in itself also adds some complications AND you won't get it for under $5K US . . PLUS . . to change the battery that goes pretty quick you have to remove the external CF drive let alone slightly nose heavy but not like the EX series. The Canon XH-A1 has by far whether it be it's 20x HD lens or it's much larger imager than the other two above or a combination of th two, is just somehow quite a bit better in my opinion and at a much better price, footprint, and ease of use. The A1 out of the box default Preset is my opinion poor but the nearly 50 downloadable pretested formats are nice solutions, let alone you can make up your own. Personally I use the VividRGB a lot and get really nice color with it and actually two camera that setting with a Canon HV30 with just a few small tweaks on the A1's preset and even found we can use the HV30 as a B roll in SD mode also. We have been experimenting with low light situations on the XH-A1 and have found that it's low light performance with either extreme minimal or NO grain is superior to the HVX's (even the A model) and the Z7 which must have something to do with it's larger imager. That is, not just a nice picture when in low light but also with nearly pure blacks without washing the rest of the image. Some of the outdoor material we have shot with full ND filter, iris cranked down to almost shutting off, and overcast snow day, looks like film in 30p HD. Moreover, the sound recording is as near to "real" as we have been able to find thus far. Switching from those two former cameras to the XH-A1 has been a welcome let alone we have been able to switch to the Kata 192 case and even can carry an external light, extra battery, two battery chargers (one for 12v) all the cables and manuals, and a 2X screen from Hoodie and some other device that I can't remember making the whole package quite portable and fun to back along. We also have built a back pack for it, something we would never have been able to do with the HVX unless that backpack would have carried a laptop and external HDD . .something I wouldn't recommend in any weather. General price consideration.... 1 Z7U and support gear = TWO XH-A1's with support gear 1 HVX200 with 2 16GB P2 Cards = TWO XH-A1's with support gear Hope that helps and if not feel free to hit back for more detail.

It's only the material I was given but not from a Z7 but from an EX1. We HAVE a Z7 and we've only seen 1 to 3 frames affected because of a rolling shutter on a flash but material delivered to us twice now on EX1 (not an EX3 where we've heard it is resolved like on the Z7) about 30 to 70 frames, not sure because we didn't count them all, just looked to be about 1 to 2 seconds of video and we just cut them out and fused the clips and looked like a weird transition that's all. Only problem therein we've found with the Z7 is focus in low light where it just can find focus and thus in low light you have to run manual and if your moving around a lot like we are it's a bugger. Thus, if we can't shoot it in SD with a DVX100B in 16:9 squeeze and letterbox frame it for HD then we avoid using HD in really really low light. That is, the Z7 works well down to DVX100B levels but below that the Z7 has a lot of focus issues in auto. Also, must shut off macro focus.

the conditions for the rolling shutter to really present itself is in low light and flash/strobes and we actually ran a test of the ex1 with a hired talent and our z7u and found that if a flash was anywhere in front of the ex1 or if reflected off something, the ex1 produced a rolling shutter that ran anywhwere from a minimum of 28 frames to upwards of just over 70 (don't remember but i think it was 74 or 75 while at that same outting the z7 only produced rolling shutter on two of the 15+ attempts and those two both the camera flash was within 4 feet of the lens (very unlikely event) and no more than 7 frames were affected ~1/4 sec. we ran these tests because we do gads of wedding and event wherein both low light and flashes are present. so with the same cmos why doesn't the z7u have the exact same affect? we were told (and apparently evidenced) that the z7 came after the ex1 and the problem had been noticed PLUS the z7u has a noise pre-filtering circuit in the analog to digital conversion process and therefore not amplified; that is, the analog is collected, the noise pre-filtering occurs, then the digital conversion takes place, thereby avoiding digitization and/or amplification of noise. that said, the biggest issues for us (not knowing any of this noise thing but did know of the possibility of rolling shutter) was the card. we had formerly operated with P2 cards and the workflow was killing us . . a gig/min and with our planned three cameras and 5 - 24 min shows of recording, just the storage of all the program content was to be 125gb and then use a render reate of approx. 4:1 or 5:1 (experience) and we'd be looking at 600gb's to do shows and for the most part that's a terrabyte and that means a LOT of space. with hdv we boogie and hardly know it's happenin' let alone the compact flash is a 100 bux for the 16gb x133 and for the price of a smiliar SxS we can record all our tv shows on two or three cards and not worry about transfer but only to final HDD for use AND then we have 15 tapes (3 cams x 5 shows) for back up just in case there was a problem with a card or during transfer.

i guess i'd have to say that at the price of SxS cards AND the rolling shutter issue that the ex1 has let alone the unbalanced characteristc of the EX1 when i tried it out, i'd much prefer to stay with the z7 even if for not at least a dozen other reasons :o)

did you find that you actually needed it? i mean the dof on the stock z7u is pretty appetizing. and with the lens adapter to take nikon lenes direct one can put a nice 35mm/prime lens and end up with some even nicer dof.

what's the mini pro? is that the i/o device?

Just wondering if anyone know where one could go to see if the Z7U has been used in any movies?

Are you running in "auto audio" or manual?