Idris Elba (born 06.11.1972) is an English actor possibly best known for his roles as drug lord Russell 'Stringer' Bell in American show 'The Wire' and DCI John.
The range of HD equipment available spans many different formats, frame sizes, frame rates including 24p, progressive and interlaced modes, compression types and other factors. There are also 3 main HD acquisition tape formats, plus new technologies which work on various types of non-volatile memory sticks and yet another which uses blu-ray type disks. Some of the concepts are quite difficult to understand and information quite hard to disseminate, however, this essay seeks to make this easy and explain how to tell which is the right format and camera for your production. This essay will begin with an introduction to the various formats and distinction between Broadcast and low-cost HD formats, then a discussion of each format’s advantages and disadvantages. This will lead this into a simple discussion of HD post-production and HD grading before concluding on international distribution and making deliverables. RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB The first consideration when choosing a format is to gauge the needs of the programme. Are you hoping for an international sale or do you have international co-producers? This may dictate the delivery requirements of the programme, which may influence the post-production route and limit the choice of formats for acquisition and in turn the acquisition frame rate. Clearly the DoP’s choice of camera is paramount, but the basic choice of the format is critical, since shooting on an inappropriate format for your post-production route may burden you with unforeseen costs and this should be considered before you select your camera. Our advice is, that in every HD production, seek advice and be clear as to how you plan to complete your post-production before you begin shooting and select your production format and equipment around this. back to contents ACQUISITION FRAME RATES As a guide, all European programmes are produced at 25 fps, so acquisition and post are produced at these formats and it is easy. Just because you shoot at one frame rate does not mean that you can’t do your post-production at another frame rate – so although US and International programmes are frequently demanded at either 24 fps 30 fps, you can still shoot and post your programme at 25 fps as it is both simpler and cheaper, though you can obviously shoot and post at the required frame rate. Production at 24 or 25 can easily be used at 25 or 24 just by changing the tape play speed, so these speeds are more commonly used. Production at 30 is relevant only for use in the "NTSC" countries, and then only when the material is interlaced. 30 fps is also very difficult to convert to 24 or 25 and takes a very good standards converter, so steer away from shooting at 30 unless production actually ask for it and understand the issues. If the material is shot progressive, they will want a film-look so they can easily convert from 24 or 25 to 60 (called a 2:3 pull-down). Discussion of the international frame rates is important but outside the scope of this essay, so this will be left out so as not to scare you, though there is a final section on international deliverables for those interested. The second consideration is whether you have a particular post-production route that you would prefer to follow? If you are planning to use an HD firewire-based edit suite, such as FCP, then this will also limit the choice of acquisition formats too since some but not all HD formats permit low cost firewire-based post production. back to contents THERE ARE ONLY 2 BASIC TYPES OF HD EQUIPMENT In our opinion there are 2 basic types of HD equipment– Broadcast and non-Broadcast quality. This artificial distinction helps to explain the various type of equipment and their practical uses. The Broadcast HD formats are for ‘proper’ HD productions, dramas, documentaries and feature films, whilst consumer HD camcorders are basically high performance DV camcorders. The resolution of these cameras is higher than DV and some of the cameras have good, flexible menus and can perform surprisingly well. It may be a bit condescending to describe them as similar to DV, but they are closer to DV camcorders than to HDCAM or Varicam ones. So if you have an International co-production – you will need to use Broadcast HD, and if you are producing for the local market or a low cost HD format, then the cheaper HD formats such as HDV may be considered. Some P2 and XDCAM EX cameras fall in to a ‘grey’ category, which are neither one nor the other – more about those later ! If you are producing for the big screen either for HD projection or 35mm blow-up for feature release, then do not be dissuaded from experimenting from using new low-cost technology. Insist on a camera test from your rental house and shoot some scenes with lighting, textures and contrast that you plan to use in your production. Although the next bit will cost some money, we would recommend that you grade a couple of scenes and print them to 35mm and view the images in