Urbandisc.com
February 12,2011
In the early part of this past decade,Panasonic introduced to the market their DVX100 motion picture camcorder. This camera was one of the first in it’s budget range to offer 24P film rate. This feature provided many independent artists and other aspiring film enthusiast an opportunity to film their projects economically without breaking the bank.But it did not offer depth of field focus . In 2009 Panasonic released the hybrid DSLR Lumix GH1 that recorded in HD 24P,also that took still photos as well. Nikon was the first to introduce the DSLR Hybrid. Canon is the first that offered full frame hybrid but in filmed in 30p rather than the desired 24p for film makers. Panasonic just blew everyone away with their Lumix GH1 hybrid in 2009.The price of the camera was a mere$1500.msrp. The Lumix GH1 has the capability of recording in low light,eliminating the need for expensive lighting packages. With the affordable price of these hybrid DSLRs many African American movie makers bought these cameras as quickly as they were in the stores. With these DSLRs,came the ability of depth of field focus and the ability to use many different type of lenses.

Another advantage of the hybrid dslrs is the use of a CF card or SD card or the hard drive of a laptop.Film makers do not have to worry about running out of film and purchasing expensive film stock and expensive film processing. On the film motion picture cameras with a 400’ magazine the most you can film is 10 minutes per magazine. These new HDSLR hybrids are now very sensitive to light. This another added plus for African American movie makers that are just starting out and who are on a tight budget. HMI lights that are used in Hollywood cost are in the thousands of dollars. Still though a project would need some lighting to create separation and contrast but those powerful HMI’s (and expensive) are not needed. The hybrids also eliminate the need of expensive and labor intensive film editing. Most editing today are NLE as opposed to the linear tape editing of the 20th Century. The advantage of this process is again cost and time.. The drawbacks of these new hybrids are the rolling shutter. It’s a drawback because when there is a quick pan to the left or right the image leans in that direction. Also the sound on these cameras are not great at all but all film makers use separate sound systems anyway and that is definitely not a major issue. All and all the major hurdles of expense and budget are cleared with these new hybrids,and African American movie makers should take advantage of this new technology and get their story told.