[Bruce Greene]

Hi Freya,

I don’t think that there is a piece of software that will remove the pulldown from the Samurai. Be aware, the Samurai is kind of buggy too. I wouldn’t want to depend on it. We used one as a “backup”, because it was free. We couldn’t figure out how to remove the pulldown though.

I think someone can write a routine in Nuke to remove the pulldown. The trick is identifying the proper frame to start with. The flags are not recorded to ProRes etc. Just to DVCproHD. Hence the ki-pro mini, which reads the flags.

There’s also a convergent design “Nano Flash” recorder that will record the 24p from the Varicam. In fact, I think it will record any fame rate you set. It just wont play it back from the unit unless you record in a standard broadcast format. You’ll need to put the card in a computer to check your footage. This might be a good choice.

It took me one feature to really figure out this camera. It has a very complicated menu for real video engineers. I think this has led to a lot of bad footage by cinematographers. I attended a workshop, and some of the instructors gave some pretty bad advice. It didn’t help that the Panasonic sales force didn’t really “get” this camera either.

Here’s my advice: Turn off the “user matrix”. Turn off “color correction” Set the camera to “filmrec” mode. Set the “dynamic level” to 200%, unless the scene is too contrasty, then increase the “dynmaic level” up to 500% as needed. Set master detail to -4 (assuming all other detail settings are as factory set. There are a bunch of them) To be safe, you can turn detail off, but you’ll want to add it back in post. Just a tiny bit goes a long way here.

And, when shooting, don’t use the orange filters in the filter wheel. Always set the color filter to “B” or “Clear”. Avoid “A” as it’s a star filter effect.

Set the white balance in the camera menu to “daylight” or “Tungsten” as needed. Set the white balance to “preset” on the side of the camera. Yes, you can do a custom white balance for unusual situations too.

Before this, return the camera to factory settings, in case someone has really screwed it up. And find a copy of “Goodman’s guide to the Varicam”. You’ll need it, for sure!

Lastly, shoot your movie, color correct it and up-res to 1080 and everyone will ask: “Did you shoot on Red?”

Varicam/Steadicam Owner
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.brucealangreene.com

[Bruce Greene]

Hi John,

I just use the Varicam for small projects. It’s not worth much money now, so it’s more useful for when there’s no budget or, really need for an Alexa…

It does look really good on a theatrical screen. The 720p doesn’t really make much difference for the most part I think because there’s so much motion blur (at 24fps) in almost every frame, pixel count is not as noticeable as in still photography. I compared a blu-ray from a film I shot with a Red camera to a blu-ray from the Varicam. Hard to tell the difference in resolution on a 65in plasma. Color is way better from the Varicam. DOF is more pleasing on the Red.

Sure on the Red we shot 4k, but mastered to 2k for theatrical, and down converted to 1080 for HD. By that point, 4k is pretty irrelevant. That render from 2k to HD really cuts the resolution a bit.

Sorry that I don’t have need for another dinosaur… The ki-pro works very well as long as one never lets it loose power while booted up!

Varicam/Steadicam Owner
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.brucealangreene.com

[Bruce Greene]

I just shot a feature with a tape based varicam and kipro mini. Let me know if you have any questions about the camera 🙂

Varicam/Steadicam Owner
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.brucealangreene.com

[Bruce Greene]

I don’t think you want to shoot at 60fps and then convert to 24fps. There will be un-even movement/cadence during playback.

You’ll want to shoot at 24p. I don’t know if the PIX240 can record the 24p from the 60p HDSDI that comes out of the Varicam. (It’s 24fps + duplicate frame/pulldown to make 60fps). The real frames are flagged, and the AJA Ki-pro products and the AJA I/O products can read these frames and lay down only the “real” frames to a digital PROres file. The Ki-pro products can only do this at 24, 25, 30, and 60 fps I believe. Other frame rates are not compatible with the Ki-pro and you’ll need to record to tape and extract the real frames later, or use the AJA I/O connected to a computer and HD.

There is the NanoFlash recorder that works, I believe, at more (or maybe all) frame rates, but you can’t play back footage in the NanoFlash itself that hasn’t been captured at 60fps. And I don’t think it records the flags for later frame extraction. The NanoFlash cards can be played back at 24p via a computer though, but you’ll need to remove the CF cards from the device and plug them into the computer.

There is a Panasonic P2 recorder that records at 60fps only, but does record the flags for later 24p frame extraction. I would however remove the duplicate frames before editing using the panasonic frame rate converter that used to come with Final Cut Pro 7. So hold on to your old FCP for this workflow 🙂 Perhaps the P2 recorder itself connects to your computer via firewire and you can capture the 24p from the 60p files that way as well.

