Mike Brennan

The major point of shooting BW in camera is that without the tell tale washed out colour in the highlights, your exposure for skin tones can go high key. With good monitoring you have excellent creative control, add grads and you'll be spoilt for choice as to how to shape the frame. Shoot for colour and you are throwing away another stop in the highlights. Previous poster mentioned noise in digital BW. Their eis no more noise in BW HD than colour HD. Mike Brennan

Looks like this effect also happens on HDW750 and SD cameras too. Is this a particually bad time for Cosmic rays? I wonder if it occurs on CMOS sensors? Mike Brennan

In London Nolan said outputs were limited to 1920x1080 444. Wonder if the Genesis aslo suffers from the cosmike effect? Mike Brennan

After testing four f900s and sending a tape to Japan, Sony have indicated that the random frequency and position of a flash of a few pixels in a frame is due to cosmic radiation. Why haven't I noticed this before? Has anyone else seen the effect? Comments? To test your HD camera do the following Setup viewfinder as normal. Camera at odb. Cap lens. Frame rate irrelevant. Start recording Monitor the picture through the viewfinder, not on a monitor Within 5 minutes you may see a flash as a small group of pixels go live for one frame. Replay to confirm. Mike Brennan

Detail off Try matrix off. Pola Don't use super blue or have any pure colour as backgound. If recording to HDCAM there is usually a one pixel line that needs to be blurred. Mike Brennan

Just played with Z1E, the 25cf mode is quite good. Same/similar motion strobing as f900 For slow mo you could also do 60i and deinterlace to create low res 60p Will put it through a post production chain to see how it falls apart..... Mike Brennan

Yes it does work! I'm asking if anyone is using it as a regular means of evaluating exposure and if so are there any traps. Mike Brennan

A metal detector can damage a recording??? Where is the evidence? DV HD or Digibeta Digital recordings cannot be harmed in any existing xray machine or metal detector. A hand held metal detector reaptatly passed over a tape for hours will not harm the recording. Hundreds of thousands of beta SP and Digitapes have been shipped hand carried for 20 years. Really we would have noticed something by now! and no matter how you crunch the numbers they are not within 1/1000 of the energy (even at 2mm distance) required to damage a digital recording on metal tape. Even if metal detors are run out of spec they really are low powered devices. The magnet in the speaker in the offline has more of a electromagnetic field. I've run a large hand held audio tape eraser over a digibeta cassette a few times... no damage! Here is a test of digital media and xrays done in December 2004 by i3A, a trade body for companies involved with any type of media, Kodak is one of the founding members. http://www.i3a.org/itip.html http://www.i3a.org/pr_12_15_04.html Seems this myth will not lie down! Mike Brennan

You need to make your money back in 3 years if you are in it for the money. If you are in it for other reasons like you want to play around and explore techniques ect then add another year. Beyond this it will cost you money and you may as well g o and rent hte camera for any experimental or weekend funky stuff. Indies will always consider f900 as the camera that shot Star Wars!. It has to be supported for at least 10 years by Sony in Europe. (early Mark 1 models have a minimum of 6 years of support life left) The critical factor is good local Sony support. (an oxymoran in most languages) Backup camera, fast turnaround, honouring warrenty ect. As an owner operator I have had to fight for this! F900 mark one isn't really the camera for owner operators....but the f900/H has better reliability so far. Lenses and accessories will always be worth something. If you can do without it don't do it. If you can't do without it then don't let the money get in the way! Mike Brennan

To simplify Actual size of the frame in pixels is the same. But the frame rate on most HD cameras and decks is selectable to match NTSC, (59.97 fields per second) PAL (50 fields per second) or cinema release (24 frames per second). Note that there are some cameras that have limited frame rates. Beware! Mike Brennan

Let me rephrase the question, TO SAVE MONEY have I got your attention:) is anyone regularly using a downconverted HDSDI signal ie SDI (not HDSDI) into a cheap SDI waveform? Saves renting buying an expensive HDSDI waveform. For use for monitoring exposure only, no vector scope use. Mike Brennan

