Mike Krumlauf

Hey Bruce, I still love the varicam, its a great camera, but, I will have to say the Sony F900, especially the panavision modified version is superior than the varicam. The /3 version allows you to input custom gamma tables that are identical if not a tad more sensitive than film rec.. idk, too each his own as i always say. I love the way the pana/sony camera deals with skin tones and color. I do miss in camera speed ramping on the varicam though.

Thanks for the info. Again, fantastic work. I honestly think this film looked better than the average stuff you see done on an alexa. goes to show its the artist not the camera in many situations. I found another F900 film starring Paul Rudd called Diggers. I also know Me and you and everyone we know was shot on the 900 as well.

Hey David, just finished watching "The Quiet" on DVD with my fiance. The film is hands down the BEST example of the HD900F i have ever seen. Beautiful beautiful work! I really hope I can find a 1080p copy of the film. Did you use any specific settings in the camera? The noise seemed really really clean and the sharpness was very close to film, did you just leave detail off?

In terms of how I shoot. I've been getting (believe it or not) the cleanest looking footage by shooting HDCAM tape and then digitizing that into my mac pro as prores files using an AJA KiPro. These older cameras like the F900 or Varicam have issues with weird signal line noise around things like street lights and such. Even though you can get an 10bit signal from these cameras, doesnt mean they are that much better all around. I play it safe and shoot the way the camera was made to shoot and i work with what i have, more then okay for me. I dont do heavy color grades either, im one of those, get it in the camera kinda guys ;)

Actually Sky Captain was the F900 not the 750 https://theasc.com/magazine/oct04/skycaptain/page2.html. I'll have to check four lions out. Oh and Wolf Creek was F900 as well

Is there any footage online from this "Panacam"? Was it ever used in the field? i did find this as well via google http://www.samuelsonfilmservice.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/PanaCam-II.pdf

..and by the trailer it looks beautiful. Sad to see Redford retire from acting though. Hopefully ill have a chance to see the film soon. Nice to see 16mm still being used!

I think the closest thing we have in modern cinema to John Hughes is the film Love, Simon. Fantastic Film. and sam, your pic is from Medium Cool isnt it? One of my all time favorite chicago films. the criterion blu ray is beautiful! I had the pleasure do meet John Hughes' wife in 2016. She was such a kind soul, i told her about myself and my efforts so far as a filmmaker and how much her husbands films meant to me and she told me "if john was here tonight, he would have invited you over and you would have been up all night talking with him". I cried at that point lol.

From the previews i've seen the image looks great! :) also excited to see the little BTS bit with you talking about shooting digital. Im a nerd what can i say.

David, ordered my copy of the quiet. Will let you know what i think once it arrives. Also remembered that Soderbergh shot a film on the HD900F called Bubble, will have to track that down.

Wanted to make a post and see if anyone on here had the opportunity to work with/for the late chicago filmmaker John Hughes? Always interested in hearing insider stories about hughes and his process.

Because IMDB's list is going to be much more massive. ShotOnWhat is still in their infancy, already combed over their list.

I understand that Macks but you said you can still search. Back in the day the camera or lens was hyperlinked which brought you to a page on IMDB that listed all the projects on their website that used that camera... you cant do this anymore.. if there is a way to still accomplish this, please let me know.

Macks how do you search tech info on IMDb?!

True, i was just stating that by seeing my issues from multiple 3CCD cameras displayed on high budget features, it makes me come to the conclusion that the F900/Varicam cinema cameras of the early 00s, while offering a 10bit signal, do not offer a picture as clean and artifact free as the 10bit we are use to today. the 8bit HDCAM looks far superior digitized to prores by my eye.

Just looking for some films that used the HD900F before the genesis took over it's place at panavision. I know Spy Kids 2 and 3 used it and Collateral used it in spots, any other good films I can check out? Back in the day you could just look up films by searching cameras on IMDb but they removed that feature ages ago.. bummer.

So the quiet dvd is not from a digital master? its from a 35mm print scanned back to digital? I remember all of InDigEnt's DV films ending up on dvd back in the day like that and i always wondered "why"?

Got it! seems like everything checks out. I see the line that is suppose to be at 100 IRE and 0IRE are there. Thanks David :)

I know that it was a mix of both but judging off the american cinematographer article, it seemed like they used the panavised F900s a bit more than the vipers. Anyhow, two scenes which I know used the F900s (the scene when the body hits the taxi cab and they put it in the trunk and when tom cruise is chasing jada's character in the law building) both showed to some extent the same issue i was having with the lines by bright lights. I should add i just looked at some Varicam F & H videos i shot out of the HD SDI to the kipro and to my surprise, that line artifact issue was present in night shots around the street lights. It has to be just how cameras of that time were made. How can it be constantly popping up in every single 3CCD ENG camera i've used over the past 4 years and now im finding it in high budget films. David, i know you have quite extensive use of the Panavision HD900F that I have (trying to find a DVD copy of the quiet btw ;) ), have you ever seen anything like this/used the old varicam or f900 via HD SDI and not tape because like i said, these problems are non existent when you use the camera's tape decks and digitize later.. its only when recording the direct live feed out of the HD SDI.

