Peter Corbett
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Bob,
It’s a tricky time, but my camera choices are narrowing down. For me it works like this;
HPX2100: A front runner because of the excellent build quality and features.
HPX500: Still up there because of the price (particularly if they bundle four 16gb cards like I’ve heard about – unconfirmed). Its main benefit over the 2100/2000 is variable frame rate, but the build quality may not be as good.
INFINITY: Very, very interested in this camera because it overcomes many of the storage/backup problems of P2. Records up to 2 hours of 10-bit 1920 x 1080 HD onto cheap 70gb drives or Compact Flash media. Has the largest imager (3 x 2.4million CMOS) in the 2/3″ broadcast range. But.. the camera is unproven as yet.
SONY XDCAM HD: 1/2 inch, too similar to HDV, too much compression and reduced colour-space; not for me. 2/3″ will probably be too late, only 50mbit, and will be priced over-the-top. I don’t really want to buy a HD shoulder-mount Pro camera over US$30K.
I really think Sony has really missed the boat with 2/3″ XDCAM HD. They should have brought it out at the same time as the 1/2″ version. The result is that Panasonic have launched multiple successful cameras without any serious competition. With a late 2007/early 2008 delivery roadmap, 2/3″ XDCAM HD is going to face a very crowded field with the three Panny P2’s, Infinity and maybe even Ikegami HDN-X10, Silicon Imaging or RED. But these last two cameras are more for the indie makers and extreme techno junkies. Sony just have too many formats and if they make 2/3″ XDCAM HD too good, it will kill off HDCAM and if they don’t deliver a well-speced, significantly competitive product to Infinity and the HPX2000, they will lose in the mid-field as well.
HPX3000: A little far off but has full 1920×1080 10-bit D5 quality with similar specs to Infinity. But the asking price will be just south of $50K. The irony is that this is less than some of the top Betacams like the 701 were years ago, but the ground has shifted and you’d want to be mighty sure of your market to spend these sort of dollars. And that’s not even getting into suitable lenses, MB, sticks, etc.
A Panasonic rep said on this forum that they are committed to the Varicam owners and that they won’t do anything to jeapodise the Varicam user-base, but there is just no denying it, the HPX3000 with full raster 1920×1080, 10-bit intra-AVC and 14-bit camera-head is going to leave the current 1-megapixel Varicam in the dust. There will be a new Varicam within a couple of years but these days one can barely look six months ahead, and if the new Varicam doesn’t come out until late 2008/early 2009, the current AJ-HDC27 is going to look very tired by then(I should add I love this camera and have shot some great stuff on it, but perceptions of what looks fantastic now will change, and change quickly. It’s like thinking you’ve got a really great home-theater system until you go around to your mate’s place and are blown away by his newer, better and CHEAPER setup
HDX900: Yes it’s tape and this camera will fit my work flow, but who wants to go out and buy a 20-grand traditional hi-def VTR. If you’re just a camera freelancer it’s not so much of an issue, but if you are in-house or a small production company, you don’t want to be investing in an expensive VTR at this stage of your life. Not when you can get a REV drive to play Infinity discs on eBay for $150 or just plug your P2 cards into any PCMIA slot on a laptop. This camera has been huge for Panasonic and production can’t even keep up with demand, hence no cheap ex-NAB demo deals to be had this year. Again, Sony’s hand-wringing over 2/3″ XDCAM HD gave Panasonic a home run and more.
Well, hopefully the dust will settle at NAB, but it’s likely to cause even more angst for us prospective camera-buyers.
Peter
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
[Marcus van Bavel] “Name: Marcus van Bavel
Date: Mar 29, 2007 at 11:09:40 pm
Subject: Re: Comments on PPRO CS3I wasn’t planning on that but I’ll check into it. Doesn’t grass valley
have their OWN editing system– EDIUS?”Edius… not for me. Too out there on it’s own, lack of plug-in support, too expensive, too niche, too… well you get the picture. If you could have a look at Infinity, any info would be appreciated.
Cheers,
PeterPeter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
Not embarrassing Kristian. I understand the issue is being worked on.
Cheers,
PetrPeter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
Are you looking at supporting JPEG2000 files from the Grass Valley Infinity when it comes out, Marcus? I assume they will be in a MXF wrapper. Perhaps you could talk to the Grass people at NAB?
Peter
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
P2 cards appear on eBay just about every day, many for Buy It Now, and always below retail. There’s always a way…
Peter
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
Public beta is available for download on April 16 and full retail shipping out in Q3 2007.
Peter
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
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No it said 790 on the Sony Press Release. It could be a new camera. I can’t see how they would let a model number typo go through to publishing.
Peter
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
If I import a DV clip into a uncompressed 10-bit project, the fields on that clip are reversed so you get stuttering. Each individual clip on the timeline has to have the fields reversed and be rendered to play back smoothly. This has been evident in the past four Decklink driver releases (at least for Windows).
Peter
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
Personally I’ve never had a problem using bog-standard “standard-def” professional BNC cables. SDI is digital and with inferior cables you would see sync or picture breakup (pixelisation) problems if you had a dodge cable. I’d say save your money and get good standard BNC cables. Markertek in the US sell an excellent range of high-quality cables.
Peter
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au