I Am Looking For A B Roll Camera!

[Jesse Tunison]

I'm looking for a B Roll camera to mix with the RED One. I am currently looking at the Sony XDCAM EX3 and the Panasonic HVX 200. which one and why?

[George Butterfield]

I'm looking for a B Roll camera to mix with the RED One. I am currently looking at the Sony XDCAM EX3 and the Panasonic HVX 200. which one and why?I'd suggest another Red One, then trade up to two Epics .... or sell your RED ONE and get two EX3's. Or better yet get two Panasonic HPX 170's. (You want identical A and B cameras, otherwise just forget it ... move the single camera around)

[Jesse Tunison]

We are shooting a reality TV show. Two REDs are shooting the majorty of the footage. We are shooting at 2K for 8 hours a day. We have 78TB of storage set up. Using stedicams and pulling focus is hard enough with out any planed shots. We need a camera with auto focus, good color, tapeless, good sharpness and light weight as compared to the REDs.

[jimhare]

I think an EX3 would be a good choice.

[Shane Kelly]

ex-1 or HPX-170 are both great cameras for what you want. The ex-1 might match the red better.

[Alexander Ibrahim]

I recently shot the EX1 as a B camera for a RED. I was very satisfied.

So satisfied that I am considering an EX-3 and a PMW-350K as my primary guns until Scarlett/Epic are widely available.

There are, of course, some serious limitations with color representation compared to the RED. Make sure and spend some time setting up your picture profiles ahead if time.

If you get an EX3 or a PMW350 I recommend hiring an RMB750 remote during initial set up of your cameras picture profiles. It lets you adjust colors much faster than you can manage in the menus.

Also I recommend you take a little extra time on set to get things right in front of the camera. Its fairly brittle in post.

Alternatively you could record off camera via SDI to get the data you need to push around in post. an AJA KI Pro seems ideal, unless your camera is tethered to video village. If so, there are a number of good solutions there.

Another camera I really like is the Panasonic HPX300. Its a shoulder mount, near the size of the EX3. It records 10 bit 4:2:2 in camera with AVC Intra. It has 1/3" sensors, but its far more robust in post.

I'd steer away from the Panasonic HVX200, HPX170 and HPX500. Their sensors are 960x540. They are fine by themselves for 720p, but cut next to a RED or XDCAM EX footage they look soft.

Also I have to say... don't rely on the autofocus on ANY of these cameras. Plan for a remote follow focus rig.