Jan Crittenden

Unfortunately while I work for Panasonic, I work for the USA, so I am not really able to help you other than to encourage you to make a phone call to them. Sometimes email isn't the most effective when going through the website as an interface. Best, Jan

Jake asked: i have been capturing some clips i shot in 30P, but they are being captured at 29.97 This is approriate. 29>97 is what the video is being recorded at on the the camera. >i keep setting the capture fps at 30p, but the clips still come in at 29.97. Thi is because in Standard Definition there is no such thing as 30P. We call it 30P capture, split the frame into 2 fields and then record at 29.97. 30P recording is only possible in the HD domain. But don't worry about it. The point is that the look of the video that has been captured in the camera at 30P will have that same look when edited in FCP3. Just import and be happy. >does fcp 3 not allow 30 fps for capturing? Yes it does, it is called 29.97. >also, are my clips still progressive? If you look at your footage and you freeze a frame, it is very clearly a progressive frame, so yes your images still have the higher quality of a progressive capture. or is fcp changing them to interlaced? This happened in the camera in order to record them the frame was split into two fields. AA BB CC DD. But the capture was A B C D, 480 X720 and then split. Hope this helps, Jan

For the most part about 2000 hours is about the shortest I have seen. Certainly others have lastest much longer. The primary difference in the tape tension in the DVCPRO50 cameras is about a 1/4 of that in Beta SP cameras. Makes a big difference. Hope that helps, Jan

Hi, Actually it is www.DVXUser.com And yes there are a lot of clips and such to see there under cinematography. Best, Jan

What Noah's post is about is that many see the 23.98 capture setting in FCP. They use it and that is a mistake as that is not what FCP is capturing. It is capturin 29.97. Once the footage is in and you have previously set up your sequence for 23.08 and told FCP to remove the 2:3:3:2, then you footage will be in the bins at 23.98. The setting for 23.98 capture is for the HD cameras that record 23.98 like HDcam. Many folks make the mistake and have randomly dropped frames. That is why he wrote it. Read it again and see if you get the same impression with this additional knowlege. I will point Noah to your remarks. Best, Jan

Hi, Here are a couple of additional links for the DVX and FCP. http://www.uemforums.com/2pop/ubbthreads/s...=&fpart=1#71128 http://www.uemforums.com/2pop/ubbthreads/s...o=&fpart=1#4815

The AJ-SD930 starts its life as strictly a digital machine. You must add an analog input card to activate those connectors on the back. That would be an AJ-YA931G. This will solve the problem and the choice for Video in will be active on your selct once the card is installed. Hope that helps, jan

When you make your dub, you must make it over firewire if you want the pulldown flags for extraction to be included. This would be vital for FCP systems. ite If the flags are not important and they just want a copy then SDI is fine, composite or component dub is fine. It is all 29.97 on tape. Hope that helps, jan

Hi, You know, I do forget that the XDCAM cameras have this 24P card option. But even so, these cameras are not in the original poster's budget range. My oversight. Excuse me. And no, the FX1 and the Z1 are not progressive capture for 24P or 30P or even 25P. They are interpolated frames. Strictly 1080i cameras. Best regards, Jan

Okay Phil which ones are they? Their newest cameras the FX1 and Z1 only do a Cineframe like thing and are not 24P. The only 24P that Sony has is the Cine-Alta, and frankly I assumed that $100,000 plus was out of our inquirers budget, sice he only asked about SD cameras. I did alude to them un the Hd thing in my response. But if you know of an SD camera from Sony that does a true 24P, jump right in and let us know. Thanks, Jan

You should ask the reseller if it has a copy of Magic Bullet for Editors in the box. If it does then you probaably have a US unit. This is the most impotant thing. Without that then you very likely have one that does not have a warranty. We do have dealers that resell to these smaller shops and these smaller shipls like Profeel, have an attractive low price, but I have yet to see an incoice from one that the total of the invoice doesn't add up to about $3400. Currently the US version not only comes with the Magic Bullet for editors, but it also comes with Barry Green's The DVX Book and DVD, which is a most helpful tutrial on the camera. This is only on the US versions, not PAL, not Canadian, just US. This promotion started at the beginning of January and if you did not receive it in the ibox then send me a private message and I will tell you what you need to do to get this valuable tool. hope this helps, Jan

Phil, From the camera head coming off of the back of the SDI output, the camera will send a 10 bit signal as you monitor the camera out. If you monitor the SDI switched to the VTR, it is after the compression algorithm and yes then it is 8 bit. In any of the DVCPRO50 machines, the SDI out will send a 10 bit signal so that you can edit in a 10 bit domain, but when you record back it is an 8 bit format, just as you say. Hope that helps, Jan

