Mike Krumlauf

I've eliminated everything but the camera! The camera is just plugged via component on the side into a 55in monitor and nothing else but a lens and the noise still seems a tad high in lower values and against lights or edges of heavy contrast, those horizontal or vertical lines appear from T2.3 (which is wide open on my lens) and disappear at T4. Now what can I look at in the camera? If its just the gains being too high, how do i bring them down. If its CCD Clock noise, how do you calibrate the clocks/timers correctly?

Well i've found that the converter is not the problem. Even with the miranda box taken off the camera and monitoring using the component bncs on the side of the body, the noise still looks a bit high. Is that port that the miranda box gets its information from just a rewrapping of what the component outs on the side are getting or is it a totally different channel? I tried black balencing the camera a few times as well to see if that could get rid some of the noise to no avail.

Well ive tried 8 different BNC cables and still same results so Im leaning on that its an internal problem. Maybe the signal to noise ratio is adjusted (is that possible?). What internal steps can I carefully take to reduce noise in the video signal?

What steps can I take to calibrate the signal noise without damaging the ccd or a board in the camera?

Here is the vectorscope on the color bars as well.

Here is what the waveform looks like on the color bars on my camera. If anything looks strange, please let me know.

Thanks Frank for all your help on this. I'm sure using the panavision version without panavision lenses might be part of my problem, but small at best. I know that the pre optical filter is different from a normal 900 and the CCD is calibrated a little different to accommodate their superior primo lenses that they made for it back in the day. I know of one place here in Denver called CinemaShot which could take a look at the camera for a small price... I recently moved here from Chicago so my options compared to my hometown are limited in camera support.

I was thinking that maybe the CCD Gain amplifers might be a little high but I dont want to mess with them without knowing what to look for on the waveform. Would I just be looking at the standard waveform or an RGB parade? If i dont have a choma chart, is there something pratical i can point the camera at in my apartment to properly set the noise level in the imager? Would the pre amp board have to be messed with too or leave that alone? Are their specific user controls to readjust the clocks on the CCD or does that require specific tools only a tech's office would have? Again, im not at all getting the vertical line feedback when shooting HDCAM tape, but, i am still a little interested as to if the noise in the image is to high. I know the 900s are older cameras but at -3db and 0db, there should not be any noise in the blacks right?

I can connect the Miranda box to my Mac via FireWire and I have a program called scopebox. What chart would I be looking at and how could I tell if there were any abnormally?

I was going to say as well and i started a new post in the lens section that i know that my lens is "HD Spec". I've heard that the fujinon lenses are the best and sharpest for these cameras.. the glass inside my lens was made by canon and the housing is optex.

As am i believe me. I say that maybe the F900s are not meant to shoot directly live from an HD SDI via the HDCA 901 or Miranda Box because this issue traveled between 3 cameras and it was showing up in the monitor out BNCs on the side of the camera. More than happy to film with the camera via HDCAM as it was designed to do and digitize later.. the little bit of info in bit information i might be loosing is well worth fixing the problem. 8bit HDCAM 3:1:1 is just fine.

Seems like they are not the only ones doing this. When i was working at VER in Chicago they were in the process if enterting Chapter 11 and merging with PRG. Most recent ive heard is that VER is out of chapter 11 and the merger is complete with PRG.

Ive heard multiple things about how that port gets its info. Anyway, with all of my stuff going to web and me not doing heavy grading or keying work, even if its a 10bit signal, the HDCAM to prores is just fine for my needs.

I have an OPTEX HJ9.5x5 HD Cinema lens which i believe is the canon HJ9.5x5 HD ENG optics put into a cinema lens body. I had some questions to see if anyone here ever had any experiences with this lens as I seem to be getting some nasty purple and green CA from the lens in some situations on my Panavision HD900F (panavised f900) which makes me think this lens is not actually up to HD spec? I believe the OPTEX lenses were one of the first set of cinema prime and zoom HD lenses so maybe they are just at a different standard than more modern HD B4 glass. Could properly white and black shading and setting flare get rid of this problem or at least reduce it? Thanks

Thanks for the info Frank. I was meaning to post on here last night as I found a solution to the problem. It seems if I shoot on HDCAM tape as intended with the camera and digitize the tape via HD SDI into my KiPro, it not only gets rid of the line problem, but the image looks far less noisy and much cleaner! I guess the 900s just were not meant to have their live component out and HD SDI out be used as a recording feed. So this will be my process from now on. Very happy!

Are you sure its CA? Im not talking about the green and purple fringing.. im talking about the vertical lines and ghosting lines in the images.

Here is a more prominent example of the issue I wanted to share.

Hello fellow cinematographers, I have a very strange situation going on that has made itself seen between 3 different models of the Sony HDW-F900 camera. The first 900 was the original model with first version software, the second one I had was the slash 3 (/3) version, and the final one i am investing my time and money is the (once) beloved Panavision HD900F. I am getting small clusters in what seems to be bright high contrast areas of vertical line smearing. I have used only 2 lenses between the three cameras which was a POS Fujinon SD Lens and an OPTEX modified Canon HJ9x5.5 HD Wide Angle. I have spoken to severial camera engineers on the phone all over the country and none of them can pint point what this is, as if they almost have never seen it before which, given this camera's age and lifespan i find hard to believe. The Panavision model has shown it the least and its so minimal i can actually control it and it does not affect my image but in the back of my mind im thinking.. "this camera was well over 100 grand at one point, it should not be doing this". I have no idea if it is a CCD problem or a lens and CCD alignment problem as i never properly had the lenses on any of the 900s properly white shaded with a lens file made, etc. I've searched up and down google for weeks with not one close example of my problem. Some people over at DVXuser mentioned it might be "CCD Clock Noise" which is gibberish to me as im not an engineer trained in these chipsets. I have included some examples of the problem. If there is something i can do menu setting wise or with an optical filter in a mattebox to get rid of this please let me know. Also, I am not shooting HDCAM tape on these cameras. I am using a Miranda DVC800 box and recording via SDI to a AJA KiPro Mini. The problem shows up on the monitor component out as well. If i could just figure out what it is 110%, i could better understand how its happened. It just blows my mind that this problem has carried itself over 3 cameras.. does not make sense... I posted a full frame shot of the image, then two cropped pictures showing the areas. Pay attention to the street lights and the areas right next to where the lights end. I am happy to post more examples if needed. Thanks, Mike :)

I know what Im doing, I have engineering experience working at VER. Im just asking if anyone knew if the boards were the same as I havent seen inside the panavision model.

Hello fellow Cinematographers, This will be my first post on here (minus my introduction) and I hope its a good one. I have been having problems with the optical block on my HDW-F900/3 and was very lucky to find a mint condition Panavision HD900F body on ebay for cheap. It arrives tomorrow (very excited) and my plans are to remove Panavisions front plate and install the stock plate from my HDW-F900/3 which has the B4 mount and control panel (which panavision made as a remote with a lemo cable.) My question is, is this going to be possible? I'm thinking the one hurtle i might have is the control board that hooks into the panel on the front of the camera which is located below the cooling fan for the sensor will not be installed in the Panavision version so i will have to transfer that as well. If the pin connectors to these things are not on the mother board, im pretty much screwed. I know its been ahwile since these two cameras' heydays but I have to believe someone with some engineering background could help answer some of my questions before the camera arrives tomorrow. Thanks :)