a proper viewing theatre. If you achieve your ‘look’ and the Director and DoP are happy, then the choice of production tools are appropriate for you and you will have won the confidence of your production team. Even if you are not producing an epic for the large screen, we always recommend a camera test for all HD productions, since the choice of camera format and camera head are not the only considerations – there are lenses, matte boxes, follow focus rigs, viewfinders, heads, legs and a wide range of other accessories to select in order to aid your DoP to achieve his desired look. A camera test will aid him in making these decisions and ensure that he is appropriately equipped to shoot your programme; it should also be a free service from your rental company and will engender confidence in the production tools, some of which may be being used by your crew for the first time on this production. back to contents BROADCAST HD FORMATS Broadcast HD formats allow digital cinematographic acquisition shooting in shuttered film mode (24p or 25p progressive modes) with film colour lookup table (cine gamma) to create a realistic ‘film look’. The shooting is also very similar to shooting on film as the camera can be supplied with normal film-style accessories including appropriate matte boxes, follow focus, bridge plates, viewfinder extensions etc. They can also be supplied in a documentary (ENG) style and shoot in a video-look (50i interlaced mode) with video colour lookup table (video gamma) with a similar setup to shooting on Digi Beta. The wide product range covers equipment that shoots in all of the different frame rates depending on the application. There are only now 4 high quality mainstream long-form camcorder formats that exist at present – In this, I do not HDCAM SR using cameras such as the Sony F-23, Panavision Genesis or ARRI D-20 which are not very portable and also very expensive – effectively they are not true camcorders either, but a separate camera and recorder which can bolt together as a massive unit. So for the purposes of this essay, these will be excluded, other than a cursory mention of them. The new range of “Digital Film” cameras, such as the Red one, Digital Imaging and others present difficulties of their own – more on that later. All of the camcorders in this category with the notable exception of the small P2 camcorders use the identical 2/3” B4 lens mount. This means that they can all interchange their lenses with the best HD zoom and prime lenses in the market. It is also worthy of mention that SD lenses are fully compatible with all Broadcast HD camcorders but do not have the speed or performance of HD lenses. In particular, they will exhibit large amounts of focus breathing (zoom effect when focussing – very noticeable with large screen display), barrel distortion (curvy lines at the extremities of the screen) as well as chromatic aberration (colour smudge) and lens ramping (iris change during zoom). Just because a lens fits doesn't mean it's suitable. Our conclusion is that HD lenses are worth the additional money; so don’t be persuaded to sell yourself short! Some new low-cost HD lenses have just come on the market, such as the Panasonic KJ16 HD lenses that VMI supply as standard on HPX-500 P2 Camcorders. Whilst being suitable for low cost productions, these should not be confused with the Broadcast video and cine-style lenses used on the larger camcorders, due to them being built to fit a price-point. All Broadcast HD formats are capable of being fitted with HD Prime lenses and many DoPs like using them for the shallow depth of field that they can produce. A shallow depth of field is possible with pretty much all HD lenses, as long as you have a suitably good DoP and are flexible as to how far in front of the lens you shoot the subject but the additional quality and speed of HD primes (T1.5) makes this much easier. 35mm lenses can also be fitted with a P+S Pro35 adapter to instantly create the same DoF as 35mm – there are disadvantages to doing this such the additional physical size, losing 1.5 - 2 stops of sensitivity and are also being prone to flare in bright sunlight. These can deliver excellent results and the ubiquitous ‘film look’ with ease but you have to cope with the problems of using them as well. back to contents HDCAM SR It is fitting to begin with the best HD tape-based format to begin with: HDCAM SR. Created by Sony to rival Panasonic HD-D5, this has rapidly become the standard mastering format for all HD programmes today, mainly due to its low compression rate with near loss-less quality and also 12 audio channels – this enables Dolby 5.1, stereo and multi-language versions to be recorded onto one tape without all of the messing about of separate audio masters, so that one version can become a master for several language versions – a great advantage. It is also used as an acquisition format for top top-end cameras such the Sony F-23, Panavision Genesis and ARRI D-21 (and can be used for Sony F900R, Panasonic HPX-3700 etc as well). Whilst these are being used for top-end features and the occasional drama, they are very much in