As usual eagle eyed end users pick up on an issue that JVC were aware of with the zoom lens going slightly soft at the tight end. I first noticed this in the edit suite and contacted Kris Hill who told me it was a known issue and had been fixed. I had a pre production HM600 and I have to say if this is as bad as it gets JVC are onto a winner with this camcorder.
1. Zoomed in and pre focus.
2. Pulling back and slight softness which rectifies itself.
And to answer Michael Warren’s post in DVINFO.NET
“The Philip Johnston review is interesting. I notice the image is very soft at the telephoto end when he’s filming the crane at 12:41. I hope that is not typical, but was rather either that he just wasn’t focused properly, or it was in digital zoom (which is actually what it looked like to me).”
This camera does not have a digital zoom facility, it’s 23x optical from top to tail and I pre focused the lens, the AF had it been engaged may have compensated for this but we will never know.
That’s excellent news. This is looking like the best camcorder in this class. I predict this will sell well in it’s intended market.
For me, add AVCHD2 and it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for.
I dont understand, it is not broadcast spec triple half inch sensors and does not do 50Mbps…. not good enough for BBC
What is there to understand David, times are changing and the BBC have been using 35Mbps since the Sony EX-1 and to be honest the “BBC” are one small production organisation compared to the marketplace this camcorder is reaching out to capture. Let’s get away from this “BBC” nonsense, without freelancers the BBC would not function ! We dictate the standards today NOT THE BBC !!! The BBC have to follow a European standard which states the JVC GY-HM600 is fine for news (ENG) work.
I’m not a news guy so 35Mbps is too low for me
Hi David, so what do you film ? I have a Canon C300 running at 50Mbps and gives me the best looking interviews you have ever seen, the pictures are outstanding but in todays large sensor camera world you cant restrict yourself to one camera the C300 is great for setups, tripod work but utterly crap for run and gun work.
The GY-HM600 is a fantastic run and gun camcorder and as you have seen in my video review mixes very well with my C300 footage, the studio shots to camera were done with the C300.
Hi, I wonder if Mr. Johnston could upload a small original clip recorded directly from the JVC HM600. So that I can actually test it in the software i use. Is this possible? Thanks.
Another question i was thinking about: is the codec that this camera is using, said to be AVCHD h.264 @35Mbps, does this spec stands head to head compare to Sony’s , i think is Mpeg2, Long GOP 35Mbps? I think AVCHD would be much more compressed that Sony’s 35Mbps codec, am i on the wrong direction? As to my knowledge AVCHD 24Mbps overtaken HDV’s mpeg2 25Mbps,,,
Maybe AVCHD’s 35Mbps will appear more appealing than Sony’s Mpeg2 Long GOP @35Mbps ,,,the main concern becomes if AVCHD at 35Mbps, will it still be as compatible and handy to edit? AVCHD has be known to professionals that it is CPU intense, heavy compressed not a good choice , and not like Panny’s AVC-Intra with i-frame
Hi David,
1/3 inch sensors can be approved….just as the Canon XF305 was. Please note it is now not the BBC who approve the cameras – it is the EBU.
35mbps is fine for news but yes 50mbps is the requirement for long form programming. The GY-HM600 has both HDMI and SDI outputs so it is possible to add an external recorder to achieve this. I will post the EBU test results when they are published.
I expect the AVCHD maximum bit rate will be 24Mbs which is the AVCHD standard. AVCHD at 24Mbs is generally regarded as having fewer artifacts than MPEG2 35Mbs.
Hi Manuel,
We have just posted the new brochures which will clear up your codec questions however in summary:
GY-HM600:
1. MPEG-2 LONG GOP (Same as Sony EX series and others) up to 35Mbps
Wrapped at .MOV (QUICKTIME)or MP4 (XDCAM EX)
2. AVCHD up to 24Mbps
Wrapped at MTS
GY-HM650:
1. MPEG-2 LONG GOP (Same as Sony EX series and others) up to 35Mbps
Wrapped at MOV (QUICKTIME) MP4 (XDCAM EX) or MXF (With Metadata)
2. MPEG-4 AVC / H.264 up to 35Mbps wrapped as a MOV (QUICKTIME)
3.AVCHD up to 24Mbps
Wrapped at MTS
Dont forget the GY-HM650 has a dual encoder so you can record different wrappers, codecs and resolutions at the same time on two separate SDHC/SDXC cards. This is absolutely unique to JVC
Hi Kris, Any idea when you will have the instruction manual posted?
