Mike Brennan

They have either done it on purpose to encourage use of decks, or it is a fault. Comparing HDSDI output from inboard output of HDW900r with the output from a Miranda or Evertz adaptor would be straight forward. Any takers? Mike Brennan

Confusion, posturing and adverts. Sony tech manual says HDSDI output option on f900r is monitoring only. Recent tests in USA with f900R do indicate HDSDI output is noiser than HD deck. BUT The glossy brochures say the camera can be used to feed an NLE! Mike Brennan

Hi Jance, ask Panavision what software version is in the camera. Early f900s had diagonal lines in varying forms which were fixed with software and hardware upgrades. Was the camera connected to mains power? In an older building? Could a earht loop have been created beteen camera monitor or sound department? Was the camera shipped to you on Fedex UPS ect This kind of handling often lossens a board whic can create noise in the blacks. regards Mike Brennan

Evangelous, I fear your test is flawed. You took frames directly from the HDSDI output from the f900R camera? This output is not full specification, and according to Sony and others it is noisier and as the tech manual says is for monitoring only. (I know the ad men say you can digitise from the camera, well you can but it is not ideal quality, usual Sony brouchure misinformation ) I know of one other instance in the last month where this has caused confusion. A Miranda adaptor or Sony HDSI brick adapter will produce "full quality" HDSDI from the camera Replay from the camera is to be avoided for digitising. Best test of (any) camcorder is to record then playback in a deck to a NLE unless you are using the camera as a feeder. Try Digital Praxis curves as anything from Sony with a "Hyper" should be used with caution. If in doubt use No 6. Mike Brennan

Hi Joe, lookout for noise. Remote head systems usually are noisier than fixed head cameras and some V14s are noisier than others. Focus with 42x is very critical for HD delivery. Don't expect to be able to operate unless you have had considerable experience using a joystick remote, a RMB 750, Sony recorders, and aerial work with a remote gimbal. If you do operate watchout for accidentally moving horizon control when you pan. I suggest going direct from camera to recorder rather than through HDSDI distribution. No warmup time for "gyros" Camera can look backwards upside down. Some V14s hae a choice of wide zoom, 22x or 42x. Choose lens wisely. Lens change takes 20 minutes. Older sytems have 950 camera which does not do 4:4:4. f950 is second generation which does 4:4:4 and 4:2:2. Latest version has the 1500 cameras which does 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 including 1920x1080 60p in 4:2:2. This has electonic doubler control on side of laptop, make sure this isnt accidentally activated. A Panasonic 17 inch lcd is ideal for HD work in a typical chopper. Mike Brennan

My predictions... RED camera will have a few bugs. RED post will have a few bugs. RED viewfinder will be OK. RED lenses will be OK Lets say that there are 100 fan boys on RED user, well that leaves a couple of thousand cameras in the hands of others. Introduction of f900, PD150, D20, Genesis have taught us that it takes at least a year for opinions about picture quality to polarise, with reality for non techies existing somewhere in the middle. Introduction of HD caaeras has had little effect on high end rental of film cameras. But the introduction of hundreds of production bought DV cameras destabilised the livelyhood of craft video cameramen, especially owner operators. Can we draw a comparison with RED? The unknow factor with RED is the stated production capability of 700 cameras per month, available to a high end market. Thats one new 4K camera every 18 minutes or so, Monday to Friday or about as long as you wait for a Pizza! It is this manufacturing specification that is more likely to have an impact in our day to day working life than bayer patterns and cmos noise. Mike Brennan

Anyone have a list of feature films shot with the D20? Can't find one on the Arri website. Mike Brennan

