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Flares in Digital Betacam Footage


Luka Stojcic

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Hi all,

Please forgive my ignorance on this topic, I feel quite silly asking this—I've finally gotten a VTR to transfer footage from my DVW-970 into a Decklink Mini and get uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2. I like the look of the footage a lot, but I'm confused about these flares that totally take over the scene:

https://ibb.co/KLd9hPm

 Would the solution be a lens hood? Or a filter of some sort? I'm assuming there's no way to get rid of this after the fact, but I would appreciate any insight as to how to eliminate these going forward.

Thanks

Edited by Luka Stojcic
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I had that camera ..  a pretty good beast and one of the first, if not the first to have a full 16-9 EVF.. with bars coming in from the side for 4-3..  but that star filter .. who the hell thought that was a good idea.. now living in Japan.. I fear it was primarily for Japanese TV ,which was still using that effect alot even into the 2000,s !!!

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Robin, it's cool to hear you actually shot with the camera! It seems to be forgotten these days, even by the people who made it; I took it in to Sony LA and I got the impression they had absolutely no idea what they were looking at. I know it's an old camera but it's not that old! Still trying to get the 24p board for it.

Yes, this star filter is quite baffling—I'm sure it has its uses (maybe?) but I'm coming from a DSLR so I'm still in the process of learning all of the Betacam's settings. I wonder why that effect was so prominent in Japan... how odd.

The DVW-970 is a lovely thing to shoot with, though I'm kicking myself a little bit since I can see jaggies in the footage; I probably should've got the PAL version, I'd assume the increased resolution would sort of take care of those. I love the DV look but I can't stand the jaggies.

Ah well. Live and learn!

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I shot a sitcom pilot on the Pal version in 25p. I was really impressed with the look at the time - we screened at the BFI and the image really held up on the big screen, with only the wide shots giving away that it wasn't HD. It looked a lot better than the Z1 footage from the second unit. 

I didn't use the starfilter though. 

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It was common in Sony Betacams, in fact it was in the original 24P Sony F900 HDCAM.  When I shot "Jackpot" with that camera in 2000, I pointed out the cheesy star filter in the filter wheel and the director wanted to use it for some scenes, since our tale was about the low-rent glamour of karaoke contests, and this filter was so commonly used in variety shows on TV back in the 70's.

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2 minutes ago, David Mullen ASC said:

When I shot "Jackpot" with that camera in 2000, I pointed out the cheesy star filter in the filter wheel and the director wanted to use it for some scenes, since our tale was about the low-rent glamour of karaoke contests, and this filter was so commonly used in variety shows on TV back in the 70's.

OMG that's funny! I shot with the F900 many times, I guess I never hit it for some reason when I turned the filter wheel. 

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32 minutes ago, Luka Stojcic said:

The DVW-970 is a lovely thing to shoot with, though I'm kicking myself a little bit since I can see jaggies in the footage; I probably should've got the PAL version, I'd assume the increased resolution would sort of take care of those. I love the DV look but I can't stand the jaggies.

The jaggies are due to interlaced-scan capture and recording, shooting 50i PAL instead of 60i NTSC wouldn't solve that problem. You'd have to shoot with a progressive scan camera. The NTSC DVW-900 had a 24PsF option if you installed a board for it. See:
https://pro.sony/s3/cms-static-content/brochures/DVW-970P_V1.pdf

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3 minutes ago, David Mullen ASC said:

The jaggies are due to interlaced-scan capture and recording, shooting 50i PAL instead of 60i NTSC wouldn't solve that problem. You'd have to shoot with a progressive scan camera. The NTSC DVW-900 had a 24PsF option if you installed a board for it. See:
https://pro.sony/s3/cms-static-content/brochures/DVW-970P_V1.pdf

No kidding! I stand corrected, thanks David. Good to know there's something I can do on that front.

And I've been looking for that 24p board a while now. Ebay seller said the camera came with it; it didn't (of course). If anyone, perchance, has a lead, feel free to let me know! 

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The PAL 970 was had progressive 25p as standard and 20% more resolution. From the brochure:

Film-like Images with Progressive Mode Incorporating Sony Power HAD EX CCDs, the DVW-970 (NTSC model) and DVW-970P (PAL model) generate progressive images of 29.97P and 25P respectively, delivering outstanding clarity as well as a cinematic look. In addition, the DVW-970 (NTSC model) can produce 24P images when an optional CBK-FC01 Pull-down Board is installed, offering film-like motion effects. Images captured in 24P scanning mode in the camera head are 2-3 pull-downed and recorded on tape at 59.94i field rate.

In the UK 25fps was preferable anyway vastly easier to post produce at the time. Even indie movies on super 16 were usually shot 25fps to avoid needing the more expensive Avid Film Composer.

I prefered the (pal) 970  the first varicam at the time. It was pretty close in terms of resolution but 10 bit with less compression compared to the 8 bit DVCPRO

 

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8 minutes ago, Phil Connolly said:

 

I prefered the (pal) 970  the first varicam at the time. It was pretty close in terms of resolution but 10 bit with less compression compared to the 8 bit DVCPRO

 

My first feature I shot with a varicam. The Digibeta was always a superior image. The client just wanted 720p and DV editing. 

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6 minutes ago, Tyler Purcell said:

My first feature I shot with a varicam. The Digibeta was always a superior image. The client just wanted 720p and DV editing. 

I found the same, a few early HD cameras were worse then good SD cameras. But clients wanted HD cos its HD innit. The Z1 was very popular around the time and it was pretty grim as well.

 

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