[Tony]

Freelancers offer the following commodities for sale time, knowledge, and experience. The latter two affects the day rate charged, as it is the compensation for the time and efforts the freelancers spent to acquire such knowledge and experience. A professional freelancer never stops learning and is constantly re-educating and training themselves at their own expense to deal with on going rapid changes in technology and creative techniques.

Regardless of the circumstances when a freelancer shows up at a shoot which they have allocated their time and resources to that specific client and time period the freelancer(s) at the point have turned down all other sources of possible income for that day. If the shoot is cancelled, the freelancer(s) are entitled to be paid in full for the full day regardless if a single frame of tape is recorded.

It is paramount to understand a freelancer

[Tony]

FYI CSI and Seinfield shoot on film not HD. Maybe that has alot to do with that mysterious sought after “film look”.

Digital or non digital cameras are only part of the formula needed to create an appealing “film look” the primary part of the formula is the skill and talent of the DP and crew via motivated lighting etc.

Equipment without creative talent buys you nothing in the end.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Did you really expect something for nothing?

The scam is commonplace and you should have checked online the reputation of the vendor before trusting them blindly.

Chalk this one up as one of life litte experiences where either you learn never to be taken again or learn nothing and get ripped off later.

Contact Amex and explain what occurred.

Thanks for spreading the word I sincerely hope others will be able to avoid what happened to you as a result.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

We don’t know the fine details but in some cases a manufacturer may offer heavy incentives to a production company or rental house to get them to promote or use an emerging product.

In somecase the gear is provided for free as it is considered part of the marketing process.

Shooting in extreme cold weather conditions should not be a great challenge for a robust camcorder but many can be tricked into believing this is something extra special.

FYI I shot non stop in Alaska in -20 F with extreme wind chill for over a month with six BVW-600 betasp camcorders and had none of the camera go down due to weather or moisture problems. It was amazing because none of the camera had protective covers. The lenses however were another story as the motors become sluggish as well as batteries not providing a full load.

I am more interesting in hearing how the media stands up to the cold and if dropping it in snow, water or rain will cause any failures.

Tony Salgado

PS- Sony will have to up the bar now and aim for the first camcorder shoot on the moon next.

[Tony]

Reality, pipe dream or here today gone tomorrow? Those are the questions you need to ask yourself, clients and the guy who shells out the hard cash to buy the gear.

While your at it start at the end of the chain “post production” and put the puzzle together starting there. What format serves your current post production workflow best not what dream camera might or maybe could fit in?

The biggest mistakes some buyers make in buying gear is not fully understanding the entire chain and workflow process required to deliver an end product not just camera master tapes or discs that no one can deal with effectively.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Budget, post and distribution are the questions you need to ask your clients before they are willing to commit to any HD flavor.

That all said one market may be more HDCAM entrenched whereas another might be dvcpro HD and yet another none of the above.

So I recommend buying every single camera and HD flavor just so you are covered for that one day job where a clients needs some unknown format or camera.

Just kidding do the market research in your specific “backyard” first before committing to any brand, model or format.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

HDSDI is a “clean feed” no menu overlays.

Use a script boy for transmitting the timecode to script supervisor.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

North,

Jeff Merritt addressed this scenario sometime ago here on this forum and explained what Panasonic intended and their view on using a camcorder as a digitizing source.

I will leave it to Jeff to readdress this issue again if he chooses. Keep in mind capturing via firewire does not only incorporate vtr deck control for digitizing application as it can also be used to capture to an external hard drive where there is no need for vtr control.

I think many end users by default have the understanding that capture via firewire also includes vtr control.

I personally advise against subjecting a camcorder transport for use as a digitizing playback source as it was never intended for such an application. The slow vtr transport along with having to manually cue all the takes alone makes such an application difficult except for those extreme crash and burn cases where no other playback source exists (ie News satellite uplink etc).

In the long run the end user or owner can decide if using a camcorder as a digitizing playback source warrants such a use and the user is willing to deal with the consequences of the additional wear and tear.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Capturing and using a camcorder as a playback device for digitizing is the last thing you want to do if you care about significant wear and tear on those valuable heads especially if you own the camera.

Panasonic never intended the HDX-900 to be used to replace a vtr for digitizing as the firewire out is intended for capture to an external hard drive or for those willing to do so a “capture now” input to
FCP for those down and dirty edit sessions. The misconception of using the camcorder as a playback device is a throwback to how owners of mini dv camcorders utilize their camcorders for playback devices.
This is the wrong thing to do on a long term basis for a professional expensive camcorder if you are seeking longer operational hours on your HDX-900.

Personally I wish the firewire output on the HDX-900 could be disabled via a security code to prevent a client from using the camcorder for a round the clock digitizing session without notifying the owner of the camera of the additional wear and tear on the heads.

Using the right piece of the gear for a specific application is the proper thing to do instead of trying to save a nickel only later to spend a dollar in repairs or upkeep.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Thomas,

The F900R is more ideal to be compared to the HDX-900 not the outdated F900/3.

In anycase looking at the cameras live or playback from the onboard vtr does little to understand what occurs in post after the image has been recorded to tape.
When push comes to shove the differences between the two cameras will be easily apparent in post.

FYI depending on how the manual knee (DCC in Sony world) is set up this will have a major impact on how much detail you retain in the highlights it sounds like the F900/3 you used only had a mild
DCC setting which could have impacted the results you were viewing when you compared the HDX-900 to the F900/3/

I personally would have used a Ecinema display to compared the two cameras instead of the Sony CRT monitor to really see the spacial resolution differences.

I recommend selling your F900/3 on the open market and get more than what Sony offers and even if you only get under 30K for it you will still be able to
buy the HDX-900 outright given the lower cost. You can’t lose out on this one given the price Panasonic is offering for the HDX-900.

I believe everyone has at sometime in their career suffered the pain of working with a lemon camera or piece of gear regardless of the vendor and it is a horrible place to be.
Without knowing the full details of what occurred I wonder why Sony did not offer you a straight across trade in for another F900/3 to replace your defective camera?

This clearly would have been the best thing to do to make you “whole” again. Did you ever ask Sony or your dealer to simply replace your lemon F900/3 with a working F900/3 as a straight across swap?

You did not mention the specific failures on your F900/3 in your post and this would have been useful for finding other users who have had the same possible issues.

Determining if the issues are unique to your camera body or a sign of an overall bad design is critical.

I work with the 900/3, 900R, HDX-900, Varicam etc and I can tell you that as the HDX-900 is a great camera at its price point but there are major differences in terms
of operational use (ie file structure), exposure range, spacial resolution, easy interface with existing accessories (ie RCP panels) etc that really set the two cameras (F900R and HDX-900) apart in terms of my specific workflow and expectations.

One of the major highlights the 900R offers is hypergamma which has to be used to really understand what it allow both creatively and technically for a DP or video engineer.

The 900R is not perfect in anycase either as I have discovered some items which need to be resolved and I have passed on that feedback to the rental houses and dealers I work with.

Only your clients and you can decide what best meets your needs and I highly recommend talking to several other owner/operators as well as major rental houses to describe their experiences with both
Sony and Panasonic service. You may be amazed to learn you are not the only one who has had issues with either company positive or negative.

In closing no one camera is ideal for all cases and I regret that you have had such bad problems with your F900/3.

I wish you the best of luck in resolving your problems and hope you can move on to better results with your next camera purchase.

Tony Salgado