JVC has developed new firmware for its ProHD cameras that enhances the performance by increasing the gain and sensitivity, allowing pristine HD images to be captured at night. And it does so while introducing very little noise into the picture, something low-light shooters have struggled with for years.
Called LoLux, the software gives the user 30, 36 and 42 db of gain, specs offered on more expensive cameras, in addition to the gain settings that ship with the camera’s standard software. LoLux is comprised of half electrical gain and half light accumulation through the shutter. The result is a clean image with few artifacts and little picture noise.
Although they have a 1/3-inch imager, the quality of the ProHD camcorders, such as the GY-HD250U, is getting so good that many people can’t tell the difference in terms of picture quality between it and other 1/2- and 2/3-inch cameras costing much more.
Using a wide band A/D converter on the front end of the imager, the 250U allows users to get greater sensitivity than other HDV cameras. Users have reported seeing f8 at 2000 lux, which is nearly equal to what a larger-format CCD delivers.
The improvements have resulted in many large media companies, along with independent broadcasters such as The Scripps Television Station Group, which is outfitting all of its 10 stations with JVC cameras (and outboard hard drive recorders), beginning to embrace the ProHD equipment, both for its cost and small form factor.
Discovery Communications has changed its official policy for HD content delivery because of it. Up to now, the Atlanta-based company had a strict policy that no HD program could take more than 30 percent of its source footage from an HDV camera. With the JVC ProHD cameras enhanced with the LoLux software and an 18X Fujinon lens, Discovery now allows certain programs to be shot 100 percent with JVC’s ProHD (19.7 Mbps) equipment.
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