Happy with XDCam F330 and F350?

[Timothy Duncan]

Hi Mike,

We are in Nashville and have had an F350 since early April. We’ve shot quite a bit with it and absolutely love it. We feel it is cleaner than the F900, and like having a tapeless workflow.

The only “gotcha” is Sony’s poor implementation of using the various modes of discs in the Deck. In order to use any transfer software that can write to the XDCAM discs, the deck frequency and frame rate settings must match that in which the disc was shot. For example: if the deck is set to NTSC 23.98P and you insert an 60i disc, you can copy the files from the disc, but you cannot alter any metadata, including the name of the disc. You first have to go through a series of menu settings and “reboots” of the deck. I feel this should be automatic, instead of going through all this. (Same thing really on the HDCam decks but at least they reboot themselves. You have to physically turn off and back on the XDCAM gear to reboot).

Outside of this, which is minor in the grand scheme of things, we are very happy with XDCAM. I’ve some friends who do quite a bit of work for the Discovery Channel. They’ve just invested in a bunch of XDCAM HD gear. It really is one of the best acquisition formats, and arguably is the best for the $.

The other nice thing about XDCAM is that is can fit nicely in a an existing studio because the deck acts just as a deck. Source from the footage as HD SDI uncompressed with VTR control, or connect in File Access Mode to transfer the files, or do as we do and use ethernet to FTP the files to/from the discs.

td

[Llbr22]

Agree’d.. I shot w/ the 350 the last two weekends… loved it! Played with different formats.. then realized rack mounting the deck would not be a good idea unless you can reach the back everytime you need to re-boot.

Otherwise, like you said… very ‘clean’ workflow.
Lloyd

[Nate Weaver]

I’ve done a big job already with 7 F350s and post was cake. I feel the current cameras don’t make much sense on paper (data rates, chip size, etc), but in practical use they show their legs.

I think XDCAM HD will really pick up steam when the 2/3″ units finally show up. In the meantime, I think it’s a great in-between format, which the business sorely needed. I get my 350 on Friday!

[Dave Jenkins]

I got my 330 last Wednesday and have been happy so far. Have not posted anything yet.

[Nick Lammers]

[Nate Weaver] “I think XDCAM HD will really pick up steam when the 2/3″ units finally show up”

Is this a sure thing? I have heard otherwise, but what do I know?

Nick Lammers
Media Mill, Inc.
St. Louis, MO

Media 100i XS 8.2.2
Dual 1Ghz G4

[Nate Weaver]

If it’s not, then it’s the worst unmanaged rumor of 2006 for Sony Broadcast. The mentions have been so frequent and numerous that I can’t even cite any.

Of course they could do anything without having a press release in-hand…but the rumor *I* heard is saying a 2/3″ body for release in early 2007 for “$10k more”.

[Nick Lammers]

Thanks, Nate. Hmmm, maybe that dealer was just trying to sell a camera sooner rather than later. Naah, they wouldn’t do that!

Nick Lammers
Media Mill, Inc.
St. Louis, MO

Media 100i XS 8.2.2
Dual 1Ghz G4

[Emmanuel Plakiotis]

Back in January in a post at the COW Forum, I predicted that a 2/3 version of XDCAM HD is evident and the only reason Sony is holding it back is in order to sell as many XDCAM SD as possible. In my opinion before NAB 20007 there will be a 2/3 version and at a significant lower price than the one mentioned above.

The reason: GRASS VALLEY INFINITY and of course the usual PANASONIC competition.

[Nate Weaver]

[esp] “and at a significant lower price than the one mentioned above. “

2/3″ XDCAM HD at a price lower than $35,800 USD? Hrm. I suppose anything’s possible, but seems crazy to me.

[Steve Wargo]

What we have done is install a rackmount switch panel that is a row of switches with a plug on the back for each switch. I plug anything in that needs to be powered down occasionally and the switch is on the back, like our raid for the NLE. But you do have to wonder how a team can engineer something that cost thousands of dollars and no one looks at how it works when installed. I bought my switch panels off of e-bay and they are of surprisingly high quality for around $30 shipped. We have our network router and internet modem running of this thing because we have to reboot those once in a while also.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona

It’s a dry heat!