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HD-Cam or Varicam ?
i all, Have a shot for an ad coming up and we were shooting HD_cam 900 I think..
Anyways the DOP and camera hire place are pushing Varicam.. that concerns me.. especially in the post part, as I’m totally new to Varicam.
From what I can gather
HDCAM 1080 vs Varicam 720
HDCAM 4:2:2 vs Varicam 4:2:2 ? correct?
HDCAM 10bit vs Varicam 8 bit ? correct?
Also.. hdcam is shot 25fps but varicam is shot 60fps.
So there is some post work to be done to get 25P out of it. Will the 25fps extraction be pure frames? or have some sort of pulldown?
Current workflow is
Edit house offlines on FCP
We get the FCP files (sometimes just an EDL) and recapture the final sequences at full HD
The other concern is the CGI
3D tracking is involved in this.. so are we better to ingest at 60P and track that rather than converted flagged pulldown 25? :-/ but then how do we extract the track to 25fps? If we track the flagged 25 are all the frames full frames or will a few be interlaced or mixed screwing the tracking?
So from what I gather shooting varicam we are gaining a more filmic look apparently.. but loosing rez+colour space+ time in post
Any thoughts?
Cheers
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2 Replies
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Don’t just get stuck on specs alone. Many factors all add up to the best picture quality. First and foremost is what is the final output of your project. Varicam is native 720 frame size format and Sony is 1080. So, converting to your final format might be more important than just the camera specs.
That said, the current version of the Varicam (H) is 12 bit processing, it shoots variable frame-rates (4-60) including 25fps (Your in PAL world correct?)
The Varicam interfaces natively with Final Cut Pro, so that is a plus. As far as CGI EFX, both shooting at 25fps will give you the ‘film’ look, but will introduce some blur to deal with in post.
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[pennello] “HDCAM 4:2:2 vs Varicam 4:2:2 ? correct? “
Nope HDCam is 3:1:1
“HDCAM 10bit vs Varicam 8 bit ? correct? “
Nope again, both are 8bit on tape.
“Also.. hdcam is shot 25fps but varicam is shot 60fps.”
Varicam lays down 25/50 in the EU and 25 over 60 in NTSC land- the redundant frames are removed on ingest if you choose.
“3D tracking is involved in this.. so are we better to ingest at 60P and track that rather than converted flagged pulldown 25? “
No Track at 25 fps. why screw with the extra frames.
“but loosing rez+colour space+ time in post “
Not true. why more time in post? an HD edit is an HD edit
if your post house is not familiar with 720 workflows find one that is.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows
Inside look at the IoHD
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