I wanted to add that I recently sat down and watched both Youth without Youth and Collateral. Both of these films were shot on F900/3's (collateral being the HD900F) and both of the films had that line issue i am having! I could not believe it! Multi million dollar films and the lines are there in scenes clear as day. Both of these movies went out HD SDI to an HDCAM-SR Deck. Yet, films like once upon a time in mexico, star wars ep2, and spy kids 2 have the issue and those films shot on HDCAM tape inside the camera's deck. I am really beginning to believe that the HD-SDI signal feed either from a miranda box like i have or sony's own HDCA 901 is not meant to be used as a recording feed, and more a monitor out only.. seeing these image artifacts in major productions made me realize maybe this is just the way the camera was made and the F900R which has HD SDI fixed this issue? Doesn't help that 3 different F900s had the issue as well.. Sticking to HDCAM tape and digitizing that to prores sounds like the fail safe way to go. :) And just to clear something up.. when the problem is showing on films shot with Zeiss digiprimes and Panavision digital primos, i have to rule out that its a lens issue. I know my Optex lens is nowhere near the quality of glass as either of those lenses but its still "HD Spec". The reason I mention this is because i thought maybe it was a strange artifact from the lens not resolving lines of information or something from the CCD block.

I have a Panavision HD900F (Sony F900) and I wanted to check that everything was working correctly in the camera. I recorded the camera's internal color bars from the miranda dvc800 back to an AJA kipro mini. I fed that prores file into scopebox to see how it looked on the waveform and I wanted to see if someone knew if those "tear drop" lines are normal?

I've owned my share of cameras and I guess this would be a fun place to post all of them. This list is from 2003-present so please excuse the length. I put a little "*" by my favorites. Currently Own -*Panavision HD900F (panavised Sony F900/3) [i did some modifications of my own to get the camera back to accepting B4 glass given I dont have PV glass] -Optex HJ9x5.5 HD Cine Zoom Lens B4 (lens used with Panavision camera) -GoPro Hero 5 Black w/ Karma gimble -GoProHero3 -JVC GR-DVM90U (the very first camera I got way back in 1999. Still works!) -Sony F900/3 (trying to sell as parts camera) Previous Cameras (in no particular order) -*Sony DSR-PD150 (my first prosumer camera. i learned all the basics of composing an image on this one. holds a special place in my heart) -Panasonic AG-DVX100/100A/100B -*Canon XL2 -Sony HVR-A1u -Panasonic HVX200 (my first foray into high def 11 years ago) -JVC HD110u -Canon XL1s -*Panasonic HDC27 Varicam (both F & H models) [The in camera frame ramping feature was my favorite thing! beautiful camera!] -*Panasonic SDX900 -Canon HV20/30/40 -Nikon D90 [my first "HDSLR". had it all of 7 days and returned it.] -*Panasonic HMC150 -Canon 7D -Canon 5D Mark II -Sony FX1 & Z1u -Sony HC52 handycam (used as a deck for my mac years ago) -Canon T1i/t2i/t3i -Sony PD100A -Pentax K-x -Panasonic GH1/GH2/GH3/GH4 [the GH4 is probably the best HDSLR i've worked with and im not a fan of those cameras] -Sony NEX3N/5N/7 -Sony F900/1 -Sony Z7U -Sony a6000/a6300 -Panasonic G7 -Panasonic HS9 -*Red One MX (the only thing i hated about this camera was it's boot up times) -*Sony FS100 -*Sony F3 [was able to get some "alexa-like' images out of this thing. beautiful] -Blackmagic Cinema Camera 2.5k -Blackmagic Pocket Camera -Nikon D3200 -Panasonic AF100 -Nikon D5200 I did a lot of camera re-selling and trading in my teen years to get my hands on as many different digital cameras as i could and i was very blessed to have a family who supported me in cinematography when i was younger. :)

it looks like the circular part of the silver b4 plate that outlines the back lens element is slightly warped. This must be the reason why. Bummer.

Panavision does in fact sell some of their older digital cameras like the HD900F. There is a company based in LA where Panavision takes their cameras when they are obsolete and this company in return sells them on ebay. I have seen a total of 6 HD900Fs go within the last year on ebay and I own one of them. These are modified Sony F900s though. I have never seen any of their film cameras for sale and suspect if you ever see one, unless its coming from panavision directly, is stolen. Here are some recent sales of HD900Fs on ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-HDW-F900-Camcorder-Heavily-modified-VTR-has-RF-issue-sold-AS-IS-for-Parts/302854390874?epid=100006943&hash=item468387445a:g:uDgAAOSwri5bfWgr https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-HDW-F900-Camcorder-Heavily-modified-working-but-sold-AS-IS-for-Parts/292692606989?epid=100006943&hash=item4425d6c00d:g:GIoAAOSwiXxbfWVg https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-HDW-F900-Camcorder-Heavily-modified-VTR-Has-issue-sold-AS-IS-for-Parts/292692610346?epid=100006943&hash=item4425d6cd2a:g:COwAAOSwfBFbfWcw

For whatever reason this lens won't lock into any B4 mount correctly. It gets about halfway and feels like its locked but im feeling like its not suppose to stop here. I tried both on my F900 cameras and a Varicam i use to have and the bayonet lock lands in the same position on every camera. Should I be worried about this? What can i look at on the back of the lens to see what might be causing this? The registration pin maybe?