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That was a nice post Kiwi, but how did we get on the topic of consumers and HD? The Panasonic camera mentioned is MiniDV and can shoot 24p as well as a standard (NTSC) 29.97fps. Many people, at least indie filmmakers, like shooting in "frame", progressive, or even PAL (talking US shooters here) so they can have less "video" feel and more "movie" feel at least in the way of FPS and on screen motion.

Granted the highest quality DV footage I've seen has been stuff from an XL-1 and PD-150, but I can tell the difference between that and and what I shoot w/my work camera (Sony D-30 BetaSP) when comparing raw footage. Are the differences huge? Not really for normal viewing (stuff like compositing and the like is a different story). But I think most of the difference w/the tapes I've compared comes from the quality of the camera (and the $21k Angeuix lens ;)), not neccesarily<sp?> the quality of the format.

Well, now that we've taken this thread completely off topic... :D Obviously digital is the future and I can't wait 'til FW 2 is released and more pro decks start having Firewire I/O's. I'm all for anything to get rid of cable clutter. :)


Lethal
 
Why thank you, Lethal...

It might have looked a bit off-topic, but a HD camera was mentioned a bit beforehand - jello talked about the 24P (a new cinematography standard used in the latest motion picture technology - I benchtested the Sony 24P a few years ago, and it was then priced around £200,000. Yikes! Not only was it used for Star Wars II, but it is also used in shows such as Farscape).

What I failed to do - and jumped the gun a little in the process - was to realise that different companies sometimes have different serial codes for their products in other countries (remember the Performa series of Power Macs? It was also known by other serial codes, such as just the plain old Power Mac, or LC series). And I therefore didn't know that the Panasonic 24P was a consumer item...

But I hope I helped to give some basic shooting techniques to any amateur camera operator who wants to improve their end-product...

PS: Another quick hint for DV users - If you want to film in widescreen, be sure to buy an anamorphic lens that converts the image to 16:9. The image will look like an old western film in the viewfinder, but when you convert it to widescreen in post, you'll be using another 100 lines resolution (because if you were to just use the widescreen function on the camera, you would lose 50 lines resolution top and bottom of frame to "letterbox" it).

And to add to the complete deviation from topic - Lethal, have you heard about the latest IMX camcorder from Sony, which is the same size and shape of the SX and DigiBeta cameras (and backward-compatible with Standard, SP, SX and Digital Betacam formats as well as it's own IMX MPEG recording format), with the added extra of dual-recording (via the usual tape format, and an onboard removable hot-swappable FireWire hard drive - with up to a 4 hour recording capability - that sits between the onboard radio mic receiver and battery unit)? Imagine taking a PowerBook on location with you, installed with FCP3 or Avid DVExpress 3.5, and a firewire cable. You record the stuff onto the hard drive, remove it, connect it to the laptop, and - hey, presto! - all your video is accessible to the computer, without having to wait for it to be encoded...

Priced at @ £35000 for the basic camera...

:cool:
 
Yeah Kiwi, I have read a lil' bit 'bout Sony's new IMX. I didn't know about the internal HDD though, that is very cool. As much as I like innovation and what not, part of me cringed when I first heard about it 'cause I was like "ah crap, not another format..." ;)

And again, that is another good tip for shooting w/many DV cameras (since they don't have a "true" 16*9 function). And if you can't afford an anamophic lens you can always "convert" the footage to widesceen in post by applying a mask or croping the top and bottom of the footage. And to make sure you frame things up correctly while shooting you can use tape to mask off the top and bottom of the viewfinder. :)


Lethal
 
Currently, I'm trying to convince the Head Editor at work to look at the new TiBook - and to purchase Avid DVExpress 3.5 (we use Avid Newscutter, and it's workspaces are 100% compatible - it even looks the same), instead of getting a load of Dell laptops and editing software at £6000 each.

Unfortunately, we've only JUST switched over to Beta SX in the last 2 years, so I don't believe that my bosses would be too receptive to the idea of buying into a new format...

...yet.

But, now that the camera crews are required to learn how to edit (albeit, roughly...), this would be an ideal solution for getting location news on the fly - especially from foreign or inaccessible locations.

But yes, it's yet ANOTHER outlay.

:rolleyes:
 
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