Edit at 24p for 24p footage. You can add pulldown to make a 60p output at the end of the process if necessary for broadcast.

The 27H is a very good camera that makes beautiful images. Enjoy your new camera!

Varicam/Steadicam Owner
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.brucealangreene.com

[Bruce Greene]

For the best quality with the H shoot in the FimRec mode.

The knee function must be turned on, but you don’t adjust it. Instead one adjusts the dynamic range of the camera using the”dynamic level” menu item.

200% is a little bit lower in contrast than standard video and 500% is extremely low contrast. Use the lowest setting that will capture your scene.

I usually keep the color space at Rec709 and turn off the color correction and matrix.

I also use the white balance pre sets for tungsten and daylight, avoiding the orange filters in the wheel.

If you started from the factory default menu, set the master detail to minus 4 and you’re good to go!

Varicam/Steadicam Owner
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.brucealangreene.com

[Bruce Greene]

thanks for the tip. I will try a different user account, though I’ll need to set up a new one.

I’ve noticed similar behavior on an old mac mini g4 yesterday. The mini has just been set up from scratch with OSx 10.4 install and updates. Could it be the Vuescan install has done something to the plist files? Or Filemaker? I have both these applications on each computer.

It’s weird. I can see the copy in the clipboard, but can’t paste. But if I open the image in Preview, then I can copy and paste…

Varicam/Steadicam Owner
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.brucealangreene.com

[Bruce Greene]

From my experience, the f-900 will be very slightly more detailed than the 720p Varicam.

But I like the Varicam camera better (though I wouldn’t say it’s colors are “richer”).

I have just seen a movie I shot with the Varicam projected on a very large screen at a film festival on a DLP cinema projector. It was just fine for detail, and I sat pretty close to the screen! Not as detailed as a RED or Sony f-35, but as detailed as a typical film print at the multiplex.

If you do choose the Varicam, make sure to shoot in FilmRec mode and use the lowest “Dynamic Level” setting that will record your range of light. This is from my experience, others might have another approach. The choice is from 200% to 500%. The higher the setting, the more dynamic range you’ll record, but if you don’t need all that range, you’ll need to up the contrast a lot in color correction. This might produce banding in the 8bit recording.

There is also a new menu setting in the VTR menu (it was a firmware upgrade) called “Compression Dark”. Make sure you choose this setting or you’ll have blocky shadows when recording to tape.

Best wishes for a great shoot!

Varicam/Steadicam Owner
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.brucealangreene.com

[Bruce Greene]

I had an old g4 1gig dual die on me a couple weeks ago. To replace it I obtained my Dad’s old mac mini, just like yours.

When I got it, it was loaded with crap shareware “helpers” that really slowed the thing down. I tried to find all of these in the operating system and delete them. But in the end, the computer seemed still too slow.

So I dug out an old copy of system 10.4 disks (that I had purchased to upgrade from system 9) and re-formated the hard disk and installed the new system. I checked software update and there was a combo update that brought everything as up to date as I could (within osx10.4).

And the final result is…..it’s still really slow! I mean it’s barely ok for internet surfing.

I think the problem the 512mb of memory in the mini. It’s just not enough for system 10.

I do have an old macbook g4 that’s dead. Will the memory from this work in the Mini? Is it worth the effort to pull apart the mini to put it in?

Varicam/Steadicam Owner
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.brucealangreene.com

[Bruce Greene]

Thanks for the reply.

If anyone has one for rent please let me know.

Varicam/Steadicam Owner
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.brucealangreene.com

[Bruce Greene]

Hi Chris,

I don’t have experience with the 2700 so I can’t comment on that.

I do however shoot filmrec at the lowest dynamic level I can get away with so that the least correction is necessary in color grading to minimize banding from the 8 bit recording. I do allow clipping in the original photography when I feel it’s something that will probably be clipped in color grading anyway.

Another approach, that I haven’t yet tried, would be to shoot with the gamma setting at .35 instead of .45 (normal gamma). This should theoretically allow more bits recording the meat of your image instead of clustering them all in the highlights. In color grading, reverse the gamma to make the image look normal. The disadvantage is that unless you have a monitor LUT to correct on set, you’ll be looking at images that seem too light on the monitor while shooting.

Does the 2700 have a “log” mode of recording while monitoring without the washed out image? If so it might improve the image quality a bit. This is essentially the same approach as I’ve mentioned above 🙂

Varicam/Steadicam Owner
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.brucealangreene.com