[Joseph Hudson]

I’ve been using the Batteries4Broadcast 150 watt hour Lithum Ion batteries with the HDX 900 for a few months now and they have worked quite well. I bought 3 of the batteries and in a “normal” day rarely get into the third battery and sometimes I’m powering a Firestore and 8.4″ monitor off same battery. They have a fuel guage and 2 pin power tape built in. And they are quite light compared to a “brick” and much less expensive than Anton Bauer Dionics.
I had 3 V-mount Sony L90 LI batteries and charger already so I got a V-mount to Anton Bauer adapter for the HDX 900 and chose the V-mount for the B4B 150s. As I understand it, V-mount batteries from different manufactures can be charged on most any V-mount charger, where it is best not to mix A-B mount batteries and charger manufactures.
There are some diagnostic functions you get with the A-B system that you don’t get with other batteries, but you can buy more than twice the number of batteries from B4B for the same amount of money.
I have also gotten a 2 bank and 4 bank charger/AC adapters from B4B, also quite reasonably priced. They do a “simultaneous” charge which is convenient for short turn arounds. I have one complaint in that the fan for the 2 bank charger/AC is pretty loud and is on during AC operation or “charge” even when charging is done. I was hoping this would be a convenient compact travel combination, but the AC fan is too loud for shooting interviews or narrative in a quiet enviornment. The 4 bank fan is much quieter.

[Joseph Hudson]

I’ve been using the Batteries4Broadcast 150 watt hour Lithum Ion batteries with the HDX 900 for a few months now and they have worked quite well. I bought 3 of the batteries and in a “normal” day rarely get into the third battery and sometimes I’m powering a Firestore and 8.4″ monitor off same battery. They have a fuel guage and 2 pin power tape built in. And they are quite light compared to a “brick” and much less expensive than Anton Bauer Dionics.
I had 3 V-mount Sony L90 LI batteries and charger already so I got a V-mount to Anton Bauer adapter for the HDX 900 and chose the V-mount for the B4B 150s. As I understand it, V-mount batteries from different manufactures can be charged on most any V-mount charger, where it is best not to mix A-B mount batteries and charger manufactures.
There are some diagnostic functions you get with the A-B system that you don’t get with other batteries, but you can buy more than twice the number of batteries from B4B for the same amount of money.
I have also gotten a 2 bank and 4 bank charger/AC adapters from B4B, also quite reasonably priced. They do a “simultaneous” charge which is convenient for short turn arounds. I have one complaint in that the fan for the 2 bank charger/AC is pretty loud and is on during AC operation or “charge” even when charging is done. I was hoping this would be a convenient compact travel combination, but the AC fan is too loud for shooting interviews or narrative in a quiet enviornment. The 4 bank fan is much quieter.

[Joseph Hudson]

“Breathiing” is when the size of the image changes (along with focus) when you rotate the focus ring–i.e. it looks like you are zooming a bit when all you are doing is changing focus. Most zoom lenses have this to some extent. When it is extreme it can be really irritating if you don’t want the size of the image to change.

Sometimes you can work around this by using the macro funciton on video lenses. This works particularly well if you are going from close to far as you can set the far focus exactly with no macro, set close focus with the macro and all you have to do is move the macro lever until it is disengaged and you end at the exact focus mark. Going from far to close you can do the reverse, but it’s not as easy to hit the exact focus spot (unless you set it up for the close focus to be at the exact end of the close macro position.) There is no breathing using the macro. This doesn’t work with all focal lengths depending the distance between close and far focus, but can come in handy when it works.

[Joseph Hudson]

I’m not making excuses about the camera.
It’s not scientific, but when I’ve had my 900 next to a Varicam F it looked almost identical on the monitor with the main differnce being that the 900 was noticeably less noisy in the low light areas. I tell people it doesn’t have all the frame rates of the Varicam, but it does do 60fps slow mo and several slow shutter rates. It does have some dynamic range control and in general looks great; what clients shooting in HD expect.

Another advantage of the HDX 900 is that I’ve been able to use it on a project where the client was using HDX400s shooting 1081i.

We have $45+K in HD lenses, $7.5K + in HD monitors, + tripod, zoom contol, matte box, filters, etc. When packaged with lighting/grip truck, HMIs, Kinos,…rental price isn’t much lower than Vaicam.

Most HD work in our area, that isn’t done with a smaller mini HD camera, is still pretty high end and the clients are used to paying higher rates. If a client wants to just use one lens and no 17″ client monitor, etc. the rate becomes more competative.

As more clients get into HD and more HD cameras are around, I assume that rates will go down a bit. The current cameras probably won’t have the same shelf live as Betacams, so I hope that the rates will be higher than what Betacam rates were.

The Fujinon 18X7.6 HD lens with 2X did have some problems. Some inherent (like very exagerated breathing when racking focus.) I did have some other issues. I sent the lens back to Fujinon. I hope that the issues will be fixed. The 18X7.6 with no 2x that I have as a loaner doesn’t seem to have the same problems. I have not compared this lens to Canon’s lower priced HD Zoom. I would be interested to hear if someone has. The Fujinon 13X4.5 w2x seems great with almost no breathing or other issues.