[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Lars,
It looks like a nice alternative, similar concept to DLT and LTO.
But where do you get 700megs per second transfer rate from? The tech specs claim a sustained rate of 24MB/s compressed, and 12MB/s native, with a “burst” of 160MB/s.
Hope to see a lot of these devices hitting the market soon.

[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Craig,
We haven’t yet got the drive, but I believe that it means that each LTO tape has reference to all the time code data of individual files on the drive. It means that it is easy to get partial material of logged items rather than the entire logged file. The same applies to any data you may have in the MXF data fields. The LTO tape is effectively aware of what is on it rather than just being a “dumb” device.
Quantum can send you a DVD that demonstrates this in action.
Matthew.

[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Bob1dp,
It sounds like you have a background in Ikegami cameras or something like them. I too like this feature when shooting with the Ikegami, it is interesting to watch the RGB adjustments to get a feel for what the camera is doing.
With the Ikegami’s you can view the RGB settings as either “absolute” or “offset”, absolute showing the adjustments, and offset setting RGB to 0-0-0 so if you were to make any manual adjustment directly to the camera or via the remote, you know where you started from, a kind of safety backup.
The Varicam operates in this way too, but does not give you the absolute readings, rather the saftety backup of 0-0-0.
My experience of the menu “Offset” function in the Varicam is that you can set in a pre determined RGB WB offset to what the camera is setting. For example, if you were white balancing and were unhappy with the result and felt that a bit more R or B chanel was required, then you turn on the offset menu item, white balance, make your manual changes to RGB, store it, and now when you white balance the camera will always add in the offset you have set until you turn the menu function off.
I find this function in the Varicam, and the Ikegami cameras I have, a useful thing. IMHO because video cameras use the G channel as a reference when balancing, most images tend to come out a little green shifted, so I add in a little more R and B, in addition with some custom colour correction and matrix settings, to achieve what I feel is a more correct look. Each to his own. I hope this has helped, and hasn’t been a “suck an egg” thing.

[Matthew Romanis]

It could be anything from matrix settings enriching skin tones too much, or colour correction over compensating. I have used the AWB offset function in the Option menu to overcome some consistant lighting artifacts when shooting doco’s, that may be turned on as well with an RGB setting.
To work out if it is any of those three things, try turning off those functions in the menu one at a time and watch your monitor as you are doing it. It may even be a combination of of two or three of these. You can turn off matrix and colour correction in either of the L,M, or H “gain” custom settings in the menu.

[Matthew Romanis]

There is Twixtor for FCP, though I’m not really a fan of how it works the interpolation, and of course it is render heavy.

[Matthew Romanis]

Jiri,
Sony at this moment have an HDV single CMOS camera on the consumer market, HDRHC-1. First impressions are very good, though the camera is missing a lot of functions we have come to expect from this end of the market. I know a lot of people are using it as a location recce tool.
Scientific instruments have been using CMOS for some years now, i.e., Astronomical photography and such. The next couple of years of this emergent technology will be very interesting.

[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Gary,
Can you give me the model number of the AJA converter you use. The one’s that have been demonstrated here do not convert 720p@60 to PAL 50i 720×576. I’m very open to buying one from anywhere and having it shipped to Australia.

[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Tony,
I understand what you are saying, but in my post I mention that I need to all this with a PAL signal and hence the the problem of down conversion. The Miranda here in OZ is around $14K AUD which is a bit of a stretch just to primarily provide a feed from the camera for distribution, and all of the more cost effective alternatives don’t deal with a PAL requirement. I’m hoping that with the Varicam taking off in Europe some component manufacturers will see their way to catering for PAL SD down conversion from the 720p@60 raw signal from the camera.

[Matthew Romanis]

Yes the resolution is not great, but I was not referring to it’s use as a camera department monitor. I was thinking of it’s use for other departments such as gripping, light weight for stedicam, audio department, general purpose, etc…
There are loads of 6″ and 7″ SD LCD screens used as split’s around the set on many 16-mm and 35-mm shoots where the relatively low resolution of SD composite monitoring does not seem to be problem. Several 7″ HDSDI monitors would be a leap in providing more visual information to some of the other departments.
As an exercise purely in economics, one could buy 5 of these monitors for the cost of one Miranda converter, and be monitoring around the set in HD. I’m not suggesting this is a great way to approach multiple monitoring on set, and the Miranda certainly does a lot more than provide for SD monitoring, but in the 50hz world there are not many other options other than providing more HD monitors on set. Almost all of the affordable 720p@60 down-converters do not provide PAL rates. I have only come across the Miranda and an Evertz card that needs a box.
Does anyone know of something else? (Not the AJA, it does not cater for 50hz down from 720@60.)

[Matthew Romanis]

The Varicam started life as an NTSC camera only but was adapted to shoot with PAL standards in mind. How can this camera allow for full 60 frame capture for slow motion replay and full 24fps support in PAL, and the new technology cannot?

Now for a mini rant.

Some of the ideas put forward in these threads about the PAL market getting the rough end of the stick in product development are ringing loud and true. I would like to see products that are designed for use in my marketplace and not reverse engineered from NTSC products. Things such as NDF switches on broadcast recorders have no place in the PAL environment and tell me loud and clear that development for my use in my marketplace is low on the radar. Lack of development for PAL firewire support for HD100 and hence an FCP FRC plugin is the thick black underline beneath my thoughts on this at the moment.

Graeme, what is the RED camera you have mentioned here?