There is a summary here that I wrote. http://www.hd24.com/shooting_from_a_chopper.htm Too many accidents lately caused by loss of tail rotor effectiveness with cameramen and photographers shooting out side door. Inevitably one ends up crabbing sideways, if this is done so that the tail rotor thrust is agianst the wind then the margin of wind gust needed for tail rotor to loos its effectiveness is reduced. The result of a loss of tail rotor effectiveness is often the heli spins 180 degrees or more until tail rotor is working with the wind. During the spin the heli looses height. So when shooting out side door at low levels it is important to consider which side gives you best performance for your low level shots. Factoring development of shot, wind direction and direction of sun is trickey and usually the cameraman and director and go for best sun and direction of flight. Remember that you cant shoot both clockwise and counterclockwise orbits from one side without heli flying backwards. Divers knife strapped to your leg or arm is a good idea if you are using additional harnesses. EASA (Euro FAA) rules state that you can't block exits with kit, this includes kit on the floor. Kit strapped to the seat is ok. Mike Brennan

Do you mean exposing for log vs Linear or What is the difference between log and lin in a post environment? Mike Brennan

Sony upgraded the optical block in the f900, this wasn't crowed about much as it could have adversely affected the goodwill and profit of the early adopters who paid through the nose for the early cinealtas. It came with a software upgrade that was also available to f900 mark 1s (the block wasn't available as an upgrade) So some people believe all f900/3s are the same when they are not. Reliable critical info about Dalsa and Genesis info is hard to get, but the Genisis has/is getting a 14bit AD upgrade, you could also say the NGC 23 is a 2/3 inch sensor variant of the Genesis. Lets hope RED are more upfront about what is and isn't being upgraded, it certainly helps move the product development along when we are all talking, but one suffers the slings and arrows by the anti digital crowd when we put our heads above the parapet. Good communication avoids more than one or two DPs making the same screw ups. If known issues or faults are in the open, rather than bury/ignore or keep it to themselves which I have experienced numerous times with Sony. It is pretty diheartening when they know of a fault but don't have a decent way of communicating this to the end user, other than the engineering bulletins which usually only inform of faults they have fixed, sometimes months or years after they have know of their existence! Apparently this is not illegal in European law. I doubt that this approach is a conspiracy or clever management strategy, they just don't value our job in the same way that we do. End rant. Mike Brennan

Sony are still selling HDCAM camcorders after 6 years. (1000 in Europe if you believe them) Digibeta ran longer. They drop prices just before they release a new model. I dont think that this is could be called saturating the market almost immediately. Their prices start high and then drop. (f900 was £75k in 2002 but a new f900 is £48k) Yes the market for Red type cameras will grow, and so not be fullfilled for a long time, but I do not think dwindling sales of RED one will be the catalist to make a RED two as that supposes no competition from other manufacturers using latest technology. If Red has an unbeatable sensor, and it certainly looks excellent so far, then it would buy time. No doubt there is a finite production resource. But capping orders due to lack of production resources is weird, why not take the orders and promise a Q4 delivery? Perhaps its a markeing idea? or maybe the specification is likely to change within 12 months? Mike Brennan

The concept of not wanting to change hardware from a business standpoint, is a new one for makers of professional electronic cameras! Existing manufacturers go out of their way to change hardware. Will be interesting to see what happens in the mid term. Mike Brennan

I care. Speaking from experience as an owner operator updating video cameras over the past 20 years, when I learn that a model will be discontinued or updated this affects the timing of the disposal of existing kit and purchase of next. Do you wait for the next model with improved features? Will my clients want the improved features? What will the new product do to value of existing kit? The point is will the second production run (if I can call it that) will be better or different than the first. For the majority of the industry who don't have a reservation this is an important consideration! So knowing why they have capped production (if that is what they are doing) is an indicator if second generation improvements will come to light in a new model. The question was aimed at anyone with experience making low ish volume production runs in the USA, in an effort to find out if there are legal/warrenty issues for a company building a new product to stop taking deposits at a particular date or to cap production at a particular number. Mike Brennan

Gently steering the topic back to the thread....why stop ist batch at x number? tax/warrenty/legal/ ect? or are they already gearing up for 2nd generation model Mike Brennan

