Cool Camera Shootout

Zacuto's Great Camera Shootout '08

I recommend this video, which includes a good camera shootout.
The cameras/formats tested are:
35mm Film
Red One
Panasonic HPX3000
Panasonic HVX200 (with three 35mm lens adapters)
Sony EX3
Panasonic HPX170
Canon XH-A1
Canon 5D Mark II
Nikon D90
There's a long discussion at the start which you can skip through. This shootout I feel gives a good comparison of what you can get with these different kinds of setups, especially if you are going for a filmic or cinematic look. I recommend downloading the 1280x720 h.264 movie if you want to see more detail than you get with Vimeo's flash player. That's a good thing about Vimeo is that they give a higher-quality download option for their movies--just scroll down the page and look for the download link on the right column.

I'm most interested in the comparisons between the EX3, the HPX170 and the Canon XH-A1. The cheapest camera, the XH-A1, looked really good, and I really like how the HPX170 renders colors, more natural than the Sony camera. This test doesn't tell everything, by any means, (e.g., the EX3 is supposed to do better than its competitors in low-light), but it's a good place to start thinking about different cameras and what kind of images they create.

SD Cards in the Sony EX-1

This seems like some exciting bit of news. Apparently, folks have figured out how to shoot onto SanDisk SD cards with the Sony EX-1 and EX-3 cameras, instead of Sony's expensive SxS media.

The EX cameras are supposed to be great (see latest EX-3 review from Adam Wilt.). Excellent performance in terms of resolution and low-light sensitivity. Their 1/2" sensors work much better than the smaller 1/3" sensors in the Z1, Z5, Z7, HVX200, HPX170, and Canon cameras. The big problem for me with the EX cameras was shooting on the expensive SxS media. Like the Panasonic's P2 cards, these are much more expensive per GB than run-of-the-mill flash memory--e.g., $850 for 16GB of SxS Pro storage. It just wouldn't make sense when you are shooting a lot of stuff because the hassle of making sure all your footage was safe on hard drives all the time.

Well, this guy says you can use a 16GB SanDisk SD card for $60 that will do just about everything that Sony's $850 card will (the notable exception being over-cranking, used for slo-mo shots.) You just need a particular Kensington Expresscard adapter for $40 that you put in the camera.

It still doesn't make the the EX-1 ($6450 at B&H) a no-brainer for Link. That's still $60 to record about an hour at 35 Mb/s or 90 minutes at 25 Mb/s. The camera's more difficult to handle than the Z1 or Z5, or even Z7. Plus the Z5 has a 20x lens versus 14x lens for the EX cameras. And we are hardly ever delivering HD--so we usually downconvert in the deck, which is both a good and easy way to get SD footage from HD source material. If quality is what really counts, than the EX cameras are a real winner in the sub $10K range, but I think, but there are some significant drawbacks to the camera when compared to more practical, tape-based cameras like the Z5.

If you are seriously interested in this, then read the fine print here:
Overcoming the cost of SxS media: Introducing KxS.
Also, I don't know of anyone personally doing this. I would probably wait for some trustworthy sources to vouch for this before I committed to buying an EX camera.

UPDATE: Adam Wilt (a very trustworthy source) says that he's heard good things from Sony about working with off-the-shelf memory cards on the EX cameras in the comments section of this post on ProVideo Coalition.

I tried looking for the Kensington card reader, and it seems to be out-of-stock everywhere. Also read on a forum that it may have been discontinued. Not good news for this concept.

Summer Blogwad

I'm just dumping some interesting links here to check out.

Digital Rebellion: Recommended QuickTime and Mac OS configurations for Final Cut Pro
A list of recommended combos of FCP, Quicktime, and OS versions. Let's just call this why not to update your systems unless you absolutely need to. On the other hand, it sucks being caught in FCP 5.1.4 world while everyone else has moved on. That's more of a money issue than a technology issue though.

Digital Rebellion: List of QuickTime downloads
A continuation of the theme of don't upgrade if you don't have to. If you have to upgrade but it's not to the latest and (ahem) greatest, then this page will help you find the appropriate upgarde for QuickTime. Similarly, the LAFCUP has a wiki page on Quicktime updates.

Little Frog in High Def: APPLE PRO APPS UPDATE 2008-02
Good advice on downloading all updates to Final Cut Pro even if you don't intend to upgrade. The reason is that Apple doesn't make old updates available for FCP (unlike QuickTime). There are situations where you might want to upgrade but not to the latest version--if you don't have the update then Apple isn't going to help you. You can download updates through Apple's Final Cut Pro page--you don't have to upgrade through the Software Update control panel.

