John Sharaf
Forum Replies Created
-
Bob,
With tungsten globes, burning them in the “wrong” position, ie base up in this case will severely shorten their life, but if that’s what it takes to do the shot, so be it.
I’ve had good luck burning Joker Bug Lights in 200, 400 and 800 watt designations bulb up and never really noticed and significant shortening of their life, but I’m not sure of any burn position restrictions on this type of MSR-HR globes.
JS
-
The PDW700 has not been “pulled”, it’s still just vaporware. It’s my understanding from a deep throat at Sony that there are production delays because of parts shortages from outside vendors. This camera will eventually arrive, but it’ll be severely handicapped by the 50Mb MPEG2 recording format and lack of 24p, at least for digital cinema and other high end purposes that would better be served by HDCAM and AVC-I native 1080 cameras (like the Panasonic 3000 that you mention).
PDW700 will definitely do both 720 and 1080, this is one of it’s main design criteria, namely being a “news” camera for both 720 and 1080 networks, and one of the principal reasons for the long delay. ABC News asked Sony to include it in the camera spec and then bailed out of a large order because of the interminable delay. Remember, it’s a “PVM” not a “BVM” or “DVM” product and I assure you it will be replaced in short order with a camera that has both 24p (probably as an option) and AVC-I codec, offering quality to rival HDCAM or HDCAM SR.
As to whether it’s in competition with Panasonic, that discussion boils down to P2 vs. Laser Disc. Before one buys either of these camera products you must buy into the various workflow of P2 and/or Laser Disc. The Panasonic 2000 camera comes closest to competing, in that it will also do both 720 and 1080 and even costs less, about $25K vs. $34K for the PDW700. The Panasonic 3000 camera is vastly superior both as a native 1920×1080 camera (no horizontal down res but also no 720) and has the AVC-I codec offering DVCPRO100 quality at 50Mb or D5 quality at 100Mbs. There’s even rumors of a 200Mb codec to come in the future; this would allow high speed photography at 1080 60p or maybe higher at DVCPRO100.
As always, stay tuned for further developments. I think much more will shake out at NAB in the spring. There is great pent up demand for this camera, although it seems like the major broadcast networks have deferred their transition to HD for two or three more years. This is really because of all the non-camera issues like the high cost of new routers, rewiring their plants, server storage, uplink, transmission encoding and decoding and other infrastructure. I’m convinced that they will continue to do what their o&o local stations are doing with newscasts, namely producing the studio portions in HD with SD 16×9 upconverts of the field pieces. For the internet, video produced in SD will suffice for as long as takes to rewire the country with fibre.
JMHO.
-
Probably monitor because of the downres, but this is an example of foolhardy HD economics. For a “feature” project, one must have the proper tools; in this case a native 1920×1080 monitor like an eCinema. You don’t have to use it for every setup if that’s too unwieldy, but to not have it available back in the truck or hotel room at night for qc results in just the anxiety you and your company are experiencing. Bottom line, it’s probably ok, but with an unknown Chinese rental camera, who knows. This takes the pricipal of testing to new extremes!
JS
-
I believe that Panasonic is the “official camera supplier” to the Olympics, so NBC (as the US broadcaster) may qualify for free use their equipment, thus the announcement and strategic alliance.
JS
-
I believe the PDW700 will record at 30fps in progressive mode, like the PDW510/530 although it will not provide the option of 24p like it’s 2/3″ SD brethren. And you’re right about the 50mbps recording being wanting, I’m told that a subsequent camera (PDW750?) will have both 24p and AVC-I codec with a much improved HD recording format. As regards the viewfinder, I think it uses the same one as the B&W on the F900R and will probably offer the color viewfinder as an option, although a $10K vf on a $33K camera does not compute.
JS
-
David,
To be completely fair, ABC has stated that they will for now continue to support DVCPRO100 and HDV as their HD standards; meaning the Varicams and JVC camera that they own and use from freelancers will continue to be qualified kit. Please give ABC some credit for being the first network to go HD with one of their news division’s shows, GMA, almost two years ago. NBC certainly is coming on strong with their “Today” morning show and the “Nightly News”, but the net news magazines, including the granddaddy and perennial top ten “60 Minutes” continue in SD.
I understand, by the way, that NBC has ordered 100 @ F900R’s for this years election and Olympic coverage. I think you are misinformed about them choosing P2. This is a bold move and a major expenditure into a tape based format and by virtue of the size of the order seems to leave the freelancers out of the kit rental business, which to me is a worse decision than that which ABC made!
The real hold up here is the delay in Sony’s PDW700 2/3″ HD XDCAM coming to market. While we’re told that it should be here by May 2008, obviously ABC didn’t believe that to be the case and I wouldn’t hold my breath either.
Stay tuned!
JS
-
Even though ABC decided not to make their field production HD doesn’t mean their news will not go that way. Their morning show, GMA was the first to do so more than a year ago, and NBC’s Today show has recently done the same. In addition the NBC Nightly News is now HD, although like GMA, only in the studio, relying on upconverts (at NBC) and side cut at GMA. I think ABC’s World News Tonight wil do the same in short order.
JS
-
Eric,
If you’re in the Los Angeles area, contact me off list.
JS
-
Thomas,
All Sony and Panasonic cameras come factory set with the Matrix off and zeroed. The way to both add color and to make the color reproduction accurate is to engineer the camera in the lab with a DSC Chroma du Monde 26/28 chart, a waveform/vectorscope (@ 1.870 vector variable gain) and a skilled engineer. There is no other recipe or set of numbers that will replace this process. All cameras are not created equal, even two of the same model and manufacture, so it is not simply a matter of setting certain numbers. Some cameras are now coming with one or more matrix presets which at least allows some choices other than just “off”.
JS
-
Mike,
That makes sense if it’s a discount from the $44K list. I find it hard to believe that they would not charge a premium over the PDW530 SD XDCAM which is still on sale and lists for $31000 without the SDI card.
JS