John Sharaf
Forum Replies Created
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Dave,
One of the great features oif the DVX100 camera is the slow shutter speed. For interior architectural work this might come in handy to compensate for otherwise dark natural lighting. As long as there’s not movement in the frame (camera or subject) you can cheat by slowing down the shutter!
JS
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Dan,
It surely is baffeling that it does seem to be occuring on some cameras and not others. I can only say that if it were on my camera I’d really be pissed off and I’d make certain that Panasonic fixed it. To that end I’d suggest you (and others with same issue) contact Steve Mahrer, who is highly placed in the orginization, very knowledgable, technically inclined and very interested in customer satisfaction (mahrers@us.panasonic.com) to make a project out of getting to the bottom of this. I suspect that he’s got his thinking cap on already as he (and others at Panasonic) rightly monitor this forum.
Good luck,
JS
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Dan,
I’ve never seen this phenomenon on either of my Varicams. Are you feeding a sync input? Is it a proper tri-level 720p/59/97? There’s no need to do so unless you’re using multiple cameras and need to route through a switcher or slave time code very accurately. Does it happen when there is no sync input?
If the camera is less than a year old, repair service is free, perhaps there is something wrong. It should not do this, shame on your dealer for saying this is common, this reveals a very unprofessional approach! If there were a sync issue, it would definately show up on the tape as well.
JS
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Charlie,
I guess it all depends on what decks you have; if you have a Digibeta deck, the workflow you describe is perfect. You’ll just need a DVPRO100 deck for the time it takes to downconvert to the Digibeta master; SD-SDI, Sidecut, timecode (really only relevent if you’ll ever conform the HD master) and digital audio will yield 4×3 master of highest quality, resembling what a film origional would look like after telecine and with the sound already synced up!
JS
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Jim,
The deck option will cost more (plus the editors labor) than the Firewire converter and drive. But with the deck you have the option of importing at native DVPRO100 HD. This is the best option of all, and I suspect that the Firewire drives are cheaper to buy than the Miranda/Evertz downconverter is to rent (you could buy 7.5 Terabites of Firewire drive for the price of the Miranda).
I own the Miranda DVC800 and a 40Gb nNovia harddisk drive that attaches with Anton Bauer brackets on both sides, but to be honest, this kit has only been used with my Sony F900 which both requires an adapter such as the Miranda, to produce HD-SDI on the set (for monitoring) and a downconverted sub-master for off-line editing. The Varicam/Firewire workflow is much neater and more condusive to the 1200A playing back HD through the firewire port to FCP. Downconverting is only ever “required” (at least up to this point) when post-production is Avid-centric.
With the 40 Gb drive, one is able to record about 2.5 hours of DV25 and then either play it in at real time (emulating a VTR) or transfering files at a slightly faster rate to you NLE. It also acts as a HDD if that is a sufficient amount of time for your whole project (say a commercial or short news story) and in this case there is no need for digitizing (the holy grail!) you just attack the drive to your editor and open files.
The harddisk recorder is programed to start and stop recording when the time code turns (record run) and despite a short learning curve, this method can provide a fairly reliable, and definately inexpensive workflow.
Any hiccups however will require you to use the camera and converter (as a player) or the 1200A deck to redo.In general, I think it’s a false economy to try to do production without a deck; the 1200A is so versatile; as a player, backup recorder, downconverter, cross converter and firewire source that it’s expense is justified on these several accounts.
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Jason,
You’ll need to “sync” the cameras for seamless, glitch-free switching. For HD cameras sync is slightly different from SD and known as “tri-level”. One would also need to sync cameras to accurately slave time code.
Price estimate is for four cameras, but no switcher. You’ll have to investigate switchers based on the type of functionality (meaning how many effects) you need. I suspect the switcher alone will add another $75-100K, unless you’re content to have “cuts-only” in which case a 12×1 Evertz router is about $6000.
A good source for all this is Bill Meurer at Birns & Sawyer in Los Angeles, their webpage is:
JS
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Jason,
Your query is neither weird nor backwards; for the purpose you describe the Varicam would be a worthy suggestion!
I’d also recommend you look into the Telecast Copperhead Cine fiber cable system with SMPTE Hybrid cable to simplify the necessary cable run which would include HD-SDI, Genlock, Remote Control, Power, Intercomm, timecode and audio in both directions.
Obviously you know you’d need to provide tri-level sync to the cameras and purchase a HD waveform monitor to set the cameras. For monitoring, I’d suggest one 14″ HD for engineering and a larger one (maybe 23″ Apple Cinema Display plus HD-SDI to DVI box like eCinema) for Director’s program viewing. For the four camera monitors you might consider using standard def monitors and the Evertz Downconverting DA’s (as you’ll most likely need DA’s anyway to route to monitors, switchers and ??? Their frameset also houses the sync generator and audio DA’s and their 4×1 router would be a good choice for the engineering switcher.
Needless to say this will not be an inexpensive system, plus the screens for in-house viewing. I’d estimate about $500000, but it will make a great show!
JS
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Bon voyage!
Have a great trip to Greece, and don’t forget to take a polarizing filter. It will make the sky an even more beautiful shade of blue; effectively darkening it and lowering the contrast to the light colored objects in the foreground.
Otherwise have fun with your images. It might help to have some kind of plan in mind as to how you intend to put the pictures together into a finished project. This might help you focus on particular subjects or a particular visual treatment; not necessarily a “script” per se, but a general approach to your photography.
JS
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Steve,
As always, Sony is next to impossible to deal with. Even though I do have a contact within, it still takes months (or years) to get something accomplished. They continue to have their own agenda which revolves around selling something they think up in a vacuum with only some slight input from the customer base, and usually only from the biggest fish.
To be sure, Panasonic is only a little better; the marketing people are accessible, so are the sales engineers, but getting repairs is a PITA and software revisions for the Varicam have been non-existant so far. I am however quite excited about their new mini-dvcpro100 camera which we’ll all see real soon. For that matter I expect a lot of new and exciting news next week at the show!
Regards,
JS
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Chris,
As an owner of two Varicams, I’m also very interested in the new mini-model. I won’t be getting to NAB until Wednesday, so if anyone reading this attends on Monday, please fill us all in on the news about this new camera!
Thanks,
JS