P Half Shut is the Half Shutter and in general that would be on, that is the way it comes from the factory. You can change the shutter in progressive mode by going to the Synchro scan shutter and going up or down within that shutter range which can/could get yu down to 1/25th. The p. HAlf Shut would not have been 1/100th, you would have had to do that, it would have been 1/50th, and P. Half Shut is Progressive Half Shutter, so it is a division of the Profressive mode by 1/2. The other thing you ask about is the V. Res: Interlace or Progressive. The camera is able to record 480 lines of or in PAL 576 lines of resolution. The Kell factor limits the amount of resolution a standard CRT device can display, in NTSC it is 360. In PAL it is lower than what the camcorder can record a well but then I really don't know the actual number. None the less, the v.res: is a a filter to roll off excessive resolution in the vertical mode. This is for shooting for Television release. If doing film work leave it in progressive. In either case you are still capturing in progressive just rolling off resolution in the v. res: interlace choice. What this extra resolution looks like is interline twitter, or aliasing, you are simply sending the monitor too much information. If your destination is film, just live with it and be assured that it will go away once you upres for film out. Hope that helps, Jan PS. You now have my entire knowledge base on the PAL version. ;-) I work foor the USA, and am vastly more familiar with the NTSC version.

Hi, 1. What other cameras are there besides the DVX 100 and XL2 that shoot 24p? none at the DV level, SDX900 at DV50 level and the HD cameras. 2. Where can I rent them from? I from NJ so I would have to find something close to tri-state area of Delaware, NJ, PA, or even MD. Abel Cine Tech or Tamberrelli in NYC. 3. Where can I find a Boom Mic kit and lavelier mics to rent. If you could help me I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks Same places. Best Jan

Go to the Panasonic AJ-SDX900 Website: http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/s...Model=AJ-SDX900 Then go to Where to rent, enter your zip code and you will find them. Hope that helps, Jan

Daniel, How it is possible to have different time codes on odd and even fields in a frame based codec? You may have seen some footage that was odd looking, and there are a number of things that I have seen people do to make their footage look strange, like extract the wrong pulldown, ie, remove 2:3 but 2:3:3:2 was recorded. Panning in any 24P camera can look strobey, if you don't follow good cinematography principles. Treat the XL2 or the DVX as if it were a film camera and the panning will be fine. Best regards, Jan

Looks right to me Mike. Best, Jan

Phil, I don't understand when you say that it is a good 25% more compressed. Would you explain that please? The compression algorithm between PAL and NTSC is virtually the same, roughly 5:1. I tend to agree with Mike on this one though, as the outcome between the PAL Unit and the NTSC unit in an NTSC world, it seems that the PAL is just more complicated to work with. But I am curious as to what you mean as I don't understand. Thanks, Jan

Well Phil, here in the US there is no law that prohibits a person from becoming an importer of goods and making his profit on the exchange rate between the two countries. In fact there is a law that protects a persons right to do just that. The reality here is that while we do sell a lot of AG-DVX100s, however there is another large lot of them being imported from Japan(the DVX in Japan has English markings on it) and Canada. This does set up some confusion in the marketplace. That said, the warranty is paid for with the profit that we make on the cameras, so in a way it really isn't all profit, it is really the difference between what we sell it for and what we paid for it from Japan. That difference is what also pays my salary. Point here is that if an additional 25% more are coming into the country than what we import, there is no reasonable way for us to support those without an international warranty, and at this time there is no such thing. Add to that, the fact that the way many of the unauthorized product is sold is that the vendor posts a most unbelieveable price to entice the customer to call, gets his credit card number and then starts to walk him through all of the accessories that he will need. At about $4,000 they stop, and will ship the camera. Most of the accessories that have been sold are sub-par and in some cases totally unusable. Of course these vendors have a very poor rating, but some unwitting customers fall into it and find that it is virtually impossible to return the unusable stuff. This is why I decided to add the Magic Bullet to the DVX, so that US customers can discern who is legit. Anyhow back to the problem, Asia should follow Noah's advise and use our B2B page. Hope this aids in understanding, Jan

