Bruce Schultz
Forum Replies Created
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Although I know of no way to “reset” the preset, you can easily warm up a tungsten picture by going to the P10 (paint #10) menu and setting the Red channel -G value at +20 and the -B value at +20, then save that as a scene file to very easily call up in a few seconds. I keep this at SF#5 on my F900 and use it whenever a warm up is needed.
One should never underestimate the power of the F900 menu system, it is truly amazing in it’s range of adjustments. If one studies and learns these menus, input by colorists can be minimized or eliminated. In fact, I’ve not had any color correction problems with F900 footage that couldn’t be easily massaged by a good editor using FCP or Avid color correction tools.
Bruce Schultz
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Also, DVCPRO50 and IMX are absolutely identical compression codecs. Only the wrappers are different.
Bruce Schultz
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Digital Betacam is compressed at a 2:1 level, IMX is compressed at a 3:1 level, hence the data rate difference.
Bruce Schultz
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Leo is absolutely right. Coloring back lights and side lights is a throwback to the Chroma Key days when switchers used simple ON/OFF routines to key with. Ultimatte, Primatte, and all of the NLE keyers now use very sophisticated alogrithms which easily differentiate between foreground and background and remove the green and blue spill electronically. You have more chance of hurting yourself with straw and amber gels than helping the situation.
Bruce Schultz
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I’m betting that the 2nd generation HD XDCAM is going to be not only an F900 killer, but really hurt Varicam also. This 2/3″ camera will use our existing lenses unlike the 1/2″ version now coming out and will also do variable frame rates at 1080. At that point I see no value in shooting 720 anymore. We all know it’s a bit of a stretch (pun intended) to move from 720P to 1080P but the reverse is quite simple and costs you no image degradation in order to service ABC, Fox, ESPN type 720 clients. All of my existing clients love the idea of the optical disk over the P2 or hard drive solutions promoted out there now. They recoil in horror at the idea of erasing camera original footage like in the P2 workflow, plus the optical disk is as cheap as most SD media and cheaper than HDCAM tape, and is automatically a perfect archive media.
The 2/3″ HD XDCAM will obsolete my F900 in a couple of ways as I see it.
First, it’s selling price (rumour has it in the mid $40K range)will allow 1080P rental prices to drop down into the Varicam and even DigiBeta levels that clients like. Secondly, at even 50mbps data rate – MPEG (being from 2X to 2.5X as efficient as DCT compression used by Varicam and HDCAM)has a theoretical equivalent DCT data rate of at least 100mbps to 125mbps which rivals both DVCPRO100 and HDCAM. The maximum data rate allowed by BluRay double-density is 72mbps, and it’s anybody’s guess where the camera will end up – somewhere between 50 – 70mbps. So the image quality will be at DVCPRO100 level and possibly even HDCAM level, plus with a true 4:2:2 color space, it might end up being the best solution for blue/green screen work over the F900’s 3:1:1 color.
The HD XDCAM NLE feeder decks will be affordable to migrate to. The single layer (1/2″ HD XDCAM) feeders are listing at below $10K.
Finally, the MXF wrapper will put 1080P HDCAM quality footage into your NLE at storage overhead costs below DVCPRO100. Avid and FCP should be announcing at NAB full support for the MXF file format.
I’ve owned cameras so long that changing them out is a natural progression (remember our tube cameras Dusty?). I still upgrade my computer a couple of times a year so it’s not that bad, but still, with all the improvements made now one has to stay as ahead of the curve as possible. Besides, how much more fun can you have than to be shooting with a new and better camera system every few years? That’s why I love being a photographer.
If I’ve portrayed any of this incorrectly, I’m sure someone will step up and correct my errors.
Bruce Schultz
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I can’t see anything wrong with buying a grey market lens if your technician has a chance to see it and test it out. I have bought lots of “grey market” photographic gear while in Tokyo, Japan on a few trips, and have had no trouble getting anything serviced at independent service facilities. Nikon, Canon, Fujinon, Sony, etc. I can recommend at least 2 or 3 independent professional lens repair shops here in Los Angeles to have any HD lens professionally evaluated and checked out for a nominal sum and at minimal time turnaround.
Sure, there is no US warranty on such a lens, but manufacturer’s warranties are only for a year at most, then you have to deal with them on a retail level after that – and how many lenses have problems in the first year?. I can’t think of one lens I’ve had to get fixed on the first year warranty – any problems always occur on or after day 366. I prefer (with the notable exception of Ikegami service) to have small indie shops work on all of my equipment -cameras, lenses, vtr’s over manufacturers shops. It has been my 30-year professional video equipment owning experience that cost, service, and turnaround are all better at indie facilities – not to mention one-on-one personal service provided. Once the included warranty is up, I never go back to the manufacturer for service.
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Leo Ticheli wrote;
>>> You’ve had the VariCam for two years; have you not made a ton of money on it?