If you are shooting non pal frame rate then use clear scan to tune shutter speed to lamp frequency. Local steadycam guys may not be able to cope with monitoring HDSDI 23.98. Crews expect lunch! The EU working time directive prohibits scheduling long days and although film biz is exempt in UK there is a trend away from long days after a car delivery guy who asleep at the whee, ran off the motorway and cashed a hugh train crash killing around 20 people. He was charged and convicted of manslaughter and jailed for many years. He had scheduled a couple of busy days for himself and knew he would be tired. Following organised crime targeting rental companies dont expect to be able to hire any kit locally in UK France or Germany at the last minute without allowing many days to setup an account. Mike Brennan

600 reservations may only mean 500 actual sales. "Locking down the program" does not exclude the notions expressed in my post and does indeed indicate a resricted number of first run cameras. I am wondering if there is a manufacturing/legal/warrenty/tax imperative to halting orders of the first model at a number or date. Need to get onto a manufacturing forum I guess :) Mike Brennan

Red website states that reservations will close in October. I friend has reservation number near 480, which he acquired at IBC. So by end of October we can assume maybe 600 reservations. Lets say around 500 actually buy a camera. Nice round number 500! I'm wondering if their are legal/trade advantages in USA to resticting the number of cameras made to 500? Is it more onerous for warrenty or duration of product support if they make more than 500? They could come out with a new model for the next batch of 500. Just wondering why someone would stop taking orders for a product, other than putting the price up after October. Mike Brennan

We trade off resolution with the pro 35 for 35mm dof. But with longer lenses is it worth reverting to a HD zoom and matching the look in post? Anyone tried matching pro35 with long lens narrow DoF unadulterated HD? Mike Brennan

I know these guys are future users of the Dalsa, but the ASC BSC DGA (in general) decided not to use a digital camera in their digital cinema standards testing! They are of the ilk that have relied on meters not screens to judge exposure and contrast and have a bee in their bonnet about anything with the word video attached, call it snobbery. They will say the Genesis is a Digital cinema camera not a HD camera for instance. The subject of monitoring brings a lot of video baggage that is irksome and worrying to those DPs with little video experience. Digital Cinema, LUTs RGB is more Hollywood than "HD" But worth bearing in mind when referring to quotes from DPs as there are two camps, those that have used light meters and those who never will. Give me as many monitoring options as possible. Mike Brennan

Is it possible that the legal action you refer to is something to do with something written about you on this forum? Mike Brennan

Thats the idea, to see it in the field. Is a overscanned 4k on a 1920x1080 display an option? i guess it is asking too much from a small camera body, is there a device that can do it live? Mike Brennan

James, Unless you dont need a TV or theatrical release, it is not a good idea to shoot movies in 720 60p just because there is a dvd distribution format to support it. Most 720p subjects are shot 24p becasuse the production team like the flicker, shooting and screening 60p a la showscan needs the audience to accept less flicker. This will happen over time not overnight. You are wrong about the 200 being the only multiformat camera (or camcorder for that matter) Sony dont have to "hold out" they have one or two pro models already. You are shooting yourself in both feet when you you conclude your argument that producers can choose the resolution that best suites their needs by using multiformat cameras, because the cameras you mention only have 720p or less sensors and upconvert to 1080i! Quick stop the bleeding:) Mike brennan

Comparing numbers for uncompressed 4K output RED states uncompressed RAW is 323MB/s @24fps 12bit linear. Dalsa states reconstructed 4k is 1.2Gigbytes 12bit per channel. Do I understand that the RED RAW at 323MB/s is bayer pattern uncompressed.(but not reconstructed) Will Red have a reconstruced 4k output available on camera? (in the hope of a 4kfield monitor you understand!) Mike Brennan

John best wishes, Mike Brennan

Here here. You could be very trixy and apply localised diffusion in lets say a medium closeup as long as the diffusion did not interfere with the edges but subject would have to ramin fairly still... Mike Brennan