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The F900R is more ideal to be compared to the HDX-900 not the outdated F900/3.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

[Tony]

You need the optional inversion board to be installed.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

I agree with John,

I would add if you only need playback for digitizing (I assume you are doing an offline edit where content is foremost not image quality) then the pvw-2600 will work.

The 2600 is a player only and the 2800 and 75, 1800 are recorder/players.

BVW 22 from my memory was primarily aimed as an in office player machine (ie for client reviews from betacam sp sources). Paramount to all machines is the vtr transport response times as certain models were designed for digitizing and use in an editing environment where as others are strictly playback not ideally suited for editing or digitizing work. Keep this in mind as you could end up spending much more time capturing from a slower machine than one which was intended for the proper use.

A cheap rental does not translate into inexpensive if you end up spending more labor time than budgeted and as a result you personally end up “eating the loss”.

The 1800 is my last choice as it is quite noisy but it is widely used for a offline digitizing source machine where image quality does not matter for the off line edit.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

I have compared the quality using a real time dvd recorder versus IDVD or DVD studio pro and the differences are major.

Granted the software version is very time consuming but the result image quality is vastly superior compared to a cheap dvd real time recorder which has used the composite input.

It is a ok solution for content approval dubs but the increase in noise as well as the softer pictures make it unsuitable for a final output.

Ultimately the end user has to decide how “good” does it need to be given the client, budget and schedule.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

The varicam has an auto white shading alignment.

So a rough outline is as follows:

1) shoot either a DSC cam align chart or evenly lite solid white flat piece of paper.

It is very important that the chart or the white paper be evenly light and completely flat straight across. This requires the use of a HD waveform monitor to properly view that the chart is evenly exposed as well as if the auto white shading is correct.

The ability of an HD waveform to see this alignment is critical if you wish to fully understand what is going on not only for this alignment but many other creative and technical setups.

2) Refer to the specific varicam operations manual for gaining access to the auto white shading menu and the specific steps required.

Alternative option:

1) Seek the help and guidance of the engineering staff at a major rental facility you might deal with and ask them to set up the camera for you or hire a qualified DIT or video controller on your next job and see if they can do the alignment for you.

If you need additional info or more inside hints provide your email address and I will respond offline.

What lens were you using on the camera at the time you saw the possible “white shading” errors?

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Tim,

Try Shooting Star Video in Foster City, 650-345-0919 ask for Jeff Regan

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

I regret you cannot copyright an idea at least not here in the USA.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

The sought after look you are looking for has much more to do than just the camera which captured the image.

You need to seriously consider the contributions of the DP and his crew which ultimately created that signature look.

Lighting, Lighting, and lighting are the key to a memorable image. It does not matter if the camera is digital or not as light always starts as analog.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Maybe another question to pose is will Panasonic address the RED camera with a model of their own and call it P2 Pink?

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Nick,

FYI the high end HD waveforms are dual combo devices and serve as both a waveform and vectoscope. Maybe you could return yours and upgrade to the full blown unit. However I thought you stated that you have never seen a HD waveform,vectorscope (ie engineering monitoring equipment) on set so why the heck would you own one other than to use it as a expensive paperweight?

It’s really sad to see you failed to really understand the root of my last post regarding the proper use of a waveform monitor and the impact on an informed end user.

John I apologize if might have offended you at first. If you would like more detailed information I will gladly provide that off line just provide your email address to where I can correspond.

Best to all,

Tony Salgado

PS- Nick,

vectorscope and waveform are one word unless of course you only got half a unit.