[Bob Cole]

[David Cherniack] “I’m told by a Sony dealer that it’s the other way around. The profit margins on the $400-4000 camera’s are very slim.”

But don’t the inexpensive camcorders make up for that in volume? As well as helping Sony with its corporate “image” in the mass market, which must be absolutely humongous. (Sony Everywhere, which helps them sell everything from Playstations to flat panel tv sets?)

I am still curious: how big a portion of the “video equipment” market is the broadcast-level anyway?

[Bob Cole]

I’ve always been very curious about the market for video equipment. Clearly, Sony and Panasonic must make far more money selling $400 camcorders than $40,000 EFP cameras. Perhaps we are looking at PP2 from a user-perspective that is less relevant to Adobe than the larger market of lower-end video production. (=everything from hobbyists to in-house corporate video.)

re: lower-end video production: “Not that there’s anything wrong with it.”

— Bob C

[Bob Cole]

I just installed a used DLT and a $25 Adaptec 2930 SCSI controller card, chose the “Mastering” option and Encore found the DLT immediately. No reinstall needed. I had a harder time figuring out how to put the tape into the DLT drive than making the master.

— Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Charlie King] “The only exception has always been if I am really involved with a charitable organization, then I will give my work for free as a labor of love, but then too that is also tax deductable.”

?
I have been told I can not take a tax deduction for donating my labor.

I do admire your stance about never discounting, and donating labor entirely for charitable causes.

My mileage differs; I discount for non-profit orgs, but I do charge, to keep them from taking, and taking…. If there’s no fee, they don’t respect you as much, and they have no incentive to be businesslike in terms of finishing a project.

— Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Dither] “From a replication standpoint, it is usually not recommended that the DVD master to be created too close to capacity. It increases the chances of error greatly.”

How close to capacity is safe? 4.5 gb?

— Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[LandofNid] “Is it as easy and straightforward as it seems to be in actual practice?”

I highly recommend the Sonic eDVD tutorial on the COW by Alex Alexzander. It was extremely helpful to me on my first and only effort with eDVD4.

There are some issues about eDVD and the Mac, on the playback/distribution side.

— Bob C

[Bob Cole]

David, you may want to post this on whatever post-production forum is most relevant to you (depending on which software or NLE you or your suppliers use). Good luck.

— Bob C

[Bob Cole]

I haven’t seen them yet, but they are described as mechanical toy banks which are stationary, but have parts that move extremely fast — faster than the eye can really see, which is the point of the slow-mo.

I take your point, and it is an excellent one. I probably need to shoot a test with a normal-speed camera, and run it through After Effect’s Time Stretch feature at various settings, to see just how fast things are moving. Even after I do that, I’ll shoot at various frame rates just to make sure I’ve got it — but the frame rates will at least be in the right range.

Thanks.

— Bob C

[Bob Cole]

I just discovered the Photosonics website. A familiar name, but I’ve never even seen one of their cameras.

They have a number of different cameras, with different fps, reflex vs. boresight, film capacity (the 100′ camera uses daylight spools, which would probably be a plus, although 100′ doesn’t last very long at 150 fps!).

Again, I’m shooting antique toys in slow motion, approx. 120-150 fps, so the boresight would be okay!

Anybody with experience? I’d love to hear comments as to which of their 16mm cameras would be best for this job.

Thanks!

— Bob C

[Bob Cole]

I’m open to 16mm. I can find a local 35mm camera that will crank to 120 fps, but not for 16mm.

The delivery format will be a computer monitor, so I won’t be limited to NTSC and the 35mm would not be wasted.