the minority compared with the other formats and are of an order more expensive. The interesting debate is whether we actually need quality above HDCAM and DVCPro and this is an important issue to address. When you shoot on film, every successive generation of film print is an inferior copy of the previous one, so it makes logical sense to shoot on the best format possible – 70mm is better than 35mm and 35mm is better than S-16. With HD, most post stages are loss-less, so as long as you take care to use the best archival digital format between post-production stages, your mastering quality ought to be indistinguishable from your original rushes recordings. HDCAM and DVCPro HD have long been used for shooting productions that have been blown up to the big screen effectively, so although these better formats are available, not all programmes benefit greatly from their additional performance. However one caveat is that if you have a lot of graphics compositing or blue-screen work, then recording less compressed images is a real advantage and in situations like these, the additional data recorded is a real advantage and the additional cost merited. However, for 95% of other stuff, it will simply cost you more money – you decide ! back to contents HDCAM Of these mainstream formats, HDCAM is the most popular and well-established. It records 1920x1080 to tape (camera captures 1440x1080), is capable of extremely filmic image quality with 25p recording modes and cine-gamma and the cameras are made by Sony so controls are instantly recognisable to cameramen. The format has a product range, which can shoot at all of the international frame rates including the universally popular 25p and 24p progressive modes. The most popular unit in Europe has been the Sony HDW-750P which shoots in 25p ‘film look’ and 50i ‘interlaced TV look’ and this was superseded last year by the Sony HDW-790P which can shoot at the same frame rates but with superior performance. The old HDW-F900H was also replaced by the lighter HDW-F900R as the standard unit for shooting in all frame rates for either Europe or US markets and including 24p. Although there is a significant price difference between the HDW-790P and HDW-F900R, many claim that the performance of both camcorders at 25fps is the same – this is because they are basically the same camcorder ! Other cameras exist including HDW-730S (now discontinued) which is not capable of 25p ‘film look’ and only shoots in TV-look interlaced modes, though this obsolete camcorder is rapidly falling out of favour (it only shoots in 50i and also 59.94i for the US). Also, in the US only, the HDW-750 and HDW-790 (note no P on the end – confusingly, these cameras only shoot in 59.94i interlaced mode only and should NOT be confused with the HDW-750P and HDW-790P available in Europe) back to contents HDW-790P vs. HDW-F900R HDCAM Camcorder It used to be that the HDW-750P and HDW-F900 had important differences and it was easy to distinguish these units apart. The latest 3rd generation offerings from Sony are such that there is very little to choose between them for all projects shot at a European frame rate, i.e. 25p and 50i. However, if you need to shoot at either 24p or a US HD format (29.97p and 59.94i), then only the HDW-F900R is suitable. If your experience is only the old HDW-F900, then be prepared for a smaller (same size as the HDW-750P and HDW-790), lighter, more power-frugal unit, which really delivers cracking results ! The resolution of both units is identical and so is sampling (both are 3:1:1). Both also use the same Hyper HAD CCD sensors. Both been measured to resolve 12 stops of latitude using Zeiss prime lenses. Sensitivity of both units is very similar (around 400ASA with an appropriate setup card). Even in colour depth are they both alike – Both use 12 bit colour quantisation, meaning that over 4 billion colours can be registered by both camcorders. Both have the same digital HD and down-converted outputs etc etc. If however, you have a limited budget and are shooting at 25p, then seriously consider shooting on the HDW-790 instead of the F900R and use the budget saving on better lenses – We can assure you that on this difference you WILL be able to notice the difference... Better still, if you have a DoP who is insisting on one model over another - arrange a test shoot with both camcorders and see if anyone can tell the difference ! With the trusted Sony brand name, the interface is logical and robust and the cameras are amongst the most reliable in its class. As the cliché goes, “it does what it says on the tin ” back to contents DVCPro HD Panasonic produce a competing format to HDCAM called DVCPro 100 or DVCPro HD. There are 2 x discrete formats which use the same DVCPro tapes: the first is Varicam (720p) and the second is a 1080p version which is used by the HDX-900 Camcorder. The tapes and VTRs are common but the similarity ends there. back to contents Varicam - 720p DVCPro HD Camcorder Like the Sony HDW-F900, the Varicam is a ‘world camera’ meaning that it shoots on all standard world HD frame rates including 23.98p and 25p. However, the Varicam system