Steve Mahrer
Forum Replies Created
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Redflag;
Go to MAIN MENU #2, then to FRAME MODE, then choose 12-60 or 4-60. In your case you need 4-60.
See page 104 of the manual for details. PDF can be found here https://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/AJHDC27HP.PDFWe added the 12-60 mode for easy hand held use, the 4-60 requires the use of a tripod as it makes focusing / tracking objects very hard due to the very slow viewfinder update rates at 4fps.
Good luck!
Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)
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David:
Ouch!, a broken tape is bad news, but it can be spliced, just CAREFULLY.
You will need to cut off any chewed or damaged ends,(overlay them and cut on a diagonal to make a clean spice.) make sure there is no grease or oil on the tape, then splice the two ends together using slicing tape. DVCPRO HD is 1/4″ as is (was) 1/4″ audio tape, splicing tape is available. Stick the splicing tape to the back of the DVCPRPO tape and be careful not to have any hanging off the edges, trim if necessary. Upon playback the VTR will likely glitch / relock at the break point, thus you will loose a few seconds of footage, can’t be helped.
Did the tape beak in the camera? You should try to ascertain the cause of the problem beofre using that
gear again. Remember, in years past this is how editing was performed!Good luck!
Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)
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For those folks not able to attend the NAB and see the H.264 Intra demos at the Panasonic Tech suites, here’s a few facts:
The Panasonic implementation of H.264 is INTRA frame, ie. a GOP of 1. We use the Hi-10 profile,
so that’s HD at 10 bits, not 8. The quality of the 50Mbs H.264 Intra is subjectively the same as
that of DVCPRO HD at 100Mb/s. The 10 bit implementation of the CODEC provides very clean grey scale tonal values. The efficiency of 50Mb/s H.264 Intra provides markedly superior picture quality to that of long GOP MPEG-2 at bit rates of up to 50 Mb/s. Also there are no GOP quality “variablities”, no frame / GOP content interaction, and no issues or worries of concatenation with other long GOP CODECs, e.g. ATSC.This implementation of H.264 provides stunning picture quality and is optimized for field capture / editing purposes, the INTRA frame structure makes software encoding / decoding many times simpler as compared to long GOP systems as each frame is intra-frame encoded.
Long GOP H.264 is ideal for use in applications like content steaming or packaged media as it’s more efficient, e/g Blu-Ray / HD-DVD, satellite etc. An example can be seen where we are showing Blu-Ray playing stunning quality HD using H.264 at a mere 16Mb/s. Viewed on a 65″ 1920 x 1080 plasma you are seeing critical focus errors from 35mm transfers of major movies….
I hope this helps clear up the confusion / speculation around our implemtation of the new H.264 codec.
Cheers!
Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)
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Steve:
Have fun, the menu is similar to the VariCam, just missing the VFR / Gamma stuff. Anybody familiar with the VariCam shoudl feel right at home.
Shoot good stuff!
Steve
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Steve:
That camera was the AJ-HDC20A, it was a 1080i DVCPRO HD camcorder and as you state used 3 x 2.2M pixel (1920 x 1080) FIT imagers. The camera made nice pictures, but as it was an interlaced imgaer lacked any 24p features. It also predated the VariCam’s CineGamma features set. The camera went out of production about five years ago. Here is a link to the operating manual, it’s a 3MB PDF.
https://service.us.panasonic.com/operman/findmanual.aspx?model=AJHDC20A
Good luck, it’s a nice camera, let us know if you need help with menus etc.
Steve Mahrer (Panasonic) in Vegas!)
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Nic:
The HDX400 has Film-like 1 & 2 modes that are really very much like the Video-Rec mode of the VariCam. You have considerable control over the knee onset and slope, master gamma also. These Film-like 1 & 2 modes are almost identical to those in the very popular SDX900 cameras. I’ll try and dig out some gamma curves showing Film Rec vs Video Rec and the variablity they permit, (just not sure how to post it here….). The HDX400 does not support Film-Rec mode.
To be honest the best means is likely to try the camera for an hour or so on some charts to see how much contrast you need, where the knee should be, then start tinkering with Matrix and Colour Correction to get your palatte to where you need it. Detail should be limited to little or none to avoid the electric video look…
Good luck,
Steve Mahrer (Panasonic US)
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Hi Nic:
The HDX400E in Europe offers you a chice of acquiring at 1080i 50 or 1080p 25. Rest assured when in 25p, it’s real 25p, not that odd Cineframe “interpolated field” stuff. The HDX400 was designed as an afordable HD news camera / production camera, it has some novel features you may find useful and looks great. However, the 400 is not a VariCam, and thus doesn’t offer variable frame rates or true “Film Rec” Cinegamma features. The Cinegamma modes it does offer look great and are very maleable to ceating some very pleasing filmic “looks”. It’s tape is DVCPRO HD in 1080i 50 / 25p, sampling is 1440 x 1080Y, and 720 x 1080 Cr/Cb.
Good luck and good shooting!
Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast US)
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Bruce:
Actually, no. IMX is an I frame MPEG 4:2:2 profile@ML CODEC running SD at up to 50Mb/s.
DVCPRO 50 is a 4:2:2 sampled CODEC based upon DV’s feedforward quantization.
Although they share the same bit rate at one particular IMX implementation, they are
actually very different in the way they work.Steve Mahrer (Panasonic)
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Hi JR:
If this is a 27H, the newer version of the VariCam, we made some changes to the heat sinking of the CCD block, we actually have a more efficient heat sink system that pulls more heat out of the camera, that’s why it appears hotter near the front. Because of this, the 27H CCDs actually runs cooler than the older 27F cameras, FYI cold is a good thing.
I’ve used the 27F camera in Cuba, hot sun, 100 Degs + and VERY humid, others have used it in even more stressful situations, Africa etc. Quite honestly, I’ve never heard of heat causing a problem with any of the cameras.
Rest assured you should be just fine.
Steve Mahrer (Panasonic)
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J;
There is no Dolby audio processing on digital cameras. I suspect your tech sheet check list was referring to a mode switch on the older BetaCam Sp amd MII formats, both used Dolby C for NR on their CH1/CH2 analogue audio tracks. All modern formats are 100% digital, thus Dolby encoding doesn’t apply.
Hope it helps!
Steve Mahrer (Panasonic)