Max Field Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 Just wondering the most commonly seen digital cameras on sets right before the DSLR explosion. Anything from top of the line to mid-range models you'd see on documentary shoots. Thanks for any and all input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Brereton Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 I was shooting with Sony DVW790s (Digi-Beta), DSR450s (DV-Cam), F900s (HD-CAM), Panasonic Varicam. Did my first RED One shoot at the tail end of 2008. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin R Probyn Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 Beta SP was dominant for many years when the more ergonomic 400A came out... that was a time when 16mm was still widely used and new camera people moving up from assisting had the choice of an Aaton/Arri SR or the video alternative the beta SP 400.. that was me back then and as much as I wanted a shiny new Aaton,and they were a lot cheaper, I was well advised that video was going to be the future for anyone starting out so I got a 400 AP (the Pal version) then Digibeta 700/709/790 pretty much ruled .. I used my digibeta for 15 years ! paid for my first house.. then HD tape era, Sony F900 variations .. Panasonic Varicam and HDX900.. ( I had the HDX900).. the last tape camera I owned.. solid state.. fleetingly had a Sony PMW500.. before ⅔ sensor work died a very rapid death. and now PMWf5..the 4K "hack" and subsequent sort of forced official Sony 4K upgrade rec option.. saved me having to sell that and buy a F55.. I did last year eventually buy a Sony A7III as a B camera .. love it..better set out buttons for video than previous A series .. AF is great.. and A9 size batteries at last !!.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon O'Brien Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 The company I work for used a Panasonic Varicam in 2007/2008. I saw a film they made projected in a cinema and it looked pretty good to me. 1080p I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Brereton Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 The company I work for used a Panasonic Varicam in 2007/2008. I saw a film they made projected in a cinema and it looked pretty good to me. 1080p I believe. In 2007/8 the Varicam was 720p. Not sure if they ever made a 1080p version Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted January 12, 2019 Premium Member Share Posted January 12, 2019 In 2008, you had the high-end HD broadcast camcorders, then the HD prosumer camcorders, the rise of prosumer HD codecs, and the switch from tape to solid-state recording cards and from CCD to CMOS -- and the death of SD. A popular camera from that year was the Panasonic AG-HPX500 P2 camcorder for example. It's funny for me because I was part of the initial wave of shooting HD for cinema on the Sony F900, shooting the first 24P HD feature to get a theatrical release in 2001, but by 2005, I was back to shooting in 35mm. It wasn't until the next wave of 35mm-sized sensor cameras with the Genesis, Sony F35 and then the Red One that I started shooting digital again, around 2008 for me when I shot two Red One features in the summer of 2008 right after I did a 35mm feature ("Jennifer's Body") that spring. Then in the fall of 2008, I started shooting the Showtime series "United States of Tara" on the Genesis camera (the pilot was shot on 35mm), did that for three years, plus the pilot for "The Good Wife" in the spring of 2009 (Genesis - they switched to F35 once it went to series) and "Chicago Code" in the spring of 2010 (Red Epic -- they switched to Alexa once they went to series). Then started shooting the NBC series "Smash" in the fall of 2011 on the Alexa and have been shooting digital on the Alexa mostly ever since. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Field Posted January 12, 2019 Author Share Posted January 12, 2019 These are all great answers. Earlier in the decade, the Sony VX1000 was getting some use for coverage on certain TV shows and home video releases. Does anyone recall a non-tape equivalent of that camera which saw use later on in the decade? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted January 12, 2019 Premium Member Share Posted January 12, 2019 In 2003, Sony introduced the XDCAM "Professional Disc" line of cameras. In 2005, the prosumer multi-format Panasonic HVX200 came out, which used P2 memory cards, and then a tiny consumer camcorder (HD-SD1) that recorded HD to an SD card. The HVX200 was fairly popular for lower-end TV shooting. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon O'Brien Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 In 2007/8 the Varicam was 720p. Not sure if they ever made a 1080p version Fair enough, as I'm going by what I was told, as it was before I joined. Looking into it more carefully, I realise the film was released in 2009 so may have been shot late 2008/early 2009. Just looking on Wikipedia I see there was a Panasonic varicam released in 2008 that could shoot 1-30 fps at 1080p, the HPX3700. But as I wasn't on the shoot, and have only shot film myself, I don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin R Probyn Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 In 2007/8 the Varicam was 720p. Not sure if they ever made a 1080p version Yes there was much gnashing of teeth by tape Varicam owners when they were being told 720p wasn't HD broadcast quality all of a sudden .. where as the cheaper HDX900 ,which I had.. which was also 720p but did some internal upres thing to "make it " 1080i and "real" HD.. I knew people who had Varicams trying to explain this to producers and pulling their hair out .. for the HDX900 owners it was a bit of luck as the Varicam was the better camera .. but we got the jobs with HDX900,s !