OK, Thanks, I am going to check it out, thank you
Yes, Mike, you are right, the AVCHD is bounded within 24Mbs, while 35Mbs is the Mpeg2 Long GOP. I am shooting in HDV so the long GOP 35Mbs is still superior, and to my eyes the images are very appealing.
There few questions want to ask abt HM600, i don’t know if Mr. Johnston will let me do so :), but since Kris is here, i don’t want to miss this chance:
1. Do i need to reformat the SD card to change recording framerates?
2. Is the recorded file size limited to FAT32 which is 2GB? i experienced a dropframe in cameras with this limitation while i align every 2GB files in the timeline.
3. HD-SDI output info.? such as bit depth and 4:2:2 sample?
Thanks
Hi Mike,
Please use the following link
http://manual3.jvckenwood.com/pro/mobile/global/
Hi Manuel,
1. No but will not be able to see the files on the clip manager (on the camera) if you do this.
2. Yes FAT32 however we have had no problems on previous camcorders with loss of frames
3. Yes. I used a Hamlet the other day to measure factory shipped colour accuarcy (excellent BTW) and it gave me the bit rate and sample info.
Hello Mr Johnston,
Thank you for producing the GYHM600 review video. May I ask which record format did you use in the video? I just received my 600E and did some random test with it. However I have a technical problem with it.
I have the camera shooting on tripod in 1080p25, using a 32G SDHC class10 UHS 1 card in slot A, no drop frame and warning signal show up. And I didn’t use external mic and internal mic as I didn’t want to record audio.
In FCP 7, all 1080p25 clips look like interlaced. Then I change to higher shutter speed – 1/100 & 1/250 and shoot again, (I guess it won’t affect the result but just give it a try) but it’s the same. I am sure the sequence setting is correct since I updated the settings when I drag the clips on the timeline. De-interlace clips remove those zebra like pattern but I think it’s not the way to work with progressive clips.
Camera is in factory settings, I only change the record format and LCD brightness. Tried different SD cards and format them in camera but it’s the same. Is there anything I missed?
I really like this camera! It’s balancing, size just fit, lcd vf quality is very good! I wish I could solve the progressive problem and continue to shoot more clips with it.
And thank you very much for showing us lot of video reviews of camcorders.
I’m sorry for my bad english and this long message.
I use 720 50p for all my HD work, I hate interlaced pictures and I also can’t stand filming 25p it’s a nightmare unless you use an optical viewfinder, the staccato strobing is not worth the “look”.
I think you are either importing as 25i or your sequence is set to 25i.
Try 720 50p its the sweet spot of HD and gives you cracking SD and HD DVDs not to mention great web footage.
JVC have just informed me that you have a bug but are hoping to get a FW update very soon.
There are talks about having the Long GOP codec suffered from codec motion artifects (seeing blocks in the moving objects). I wish to clarify if recording in 50p will better eliminate this issue when compare to recording in 25p. Since 50p has more frames in-between, so more motion information can be preserved between I-frames within the Long GOP structure, am i on the right track? I hope someone could kindly shed some light here to clear my doubts,,,
I expect it will be very close to the same. Since the data rate is the same, what you gain by having less movement per frame is taken away again by there being more frames to fill.
Thanks for your reply! Hope it’s firmware bug only.
Camera was set to quicktime 1080p25, too lazy to do log and transfer. May be I should try other format.
Hi ! I’ve got some work which requires me to do 50Mbps, 4:2:2. I don’t want to rent and am toying between buying the Sony PMW200 and the JVC GYHM600. The problem with the JVC is I have only 35bps. I prefer the JVC because it’s more affordable and requires less expensive media … but is there anyway I could add an external recorder to achieve this and would not run into problems with the broadcaster ?
Hi Pankaj,
My apologies for the late reply. I have been off with the Flu….. a nasty one that kept me in bed for 5days!
Anyway…re your question. You will have to check with the individual broadcaster as to wether they would accept the content via an external recorder however we recently had the 600 series camcorders tested by Alan Roberts the independent tester for the EBU (European Broadcast Union) and both models have been fully accepted from Tier J (Jounalism) and when using an ‘external’ recorder, Tier 2L (Long Form programming)
You can see the EBU reports at http://tech.ebu.ch/camtest/CamTestReports04
Is it possible to import MP4 files from the GY HM-600 into FCP-X?
I have just purchased a JVC GV-HM600E and the picture quality is awful. It is crawling with grain.It looks as though it has been shot at maximum gain.I have tried reducing the gain but the effect is still unusably grainy. What is my problem?