is an enigma of HD tape acquisition. It records smaller frame sizes (1280x720) than other HD formats but don’t be put off by this. It can shoot at continuously variable frame rates between 4 and 60/second including 24p and 25p. The image processing and clever compression ensures that you can blow up for the very large screen with spectacular results (I have seen both Varicam and HDCAM on a 60ft screen and both looked equally stunning). The wide range of contrast latitude (measured at 13 stops by ex-BBC engineer Alan Roberts) and cine gamma always ensures beautifully filmic results. Varicam also always records 60 frames per second irrespective of the frame rate mode and the clever frame flagging system permits multiple frame rates for acquisition and slow and fast frame speeds for special ramping shots (compared with HDCAM which shoots at fixed frame rates with a maximum of 30 fps). Despite shooting in 720p mode, the VTRs will automatically uprez to 1080 so there is full compatibility with other HD formats in post-production and is also compatible with all 1080 delivery requirements for Discovery HD etc. It is also compatible with all AVIDs and Final Cut Pro for off-line and for on-line with 3 main considerations. The first is that the majority of your acquisition material must be at a standard frame rate (24p or 25p etc) for easy post. Secondly, should you shoot at any other frame rates including faster than real-time images (i.e. not 24P, 25P or any of the 7 prearranged production speeds, then you MUST record the ‘off-speed’ images onto a separate tape, as these images will need a special treatment. These images will need to undergo a post-production stage called frame-rate conversion in order to digitally slow down the images and uprez them to 1080. Without this stage, the footage is useless as it is incompatible with pretty much every post-production technology and the conversion can cost up to £400 per hour (VMI charge £150 per hour for this service), so ensure that you have budgeted adequately for this. This stage can be very effectively done using Apple Final Cut Pro – see the FCP/DVCPro section below. The third issue is that whilst Varicam has complete firewire support with Final Cut Pro, it is not for the feint hearted. It edits in the native 720P environment and additional HD-SDI cards are needed if mastering onto HDCAM or other 1080 line formats. To read a success story of a Varicam program being edited on Final Cut Pro, please read the testimonial on http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/dvcpro_hd_workflow_balis.html You shoot onto memory cards on location – currently 16GB cards are the most common storage used (but 32 GB cards have just come out) which give 16mins of HD at 25p (or 38mins of HD in 25pn) or 64 mins of SD in 25p At lunchtime, with 4 x cards worth of material filled up, you use a box called a G10 P2 reader archive unit, to copy all media onto standard cheap removable firewire drives. This unit has a built-in screen, so that transferred media can be checked for peace of mind. The P2 cards are then wiped ready for reuse The firewire drive (1 TB can store more than 40 hours of HD material in 25Pn mode) can then be plugged directly into your post-production unit, like Final Cut Pro or AVID Media Composer Express, and then the images edited directly in the native HD format without the need for digitising or low quality off-line editing On completion of the programme, the drive complete with edited timeline, graphics etc, can be given to the post-production (38 mins of HD when shooting 25pn - note 25pn only compatible with FCP) The advantages of P2 over HDCAM are that all editing, including off-line are at the same HD quality, post-production machinery is cheap (all based around using HD firewire with Final Cut Pro and AVID Xpress) and the net result is that post-production ought to be cheaper than using conventional post production. These memory cards are currently quite expensive but the workflow is excellent – the success of the format will depend on how well producers adopt its novel post-production workflow but a strategic acceptance by the BBC that DVCPro HD using non-linear acquisition is its preferred choice should ensure the continued success of the format. Also, if you are worried about hard drive failures, there are a range of new RAID 0 hard drives which record all data twice independently, so that in the event of drive failure, you can be confident that your data will survive. back to contents Panasonic HVX-201 The Panasonic HVX-200 was the first P2 based non-linear capture unit released in late 2006. This received rave reviews and a loyal following and this excellent unit has been further improved with the release in late 2008 of the HVX-201 which uses the same lens as the HVX-200, shoots on all of the same frame rates (as well as miniDV tape) but has improved low light performance with lower noise. It is a great unit with excellent optics which comes in either UK or US versions. It shoots HD format images of 720/50 or 1080 DVCPro HD modes onto P2 cards only and also records standard definition miniDV images onto