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SPX 800 vs. SDX 900
Hi,
We are looking at purchasing one of these cameras along with the HVX 200 as a production combo.
I’m just wondering if the SPX800 is essentially the same camera as the SDX 900. Is the only difference P2? I’m noticing that the SDX is listed in Panasonic’s “cinema line” as opposed to the SPX 800. We definitely want the “cinema features.” We’ll be shooting alot of commercials.
Thanks in advance.
David
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25 Replies
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Hi,
The SPX and the SDX are essentially the same camera, couple of different things, mostly centered around P2. The 800 has all of the cinegammas and 24Ps that the SDX has, but it just got the 24P back in April and I think because we have had trouble keeping up with backorder, we have’t stopped long enough to think to put it over to the Cinema series. Thanks, I’ll put it in for review.
Best,
Jan
Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, AG-DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems -
SPX has a nice NewsGamma setting which the SDX does not have, very nice!
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Also, the SPX800 has a single filter wheel (ND+CC) whereas SDX900 has two separate ones. There is a SPX900 version with two filter wheels, but I don’t know if it is available in US. There’s another improvement with the SPX series compared to SDX – DSP processing is done on 14 bits compared to 12. Otherwise the cameras and general menu strucure is identical.
Gabriel Costache
Sales Engineer
Panasonic NZ Ltd -
Image quality on the SDX 900 is is good as it gets without shooting HD. In fact is does upconvert to HD very good as well.
What is the price difference between the 800 and the 900. I guess that you have to figure in the price of the P2 cards which are about $2000 for an 8 gig card I believe. Multiply that by 5.
Dan Weber
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The SPX is about $7000 less than the SDX. But then you should also figure in that you don’t need a DVCPRO50 deck either, so that saves another $7000. So you’re left with $14,000 in savings — even if you bought 5 8-gig cards at $2000 each, you’d still come out $4000 less expensive than the SDX.
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I like the idea of P2 a lot. I’m just wondering if I’m going to lose clients or potential shooting gigs without tape. I was hoping to make some extra cash hiring out as a shooter. will it be a problem that I can’t deliver a tape at day’s end?
I do want to pair the camera up with the HVX 200 so the P2 thing would be super logical. For my own production stuff I can’t wait to get away from tape. I’d be happy to back up on these new high volume DVD’s if they ever get here.
Oh, One last question. I’ve heard a great deal about how the SDX/SPX upconverts to HD nicely. Will the footage be accepted under modern production guidelines?
Thanks again for the help.
David
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IMO – Today – if you work as a free lance camera person you’ll need to hand the client a tape at the end of the day .. if you can’t get them a tape ( NOW as in time =fast) you will lose some work.
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I like the idea of the proxy Mpeg4 recording card going to the client on cd or over the internet, or SHOOT! just hand him the card!
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I tested the SDX-900 in PAL, but found the progressive aliasing and strobing really hard to work with. It was worse than the HDW-750 HDCAM artifacting. I never had time to see if these effects translated to post, but I would buy one to replace my AJ-D910WA if I could. Ilike the four audio inputs and 12-bit processing over the 910.
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
Australia
http://www.php.com.au -
hand them the card? not for $1600. What do you mean?
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