[John Sharaf]

Don,

According to latest query to AJA, there have been some “manufacturing delays” and in addition their marketing policy will have them deliver to their biggest customers first, rather than in the sequence of orders by date and time. These two factors make it very difficult to determine when deliveries will finally begin.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Hi Bill,

What I do with clients new to the XDCAM Disc media, is loan them the PDW-U1 Reader until they are comfortable with using it, then I either sell them one or rent it too them at $100/week.

For my own projects, I prefer to use my PDW-HD1500 Deck and play into FCP through the Kona card as ProRes. This eliminates a lot of rendering of the project on the way out of the machine.

I’ve also used Nanoflash to record higher bit rates for commercials and other more “EFP” type productions as well as recording on to the discs for backup. I have to say that I’ve just sold my Nanoflashes in anticipation of delivery of Ki Pro Minis which offer 10 bit recording taking the “upmarket” even further, while at the same time offering “Direct To Edit” (DTE) workflow as established by the Alexa, meaning that you can edit directly from the media (in this case CF cards) without even importing. This obviously has advantages when you’re in a super-hurry.

The PMW-500 while recording onto SxS cards still doesn’t offer this workflow as the media is still XDCAM codec vs. ProRes, which is immediately editable by FCP. I see this as a disadvantage mainly because of the cost of the SxS cards (although the 64Gb does lower the per Gb cost by half) without actually taking advantage of the write speed of which they are capable (like the Alexa does).

JS

[John Sharaf]

As a PDW700 & F800 user/owner. I have really fallen in love with the XDCAM disc media. It is so cheap, reusable and the ability to hand it off is so convenient. Furthermore cheap file based recorders like the Nanoflash and Ki Pro/Ki Pro Mini can leverage even better recording formats when necessary. In addition the inexpensive PDW-U1 reader is a “no brainer” to help clients integrate the media into their workflow.

JMHO,

JS

[John Sharaf]

William,

The “old” tape based Varicam always records at 59.94p (or 60 if system freq is changed for PAL 25 or 50fps speeds). When you set the “Frame Rate” on page 2 of the menu to 24 the recoding includes the telecine pull down. Your Avid or FCP will “reverse telecine” the 24’s into a 24p timeline and save a considerable amount of hard disc storage. This was the reason the Varicam became so popular in the firstplace, as 24 is only 40% of 60 so the firewire could handle the bandwidth and simple FW or USB drives drives could as well, eliminating the need for more expensive RAIDS.

The same is really true of any framerate you set. For example at 30fps it writes two frames 30 times a second, at 10fps it writes six frames ten times per second. You only need the FRC hardware (or software) to “pull” the discrete off speed frames and play them at the intended rate, although the “stuttery” off speed effects are also quite interesting.

When you shoot 60fps (really 59.94) and play it back in a 24p timeline you have a 2.5x slomo effect. If in a 30p timeline a 2x effect.

For television (at ABC News for example) we’ll use the 60p framerate and they edit in a 59.94 timeline. In such a timeline the camera cannot create slomo without duplicating frames in post, and arguably the HD effect is the equal of 1080/60i (interlace).

Despite your search, this has been discussed many times here, but probably four or five years ago, when this camera was having it’s greatest popularity.

JS

[John Sharaf]

For once, I’m going to have to disagree with Todd when he says “you will just have to setup to see”. A professional lighting cameraman will scout a location, design a plan that previsualizes the result and calculate the light levels (including the diffussion) from the photometrics which are published for each and every professional lighting instrument (based on the distances and lens). It is wrong to defer to the day, as you might neither have the equipment nor proper manpower to accomplish what is required.

In this case, given the minimum set up time you mention, I don’t think you can do anything but go au natural and just light the actor in the foreground (if there is one).

To install, rig and power four 12/18k HMI’s would take a crew of four guys at least 6 hours and would cost about $4000. This is without Condors to raise the lights as high as might be required.

JS

[John Sharaf]

To be technically correct, in addition, the wattage also determines the current draw (amperage) which must be calculated in order to not “blow” fuses or to “balance” the load when running on a generator.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Wattage of the globe does NOT affect the color. Voltage does. That is why a dimmer makes the color of the light “warmer” as you lower the voltage by adding resistance. Also if you use extremely long extension cords, the cumulative resistance makes the light burn with a warmer (redder) color. Photo grade globes are constructed to burn at 3200K which is the nominal color of most color films and video imagers in preset color balance mode.

You can also purchase 2900K globes to fit many lighting fixtures. These globes will have much longer burn times and are therefore preferred for use in architectural or display settings (think department store windows). The human eye adjusts to make white look right, on film these globes will be slightly warm, which might be a good thing if that is your intention.

JS

[John Sharaf]

The culprit is probably auto knee, where some highlight in the picture is causing it to seek. I saw this in my first F900/3 years ago and always make it a point with that camera to turn auto knee off.

JS

[John Sharaf]

You need to download driver from Sony Support

[John Sharaf]

Hi Seth,

I would propose that the “best” B4 zoom lenses are the Zeiss Digi Zooms, they cost about $40+ street and are rarely available on the used market. The next best are the Canon and Fujonon Cine Zooms. It so happens that I’m selling two of the Canons, both 21×7.5 and 11×4.7 separately at $10K or as a pair for $18K. These lenses have very little breathing and have better contract and less chromatic aberration then the comparable ENG versions. They have neither a built in doubler nor iris & zoom motors and require matte box/sunshades as they do come with rubber sunshades as ENG lenses do. If you are interested please feel free to contact me off list at john at sharaf dot net. They are in pristine condition and like-new. I’m selling because I just got my Arri Alexa and am investing a small fortune in PL mount lenses, including an Angenieux 24-290 Optimo (17 inches long and 22 lbs!!!).

Best regards,

JS