mini-DV tape. At VMI, we only stock the European models which shoot in the 25/50 European frame rates. If you are shooting on the US frame rates or at 24fps, then consider the new HPX-171 or HPX-500 which both cope well with these frame rates. It is small, lightweight and a perfect accompaniment to a single unit package using either the HDX-900, Varicam or now HPX-500 units, as it uses the same compression scheme for easy post-production and the pictures closely match these camcorders too ! The UK version records in 1080 mode in 25p or 50i or in 720/50 mode in 25p or 50p. 50p would be used for slow motion. It is also capable of shooting 25Pn and 50Pn modes – see HPX-500 description below. back to contents DVCPro HD 720/50 or 720/60 Modes One irritation of the Panasonic 720 format is the existence of 2 x discrete versions for European and US production, namely 720/50 and 720/60. This is analogous to the PAL and NTSC formats and some camcorders are only capable of shooting on one of these versions. – Also the first Panasonic DVCpro HD VTR, the AJ-HD-1200 only supports the earlier 720/60 format, so it won’t play back the Panasonic HVX-200 material if shot in 720/50 mode (either 25P or 50P). The later AJ-HD-1400 VTR overcomes this and is compatible with all DVCPro frame rates, both SD and HD. For reference, the HDX-900 and HPX-500 are capable of 720/50 and 720/60 but the HVX-200 is only capable of shooting in 720/50 mode for 25p and 50p. All of the above can shoot in 25p and 50i in 1080 mode. Confusing huh?! back to contents Panasonic HPX-171 The Panasonic HPX-171 was the first small P2 only camcorder released in late 2008. It is a bit smaller than the HVX-201 and HVX-200 camcorders and a bit more frugal on power but does shoot in all of the 720 and 1080 world formats including 24p. It also sports a very wide (3.9mm) lens so that you will NEVER need to use this with an external wide angle adapter – a great advantage Panasonic HPX-3700, Varicam 3 The Panasonic HPX-3700 is the camera to go for as it records onto AVC Intra and also DVCpro HD in 1920x1080 and is the long-awaited 1080-line Varicam, commonly known as the Varicam 3!. It shoots in all basic frame rates including 24p and 25p and all shoot slow motion frame rates up to 30fps but will not function in any of the 720p or SD frame rates – but if you are shooting with this camera, you really won’t want to shoot in anything but 1080 ! This camera replaces the very well received first offering, the HPX-3000 released in mid-2008 and is further improved by more filmic gamma curves and a dual-link 4:4:4 output with true log10 files, the same as the ARRI D21, Panavision Genesis and Thomson Viper. This dual-link output though has to be recorded on an external format such as HDCAM SR, as the non-linear record capability cannot yet cope with this. The rental price has come down, so, it is much less expensive than before but this camera punches way above its weight and offers way higher quality than even the top Sony HDW-F900R HDCAM Camcorder and competes directly with the Sony F-23, ARRI D-21 and Panavision Genesis ! Also, because there are no moving parts, makes this technology incredibly reliable and robust and in recent testing, these cameras were tested to -42°C after being frozen for 6 hours to be tested in hostile conditions. They have received universal acclaim after being used on the BBC frozen planet series as a testament to this. Similar to the HPX-3000, it can shoot in either AVC Intra 50Mb, AVC Intra 100Mb or DVCPro HD 100Mb modes onto P2 cards and this camera contains 5 x P2 slots for a maximum recording duration of 10 hours of HD material when fully-loaded with 5 x 64GB P2 cards ! Sony PDW-F355 The first XDCAM HD camera, the PDW-F350 Camera permitted variable speed recording between 4 and 60fps and only a data rate up to 35 Mb/s but was not been popular, so Sony released the PDW-530 to compete with HDCAM, including a 2/3” lens mount and increased the date rate to 50Mb to improve the HD quality to compete with HDCAM and DVCPro HD, though both of these formats have a higher recording data rate to tape. The problem was that this camera did not have a 2/3” CCD block, so images shot using 2/3” HD lenses were heavily cropped, so everyone was waiting on the release of the 2/3” version, the PDW-F700. Sony PDW-F700 Released in late 2008, the Sony PDW-F700 offers a similar camera specification to the Sony HDW-790P incorporating for the first time on an XDCAM-HD Camcorder, a 2/3” CCD block allowing conventional HD Broadcast lenses to be fitted without cropping the image. This camcorder also allows all XDCAM HD data rates including 50Mb XDCAM HD, though the 25p frame rate still has issues… This is expected to be sorted out during 2009. back to contents NON-BROADCAST FORMATS In 1995 when DV was announced to the world and VMI bought these cameras by the truckload, all of the Broadcasters of the world snubbed these modest little cameras and announced that they would NEVER broadcast programmes from them. 10 years on and there are very few programmes produced that don’t have even a little DV or now HDV in them somewhere. The new low cost ‘non-broadcast’ HD formats are in the same category as DV was in 1995. They are effectively high-resolution DV camcorders which use clever technology to record high quality images using massive amounts of compression – as a comparison, HDCAM compresses 4.3.1 times (DVCPro HD is 6.7:1) and HDV around 30 times! However, the completely differing compression schemes make it quite meaningless to compare these figures with those for MPEG because they make no sense. However it is fair to say that HDV has a far lower bit rate and much lower quality images recorded to tape than either HDCAM or Varicam. To our knowledge, without exception, all world Broadcasters have dismissed HDV as not being good enough HD content for HD broadcast, though this may change over time as budgetary demands dictate that HD programmes are made to SD budgets and lower. Currently, there are 2 discrete HDV formats produced by JVC and a consortium which includes Sony which aims to totally replace current DV technology. Both XDCAM EX and Panasonic P2 with the HVX-201 Cameras will probably spell the death knell of HDV and DVCAM and end up taking its place, since people will be able to utilise cost-effective post production tools and low-cost non-linear acquisition to produce HD productions at current standard definition budgets. back to contents HDV Consumer HD formats are basically DV Camcorders with additional resolution and functionality – whilst they may work at HD resolution, HD Broadcasters do not currently consider the pictures to be of high enough quality to be suitable for HD Broadcast, though this may change over time With the exception of the JVC unit, HDV Camcorders do not have the same 24p/25p true progressive acquisition ability (film modes are usually cheats) or the same dynamic range and filmic qualities of the more expensive Broadcast HD camcorders. Also lenses, viewfinders, image processing and CCDs are all of a lesser quality to their ‘Broadcast’ HD counterparts, which explains the marked quality difference of images between the formats. There are special HDV tapes which are purported to have better quality coatings to ensure faithful archival characteristics for years to come but you can use low cost DV tapes instead if you want to save money. In order to achieve the incredible resolution on a DV tape, the systems use up to a 30:1 MPEG2 compression ratio and store the images experienced between frames within a 12 frame segment. This works extremely well and drop out is rare, however, when dropout is experienced, you are likely to lose the entire image for up to half a second, as the system struggles to build a complete frame from the missing information. As such, it is a much less durable format than either conventional DV or any of the Broadcast HD formats and the best quality tapes are imperative for safeguarding against catastrophic dropout which disturbs the whole recording. Time will tell how much of a problem this will be for older recordings or those made in testing conditions. Cameras are small and light and very similar to DV Camcorders. They use 1/3” CCDs which do not permit Broadcast SD or HD lenses to be mounted. P+S produce a 35mm lens adapter, the ‘Mini-35’ and there is the ‘Movietube’ which allow 35mm prime lenses to be mounted onto the front of HDV camcorders and whilst these work quite well, they are still prone to losing aperture (2 stops) and having flare, the same as the Pro 35 adapter for the larger HD camcorders. With all of these non 2/3” CCD Camcorders, be very wary of some lens adapters promising to fit Broadcast and HD lenses onto them. The adapters contain no glass, so they yield softer images and don’t give the same wide-angle aspect as you would expect in a large camera (they always will have an artificial telephoto effect compared with when used in a large camera) To confuse matters, in spite of there only being one logo for HDV, there are actually 2 discrete HDV formats produced by both JVC and Sony, they record different data rates and different image sizes and the VTRs are entirely incompatible – so if you are going to shoot with the JVC unit, ensure that you have a proven post-production route in place before you start as these VTRs are in limited supply and the format is incompatible with some firewire-based edit systems. back to contents Sony Z1E The Sony HDV format (1080i) shared by Canon and others records a very impressive 1440x1080 interlaced images (50i) which means that if you want to have a ‘film look’ 25p progressive look, then the camera performs a field doubling effect within the camera, effectively halving the resolution. Post-production is fairly easy now that various converter boxes have been released to permit HDV footage to be edited on conventional AVID-type edit suites. The firewire editing capability is very good and works well providing you have a suitable VTR, edit application and ONLY HDV footage – be wary if you have multiple formats, firewire editing works only with one format at a time – more on this later. The Sony Z1E is a magnificent piece of engineering. It is a 3CCD Camcorder with a fairly good quality built-in lens, LCD