JP BEATTIE

I was facing the same problem recently (although I was using HD video) and I found this. http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial.html?id=1 I realise you may want to do it all in camera, but it's refreshing to know results as nice as this can be achieved in post. Good luck.

Thanks David, yes I thought this might be the case actually. Digi Beta is out the question, we have all DVCAM and DVC-PRO cameras and players. Thanks anyways!

I have a shoot to supervise early in the new year. We're going to have an effects heavy scene with two people in a car, and the outside being greenscreened and replaced later. I've been told we're going to be using the Sony DSR-500 DVCAM camera. I'm worried about keying the shots, concerning the compression involved with DVCAM. We will be using prefessional lights etc and a pro greenscreen, but will the video format stand up? Also, would it make any difference if the footage is captured via componant or firewire? Any help would be appreciated.

That's great dudes, thanks for the advice! I think the BVW300AP is a great camera, and I've been really pleased with the image quality <except for the above problem> That's really interesting the home made camera idea. I toyed with the idea of bypassing the analogue tape source but I didn't think it would be that successful.

Hi again, I've posted about this before but I'd like some advice. I own a Sony BVW300 AP with a great wide lens. I have access to Beta playback machines and component dubbing to DVCAM for editing. I film some short films and landscape material and I was wondering should I continue filming on Betacam SP or should a sell up and buy, say a PD 170? The picture quality looks great from the Beta camera, though when I'm filming in low light, I notice diagonal interference lines which seem to come from the motor driving the tape - I don't know what this is. Which is the best solution? keep the Betacam and repair it or go DV?

I gotta be honest, I'm not that sure on this either. I'm just saying what the BBC training says. If one of the more senior members can shine some light on this!

Well I could be wrong about this, but as far as I know the cameras' CCDs are 4:3 and when it's in 16:9 mode it is simply chopping the top and bottom portions of your screen and stretching whats left to make the widescreen mode. Therefore your losing some of your maximum resolution. Use a wide lens on the camera and shoot 4:3 - thats the best way to do it.

The BBC asks for PD150 to be kept in 4:3 mode because it is higher resolution. They can either arc it in broadcast or it can be fixed in post. I would be more inclined to shoot in 4:3.

Does anyone know much about the repair of Betacam SP cameras? The camera records fine and plays back with a good image quality. Though increasingly the warning light at the back flashes, and "humid" comes up on the LCD screen. The camera has been stored perfectly - when the warning light starts up, the camera wont let you record, it locks you out. Anyone with any informed guess as to whats up with it?

Well, I bought mine for a tenth of the price that one went for.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I have been shooting with a PD150 for about 3 years now, and I really hate the lens on it. Unfortunately, I haven't the cash to buy a large format DVCAM camera which would be ideal. I was offered this Betacam for very little money, and after shooting some test footage I was very impressed with the image quality for a camera that is almost 10 years old. Now that I have the equipment I would like to use it as much as I can. I work doing ENG and editiing on DVCAM, but I use the PD 150 for that - basically I just want this equipment to shoot some landscape/wildlife for myself. In your informed opinions, is beta SP still good enough for that?

Hi stephen, the player is a Sony Beta SP UVW 1600P. Is there any way of taking a good signal from that into a DVCAM deck, or into my apple laptop?

Hi everyone. I've recently bought a Betacam SP 300, it's a great camera and I got it for a fantastic price. I was wondering though, I will want to edit my stuff on Final Cut Pro and what is the easiest, cheapest way of getting the best possible Betacam signal into my mac? I have access to a Betacam player at my work, though I am confused - I was looking at it's connections and it seems there's only a composite BNC cabel coming out of it. I thought Betacam was supposed to be taken as a component signal with the three BNC connectors being used? Is there a way of taking the component out into my computer, or do I have to convert to say, DVCAM first?