Kei Yokokawa

Hi. I'm doing a Phantom tech in Down Under. I had a chance to attend for Weisscam demo. The first thought is Weisscam is massive in size compared to Phantom HD. Even the digimag is not attached on camera, still bigger. If it is handheld, Phantom is a winner. Phantom has 14 bit raw and Weisscam has 12 bit raw. This 2 bit difference can be big issue in latitude range. If I were to shoot in outside location, I would go with Phantom considering its size. The good thing about Weisscam is that it has a function that you can add different types of gamma curves on to 2.4.4 HD/SDI image. If someone doesn't want to go through processing "RAW", this function is good and less expensive.

I just finished a TVC shoot with Phantom HD. I was a tech on set and had "Revolution Lens system" (similar to Fraser Lens) on the camera with max speed of 1000 fps. We had 3 x 18K HMIs, 2 x 12K HMIs, 2 x 6K pars running all at once to get enough T stop and we did not see flickers. It looks like it cancels out each other with all these lights. ( still flickers with single or two lumps) Tiny vibration could be seen through the blue phase only but it was not big enough to be a problem.

Thanks, Mitch for your reply. My understanding of how HD lighting should be is very limited as I have been raised in a celluloid industry. When using Phantom, you would have nothing to rely on in terms of colour and contrast ratio ,, ie the image on a monitor is not what you get as it does not show the actual raw file image. ( If you record HD/SDI image on to tape, the image on the monitor will be what the outcome .) What you can really rely on is the histogram chart comes up on the pc screen and the best you could do with it is to put the image within its range. Would "Play safe and let every adjustment be done in post" be the word for HD shoot ?

Dear everyone. I recently had a chance to see Phantom HD camera. The ISO rating for the camera is officially said to be ISO 600 under the sun and it changes in different wave length situations,,ie Cloudy day, tungsten light,,,,. I personally wanted to see what is its ISO rating for the starting point for DPs. I initially used a chart consists of black , white and 18% gray. Set my meter to ISO 600 and the shutter angle of Phantom is set to 360 degrees. A histogram chart on PC was the guide for adjusting the lens apature as well as a wave form monitor. After a quite few comparison, I came up with ISO 200 instead of ISO 600 under both tungsten lighting and sun. I did not have a chance to take a shot of the gray card taken into a post house, so this test was not 100% accurate. I was surprised with this result and I questioned myself if I did this test correctly. I would like to ask DPs who has had experience with Phantom HD, how they set the meter. Thank you