The Erg EV80D is $4390.00 M.S.R.P. Is there a street price in the USA yet? Mike Brennan

Anyone using a downconverted signal to monitor waveform? (as an aid to exposure) Has it worked? Mike Brennan

Nolan Murdoch said that the production version of the Genisis will be 14bit. In general Sony are going 14 bit. (even the FX and Z1) Replacement of the HDC 950 and other new Sony cams will probably have 14bit AD. Mike Brennan

Yes like the first Panavision test with the f900 v film, which has stood the test of time it is compelling stuff. However! Parts of the Genesis test had gelled windows and a 12k (or 18K) HMI inside. The cinematographer chose to allow the scene outside the windows to burn out a little so that their was still detail visible outside. Why? Was the lighting tuned to get the max out of Genesis highlight or was it just the the look that he wanted. He had gel and a big lamp.... he appears to have had control over the contrast range of the scene. The film shot version of the same scene looked similar, but what would the difference be between film and Genesis be if you took the gel off the window? My point is in the real world give me gel and a 18k and I won't have a problem with highlight detail on any video camera! It was graded. It was upressed to 4k It looked better than HDCAM, but I have never seen HDCAM upresed to 4K either. The Genesis looks great and is very promising, as is a 14bit 3 chip HD camera recording onto the same format and upresed to 4k. Mike Brennan

We'll all have to wait for the hard data. It has taken years for the dirt on HDCAM to be delivered. Only recently a head of a camera department of a national broadcast admitted that he thought HDCAM recorded 1920x1080. I don't disagree with your opinions of the film vs HD and HD vs film tests. The Genesis test had scene with ND gelled windows and a 12kHMI as a key, yet the view out the window was hot and bleached with minimum detail... from my perspective it gave the illusion that the camera was holding more in the highlights than it was. More to the point why expose it that way if you have resources (gel and HMI) to make a better balance... The film example was also exposed in the same way with the same key and gels so the comparison itself was not unfair. For most I would say the important aspects of the Genesis are its film-like depth of field and low compression 10 bit recording, these improved (over f900) aspects are quite apparent to the naked eye with a taste for film. I can't see huge gains in dynamic range, just modest improvements overall that narrow the gap with film. I'll put the kettle on while we wait for the tech details from Panavision :) In UK Panavision are not making a song and dance about it yet, whats happening in the states? Mike Brennan

Consider that most daylight scenes of bushfires, explosions in films has the same colour temperature difference between flame and ambient light. Shoot the closeup 1 1/2 stops down on the wide shot if you are struggling to light the aera. Assuming there is action before the explosion it needs to be lit to within a few stops of the explosion. You can trade less ambient light for larger illumination of the area around the explosion by the explosion itself. Do a second/third take of the explosion , low high or wide angles, reflected image, framed by forground ect you'll probably get away with it in a fast cut. Plan a test with a video camera on the night. If you are UK based drop me a line I'll pop over with a f900 and slo mo rig always looking for stock footage opportunities:) Mike Brennan