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Phil Rhodes Posted January 12, 2019 Premium Member Share Posted January 12, 2019 I don't know if it's just me getting old, but frankly I'd be perfectly happy if gear slowed down a bit. A lot. It's great that we can all have practically Alexa-level pictures for less than I paid for my first DVCAM, but I don't think anyone's paying for a house with a camera they owned for fifteen years, anymore. P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin R Probyn Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 I don't know if it's just me getting old, but frankly I'd be perfectly happy if gear slowed down a bit. A lot. It's great that we can all have practically Alexa-level pictures for less than I paid for my first DVCAM, but I don't think anyone's paying for a house with a camera they owned for fifteen years, anymore. P Yes I think those days are over ..basically just about every single job I had for 15 years was dig beta 790..a few years I had the HDX900 too as HD came in.. I was lucky to get it just as the 700 4-3 sensor was being stopped.. I actually went in to buy a 700 and a very nice Sony guy I knew asked me to lunch.. he never had before in years of knowing him.. he told me in secret ,as he couldn't tell me in the office.. that the 700 was being canned and this new 16-9 sensor 790WS was coming out next week. .. there was a big stink as how Sony had suddenly come out with this new model.. no internet back then !! they had to introduce a buy back for recent 700 buyers .. also I had the only PAL one in Japan so rates were high.. but it also costs north of $50k.. but I guess if someone had bought an Alexa early on they could have made a fair wedge by now.. if there were doing commercials .. some sort of plateau has been reached I think now.. thats why the big manufacturers will push 6K sensors as the next big thing.. with s35 crop function.. then all the producers will talk about it over lattes in Soho.. then all the freelancers will have to buy one ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon O'Brien Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 So it's happened. Peak Pixel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin R Probyn Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 (edited) So it's happened. Peak Pixel. Down sampling from a 6K sensor.. to 4K can be argued as a "true" 4K image.. if you think 4K after debayer is not actually 4K.. I think its more a case of Peak what the human eye can see.. and how big even Bill Gates sitting room is.. IMHO this whole 8K thing is totally bogus .. with the exception of maybe CGI shots.. but thats about it.. build a specialized camera for those shoots.. like phantom for high speed .. there are a lot of cameras now that can produce very similar pictures given the same lenses and post budgets.. Edited January 12, 2019 by Robin R Probyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon O'Brien Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 its more a case of Peak what the human eye can see.. Exactly. Theoretically speaking it's probably possible to keep getting smaller, and more, information. But we are finite beings. And thankfully so! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Brereton Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 So it's happened. Peak Pixel. I think the movie world has arrived at the same place that the stills world did a few years back. 4k seems to be the sweet spot. You can increase resolution, but people can't see the difference, and you can make screens larger, but then people just sit further away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Phil Rhodes Posted January 12, 2019 Premium Member Share Posted January 12, 2019 It's worth a small caveat for potential new inventions. What I mean by that is that what Stuart says is completely valid for conventional cinema. Conventional film and TV narrative appears to be reasonably stable as an artform. I say that because it has successfully resisted several changes - 3D and high frame rate spring to mind, with HDR in the balance. It is what it is. It's a rectangle of picture that you view from two and a bit heights away, with unreal-looking 24fps pictures on it, and resolution is actually fairly unimportant. That's not to say that there might not be hitherto unimagined things of great use and value that could use a 16K camera at 300 frames per second (360-degree video is an example, though not a good one.) It's just that it wouldn't be conventional cinema. The two things might not be exclusive, so let's not decry the possibilities of new things, but let's accept that people seem to like conventional narrative filmmaking quite a bit, whether it's on TV or wherever else. Narrative filmmaking seems likely to continue in much the same way it has, whether or not some strange new world is discovered that can somehow make use of amazing new technologies on a parallel track. P 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy J Tomlinson Posted January 16, 2019 Share Posted January 16, 2019 I did Filmschool in 2008 and we used a Sony HVR Z1, but i also have seen the Panasonic AG HVX200 in the famous Fight Brandon vs. Ryan ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfa-Pa5IQLg ) and yes i also have seen the RED ONE back then which i considered a "Monster" i would never be able to afford. (thanks good i never bought one and sticked to film) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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