Mike Brennan Posted July 20, 2004 Share Posted July 20, 2004 A Star Trek fan mag is reporting the crew are using f900.http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/6165.html Will this be for the whole series or just one episode? Mike Brennan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Sprung Posted July 20, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted July 20, 2004 Yes, they tested f-900, f-950, Varicam, and recording to HDcam SR for green screen, which is a major improvement over the older 4:2:2 version. The tests look very good. Unless something major blows up, the whole season will be shot on HD. -- J.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Phil Rhodes Posted July 20, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted July 20, 2004 Hi, Marvin Rush said: > If anything, it's neck-and-neck with film. Interesting. Wasn't it Marvin Rush who made some equally interesting but also opinionated and frankly incorrect assertations about video about this time last year, in the context of shooting Star Trek? Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Max Jacoby Posted July 20, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted July 20, 2004 Are there people who are still watching Star Trek??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenolian Bell Posted July 20, 2004 Share Posted July 20, 2004 Yeah this is a crazy about face from what this same DP said about HD before. He was really against shooting Hd before. It's probably more a situation where the producers decided we're shooting HD, either you like it, or we'll find a DP who does. So now he does. I guarantee you he'll be shooting the Genesis as soon as its available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate Downes Posted July 20, 2004 Share Posted July 20, 2004 Wait wait wait a second! You mean someone actually *watches* star trek? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Sprung Posted July 20, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted July 20, 2004 Yeah this is a crazy about face from what this same DP said about HD before. The last time we tested HD on Star Trek was a few years ago. I remember seeing those tests and the latest ones. There is a significant difference. The first tests were clearly unacceptable, these are good. HD cameras have improved. DOF is still a problem on the 900/950, but they can live with that. Marvin's a good guy. This isn't a crazy decision, it's a reasonable conclusion based on new testing. -- J.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Phil Rhodes Posted July 20, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted July 20, 2004 Hi, I seem to remember Rush being -extremely- dismissive of the entire concept, going out of his way to decry the idea and overlook obvious advantages. Now he's going out of his way to -state- the advantages. A complete reversal. Rick Berman: "Hey, Marv. We're going to shoot Trek on HD from now on, it's going to save us a pot of cash." Marvin Rush: "But I don't like HD." Rick Berman: "Do you like having a job?" Marvin Rush: "HD is great!" Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate Downes Posted July 21, 2004 Share Posted July 21, 2004 Anyone else looking forward to the new Battlestar Galactica? 8) What cameras did they use to shoot that anyways? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted July 21, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted July 21, 2004 Marvin Rush has been with them for so many years on all four series that I doubt he's in risk of losing his job. They'll take his advice pretty seriously although it probably wan't his idea to switch. But I vaguely remember Brannon Braga telling me that John Alonzo had them testing 60i HD for the movie "Star Trek Generations" because Alonzo was a big believer in HD, but they decided that the look of the movie series was too established to screw around with. But even then, they were interested in shooting HD. So this comes as no surprise. I was more surprised when they decided to shoot "Star Trek Enterprise" on film when it came out two years ago. Yes, I still watch "Star Trek"... Live long and prosper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filip Plesha Posted July 21, 2004 Share Posted July 21, 2004 I watch it too. The alien races all speaking english and looking like humans is a bit of a cheezy concept for my taste, but you get used to that. The characters are very well established and have personality and deph (unlike in the new star wars). The series is socially conscious, and touches many philosophical issues in an intelligent way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Rodriguez Posted July 21, 2004 Share Posted July 21, 2004 There is a significant difference. The first tests were clearly unacceptable, these are good. HD cameras have improved Is this still the F900 we're talking about? Just curious what's changed for the better, is it a more through understanding of what an HD camera can/can't do, have the post-production processes gotten better, or is it the camera itself that has gotten better? Are they using the new custom gamma curves that you can program with the CvpFileEditor for better highlight control? Just curious since it is STILL and F900 we're talking about here (I assume), and I don't think it's changed that much since it first came out. There have been some improvements, but nothing that I'd regard as revolutionary. BTW, are they recording HDCAM or HDCAM-SR (via a tethered deck)? I would guess that'd make a big difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Rodriguez Posted July 21, 2004 Share Posted July 21, 2004 Hmm, I was reading the article in question and Marvin is saying that there's some big "new" improvements in the MarkIII cameras-and that they rival film?? I mean there are some improvments, but again apart from customizable gamma curves, I can't think of anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted July 21, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted July 21, 2004 Attaching the F900 to an HDCAM-SR deck won't get you anything much better than attaching it to a D5 deck, since the camera can only send out 4:2:2. I think Rush is referring to the Version 3 upgrade, which also makes the DCC much more powerful (perhaps that's what he was referring to in regards to filming explosions and holding onto detail). But you're right in that it hardly seems a radical enough improvement in quality compared to the original F900. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Sprung Posted July 21, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted July 21, 2004 Attaching the F900 to an HDCAM-SR deck won't get you anything much better than attaching it to a D5 deck, since the camera can only send out 4:2:2. Is the F-950 able to output 4:4:4? I know they tested it, too. And there were green screen tests slated as 4:4:4 and 4:2:2, showing clearly the superiority of having full chroma resolution when you use chroma data to make luma decisions. Sony's version 3 upgrade goes a long way towards getting rid of that greasy video look, especially in the shoulder. -- J.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted July 21, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted July 21, 2004 I guess there are two generations of the F950 and the second can output 4:4:4 but the first is limited to 4:2:2. It's a bit confusing because when Sony announced the F950 and the 4:4:4 option, I was thinking "but I read that an F950 was used to shoot some of the miniatures in "Attack of the Clones"... so is it a new camera or isn't it?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filip Plesha Posted July 21, 2004 Share Posted July 21, 2004 As I recall, the camera used for miniatures did not have a recording device, they used a separate recorder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted July 21, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted July 21, 2004 The F950 does not have a recording device -- it's not a camcorder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filip Plesha Posted July 22, 2004 Share Posted July 22, 2004 Then it must have been it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted July 22, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted July 22, 2004 By coincidence, I talked to a Sony rep tonight who clarified that the early 4:2:2 camera used for the miniature shoot for Episode 2 was the HDC950, not the later 4:4:4 F950. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Sprung Posted July 22, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted July 22, 2004 I guess there are two generations of the F950 and the second can output 4:4:4 but the first is limited to 4:2:2. It kinda defeats the purpose of model numbers if there are bigger changes within the production run of a model than there are from one model to another. -- J.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Gross Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 You have no idea how much confusion there's been between the HDC950 and the F950. They are two different cameras, but life would have been so much easier if Sony would have used different numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Brennan Posted July 24, 2004 Author Share Posted July 24, 2004 "You have no idea how much confusion there's been between the HDC950 and the F950. They are two different cameras, but life would have been so much easier if Sony would have used different numbers." Yes. The f in the f500 denotes that it does 24p. But the f in the f950 denotes that it does 4:4:4!! The system goes something like this... If the Sony model has a HDC the c is for camera and is managed by the camera division. If the product has a HDW then the W denotes it is managed by the recorder bods (HDWf500 HDWf900) Also it is not uncommon for a different design team to make a new menue structure. This could explain why the menue from a mark 1 f900 doesn't work with the HDW750 or Mark 3 upgrade. Sony say that they change the teams to have a fresh set of engineers redisign systems so they design out (existing) faults. This is fine in theory but with the clever new ideas comes incompatability with previous models, at least at the operater level. Mike Brennan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Phil Rhodes Posted July 24, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted July 24, 2004 Hi, On a similar note, does anyone have any idea what "BVW" stands for? Or "DSR?" Or "AJ?" Ms. Crittenden? AJ seems to be DVCPRO gear, whereas my cheap and nasty camera is an AG, because it's straight DV. Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Wells Posted July 24, 2004 Share Posted July 24, 2004 On a similar note, does anyone have any idea what "BVW" stands for? B for Broadcast, V for Video, W is an ideogram describing the tape path ! (M belonged to Panasonic, so with Sony you're looking at it from the other side of the machine :D ) My theory. -Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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