With the relatively low purchase price and very respectable rental day rates, you should have. If not, either your business did not justify the purchase in the first place or your market conditions are very wrong.>>>Yes, in my market, Hollywood, CA, the F900 and 1080P rules the roost. My purchase of the Varicam was too early and hasn’t really served me for my client base, the major motion picture studios. John Sharaf has had success with his Varicams here in LA, catering to network clients. Since I have purchased the F900, it has worked consistently. I offer the Varicam as a lower cost alternative to the 1080 world, but it hasn’t really caught on in my market niche except with New Line Cinema. So, yes my market conditions were wrong, and I made a correction. Whether I keep the Varicam will be decided by the end of the year. My gut feeling is no. However, this does not prevent me from saying again that Panasonic unlike Sony is not acting straightforward with us owners by not at least giving us an option to upgrade to 12 bit H models. I would like to know from someone at Panasonic just how much this equipment upgrade would cost so I can decide whether to do it or not. Sony did this and everyone spent the $3000 to upgrade without thinking twice.
Leo, I have read many of your posts and I think you are very lucky to have gotten your Varicam when you did, and made it successful in your market. You seem to be able to shoot much of your material at 500% dynamic range with some black stretch. Since you seem to also be able to correct the gamma discrepancies this causes in post, you are in a nice closed loop. Those of us who shoot primarily for broadcast though have no such abilities. We have zero room for error on our exposure and dynamic range choices – usually forcing us to shoot at 200% and -1 black stretch at the most. Color correction is not something broadcast clients even want to discuss, let alone perform. What I am getting at is this – you can manipulate the gamma curve by orders of magnitude more control and precision with 12 bit signal processing vs 10 bit. I have seen this myself firsthand by just comparing the Varicam to the F900 which does use 12 bit processing. The difference is startling and clear. By increasing the bit depth from 1024 colors to 4096 colors – therefore increasing the ability to fine tune gamma correction, one can easily see that the processing quantization alone in the 27F has been obsolesced by the wider range of the new 27H. Now we all know that in the end it gets crunched down to 256/8bits on the tape, but that isn’t the issue here at all. The issue is whether the Varicam 27F can stay competitive with the Sony F900 in my market. I fear, in the end, it cannot.
Oh, and as far as Avid is concerned – I can’t count the number of clients who have switched from Avid to other systems of late BECAUSE of their lack of upgrade paths – something I am warning Panasonic to disregard at their own peril.
Bruce Schultz
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It’s not bashing, it’s stating the obvious.
Bruce Schultz
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>>> “From what I understand its still only going to tape 10 bit so whoopie unless your going to cable to a G5 your sol on the 12 bit part. I would find anyone to stupid to drop there 27f for this new one as the new Varicam is right around the corner.” >>>
Please translate this statement.
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There appears to be a similar thread to this circulating on the HDTV CML list, and from it I have cut/pasted a quote from Bill Hogan concerning the 27F vs 27H issue. Although this doesn’t address the entire issue, it basically states that current 27F owners are S.O.L. on any hardware equipment upgrade path. Again, a typical Panasonic business practice (need I dredge up MII??). Don’t you folks at Panasonic wonder sometimes why you have to work so hard to gain any credibility in the broadcast market? The more things stay the same, the more they stay the same.
So, when my next camera upgrade comes, I won’t be looking to Panasonic – but probably back to Sony and their HD-XDCAM version 2 (supposedly will support 2.3″ chips and 24/30P at an improved data rate from HD-XDCAM ver 1 -late 2006) or even Infinity from Thompson if it flies.
Sony has made a big point at not obsolescing the F900 which as an owner of one I am grateful for. Panasonic obviously doesn’t get it still or they would bend into pretzels to accomodate broadcast professionals who have made a giant and expensive (and apparently stupid)leap of faith into their equipment camp.
Rant over.
CML quote:
“It is important to understand that the model AJ-HDC27F can not be
upgraded to the new AJ-HDC27H since many of the internal components of
the new AJ-HDC27H are engineered to give the increased performance
required of the revised model. Due to this fact, and that several menu
items have changed, configurations in the AJ-HDC27F can not be directly
applied to the AJ-HDC27H and visa versa. However, Panasonic is
providing a free software program to allow most of the set-ups to be
transferred from one camera model to the other thus allowing the two
different models to work together. This transfer software will be
available soon on the Panasonic web site.By downloading this software, it will be possible to use an SD card to
capture the set-up information of an AJ-HDC27F, load it into a computer
such as a laptop, transfer the set-up information to match an AJ-HDC27H,
save back to the SD card and load it into the AJ-HDC27H. The reverse of
this procedure is also possible; save the configuration of an AJ-HDC27H,
transfer it, and save to an SD card for set-up in an AJ-HDC27F. The
conversion software will be available at no cost.”Quote from Bill Hogan on the CML HDTV list
Bruce Schultz
F900/Varicam 27F owner/operator
LA based