[John Sharaf]

You’re probably looking at a 24p timeline playback. When pull down is inserted on output everything will improve, motionwise, and it will look like it did on the monitor when you were shooting.

JS

[John Sharaf]

From my experience, manufacturer’s repair facilities (both Canon and Fujinon) are quite expensive and there are many reputable third party lens repair facilities (often owned and staffed by ex-factory service technicians). Where to send you repair is often a calculation therefore that is based on cost, need for speedy return and availability of replacement parts. If there is a third party repair facility in your locale, the availability of hand carrying in the lens and actually speaking with the repair technician has significant value. where I live in LA, Canon factory service (and Fujinon I believe) has such a place.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Daniel,

For others who might wonder, the answer is that the camera’s imager is native 720, but has internal “up rez” processing to 1080 so that recording is 1920×1080 (but horizontally down rezzed to 1440). It will nor result in as sharp a picture as woulde be created in a native 1080 camera (like the Panny 3000/3700 or Sony F900/800/700).

JS

[John Sharaf]

Michael,

You have it backwards. In 1080, 59.94 always refers to interlace, which is made up of 29.97 frames, but you can also select 29.97P (progressive) that gives you duplicate fields in each frame, and there is a difference in the look. The progressive frame rate compared toi the interlace is more “filmic” and less like “live” video.

Alternately in 720, there is a 59.94P (progressive) format where each field is a unique, sequential and complete picture compared to the “half” frames created in each field of an interlaced format. This 720/59.94 format gives a super “live” video look or can be used to create the best slo motion possible when converted to a 30p or 24p timeline.

Going back to the original question; yes there is a difference and if the client specifies 29.97P (progressive) they are doing so because they like that motion (like CBS News’ 60 Minutes) or else because they are favoring an internet distribution where the repeated frames make it easy on the compression.

JS

[John Sharaf]

I just received delivdedry of a pair of the new “biggest lights you can plug into the wall”, namely the Arri 1800W. It can be configured as an “Arrimax” with facetted reflector for 20-60 degree open face use of as a parlight with lenses. either way it’s a massive amount of light from a household plug.

Another trick up my sleeve is to mount up to four 800watt Jokers on a special Chimera Speedring inside a Medium Quartz bank. This amounts to 3200 watts of daylight and I’ve used it with bright backgrounds successfully.

Obviously both these solutions, or really anything else that would work will cost money (rental or gels purchase) and as unpleasent as that may be, you have to be honest about that reality with your client.

JS

[John Sharaf]

I thought you said Cine Style, my mistake. But technically the rental company usually has a clause in the rental contract stipulating that the rental continues until the item is repaired and restored, thus their incentive to get it done quickly, especially because they got no reply from the emails. Essentially they were trying to minimize your damages.

I’m not defending their actions per se, and clearly there is some information missing. It is hard to see from your photography what exactly the damage is, and you really must see the replaced part to determine the actual extent and maybe the cause. With this information you might have the evidence to reverse their claim.

JS

[John Sharaf]

It should be simple enough to figure out if it was the same lens as on your shoot, just look at serial number on rental check out.

If the lens “had already been damaged” then it was incumbent on your crew to point it out on check out and get another lens, or at least to make note of it, just as you do on a rental car check out with scratches
or body damage.

From what you’ve revealed, it seems like it was probably damaged after the shoot and on its way to return. These tasks are often delegated to “production assistants” or drivers who know neither the value of the gear or how to properly handle it and would be unlikely to report a problem they had with load shift in a van, especially if the lens was mounted on the camera in a soft case and the lens cap had fallen off.

Abel is a reputable rental house, and although it possible for them to make mistakes too, checking gear on return is one of the most serious tasks a rental company teaches its technicians, and that is most certainly when most damage is revealed.

Finally the issue of insurance deductible; productions should always expect the worst and if possible build in the deductible amount into the budget. If there’s not any loss nor damage then it’s extra profit!

All these remarks are based on my experience as a cameraperson who also rents out equipment, including the same lens as was damaged here and it is an item that in particular is considered a “jewel” by anyone who owns it, requiring extra special care and consideration.

JS

[John Sharaf]

The answer is “yes”. Both the RMB-150 and RMB-750 connect to the EX3 as it shares the protocol as the F900/PDW 700/800 etc. I know of some b-stock RMB750’s available cheap. If interested please reply off list to me at john at sharaf dot net.

JS

JS

[John Sharaf]

The further away the better; to eliminate your shadow and to minimize green spill on foreground character.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Bill,

I highly recommend that you consider the Sony PDW700 or PDW800. This is a native 1920 camera that also does 720, whereas the 2700 is a native 720 camera that “upconverts” to 1080. In addition the 700/800 either comes with or offers the option of adding SD record and playback and is 100% compatible to ABC Net News standards. Please feel free to contact me off list at john at sharaf dot net to discuss further.

The decision really comes down to what format you are being asked for, whether you’re willing to put up with the extra work of downloading and archiving PS (or SxS for that matter) and whether the 10 bit AVC-I codec is a requirement (which only seems to me to come into play in digital cinema applications and never for TV production.

I’ve replaced my four Varicams with four PDW700/800’s and could not be more pleased, although I still keep the Varicams for clients (like ABC) who still prefer 720, but there are fewer and fewer of these and even ABC has bought some PDW700’s, so I believe it will ultimately be their HD format camera.

JS