Phil said: >Now, now. Let's be nice. Hi Phil, Since you said, "Lets be nice," should I assume, by your post, that that is not what you really mean? Let me just say that my commentary about the SDX was in response to the post about the Sony guy being quoted that the XDCAM camera outperforms it. I didn't bash, I thought the Sony remark to be a bashing remark. I pointed to outside references, namely the EBU and SMPTE to help educate about the stored (used to be recorded) signals. >XDCAM is a really good idea for people like... well, me, because I >incessantly shoot just a few minutes' worth of stuff which needs to be >cut very quickly. The ENG workflow for a disk-based format is great. >Lovely idea. Readable in a PC. Yes, very nice. I didn't say it wasn't a nice camera, just much more expensive. But you said in an earlier quote that you had not shot in either format, so how do you know what it is like to work from the XDCAM disk? Where is it just readable in a PC? PC with a blue-laser drive? Seen one of them lately? Sony sells a viewer so you can see the real footage, or you can work with the proxy. I believe one uses a VTR-like deck or the viewer to get the content into a PC, but I might be wrong. In my understanding from my NLE friends, one edits the proxy and then the NLE software (?) conforms the final output. Contrast that with P2. The P2 mounts as a drive, and in Avid or GV - and soon Pinnacle and FCP - the material is immediately accessible and editable. The process takes about 3 seconds to get started. You can also actually view the native content on any PC with a PCMCIA slot using our freeware viewer. One of those NLE folks showed 5 streams of real time video and something like 12 audios coming off the card. Can't do that with optical disk - it's an access and speed thing. >But while we're bashing, can I please question the concept of a >two-grand digital memory card that you have to give to the >client? As with all things, at the beginning of a revolutionary workflow transformation, there are some hurdles to cross. One of these is the concept of media-less, just as digital still cameras are media-less. The other is to embrace a more IT centric view, where the files on the cards can be off-loaded into any storage vehicle one likes, from DVCPRO tape or HDD to optical disk or the newer optical holographic devices that hold ~10X a blue laser disk. What we hear from users is the hurdles will be crossed, because the benefits are so clear. That said, please recognize that as it stands today, we are not marketing to the production community but rather the news arena. For that application, in most cases the memory card works just fine. It is a workflow thing, and a willingness to leave traditional work flow to achieve cost savings and efficiency. Nevertheless, I'm not here to argue for P2, but to defend the SDX900 against the not nice remark quoted by lonedog "A local Sony rep was talking at a trade show this week about XDcam and he said. " The 530 XDCAM eats the SDX900, it totally blows it away", the XDCAM is only a tiny notch down from digi beta". And frankly this is totally not true, the XDCAM does not just totally blow it away - on this particular camcorder, the 530, you would have to record in the IMX mode to come close to the 4:2:2 recoding of the DVCPRO50. (Spare me from going into why the front end is better - just check out the number of serious shoots done with the SDX900, and the glowing reviews, the latest being the four part mini series for the Sundance Channel, by Robert Altman.) >Yes, lovely, great idea if you're CNN and all the equipment and media >is company-owned, but clearly nobody at Panasonic ever wants to sell >another camera to a freelancer. When it is really ready to be sold to freelance production, you will certainly see and hear the message "buy here now." (Sorry, Ram Dass.) ;-) There will be a point in time where it becomes outstandingly evident that P2 and memory recording is the future. But then what else would you expect me to say, unless you understood the same details that mark memory recording as the future and you too would be in agreement. Best regards, Jan M. Crittenden Product Line Business Manager, DVCPRO50/25, Cameras Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems

If you are looking to get a fully featured editing deck from the SD93 under RS422, don't go there. The SD93 is a feeder to the NLE and nothing more. It is best under 1394. From what you are saying is your edit system, I would be more inclined to point you to the D950. Be aware however that the 950 does not play DV or DVCAM. Hope that helps, Jan

If the Unit has a copy of Magic Bullet for Editors then it is a US unit wil a US warranty. In general, any price under $3200 is suspect. What you don't want is to find out that you have no warranty once it is yours and you have a problem, and yes the service guys do check serial numbers before they commence the repair. If you want to check a serial number you can send me a private message. Please include the serial number and model number as written on the underside of the viewfinder. Best regards, Jan

This is the sort of stuff that one might expect from a 5 year old saying that my Dad can beat up your Dad. If it is such a hot camera, then why hasn't it been the most widely adopted format? It only costs $10,000 more than the SDX and you have to adopt a new format, so the deck to play it back in is also very expensive. For the price of the SDX and its companion feeder deck the AJ-SD93 you could purchase the XDCAM camcorder. Oh and then you have to add the 24P card. Sorry, this struck a nerve this morning. And if you want the skinny on how the I-frame MPEG compares with DV50 and DigiBeta, I direct you to the EBU/SMPTE report made some years back when the I-frame only codec was only a codec and not even on tape. http://www.smpte.org/engineering_committees/pdf/tfrpt2w6.pdf Look in the addendums at the back where they compare all of the digital formats. Hope this helps, Jan

HI, You make it sound like such a simple question, but when you tally up the effort, even if no one is being paid, is just huge. The wrong camera can make this just a waste of time and effort. There are only two cameras that should be in consideration here and that is the 24P cameras, the Canon and the DVX100A. These will look like a film capture, the other one will not, and the chance dropout in DV will not take out an entire half second or so as it will in HDV. Deciding between the DVX and the Canon, should be done by testing and seeing which one deals with Gamma and colors the way you want it to. The resolution differences between the Canon 16:9 and the DVX with Anamorphic or squeeze is rather small. Especially if you take the detail back to where it starts to look like film instead of video. So head on over to the local rental house and run a test or two. Hope that helps, Jan

Absolutely right Tim, no MB, it is likely Gray Market, thus no US warranty. But sometimes mistakes happen, the MB is put in there on this side of the water,so if you want to send me a Private Message with your serial number I can tell you for sure, and then if it is a US model and you didn't get MB, I will send that to you. Best regards, Jan