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Considering the SPX-800
I am considering purchasing the SPX-800 camera. The specs tell me that it is a slightly improved version of the SDX-900, but otherwise the same camera in terms of picture and controls.
Does anyone here own or use the SPX-800 on a regular basis? What has been your experience with the camera? What options (accessories) do you regard as essential? Does the 14 bit quantization vs. 12 bit add a perceptable difference in picture quality between the two cameras? Thanks for your help.
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11 Replies
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Hi,
I’m using the SPX800. It’s a wonderful camera. The P2 workflow is fantastic in terms of no digitising process. It’s much quicker. I have the fastest Laptop with it, running the newest versions of FCP5. We ude the camera for high quality imagefilms and commercials. Even a 35 mm blowup turns out very good. Almost like shot on super16mm. You have to shoot on 25p and cinegamma, together with black stretch. The file import goes over USB from camera to lap
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That helped a great deal, Rainer, thank you! Do you find that your shooting ratio has gone down, being that it’s so easy to delete bad takes, etc?
Also, do you use the metadata features often to mark takes, etc?
Would you suggest getting more than 5 cards? 5 – 8gig cards would give me about 1:20:00 in recording time at DVC50 quality – correct?
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Just wait for another 3-4 months for Thomson Infinity and then make Your decision.
If you really want cheap solutions without 24,25P then Pana700 could be the buy,but at around US$20,000 Infinity with all the flexibility and SD and HD recording formats will be hard to beat.
Good Luck-jiri -
‘…at around US$20,000 Infinity with all the flexibility and SD and HD recording formats will be hard to beat.’
I agree – it’s going to be quite a camera. The JPEG-2000 codec seems like an editors dream – in terms of scalability, and 10 bit to boot! Do you know if ‘Collateral’ was shot with the JPEG-2000 codec?
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It was done on with 3 different cameras Viper,DigiBeta and 35mm film.
I have no idea if they used JPEG2000 with Viper..
jiri -
Sorry not Digi Beta but Cine Alta….
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When Viper is used in filmstream mode, isn’t it just raw data without any compression?
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This is what they say:
Key Features -
Hi Randall,
you asked some more questions
Do you find that your shooting ratio has gone down, being that it’s so easy to delete bad takes, etc?Yes, you can easily delete shots directly, with loosing no time during shooting.
Also, do you use the metadata features often to mark takes, etc?
I don’t use metadata features to mark takes. I still set the timecode with the first set of cards 1 hour, second 2 hours and so on, like shooting on tape.
Would you suggest getting more than 5 cards? 5 – 8gig cards would give me about 1:20:00 in recording time at DVC50 quality – correct?
I wouldn’t. Cards are expensive at the moment, I think they will come down in price. You are right, 5 cards with 40 Gig will give you 80 minutes in DVCPro 50.
The discussion of the 700 is right. But the 700 is a lower version to the 800. From what I’ve heard it won’t come with 25p function, also looses cinegammas and blackstretch. It’s for news mainly. Is the camera on the market? The price of the 700 is nearly as high as the 800. It depends, for what you use the camera. For myself shooting high quality commercials and corporate the 800 was the right choice, also because I shoot sometimes a drama with blow up on 35 mm. I think the 25p on the 800 is worth the extra bucks.
Rainer
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Thanks for the info Rainer!
I have other questions: When monitoring in the field – is the picture coming out of the camera 24p, or 25p in your case, (i.e. How accurate is the monitoring)?
Also, when a clip starts on one card and rolls over to the next card, does that create one file or two when downloaded to a computer?
I have looked, but I cannot find the on-line manual (pdf) for the SPX-800. Do you know of one?
Sorry for so many questions – but info is scarce on this camera.
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