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Another Varicam vs. HDX-900 question
New to the post and have little technical experience. I am really more of a Director and Producer than DP so I need some help with the Technical issues. I am working on a regional PBS doc that needs to be at National HD PBS standards. If I buy or use an HDX-900 will I be safe with National HD standards for broadcast or do I need to go with a Varicam? If I get the HDX then I can use my SDX-900 lens and 230H deck correct? I would really like to have the variable frame rate, but I must think of economics. Just want to be safe and know the footage I shoot for the piece will have a decent HD shelf life and meet PBS HD standards.
Thanks for helping this novice.
Greg
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3 Replies
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Greg,
The HDX900 makes the same HD picture and recording format as the Varicam, however using a standard definition lens on either reduces the quality considerably especially as regards chromatic aberation (color fringing).
In addition you will need a Panasonic 1200, 1400 or 1700 deck to playback tapes from the HDX900 as it makes a 9 micron head gap recording which can only be played in these machines. These same machines will upconvert a tape made on the SDX900 to HD into the HD-SDI spigot on playback.
JS
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I’ve had my 900 for about a month and comparing shots on both, the 900 is a bit cleaner in low light. There also a couple of user functions that I like over the Vari-cam. You have two preset buttons on the side for two viewfinders presets. Nice to be able to have wide-screen and 4:3 safe zones quickly. It’s nice to have the built-in down-converting SD out too. I feed that into a wireless SD transmitter for clients. I haven’t found anything not to like yet.
Ernie Santella
Santella Film/Video Productions
http://www.santellaproductions.com -
John makes a good point about an HD lense for an HD camera. However, test your lense with the camera against the HD lense you’re considering and make your own judgement. In my experience, there are a number of standard definition lenses that perform very well on Panasonic HD cameras. I bought the first Panasonic HD camera sold, and have shot well over 1000 hours of HD footage using both HD lenses and several different SD lenses with extremely satisfactory results with both.
jw
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