[Craig Seeman]

They’re the client and they get to determine the final content. That’s why there are “director’s cuts.”

NEVER EVER EVER give ANYONE an OPEN ENDED contract. Even flat rate packages (which I would NOT do) usually are limited to ONE revision.

I don’t know all the details but as Steve and Ron said, you can walk away and either they’ll agree with your terms to continue or they wont. Otherwise you’re loosing money by putting in more work and not getting paid for the time.

[Craig Seeman]

My wild guess is that the EX3 is a shoulder mount version to replace or be alongside the F335. Does that jive with what you’ve been told (if you’ve been told)?

BTW there are many good business reasons to go HD now.

Once clients see the quality of the down convert to SD, they’ll see the advantage even if all they need is SD. That’s already happened in my case. Yes the client was willing to pay extra for HD shoot and they loved the results so much they’re now talking about expanding the job.

Editing HD material in an SD timeline give you the ability to keyframe moves (sort of a virtual dolly) and reposition shots.

In many cases HD presentation is easy to execute for the client even if they don’t have a Blu-ray player. Hook up computer DVI out to HDMI in to an HDTV and it looks amazing. Businesses that have bought HDTVs as presentation displays can now take advantage of them.

[Craig Seeman]

I’d thought I’d add my 3 cents since I’ve done such low budget spots.

For me a typical $1000 (or less) spot consists of 4 hours of shooting (no crew other than me) and 4 to 6 hours of editing. That’s spelled out in the contract and that time includes revisions. They can certainly buy more shoot or edit time if they need You have to hold a very hard and firm line to that if it’s to be profitable for you.

Certainly clients may have someone supervise the project for them but that doesn’t change the terms of the contract. If a person attempts to takes such a supervisory position on the shoot I’d immediately ask the client if this is approved by them (and yes I’ve had to do that). If the client state’s that the person’s job then the “supervisor” has the right to muck things up.

For these low budget spots, the client pays 1/2 up front and 1/2 when editing BEGINS (not ends). This is another firm position you’d need to take in order to make these kinds of jobs profitable to you. I do send the client a window dub of the shoot on DVD so they can make any assessment of the material (know what they have to work with for the edit).

If after the terms (shot and edit time) have been met and the project isn’t complete, the client has to decide if they want to pay for additional time.

[Craig Seeman]

Cine 2 has a ceiling of 100 for those doing broadcast work and not wanting/having time to pull things down in post. Think ENG for example.

[Craig Seeman]

So it seem you do see the same issue I see.

I wonder if the answer is to “interlace” for SD DVD (yuck!)?

[Craig Seeman]

Now if Sony actually provided a representation of the gamma curves. They do provide a loose representation in the EX1 product brochure.

There is a maintenance menu in the EX1 that allows one to select a “saw” test display (black to white gradient) in which one can modify the PPs and actually record the results to the SxS so one can have a look on a waveform (such as in your NLE).

While I can understand why Sony doesn’t want the end user to mess around with the maintenance menu for certain functions, I don’t like the fact that they hide really useful (and harmless) test signals there (as well as back focus adjustment).

[Craig Seeman]

I find that most EX material looks good going to SD DVD. The exception is material with lots of fine lines and camera motion in/out. Example, tree branches (sans leaves) on slow zoom in/out.

Also things should really be tested under lowest common denominator circumstances. For me that would be SD TV set from DVD with no progressive mode. Where you doing this with your SD TV?

That aliasing you saw is probably what I’m seeing with the tree branches although it I’d describe it more as twitter since that’s what I see as the camera zooms. This is exactly the kind of thing a client will complain about.

Even going to my HDTV 46″ 1080p LCD I see the issue to some extent. I tested with a DVD with progressive mode but no up-convert. On the other hand when I take computer out of full 1080p source DVI to HDMI to the set, it looks astounding (just in case anyone would think this is a camera issue).

Think of your results and compare that to a typical commercial SD DVD coming from a movie. How to downconvert and get that results?

[Craig Seeman]

And that fast action can even include rippling water or leaves/grass moving in a gentle breeze.
That can “break” the HDV codec too.

Those same shots look excellent using the XDCAM codec. Like Don, I have not been able to “break” the XDCAM codec.

That’s one important reason why the EX1 is in a very different class than the Z7. The other (amongst several) is the 1/2″ chips and thusly the ability to create a shallower depth of field.

[Craig Seeman]

I think you’re a bit confused about some of the features advantages of EX1.

While it can shoot in HDV mode 25mbps CBR it’s best when you shoot in XDCAM 35mbps VBR. The ExpressCards handles both. Firewire can only hand HDV mode and there are already had drives than can attach to that Sony DR60 as well as Firestore. Neither can use the XDCAM mode though. The USB is only for file transfer and not a “real time” data port when recording.

If you’re looking at EX1 and Z7 you really have to figure out what your needs/your market is, since they are VERY DIFFERENT cameras. Personally I’d prefer the 1/2″ chips and the more robust XDCAM codec for professional work.

You could use a 15″ MacBookPro instead of 17″ Granted that can still be awkward. The cards offload very fast though.

Of course you could certainly use the EX1 in HDV mode and still have the advantage of 1/2″ chips and use DR60 or Firestore out of the firewire port. I think the advantage of the XDCAM codec is too great to give that up. HDV codec is just too easy to break

[Craig Seeman]

On the Windows side, I believe there was an update to the Clip Browser that came on the CD.

https://servicesplus.us.sony.biz/sony-software-model.aspx?model=XDZP1