Home Made HD Cinema Cameras - Technical Discussion

[Anmol Mishra]

Anyone want to help me :- I'm compiling a list of cameras divided into sensor size i.e. 1/2" to 2/3", 2/3" to 1", 1" and higher. Protocol - GigE/IIDC/CameraLink. Resolution Full HDTV 1920X1080, or higher. Frame rate 30fps or higher (some of us need quality slom motion as well)
So far we have the Imperx, Altasens, Pulnix (others based on the Kodak Kai sensor). If we have a list with model numbers, I can make a table with prices etc.

[Take Vos]

Hello everyone,

Has everyone thought of using a high speed CMOS and run at continues at high speeds, I found a CMOS chip from micron which can handle 2352 x 1728 @ 200 fps (10 bit) with a global shutter. with a lower vertical resolution you get a higher framerate.

If you would always run the sensor at a high speed, say 8 times 24 fps. You can use these extra frames for either slow motion, or increasing bit depth by adding the frames together. 8 times would add 3 bits of dynamic range (the SNR also increases, but not by 3 bits).

If you really want to do freaky stuff, one could maybe do a more complicated set of exposures to get HDR.

[Farhad Towfiq]

Sumix Altasens GigaE camera is being released. Price is not set yet. I would like your suggestion for price that can be justified for DIY users.

Farhad

[Serge Victorovich]

Originally Posted by Farhad Towfiq

Sumix Altasens GigaE camera is being released. Price is not set yet. I would like your suggestion for price that can be justified for DIY users.
Farhad

This old version of Altasens? Not 2K as used in SI2K ?

[Farhad Towfiq]

Correct. In a few months sensor will be changed to the new version P4562-3T.

[Serge Victorovich]

Farhad, do you have solution how to _perfectly_ sync two camera heads for stereoscopic application?

[John Wyatt]

Farhad -- are there any "approved" GigE laptops which have been tested with your new camera?
Regards,
John.

[Solomon Chase]

Originally Posted by Farhad Towfiq

Sumix Altasens GigaE camera is being released. Price is not set yet. I would like your suggestion for price that can be justified for DIY users.

Farhad

I'd say $2500-$3500.

Is the "Extended Sensitivity at 1280 x 720" mode monochrome or color?

[Farhad Towfiq]

Serge, Using external triggers two cameras can work as master and slave. How perfect they can be synced, I ask our support guys to do some testing.
John, We use Sony, IBM and Toshiba laptops.

[Serge Victorovich]

Farhad, contact to Cineform and ask about CineformRAW DVR for Sumix camera head, and complect your cameras with trigger for 3D;)
This will be HOT combination !

Do you think about to use 1/3" CIS of Altasens like this: http://altasens.com/ProductFlyers/Al...oductFlyer.pdf with good price $1K?

[Farhad Towfiq]

Serge,

Yes, We are impressed with quality of altasens sensors and we are going to leverage the design by using other sensors such as 1/3" 3372 also. I expect the differential price will not be more than $500 for the final camera. Prices will be forced down by the competitive market also. We like to be always ahead of the curve with respect to the price.

[John Wyatt]

The arrival of RED and the SI-2k into what had been a very expensive and exclusive club of ultra high-end video cinema cameras was a welcome shake-up. But unless you were involved in commercial film work to recoup the cost of even these cheaper cameras, it was still only a revolution for a slightly larger club of users. Genuinely independent film makers (independent of the film industry itself) are making speculative films in their own way, with their own money, in their own time, with no guarantee a sales agent will ever pick up their finished film. The whole movie will probably cost less than a quarter of a RED.

For this level of production – and I hate to admit it – HDV has probably been more of a revolution: it’s an official HD video format, yet you can still go on using those dirt cheap DV cassettes you were using ten years ago. In fact, my only reservations against HDV are simply that I believe some distributors have reservations about it. It’s hard enough making a 90-minute self-funded movie, and even harder to get someone to represent that movie to distributors. So if, ultimately, the only thing that went against you was a lack of professional confidence in the camera format, then that’s a damn shame.

And then you read about what people are trying to achieve here on Alt Imaging using box cameras without the limitations of tape: personalised frame shapes/sizes, user-defined compression (or no compression), access to manual prime lenses, square pixels, 24p without pull-down. All these features are very attractive and you want them! Someone recently wondered if these efforts were a waste because the results might ultimately be too close to HDV: well, the possibility of above 8-bit colour depth offered by this latest Sumix camera should answer that. If the price is right, the Sumix might finally create the affordable independent revolution which only HDV has actually addressed and delivered so far. You’ll still need to have a GigE laptop, budget for more HDD storage, make your own arrangements to record sound, find lenses, maybe get a small monitor atop the camera, but the numbers might still work for you, I don’t know.

Technology has come to the aid of bedroom music-makers and serious amateur still photographers. For them the technical threshold has been met and the price is right. But the film makers are still waiting. Wayne Morellini has been championing the cause of affordable HD tools for years, but no one listens. I realise that some people will laugh at the idea of film production at the low level I am describing here, but I think with this latest Sumix camera, there will be quite a few people wondering what it might mean for their own film making plans. I like reading about the SI developments, because I respect the interactive company ethos and their courage to commit to film makers (it really is unusual, and I sometimes forget just how unusual it is). But at the same time, for me it is all academic, because at this early stage in my film career (meaning: I don’t have a film career!) I can’t afford to buy the SI-Mini; I can’t join in! If the price of the Sumix really is in the HDV arena, then it opens up the possibility of using a credible Altasans camera rather than just reading about one.

I wonder if Jose has heard about this…

[Take Vos]

on www.123macmini.com there is some information about upgrading mac mini's beyond the manufacturers warranty.

- replace internal disk with an external eSATA connector.
- eSATA replication works, so you can attach multiple external disks to the mac mini.
- mini-PCIe -> something else. I would love to add a firewire 800 connector.

eSATA + firewire 800 would be enough for my own HD camera system

[Take Vos]

Even if eSATA port replication doesn't work, we can use a firewire 400 disk for the boot disk and the eSATA for the data disk.