Final Cut User: Using FLVs in Final Cut Pro
Some good tips on using video downloaded from the web from sites like YouTube. I didn't know about using the QuickTime wrapper to help the editing of FLV's--sound like a helpful tip.

"Ten Tips For A Better Final Cut Pro Experience"
This is a good read. An experienced editor wrote down 10 good tips. Good write-up on media management. Also some interesting tips on multicam, amongst a number of other good ideas.

kenstone.net: Color Workflows With Different Types of Sources
By Andrew Balis
Want to work in Color? This seems like a good guide for getting footage in and out for your next go as a colourist.

Overview Video on Sony EX3
I don't think I've talked about the Sony EX3 because I think the MSRP was over $10K and that's my cut-off point for talking about cameras. But it lists for under $10K, and it looks like a good upgrade to the Sony EX1. I've been hearing about and seeing folks use the EX1. Seems like the XDCAM format on SxS memory cards could take off.

ProLost: On Clipping, Part 1
Very tech-y. But interesting to get a theoretical understanding of how video works. Folks interested in Red should read. It helped me understand why there is more grain in dark areas of video than in light areas. Also discusses important differences in how film and video represent light.

ProLost: Go Naked pt. 2
A good example of the guerrilla filmmaking model as described in Stu Maschwitz's "The DV's Rebel Guide." More interesting to me is that Vimeo not only streams HD, but allows downloads too of Quicktime movies (the film shown is downloadable at 1280x720). You can upload up to 500MB per week to Vimeo. An interesting way to share footage encoded in h.264--nice that it allows both streaming and downloading.

stockfootageforfree.com
Not awesome but could help in a pinch. I did about 10 searches on foreign countries, and the only video I got was touristy stuff from Cancun. Some OK shots of D.C., SF, and NYC. [via freshdv.com]

Camera Blogwad

I seem to have a lot of posts about cameras even though this is supposed to be a blog about post-production. So I've been saving up some interesting links on cameras because I didn't think they warranted a post to themselves on my blog.

First Look: Sony HVR Series
Good info on the new Sony HVR-Z7 and HVR-S270 HDV cameras, as well as their companion deck, the HVR-M35. More detail on how Sony is doing progressive recording and playback with this gear.

CompactFlash Media Test Results
The HVR-Z7 and HVR-S270 will record HDV onto Compact Flash memory cards. But there are some performance issues, especially with cheaper cards. The test found delays in starting recording, dropouts, and even lockups.

Another review of the Sony PMW-EX1 at DV.com (registartion req'd.)

Three good posts from Adam Wilt at his new blog at the ProVideo Coalition:

Three three-letter cameras: EX1, F23, RED
The new Sony XDCAM EX1 and the $250,000 Sony HDCAM SR F23, versus the upstart Red.

Whither The HVX200?
Adam says: "Does the EX1 render the HVX200 obsolete? Don’t be too sure!"

2008 FAA rules on battery transport
Frankly, I don't understand all of this. But if you're a production person who travels on planes, then you should.

Final Cut Studio Gets New Features, Leopard Support

Apple updated all of the apps in Final Cut Studio with official support for OS 10.5 today (the updates also work with 10.4.11, also out today.) But wait, there's more! If you call now, you'll also get support for some of the new high-def cameras.

The XDCAM EX format is now supported under FCP 6.0.2. So footage from Sony's PMW-EX1 is now supported. AVC-Intra, which Panasonic is using on its high-end cameras, is supported. And JVC's HDV recordings in 720p60 and 720p50 are supported. There looks like there is also more support for progressive recording from Canon's cameras and Sony HVR-V1. Check out the release notes for all of the details.

I looked at the release notes for the other products and nothing jumped out at me. It looks like Color got a lot of bug fixes based on the release notes.

Mike Curtis offers more detail and some commentary on the new features at HDforIndies.com.

XDCAM EX Codec

I tracked down some more info about the codec used for the new Sony XDCAM PMW-EX1 camcorder. As you can see from the table above, there are two general recording codecs. The HQ model has a higher maximum bit rate that is variable and also includes different resolutions--either 1920x1080 or 1280x720. The SP mode is basically the same codec as HDV 1080 line variation that Sony uses in the Z1 and V1. It is a constant bit-rate at 25mb/s at a resolution of 1440x1080. The advantage of working in this mode is that the signal is compatible with gear that knows HDV, like FCP or an HDV deck. So that while shooting, you could record to a Sony HDV deck or you could record with capture now in FCP through firewire out on the camera.

