[Wolf Austad]

About the VF for 3100:

I’ve used both the Color and the BW Viewfinder on the 3700. Since the 3100 became available, I’ve only used the Color Viewfinder. The Color VF is good for focus (compared to other electronic VFs, which all leave a lot to be wanted, imho…). The BW Viewfinder does not allow you to judge focus with a reasonable precision. That also seems to be the opinion of other DPs and operators I’ve talked with who have used both on everything from newsy stuff to episodic TV to feature films. That being said: Some people use the BW VF and are happy with it (or they find workarounds).

About the ‘LUT’ in the 3700/2700:

The ‘LUT’ in the 3700 (and 2700) seems to be a gamma change that emulates a REC709 look in the VF when recording flat FilmRec (could be something more advanced, but I don’t know…). It’s ok to have as it helps me not get too used to the flat image, and important to be aware of, particularly if you use external recorders since it’s also active on the output. Although for 3100 work I haven’t really missed it much since most of my clients who want flat FilmRec/S-log/C-log/log-this-log-that for post color correction pretty much all prefer single chip larger imager these days.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

You are not missing anything. These cameras should be possible to match in 1080/23.98. As long as you don’t need 4:4:4, 24.00fps, 23.98/24.00 system setting, P10log output, variable frame rates, etc. that are 3700 only features (as you mention)

I’ve used both quite a bit, and the 3100 has some sort of noise reduction built in (adjustable) + a newer CCD so you might need to work the matrix a bit to make them look the same.

Might also want to dial ‘down’ the new improved audio bit rates of the 3100 to match the 3700 audio format.

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

I had the same problem. On two different computers. Sound is totally out of sync. Or more precisely part of the audio. Happened after upgrading to 1.4.8. So no clients in the room when looking at files in P2CMS… For now. 😉

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

The newer decks + HDX900 camera record narrower, 9 micron wide, video tracks. Your 130 deck records 18 micron wide video tracks and won’t play tapes with the narrower video tracks. Newer decks will play both track widths.

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

UPDATE:

So I have now confirmed from multiple sources + various testing by me and the vendor that the Blackmagic Design HDLink Pro Displayport and the Apple LED 24″ Cinema Display are a non-working combo. No word yet if this is related to the adapter cable, the Apple LED cinema display or the Blackmagic box. Or if it’s going to get fixed.

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

If the test speed I’ve heard from this new Panasonic USB 2 reader is correct it will max out the USB 2 port on any Mac, and that is faster than what I’ve been getting with a PCD20 or a HPG-20 or HPM110 or…..

Sonnet has posted speed numbers for the Qio on their web site. From what I understand those numbers are pretty real. The limitation for P2 apparently being that a standard PCMCIA port can’t go any faster with a P2 card, E-series or not. Panasonic uses custom chipsets for their readers, hence why f.ex. a PCD35 is faster. Verification readback should be very fast with the Qio, so it’s still possible the Qio could be the fastest solution for P2 download with the current generation Macbook Pro.

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

Thanks Jeremy,
The banding after rendering in Motion in Float or Half-float (tried both) is significantly reduced compared to running those 16bit TIFFs through Compressor or Color or Quicktime Pro, although not as smooth as viewing the 16bit per channel TIFFs in a Quicktime wrapper.

Maybe that last bit is a monitor issue? I only have an 8-bit display today (Apple LED Cinema), so I’ll have to look at it on a higher end monitor later…

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

The CCD in the Varicam and the HDX-900 (and probably other cameras too) doesn’t really read out the image with the same ‘blur’ as film when shutter time is 1/48 sec. The CCD appears to have a shorter shutter time. Try setting the shutter to between 200 and 220 degree on a Varicam or 1/40 sec on HDX-900. Downside is those speeds are not flicker free.

On Panasonic’s LCDs the image often look less stuttery than on other monitors. I’ve had this problem before, shooting 24P on a Varicam and the Director + Client viewing on a Panasonic BT-LH 1700W. During shooting and playback Dir + Client are all happy, then after downconverting there’s full panic and frenetic finger pointing… 😉

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

Thanks for the clarification 🙂

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

Was considering the KiPro for an upcoming job and looked over the training videos and the manual for the KiPro.

Here is a suggestion for next release:
Separate the Formatting menu from the menu where you type in Scene & Take numbers. Since the Scene and Take numbers will be the most accessed menu on a narrative shoot, I think it’s good to have the Formatting kept far away from it. If nothing else than for my peace of mind.

Since I’ve only read the manual + watched the training videos, but have no real life production experience with the KiPro yet I could of course be mistaken about this.

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based