viewfinder, steady-shot function and other refinements, and is not much larger than the ubiquitous PD150 DV Camcorder. It shoots in DV mode (DV or DVCAM) or alternatively in HDV mode in 1080i. There is a ‘film effect’ mode, which emulates 25p film-look by halving vertical resolution. It has different film colour lookup tables – (film gamma) to make images look more filmic and is priced at a disposable DV camcorder price of around £3,000. This is set to be superseded by the Sony HVR-Z7 during 2008. There are a wide range of accessories available for this camera including ‘cine-style’ matte boxes, filters, underwater housings etc and mounts and the industry has immediately adopted this camera as the de-facto replacement to the popular PD150. JVC HDV The JVC HDV format (720p) shoots true progressive 25p and 24p but uses a smaller image size of 1280x720 but compared to the Z1E, it actually maintains a better horizontal resolution and yields sharper pictures than the Z1E (. In spite of this, JVC have brought out a camcorder with interchangeable lenses called the GY-HD100. It shoots true progressive 25p mode with a realistic film gamma mode and several other nice features for little more than the Sony Z1E (about £5,000). Also, extraordinarily for the price, it also shoots in native 24p, something that currently no other camcorder in its class is capable of doing, however it is worth being aware of certain difficulties when using this camera and format. Firstly, it records in the 19Mb HDV format, so that none of the other manufacturer HDV VTRs will play back its footage; the firewire output is not in the standard 25Mb HDV firewire protocol shared by other manufacturers, so you will either have to render all footage to convert it to 25 Mb (very time consuming), or use the Canopus edit software which to Our knowledge, is the only software capable of editing the native JVC HDV footage (more may well be available now). It is also heavy on batteries, so be prepared to dump the manufacturers own battery system to the specifically designed IDX solution which works well but adds about £1,000 to the purchase price. Finally, the Fuji 16x lens which comes with the camcorder as standard it not very good, though of course, it is stunning for the price! Expect to upgrade to the Fuji 13x wide-angle lens which is much better quality, though it costs more than the camera and not many hire facilities stock it. However, bearing all of this in mind, if you are considering shooting a true 24p or 25p HDV project and have overcome these difficulties, then it is a stunning solution for a bargain bucket price. back to contents You shoot onto memory cards on location - currently 16GB cards are the highest storage duration available which give 16mins of HD at 25p (or 38mins or HD in 25pn) or 64 mins of SD in 25p At lunchtime, with 4 x cards worth of material filled up, you use a box called a G10 P2 reader archive unit, to copy all media onto standard cheap removable firewire drives. This unit has a built-in screen, so that transferred media can be checked for peace of mind. The P2 cards are then wiped ready for reuse The firewire drive (1 TB can store more than 40 hours of HD material in 25Pn mode) can then be plugged directly into your post-production unit, like Final Cut Pro or AVID Media Composer Express, and then the images edited directly in the native HD format without the need for digitising or low quality off-line editing On completion of the programme, the drive complete with edited timeline, graphics etc, can be given to the post-production The conclusion to this is that for international delivery, you can choose to shoot in either 23.98P or 25P. However, 25P acquisition and post is easier and cheaper than 23.98P which requires special post-production tools and requires the making of off-line copies, not required for 25P production. Should you require to reversion your finished programme with frame rate changes that don't result in duration changes, these are very bad news. They are likely to be rejected by any discerning client because the motion will look awful although the audio pitch won’t change. Better to endure some minor speed and duration change to your programme that does not involve introducing movement artefacts. back to contents Conclusion There are many routes to HD production and many things to consider such as deliverables, post-production, frame rate and workflow. Begin with the deliverables requirement, as this will influence your post-production workflow. Having selected your workflow, this will lead you to a range of equipment options to consider for acquisition – and these will be heavily influenced by the ‘look’ of the programme and DoP choice. Always keep your production format and shooting speed constant and ensure that you are clear about your post-production route before you begin shooting, consulting experts if necessary. If you follow these guidelines, it may help to avoid costly mistakes post-production and ensure that you don’t suffer any expensive surprises ! Barry Bassett Managing Director, VMI, December 2008
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