Peter Steinman
Forum Replies Created
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I really didn’t mean to hijack Vic’s thread.
My camera made it back safe and sound. I just wanted to point out some quirks with the LA service to be aware of.
The legal limbo between self-insured Panasonic, UPS where someone screwed up, and my own insurance with a third party shipping it back to me isn’t a happy thought. As much as I would love to think Panasonic would have sent me a brand spanking new camera if someone would have grabbed the box in front of my house I’m glad the issue didn’t come up. There was no record of my camera, or even me, at Panasonic in their service records when I called and asked when it was coming home.
It would be me claiming I didn’t receive it with no proof I didn’t, UPS claiming they delivered it with no proof they did , and Pansonic claiming they never heard of it with no proof they did. I could just imagine the call to my insurance agent now.
It would be nice to know my insurance covered it and I’m going to find out Monday. I’m sure the camera will need to be serviced someday. Hopefully for the fix to the dark compression setting but, that’s another story. As far as I know my insurance, or most insurance, doesn’t cover loss like that. In shipping you hand over insurance to the shipper. Seems to easy to abuse for a insurance company to cover but, who knows. My agent was very clear about exclusions when I got the policy though. If I give or rent someone my camera and they just take it I’m out the camera. A third party shipping it back to me out of my control sounds a little similar.
Anyway, Panasonic needs a clear chain of custody at their LA office. Maybe it is on Tom’s bench and maybe it’s not really good enough for a Varicam when it isn’t for my tripod head. RA # and paperwork at the least before a camera gets to them. Luckily the issue didn’t come up for me but, if it goes down again I’ll demand it before I ship it out. Otherwise I’ll use my dealer and get and ra# and paperwork from them even if they just ship it down.
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It was actually only $200 for the $50k insurance thru UPS online that I paid shipping it down. Still a lot of money and I didn’t like payng it. You would think Panasonic could arrange some ‘deal’ with a shipper to make this work. I figured they would do they same back as it was under warranty.
Now I’m just curious what would have happened had the package gone missing or had been damaged. Sounds like I would have just lost the camera. If Panasonic didn’t insure it out of LA then it falls under the $500 UPS max I belive. And that in fact only goes to the shipper. I would have been done. No ra #, no invoice, nothing but, Tom’s word in LA there ever was a camera I sent him and a few emails that anyone could claim were faked. Even if Tom said, “Yea I shipped out the camera. You’re claim is with UPS.” I’d be done. When I callled down and asked if they had my camera the receptionist said, “We don’t have a record of it. Maybe it’s on Tom’s desk” That thrilled me. Glad it was actualy on his bench and he got it back to me.
I’d use to have a small computer resale business that did nothing but, ship UPS in the 90’s. If I told them I shipped out a $50,000 computer and it never showed up they would have died laughing at me. I would have got a check for $500 in the mail (or whatever it is now).
The UPS guy got all shocked when I told him the next day. He said they have special procedures for anything over $10,000. It sits in a locked cage and has all sorts of hand off rules and documentation. It doesn’t move an inch without people recording it. No way it would get left on a doorstep. He still kids me about it to this day whan a package comes. Panasonic didn’t even declare a value at all.
So, glad I found my camera before someone else did. I sure wont ship it to them. It would be cheaper/safer to fly down to LA, stay in a hotel, pick up the camera, and fly back if I had to. I can see why people might want to find someone else.
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I think the problem with Panasonic is that there is actually only one person doing all the Varicam work in LA. At least that is the feeling I got after having my camera in service and dealing with ‘tech support’. Hard to even call it that. Their actual tech support people aren’t even allowed near a Varicam or so one told me.
They didn’t even give me an R/A number or any sort of tracking info. Just send it down and I’ll take care of it sort of thing. Made me nervous. They didn’t even insure it when they shipped it back to me. UPS guy just left it in front of my door. I’m right on a busy street too and it was in plain view to anyone driving buy. Brown box with huge letters saying AJ-HDC27F on all sides. Gah !
I guess Varicam experts tend to be working making movies rather then in tech support.
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The only real big deal is the lower noise of the new ‘H’ model. The Varicam has be discribed as many as being ‘noisy’. I don’t have a problem with it but, some do. There are a couple of good posts below that better discribe the changes
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I’ve used the Varicam at the top of Pikes Peak in light snow and rain without a single problem. Another cameraman I met up there had just used the Varicam on Everest. Not sure abut hot but, it sure does fine in the cold.
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Doesn’t really say all that much different then the F listing.
Interestingly they still list the ‘F’ model for sale but, only give cash rebates on the new ‘H’ model. It also looks like the free LCD deal is over on the F model. Are they actually still selling the F or is that just there to help move the last few in the in the supply chain at some big discount off list ?
The differences aren’t enough to make me ‘upgrade’ but, I hope this doesn’t change the support for the earlier models. I’m guessing if it uses a completely different processor then the firmware will be completely different as well. I’m still waiting on a bug fix for the dark compression setting. If they never come out with one because my three month old ‘f’ model is an outdated camera I’ll look elsewhere for my next camera purchase.
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You could just capture uncompressed with a Kona 2 setup or such.
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But, after you have rendered your compressed footage to uncompressed adding uncompressed ‘graphics’ will remain uncompressed and the qualiity on your final tape out should be unchanged. Again, it sounds like what your saying is the hardware ‘uncompression’ is better then the FCP one. Seriously sounds like a codec issue as the hardware one will just be a different codec processed thru hardware.
Are you still having the same results with the new FCP 5 versions of the DVCPRO HD codec ? Many say it is much improved.
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Hmm I’ve never installed anything besides FCP 5 as shipped and it has every DVCPRO HD setting and full deck control of my 1200 thru firewire built in. You mean support for variable frame rates ? It supports 24p, 25p, 50p, and 60p out of the box as far as I can tell. I haven’t actually used anything else so, not sure on the random rates.
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The biggest 🙁 of course will be when Panasonic releases a fix for this and I have to ship my camera to LA for a week or so. How this one got by qa testing is beyond me. Prehaps there just isn’t enough non volatile memory for more settings without a hardware upgrade ? Boy, that would suck. Hopefully someone didn’t have thier coffee one morning and forgot to include it in the to be saved list.