Premiere DigiBetacam Models?

Max Field · May 17, 2018

I see a lot of Sony DVW-709WS, DVW-790WS, stuff, but I'm assuming those were budget models?

I need the minds of the industry veterans here! Stuff major networks were using.

Thanks.

Tyler Purcell · May 17, 2018

The 790WS was the "premiere" all-in-one model.

Phil Rhodes · May 18, 2018

The was a DVW-970 which could do progressive scan. There was an option board to produce 3:2 pulldown on NTSC models. I'm not sure how this was handled on the PAL version but I suspect it was just shot and recorded at 25.

The 790 was the archetypal version, though. Seen and used everywhere, on everything, right up to the high end.

Robin R Probyn · May 18, 2018

Great camera.. the earlier digibeta,s (700) I think from memory.. had a 4-3 sensor and VF and would crop for 16-9.. which was just coming in.. the 790 and 709 the big improvement was a 16-9 sensor /VF that cropped to 4-3.. used mine for 15 years.. paid for my house.. and was the industry work horse for just about everything.. before HD camer along.. I even got £1,500 trade in for it.. on my f5 in the UK..(any pro Sony camera ).. I phoned to check if my digibeta ( gathering dust under the bed) counted.. and they said yes !.. it served me well..

Edited May 18, 2018 by Robin R Probyn

Stuart Brereton · May 18, 2018

I used to shoot all the time with DigiBeta, mostly 790 WS. It was the workhorse camera in Britain for a long time, and a lot of the big TV shows used it. Nice cameras, but long in the tooth now, and only standard def.

Robin R Probyn · May 18, 2018

Im pretty sure they had the first color VF too as an option .. remember having a lend of one.. but was a total eye ball melter and cost a fortune .. but it did exist ..

Phil Connolly · May 22, 2018

I did a short film on the PAL DVW-970 it looked surprisingly good, progressive scan - recorded using PsF so just split across 2 fields on the tape.

We ran it through a Snell and Willcox upconveter for a screening at the BFI. It held up really well, it could give the first generation Panasonic HD Varicam a run for its money.

In the UK most channels demanded Digi-Beta origination and these cameras cost in the $30-40k bracket and now you can get sub $5000 cameras that meet broadcast specs...fun times. When I was cutting my teeth on miniDV, I was always trying to seek out opportunities to shoot on digibeta - I normally ended up compromising on the loverly Sony DSR570WSP - the DVCAM workhorse of the digital indie film crowd. Thats the one in my profile pic - 1/4 black pro-mist and de-interlace in post and try to convince yourself its film

Brian Drysdale · May 22, 2018

A pity that the DVW-970 arrived too late, an editor friend said that on SD. it looked better than material shot on a F900 and then converted to SD.

Phil Connolly · May 25, 2018

A pity that the DVW-970 arrived too late, an editor friend said that on SD. it looked better than material shot on a F900 and then converted to SD.

I'd believe that wasn't the F900 only 3:1:1 colour sampling at 8bit. So digibeta's 4:2:2 10 bit is going to beat HDCAM in everything but resolution.

Brian Drysdale · May 25, 2018

Indeed it was, that's why it was a pity that it didn't come out sooner, rather than when SD was pretty much on the way out in the UK..

Michael Rodin · May 25, 2018

Ikegami HL59 had a better camera head than 970, with very solid color science, surpassed only by D-Cinema cameras like F35 years later, but no progressive scan, of course.