PDW-800 vs PMW-500

[John Sharaf]

As a PDW700 & F800 user/owner. I have really fallen in love with the XDCAM disc media. It is so cheap, reusable and the ability to hand it off is so convenient. Furthermore cheap file based recorders like the Nanoflash and Ki Pro/Ki Pro Mini can leverage even better recording formats when necessary. In addition the inexpensive PDW-U1 reader is a “no brainer” to help clients integrate the media into their workflow.

JMHO,

JS

[Bill Paris]

John,
Thanks for your response, I was hoping you would share your thoughts. Have you found yourself transferring files to drives for clients that don’t have the XDCAM players? Do you use the PDW-U1 to accomplish this or the Nanoflash? I’ve found many of my clients are comfortable with the XDCAM EX codec since many of them have used footage from the EX-1/EX-3, but I could see providing them with Pro Res via the Nano flash could also work. What has your experience been?

Thanks!

Bill Paris
Producer/Director of Photography
Crew Hawaii Television
http://www.crewhawaii.com

[John Sharaf]

Hi Bill,

What I do with clients new to the XDCAM Disc media, is loan them the PDW-U1 Reader until they are comfortable with using it, then I either sell them one or rent it too them at $100/week.

For my own projects, I prefer to use my PDW-HD1500 Deck and play into FCP through the Kona card as ProRes. This eliminates a lot of rendering of the project on the way out of the machine.

I’ve also used Nanoflash to record higher bit rates for commercials and other more “EFP” type productions as well as recording on to the discs for backup. I have to say that I’ve just sold my Nanoflashes in anticipation of delivery of Ki Pro Minis which offer 10 bit recording taking the “upmarket” even further, while at the same time offering “Direct To Edit” (DTE) workflow as established by the Alexa, meaning that you can edit directly from the media (in this case CF cards) without even importing. This obviously has advantages when you’re in a super-hurry.

The PMW-500 while recording onto SxS cards still doesn’t offer this workflow as the media is still XDCAM codec vs. ProRes, which is immediately editable by FCP. I see this as a disadvantage mainly because of the cost of the SxS cards (although the 64Gb does lower the per Gb cost by half) without actually taking advantage of the write speed of which they are capable (like the Alexa does).

JS

[Don Greening]

To put the compression differences between the XDCAM EX and the Arri Alexa cameras into perspective, it takes 116 min. for an EX to fill up a 32G card. The Alexa can do it in 12 min.

I am also waiting for my Ki Pro Mini to show up. Weren’t they supposed to start shipping at the end of October? Or was it November?

– Don

Don Greening
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com

[Ron Pestes]

As of this morning Adorama had them in stock for $1995. Do a search as I remember seeing a couple other places that supposedly had them as well. Not sure how accurate this is though.

Apple Certified Master Pro FCS 2
Sony EX-3
MacBook Pro

[John Sharaf]

Don,

According to latest query to AJA, there have been some “manufacturing delays” and in addition their marketing policy will have them deliver to their biggest customers first, rather than in the sequence of orders by date and time. These two factors make it very difficult to determine when deliveries will finally begin.

JS

[Don Greening]

Thanks for that, John. I was starting to wonder if such a delay was the cause. I even went so far as to read some recent AJA “tweets” but there was no mention of the Ki Pro Mini. Just an announcement that the new Kona board started shipping on Friday.

– Don

Don Greening
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com

[Don Greening]

B&H Photo has the Ki Pro Mini and accessories available for pre-order. I don’t think anyone actually has them yet because they haven’t started shipping. If you dig further at Adorama you’ll probably find a similar situation.

– Don

Don Greening
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com

[Michael Palmer]

I will say it is inspiring as a collective forum we are all interested in going beyond the limits of the camera manufacturers.

Good Luck
Michael Palmer

[Craig Seeman]

PMW-500 is 2/3″ CCD actually.
It’s the first camera that allows one to format the SxS to Fat32 for EX or UDF for 50mbps 4:2:2 MXF.
Using CCD instead of CMOS and offering MXF are a couple of key things that separate it from the PMW-350. Sony says it’s a “B” camera to the 800 (Sony likes calling things “B” cameras a lot these days). Actually I told them it could be the “A” alternative as I suspect the transfer speed for full resolution MXF from SxS is going to be faster than XDCAM Disc and that can be critical in ENG work.

https://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/files/micro/xdcamex/brochures/pmw500_V2474.pdf