Well obviously they are doing something different as it seems utterly possible, to the naked eye at least. The camera does not seem to have any serious problems with artifacts on vertical lines. This evaluation is based on examinations of the film-out test and hands on experience with the camera and a 24 inch HD monitor. I'm sure there are some artifacts in there somewhere but I couldn't see them and having shot HDCAM for 3 years and suffered artifacts from iQ Avid f500 Xpri HDLink ec t ect I hope that would see something as obvious as you suggest that would be a issue. In respect of green screen, lens fringing is a big issue with wide angle lenses both 2/3 or 35mm. Genesis has a means of correcting lens fringing to aid chroma keying. Is your agrument that a RGB RGB RGB array has a colour detail only equivalent to 4:2:2 three chips? I sugges that it is valid argument if (each of the 3) chips were the same size as the single chip. Sure 3 x 35mm size chips will be better than 1 chip with RGB RGB RGB array, but the Genesis chip has almost twice the number pixels as a 3 chip camera, (although we don't know how many are active) You raise a valid point, why haven't there been digital cameras using 35mm lenses before? The simple answer is that there was no money in developing a single chip of PAL or NTSC broadcast quality. 7 years ago who would have bought such a camera? Broadcasters? who would then have to buy new lenses? Those with 35mm lenses eager to move away from 35mm film to PAL quality video? Was the technology even available a decade ago to make, in large numbers a 35mm format ccd chip? If so why didn't the still photography world do it? Sony and Ikegami's first HD cameras had prisms. Of course they would have prefered a single chip and 35mm lenses. Your premise that because it hasn't been done before is an indicator that it shouldn't work now ignores the progress in A/D chip minaturisation ect and economies of scale that exist now that did not exist a decade ago. This "crap" that you refer actually works. Nikon is making 90000 single chip "crap" cameras (just one model!) a month. A study by Info trends/CAP released this week predicts digital camera revenue will reach US $24 billion this year. Sony and Sumsung did a deal this week to share the 24000 patents they have between them. Evidence of progress! But seeing is believing so book yourself into a Genesis demo. Are Sony playing tricks with numbers and doing a dodgey shuffle, probably, but no one on this forum is saying that Genesis is as pure as the driven snow. Mike Brennan

Well if this is a top notch pro job that you are trying to do..... I would discourage you of professionally shooting anything on the HDV camera. Jungles are dark, occasioanally disected by hard rays of sunlight. Detail everywhere. Precise exposure and monitoring needed. If you shoot on f900 or 750 ect once you are back in the edit you will forget about the hardship of extra weight and cost . If you shoot on HDV you will be making excuses and kicking yourself. Archive value of your material will be zip compared to the next crew who shoot on higher quality system. Do you think BBC natural history will buy HDV footage? As an organisation they don't even acccept 720p except for slo mo of wildlife.... On the other hand if expectations are low because the budget is low..... Mike Brennan

How many f900s in existance. Mike Brennan

How many f900s out there... Mike Brennan

Set shutter to clearscan, dial in 1/60th and you'll solve the 60HZ issue. Looks like you have no excuse to shoot the best frame rate in the world:) Mike Brennan

Good points Phil, look at the design of the Arri 235, where have we seen that shoulder shape before!? The rounded shape has always been a better design for hand held than a flat bottom, but the film industry apparently hasn't been ready to accept design elements from video? Until now it seems! Call the 235 the "Handy looky Arri':) Mike Brennan

Yes flames are bright, you can even see them in daylight! For night scenes light accordingly. Mike Brennan

Jim, Sony have stated that the Genesis is rgb rgb rgb striped array of 12.1 million pixels. So there is no bayer type processing or in camera interpolation Whatever that active number of pixels (anybody know?) they are sampled to 1920x1080. Production model is 14 bit AD. So the combination of Single chip sensor No bayer filtering True RGB output at the sensor Relatively High number of pixels (then scaled to 1920x1080) 14 bit processing This makes the Genesis on paper the leading 1920x1080 output HD camera for those wanting a to emulate those elements of 35mm film production, born out of using 35mm lenses. Having seen its output on film in both the USA and the UK it is the best digital motion picture capture I have seen transferred to film. Has the sensor greater dynamic range than existing HD cameras? Hard to tell. However 14 bit processing and subsampling should have a positive effect on putting more highlight detail to tape. So although the above tech specs have existed for some time they have not been rolled into one camera. The next question is just how far will Panavision go in promoting it at the risk of drawing clients away from using their film cameras. Arri have already stated that the D20 is not a replacement to film. Maybe Panavision will follow suite, with the Genesis being a competitor to f900 rather than 35mm film? Summed up as "having your cake and eating it too". Mike Brennan