[John Sharaf]

Tommy,

Simple answer (which has been offered several times here – check archives for more) is that “fractional” speeds like 23.97 and 59.95 always apply in American and other 60 Hz & NTSC countries, while 60 only applies when shooting 25/50fps for PAL countries. It has to do with NTSC convention adopted to include color burst in the signal when the broadcast world adopted color many years ago. The wrong setting will confound sound sync and cause you untold agony, expense and aggrevation!

In the Varicam it’s set as systems frequency on the “Options” page. To repeat; always use 59.94 unless you’re shooting 25p or 50p (i) for PAL broadcast.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Shane (and others),

My sources at Panasonic have been more responsive about the “new” camera, known as model “H” (as opposed to current “F”), and I have been authorized to report the following:

Basicly, as I said before, the updated camera, which will be released in a month or so, is intended to accomodate new European environmental rules which affect all imported electronics. Specifically lead-free solder, certain plastics and I think berrilium (spelling) which might be in some capacitors(?). In the process of redesigning the Varicam to accomodate these rules, Panasonic has taken the opportunity, just as many carmakers do to include improvements in “this years model”.

I’m told that the HD processor is now 12 bit instead of 10, because the the old parts are now unavailable .

They have responded to many requests to “split” the two HD-SDI outputs so that one is clean of characters (video out) and the other has characters and menus (monitor out). This way engineering can see whats going on, while the creatives are not disturbed by on-screen displays.

Proper lens files have been added.

The viewfinder mount has been improved (to be more like the SDX900).

As a result of the redesign the camera will be a little quieter (signal noise wise). It remains to be seen if one will notice a difference between current and new!

Because of the new processor, even though the setup menues will be the same in use and in the viewfinder, they will not transfer by the memory card directly from the new to the old cameras. But I’m assured there will be a software application to do the conversion. While a bit of a pain, I suppose we can deal with this, I guess it means will have to double the number of cards that we carry.

For the video crowd, a higher frequency detail is provided to improve artifical enhancement when required for more of the “live” look.

To directly answer Shane’s question; you need not be concerned about having to retool your post-production environment, it will be exactly the same.

For those who are now considering buying a new Varicam, you’d probably want to wait the month or so it will take for this years model to hit the street, and for those of us who already own the camera (or in my case cameras) we’ll have to shed a tear in our beer that we will not be able to have these new and improved features in our units.

I don’t think it’s the end of the world for current Varicam owners, we’ll just have to suffer the indignities of not having the latest and greatest anymore; instead our current Varicams will become the workhorses we already know them to be in the production of HD television, commercials, industrials and low-budget feature documentary and theatrical films.

These improvements are indicative of the whole HD arena, which is very dynamic, with new products, workflow and challanges realized at every turn in the road. It’s not easy being a pioneer! For that matter, there are changes ahead in the Sony F900 world. The dealers are already talking about it beenind “discontinued” and “replaced” by another model.

I hope I have not overstepped by publishing this announcememt. I’m sure that Panasonic will be making official soon these very things, and perhaps more that they’ve been holding closer to the vest, and I can only hope that when they do, my fleet is not further obsceleted! But certainly future buyers will benefit by the “improvements”.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Oliver and others,

This in not true! New camera model “H” is principally to meet new European ecology standards of no leaded solder and other restricted chemicals. that is not to say there will not be improvements, but it is certainly not an “all new camera”.

JS

[John Sharaf]

FYI, when you strip your tripod thread, the part number is:

VMD3345 and the replacement cost is about $12 + shipping!

JS

[John Sharaf]

If repeated ABB doesn’t eliminate the lit pixel, you can go into the Engineering Menu and use the pixel correction functions to address the errent pixel and turn it off. This is what they would do if you brought it in for service; it should only take a few minutes. It’s helpful though to have a large high resolution m,onitor to locate the actrual pixel. If you err in the correction, you’ll turn off good pixels which you’ll never be able to locate to turn back on. Good luck!

[John Sharaf]

Herb,

The short answer to your question is that 59.94 should be used on all occasions except when shooting 25 or 50 fps for PAL exhibition. Otherwise the 59.94 systems frequency is used to accomodate the need for compatibility with NTSC which uses a small portion of the signal for color information. This setting allows downconversion for editing and transmission and will sync to seperate audio which is recorded at 29.97.

the 59.94 is the factory default on the Varicam, and the first models only had this systems frequency, later (and all current) models added the 60 setting to accomodate use in PAL countries.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Jeff,

If you already have insurance on your own gear, it’s a simple matter to add a rental equipment floater. I carry a $100000 add’l rental insurance and pay about 1% or $1000 per year. If you rent thirty days a year that only a bout $33 per day, very reasonable!

JS

[John Sharaf]

Dennis,

Welcome back!

We’ve all missed your wise advice.

Please continue to share it with all of us.

Regards,

JS

[John Sharaf]

Marcelo,

If your company is paying, then I’d suggest you hire me (or some other Lighting Director or Gaffer) for a day to accompany you to Samy’s, buy a proper kit for your purposes and have a quick test shoot. This would be money well spent (and saved).

Regards,

JS

[John Sharaf]

My bad, I read a little bit further and now realize that there is a model that accomodates 25 lbs. but still you’ll be pushing the envelope! Best bet obviously would be to test it out and see if it works for you.

Any HD camera on a Steadicam rig does need a downconverter to route the picture to the units special viewfinder screen. There are several choices available from AJA and others that can be Velcroed onto the rig and powered by the Anton Bauer tap or the Lemo connector on the back of the Varicam.
Adding a wireless transmitter however is going to add even more weight and power consumption.

Another thing to consider is the changeover time involved in reorganizing for non-steadicam shots and then back on the rig. Most shows add another camera to minimize this logistic.