[Craig Seeman]

You’re now dealing with the wonderful world of spatial vs temporal resolution and HD formats.

I’ll speak in terms of NTSC but the concepts hold true for PAL of course. I’ll try to keep the explanation simple.

59.94 Interlace frames per second (aka 60i) means the motion is being sampled at that rate . . . but any given field has only half the full lines of resolution (every odd or even line).

29.97 Progressive frame per second (aka 30p) gives you higher resolution per frame but more space between samples of a moving objects.

One simple way of thinking is 60 lower rez pictures per second vs 30 higher rez pictures a second. Of course I’m not touching on how the mind perceives this or how shutter speed has impact but I’m keeping this simple.

23.98 (24p) and the space between motion is even farther apart! It’s upside is that it’s sort of a “universal” since you can: go Film out easily, do a slight speed change to get PAL 25fps or add pull down to get NTSC 29.97 frames per second.

________________
Now want if you want the best temporal resolution of 59.94 interlace but the best spatial detail that progressive provides . . . that’s 59.94p (aka 60p).

Here in NTSC land the broadcasters themselves have gone in two directions. Some show HD in 720p60 (60 frames) and others do 1080i60 (60 fields which is 30 interlaced frames).

So your choices, all of them, are there in the EX1. That’s one reason the camera is SO GREAT. YOU get to make the choice.

Keep in mind the camera, just like the broadcasters, are moving data with limits as to what they can handle whether recording or transmission. 1080p60 might be an ideal but broadcasters aren’t pushing that much data and neither is the EX1.

So what might YOU do. It may depend on what you shoot. If it’s fast action sports you might choose between 720p60 or 1080i60. Keep in mind you might be thinking about what looks better when you do that slo-mo too. They’re both taking “snapshots” every 60th of a second. The eye MIGHT perceive 1080 as higher resolution but you’ll be faced with de-interlacing when you do that slow-mo. Take your pick the choice is yours.

If you’re shooting “slow moving” drama or talking heads you might opt for 1080p30 since you get the most detail per frame and the subject isn’t moving so much so 30 progressive snapshots might suffice compared to 60 snapshots (of either 1080i60 or 720p60).

Now if you’re facing the “universal” (film out, xfer to PAL and xfer to NTSC) you might chose between 720p24 or 1080p24. 1080p24 seems like a “no brainer” BUT if you want to shoot and integrate overcranked slo mos of 720p60 without any resolution changes you might stick with 720p24.

_____________
Then there’s the shutter. When shooting Progressive one might compensate for the motion blur by shooting at a higher shutter speed (less motion is captured while the frame is exposed. But you may well need more light though to compensate for the fact that the sensor has less time to gather the light. Lower shutter speed – more blur. Higher shutter speed – more staccato motion (the famous “Saving Private Ryan” look). Again the choice is yours. Of course shutter speed affects interlace video too but I mention Progressive because these where one is most aware of the blur vs staccato look.

Data rate. Keep in mind that XDCAM HD (and the EX1) is VBR 35mbps. How those bits are used are dependent on the spatial and temporal resolution. at 24fps you got more bits per frame. Think about how this impacts what you shoot too. It’s a VBR (variable bit rate) codec so it does have some flexibility. This is one reason why it’s so much harder to “break” XDCAM HD compared to HDV. They’re both long GOP but they are NOT the same.

_____________
Choices, choices, choices. You have so many to make. What you do can depends on subject, lighting conditions (shutter speed impact) and what you’re delivering it for. That’s why, with HD you have to become much more Director of Photographer than Camera Operator because all these resolutions are creative choices (and yes technical too) because they WILL impact the look of your production. There’s no “best” choice. What “look” are you going for?

[Craig Seeman]

[Rafael Amador] “Steve, Don, Craig,
You haven’t had the “vignetting” problem in your cameras? “

Sure have tested. It’s not there. I know this because I tested my dealer’s first batch and saw it. My camera hadn’t arrived. The dealer told me about a delay while the next batch was being checked. My camera came in. Did the test. Clean. I believe all the currently shipping cameras are good to go.

[Craig Seeman]

Did I get lucky? I got a U60 battery and 16GB card a few days after I got the camera (late December) at AbelCine. I was under the impression they may have sold out by the next day but you might consider checking there.

[Craig Seeman]

Keep in mind one of the things both the HVX200 and the EX1 do have in common is undercrank/overcrank. I shot at 720p60 in 720p24. The interesting things was having the shallow DOF the 1/2″ chips provided. You can see on the close-up of the faces on the carousel, they go from soft to sharp to soft again as they pass through the “sweet” spot. There’s also no rolling shutter skewing that might have been evident, had it existed, on the polls. The other self test was the skaters. I shot that zoomed in and hand held and had no problem holding the EX1 steady for some time.

[Craig Seeman]

I was being facetious when I said fear.

You need Quicktime 7 (7.3 or 7.3.1 is best) to view the video. It’s an H.264 encode.

Go here
https://www.apple.com/downloads/
and click on the Quicktime logo and it will direct you to the Mac or Windows version depending on your OS.

It may be that you have to wait for the video to buffer. It’s 1500kbps data rate and even that doesn’t do the detail justice. The clip is under 2 minutes long so it shouldn’t take too long even if you’re on a slow DSL line.

[Craig Seeman]

Maybe people in this forum are afraid to venture over to the Cine Alta Forum.
Go here and look.
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/142/856479

[Craig Seeman]

I don’t think you should be resizing to meet the DG 512 spec. I think you need to create black (think of it as letter box on the top only). I haven’t uploaded to DG since they’ve changed from 480 to 512 but this is what people I know have found when they attempted upload and got comments back from DG.

[Craig Seeman]

The LCD has a backlight on/off function as well as level control. I have a hunch it’ll do just fine outside in sun. The LCD has awesome detail good enough for focusing especially with expanded focus or peaking.

[Craig Seeman]

Juan Martinez from Sony mentioned that at some point there would be a firmware update for the camera that would allow other cards to be used. Those cards apparently would still be “certified’ by Sony (since obviously not all cards would meet spec) and that such cards would likely have slower transfer speeds. He didn’t mention when that firmware update would happen. My hunch is it’ll be after the recoup their investment in SxS development. I’ve heard others speculate that, in addition to slow transfer rate, that such cards might not handle overcranking because that record data rate is much higher than 35mbps (probably can be closer to 100mbps and there may need to be significant overhead beyond that). That’s aspect about such cards is speculation though.

[Craig Seeman]

And you can also set All or Partial control of the LCD screen menus. All disables other means to access them though.