Interestingly, the SP mode has the same limitations on variable frame rate as other Sony camcorders, like the V1. That is, you can record 24p (or really 23.98p) but it it recorded with pulldown into a regular 60i (29.97interlaced) signal. So to edit that in native 24 fps, you need to remove the pulldown, which is tricky to do (especially so if you want to keep your timecode.) It looks like the HQ mode handles real variable frame-rate, recording the signal in the frame-rate that you set and not trying to squeeze (or stretch) it into 30 interlaced fps. All XDCAM EX media files have a MP4 (MPEG-4) wrapper.

No DV or DVCam recording. The bad thing about that is that you could have squeezed a lot more video on the expensive SxS cards with support for standard definition recording. Prices are around $500 for 8GB and $900 for 16GB now. With 16GB of memory you get as little as 50 min. in HQ mode, and exactly 70 min. in SP mode.

We are still waiting for a direct interface for importing from the memory cards into FCP. I'm not sure if there is any support right now for the files on the memory card and FCP yet, but hopefully Apple is working on getting a good solution soon.

Here's a direct quote from the rather large PDF that I got this info from:

The SP mode supports 1440 x 1080 resolution at 25 Mb/s,
which provides compatibility with HDV 1080i products.
Footage recorded in the SP mode can be seamlessly
integrated into HDV-compatible editing systems by
connecting the camcorder via the i.LINKTM* (HDV)
interface. It can also be recorded on XDCAM HD's optical
disc through the use of the supplied Clip Browser software.

New Sony Memory Card Prosumer Camera

Sony looks like it has a great new camera on its hands for the prosumer market. The PMW-EX1 records to solid state memory--a new format called SxS Pro. Unlike P2, it looks like there will be multiple manufacturers, which means lower prices in the long run. The EX1 should be selling in November for around $7,500 with two 8GB memory cards included.

For editors, very confusing what this means right now. The recording format is based on the XDCAM format, which is recorded on blu-ray optical discs. But EX1 tweaks the formats--different file wrappper and the option for higher resolution, a full 1920x1080. The new XDCAM EX format is not fully supported by Final Cut, but there might be some native support if you shoot in the right way with this camera--not sure. Also the camera has a firewire port on it that says HDV. The camera doesn't record in HDV but can it transcode? Lots of questions.

This camera looks like a giant step up from the Z1 in just about every way. If you want the low-down there are already a few articles on the web from folks who have been testing pre-production models. Here's a good overview from FreshDV of what info is out there about the EX1. Here are two in-depth articles, one from Nigel Cooper and another from Simon Wyndham. There are so many interesting new features on this camera, it's worth getting a broad overview.

I'm still not sold on the tapeless workflow, but this looks a great camera. I'm just worried about backup for this footage. Sony offers a unit that transfers from the SxS Pro cards to Sony's XDCAM discs (with some drawbacks as Simon Wyndham points out.) Otherwise, it's archive like you do computer data--either optical disc burning or stacking up hard drives on your shelf.

Sony Announces sub-10K Tapeless Camcorder

Was it 3 years ago that Sony and Panasonic offered their divergent views on tapeless workflow? Sony touted the Blu-ray optical disc as cheap storage with high-capacity, but offered more expensive cameras. Panasonic's P2 cards were solid-state memory, which allowed a smaller-form factor and cheaper cameras, like the HVX200. But those P2 cards are still pricey, despite plummeting costs for flash memory.

Well, Panasonic isn't wavering from its commitment to P2 with a bunch of new high-end gear, like the AJ-HPX3000 and AJ-HPX500, and the low-end HVX200 is still popular. But Sony is trying out flash memory with a new camera, the XDCAM EX

This is a sub-$8,0000 camera that records onto a new type of flash memory called SxS. Sony will sell SxS, and SanDisk will also sell cards for the camera. It records in a lot of formats 1080 at 60i, 50i, and 24p, and 720 at 60p and 50p, as well as standard-def. The XCAM EX records with the MPEG-2 codec, but I'm not sure what kind of bit-rates. They mention 18mb/s, which is equivalent to HDV. So no indication yet that the quality will be an improvement on the HDV format (one nice thing about the HVX-200 is that it offers DVCProHD, which is a better codec than HDV.) Like the P2, you can get an overcrank effect for good slo-mos.

The XDCAM EX should come out in the fall. The SxS standard was just announced too. So no word on storage pricing. I'm guessing it will start high, like the P2 cards, but I'm hoping it will fall fast with flash giant SanDisk also manufacturing SxS cards.