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SHOOTING A FEATURE FILM IN AVAILABLE-LIGHT SITUATIONS WAS A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITYTO TEST PANASONICS AJ-HPX3000.
Last year, I had the opportunity to work with the Panasonic AJ-HPX500, and I fell in love (see review in DV Sept. 2007). I hadn't been that blown away by a new camera since the Panavised Sony CineAlta F900 nearly a decade before. Not only was the AJ-HPX500 everything I wanted, the price was unbelievable. Quite simply, there wasn't a better camera package on the market even close to the price range of the HPX500.
With that understanding, I was very excited to get a chance to work with Panasonic's new AJ-HPX3000, their flagship fullraster 1920x1080 P2 %" camera. Generally, when I test a new camera, I don't like to just set up a couple charts and call it a day; I like to put the gear through its paces on a practical shoot to really get a feel for how it performs in a real-world situation. The timing worked out quite perfectly for me to test the HPX3000 on a feature comedy called Two Million Stupid Women that I was producing and shooting for first-time feature director Jamie Neese.
Along with co-director of photography Jayson Crothers, we shot for two weeks with dueling HPX3000s and put the camera through its paces on a shoot that consisted of all practical locations, night exteriors, clubs and bars - all handheld and nearly all available light.
GEARING UP
We secured our second camera through Birns & Sawyer in Hollywood, and I started testing by determining the base ISO. Like the HPX500, the 3000 has several gamma presets including the VariCam FilmRec (for film output) and three FilmUke modes (for a "cinematic" look to digitally finished projects). To my eye, FilmLikel was the most pleasing. I started with a default master gamma of .45, OdB of gain and 180-degree shutter. I was quite shocked to find the ISO at a solid 250 - about a third stop less than what I had assumed would be the worst case scenario and 2/3 of a stop less than I had hoped for. As we were embarking on a project that would be nearly all available light in dark locations - this was not good...