Peter Steinman
Forum Replies Created
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You might look into renting the Fujinon digital cinema lenses for critical work. They have some nice zooms and primes. Usually not too hard to find them for rent in bigger markets.
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I got mine from Able Cine Tech in Burbank. Ron Ayers down there is the guy I go too for my Panasonic gear. Best prices I found and they know their stuff. I probably wouldn’t buy from anyone else again. There are lots of dealers out there but, its nice to find one that actually knows about the gear they are selling rather then it just being a part number in the computer. I had some very frustrating experiences with some other Panasonic dealers. In fact Panasonic’s sales system can drive a man to rip out his hair.
I’ve used it with the FS-100 a lot now and I don’t believe there is a way to get anything but, HD out the 1394 port. I honestly haven’t really tried but, I don’t remember seeing anything about down converting the 1394 output. There are a mess of undocumented 1394 ‘config’ modes in the options menu. Who knows what they do if they do anything yet.
There are some downsides to the FS-100. It’s obviously not a pro grade device. It screams consumer electronics. The case is thin plastic and will never survive a drop onto anything hard. The menu/display system is ugly and could be much better designed. After you record you have to take an extra step and ‘organize’ your clips. Battery life isn’t the best. There is a ton of room for improvement and a real need for an actual pro level HD recorder. Something that mounts on the battery mount and uses a full sized hot swap drive or even a bigger heavy duty off camera box with hot swapping. You can, of course, just capture direct to your NLE if you want.
Lens choice is a personal thing. I usually rent what I need based on the project. I have a single Canon ENG/EFP HD lens I own. I like Canon lenses some people like the Fujinon better. One thing pretty much holds true for all lenses though. You get what you pay for. Its not a great place to be looking to save money.
I know nothing about the package deal they have going. The lens may be fine. I just have my tastes in lenses.
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I’ve had mine awhile now and I also have a Varicam. The picture is pretty much equivalent to the Varicam. It has slightly lower noise then my F model Varicam but, the H is probably pretty close. The 900 is a great camera for the price. The fire wire out makes direct to disk recording a breeze.
Now for a few cons. The medium tape size only gives you 33min record time. This can be a real pain. It doesn’t have completely variable frame rates or shutter in angles other then 180. No Varicam filmrec mode. All these can be overcome, somewhat, except for the frame rates.
One thing to know is the camera is still very new and there aren’t that many out there. The Varicam rental market is still strong and the HDX900 rental market doesn’t exist yet. I’ve rented out my Varicam 5 times in the last two weeks and nobody has even asked about the 900. It is going to take some time before people start renting these.
There are probably going to be a whole lot more 900’s around then Varicams. I suspect the rental thing is going to be pretty competitive and cut-throat when enough of these get out there.
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I’ve been snooping around the card file too. The way the HDX saves setting is a LUT. Not a value for the actual function. Its obviously the first thing people woud try to ‘fudge’ with settings. Cant have that 😉
So instead the FPS entry being 60 (for 60fps) it will be FPS=3 (not the actual value) and internally the HDK looks up and says, “Oh, 3 equals I go into 60fps mode)
That way someone doesn’t put the card into his computer and go FPS=14 and get 14fps and hence cause trouble. The look up table is probably coded into the firmware. Everyone knows this camera can actually do any frame rate. They wont make it easy to change that.
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The 900R is really apples and oranges.
When they design a camera for a certin price point features have to be left out. Its not just the extra tap is probably a number of things that got left out just to make sure it could be sold for a certain price. One of the first things I noticed about my HDX is that all the buttons feel ‘cheaper’ then the Varicam. Thats how far they go. The buttons are all hard plastic and don’t have the same feel as my Varicam.
For a $25k HD camera the HDX900 is amazing. I don’t say this as a Panasonic fan in any sense. I really like the camera given what it costs. I’d take a 900R in a heart beat over the HDX if it was even $30k. Its not even close.
Not even getting in to how the camera has been designed to not step on any Varicam toes. One day when the Varicam 2 comes out I suspect we’ll see a varible frame rate and film rec mode firmware update for the HDX if someone doesnt figure a way to turn it on first.
Anyone know how to get at the service menu of a SDX900 ? 😉
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There are a lot of features I wish the HDX had too but, I like the price point. Its unfair to expect it to have feature found in a camera costing 3x as much.
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So how concerned should I be about heat in the HDX900 ?
It appears to run cooler then my F model Varicam but, maybe I just haven’t had my hand on the right spot. The design of the heat sink on top seem a lot better then the Varicam. The taller skinny ribs should get rid of heat better if they aren’t just there for decoration. There are also more of them. The fake ones on the plastic Unislot cover are pretty silly though.
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I shoot a lot of off-road racing for one end of my business. I have to have some sort of protection on the camera. The Porta Brace worked pretty well with the Varicam. Had velcro openings for pretty much everything and had mesh for ventilation at the heat sinks. My Varicam looks almost like it just came out of the box and its been in some pretty nasty places. It can be really annoying dealing with small little velcro flaps and tiny opening when its below freezing and you cant feel your hands anymore. That seems to happen more then I like.
The cover is left home for the studio and interior location stuff.
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I used one once on my Varicam and it tore in a couple places. Neoprene has to be taken care of and this cover had seen some time in the sun I think. It seemed too fragile for field use and didn’t seem to have the cooling allowance the Porta Brace one did. My Varicam gets smoking hot sometimes. It worried me a bit to have so much of the camera covered in neoprene.
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I tried that first but, they are closed. I was hoping someone knows if the layout and size of the SDX900 and HDX900 are the same. Even if Porta Brace is working on one I bet it isnt going to be availible right away. The Varicam one is pretty close. Just the handle is smaller on the 900 and the Varicam case doesn’t fit right on top.