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Sony XDCAM HD vs. Sony HDCAM…
I know some would call this an apples vs. oranges question, but I have been asked to get opinions on this. We have both right now and the powers that be are interested in getting 2 more XDCAM HDs and dumping the HDCAM… to have fewer formats, save 25% on media, etc. Has anyone done any serious comparisons between the two? I have both at my disposal but haven’t had the free time to mkae a really close image quality comparison. I have been capturing through the HD-SDI output through a Kona 3 card using 1080i/60 8 bit uncompressed for both and while I haven’t done a really close look, they seem to cut together pretty well. I guess I’m looking for a reason to keep the HDCAM. We are shooting primarily for HDTV and DVD, as well as internet… no 24p feature films in the works 😉 Opinions and experinces please…
Ted
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11 Replies
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They do cut together very well, there is obviously more flexibility in the HDCam cameras as there are more settings, but if you want “Just Enough” HD the XDCam HD is fine, you have to work a bit harder than with the HDCam cameras but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the quality. Plus the fact the workflow ROCKS and you don’t need an expensive HDCam deck to capture from.
Just my opinion
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The camera only puts out a 3.2 pulldown sequence. You need the upper level XDCAM-HD deck if you plan on editing native 23.98 footage
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Depends on your editing system. If you can ingest the MXF files directly then you can edit 24p without importing thru HD-SDI (and it’s quicker then realtime, they say, haven’t tried it yet).
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Hello,
I just did an XDCam HD import right into FCP 5.1.2. 23.98fps footage. Load time for 1 hour of raw footage was approximately 35 minutes. A bit faster than real time. The Import software looks and works great.
cheers,
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how does the dof compare to hdcam. Is there a noticeable difference?
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Yes—you are talking about 1/2″ chips versus 2/3 inch chips.
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In progressive mode the camera looses resolution because it is not a true progressive chip they fudge the progressive part.
It looses more res at 60p.Acceptable resolution and nosie levels often varies from project to project.
HDCAM is soft compared to HDCAMSR
720p is soft compared to HDCAM.HDV is soft compared to 720p.
Bearing in mind the new factories are churning out 1920×1080 pixel flatscreens as standard above 42 inch one has to be carefull with less than full res and that includes HDCAM in my view.
Mike Brennan
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Okay Mike. That as maybe. But since by far the vast majority of high def being shot in the world is HDCAM, DVCpro100, and HDV, that doesn’t really leave very many, if any, options for people who aren’t on multi-million dollar/pound budgets!
In any case, are any of the cameras around today actually capable of really resolving a full 1920×1080 resolution? I refer to Alan Roberts posting here;
https://forums.dvdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=269032&highlight=viper#post269032 -
Simon,
Yes, all the Sony high-end 1080 cameras (F900,950,1500,etc) make a full raster 1920×1080 in the camera head. It’s on;y the HDCAM recorder which crunches it down to 1440. To remain native you hace to record on HDCAM-SR or directly to disc.
JS
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On the spec sheet yes. But Alan Roberts tests (and he has tested pretty much every single high end high def camera out there, as well as being used as an advisor in some instances in early development) seem to suggest that they are not actually capable of resolving that amount of detail, as he describes from his zone chart tests.
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