Mixing HPX and HVX footage

[austin smoak]

I'm about to start work on a feature in May. Originally, the producers and I made the decision to shoot with the HVX, however, recently we have been offered an HPX-500 for part of the shoot.

 

Has anyone ever mixed footage from the HVX and HPX? Have any insight on how noticeable it is? Any help anyone can give would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Steve McBride]

The HPX has 2/3" chips in it so you're going to have better low light performance with less noise in your shadows. You're also going to have a shallower depth of field. There are some ways to remove noise from noisy footage but that's just adding to the digital end.

 

If this is a low budget shoot and you have to pay extra for the HPX, I'd just stick with the HVX. But if it's the same price (why can't you get it for the entire shoot?) I'd try and schedule all of your scenes that you want to look different for using either one of the cameras. If you do shoot on both you don't want to have it change mid-scene (this could become hard if you have to do pick ups) because people are getting more perceptive and will notice a slight change to the picture.