ECI will have it but of course not until Feb. when it's released.

Your best bet until then is a trade show... DV Expo (L.A.) or CES (Las Vegas).

Does anyone know if the new deck accepts full size DVCAM tapes as well as mini DV. I'm asking because if it does I have no reason to keep my DSR40, and that would easily fund the purchase of the new HDV deck.

Comments, suggestions...

DBK

It accepts the Mini cassettes only.

Hi,

I recently started reading some info on this camera..And maybe these questions are redundant.. So forgive me if so..

Can the camera use the Cine Mode (or Psuedo 24p or whatever it is) in the normal DV mode ?? Can it shoot 16:9 in normal DV mode ??
And lastly is there any sample footage online to look at ?? If so link please..

Thanks to all..

Mike M.

Please do a search, as this is a topic we've covered extensively.

Hope this helps,

heath

So far the best price ive found is for

$3,399.00 from http://www.us1camera.com

or

$3,499.00 from B&H photo

any better deals?

Try someone from our official sponsors (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=22).

They provide excellent service and support and you will help
this community by buying from them as well. Chris has hand
picked our sponsors, they are the best in the business.

Thank you!

heath

Forbes (12/13/04)'s article, "Def High" by Stephen Manes. They talk all about it, say the Z1 is a "$4900" pro camera, the FX1 is 1440x1080 vs. 1920x1080 (like most 1080i HD cameras) and "cheats" by this:

"...each of the camera's three sensors offers only about 1.1 million pixels, not the 1.5 million in the final image, Sony extrapolates the difference by shifting one of the sensors out of alignment from the others and computing the results."

Of course, the author then says, "But if this is cheat, it's an exquisite one." And details how great the camera is with colors, image, etc. He also says there's a shoulder mount one can buy.

heath

I've got all sorts of charts shot on the FX1: macbeth, EIA, CamAlign, and high-def res charts. On an HDTV the FX1 looks like it resolves about 800-900 lines of horizontal resolution, which is a lot.

Keep in mind that the FX1 *excels* at still shots. Motion is a different thing, but when shooting stills the FX1 is at its best. And charts look pretty good on it. I'll try to get something together and posted over the course of this week.

Guys,

Thanks for the interest in the DVD, but unfortunately, we will not be getting it out on a timely basis.

I'm embarrassed about it, and decided the right thing to do was to come clean and simply refund your money.

If you paid with paypal, you will have received a full refund. If you sent me a money order (1 person) you will receive it back.

We are working on the JumpStart Guide to the FX1 and the JumpStart Guide to the XL2, which will be released in January. I hope you will consider one of those titles.

I'll post more info when I'm closer to shipping and all the DV Info Community will get preferential pricing.

Cheers

DBK

Hey, no sweat! We all get bogged down with projects! I was supposed to have a little book with my scripts out now, but between hurricanes, work, my next film and more, it's on hold...

heath

Hi folks...

There's interest in cf25 and 50i most possibly offering a distinct advantage over 1080/60i... hope some of our members can get close enough to a real Z1 to "flick the switch" and get a sense if there's an appreciable difference between the formats when hooked up to a big HD monitor...

Er, Good Luck!

Have fun!

Pls. find out about "black stretch" - are the new and improved features reall worth all that extra moolah?

I was just wondering if the lux rating and the resolution of the camera are related, specifically when addressing the FX1 light performance to DV cameras.

It seems to me that the FX1 is sampling at roughly 4.5x the resolution of DV camera. Basic signal averaging tells me if I have a device (CCD) with a given sensitivity and gain, that when I bundle groups of the pixels together, not only am I downsampling, but signal averaging. In which case I would expect the noise of the downsampled image to be smaller by a factor of ~2.1 (i.e., sqrt(4.5))

When people are comparing the low-light performance of the FX1 with other cameras, are they taking this into consideration and comparing noise levels at similar resolution or not?

While ultimately the absolute noise levels at the HDV resolution will be of most interest to people, when comparing across cameras (and codecs) this kind of information seems essential to me... especially if someone were to choose one camera over another on this specification.

-Steve

I am not sure if the effect you bring up is the reason but with my FX1, on automatic shots in a theatre lighting ( read dark ) the HDV image is a lot better( cleaner, image stands out somehow) than the DV image both viewed on my 4x3 i'Art 24" TV via the composite output from the FX1 ( the FX1 is downconverting the HDV image for output as is the DV image converted to composite). The difference is even more on my Sony 27HS420, HiScan 4x3 1080i TV ( again composite input, with component input of course the TV will switch to 1080i then there is no comparison as the HDV image is startly). DV was also shot in 16x9 so that the images were the same size on the screens.

Ron Evans

If you'd like to download some high-action surfing in NTSC, we've uploaded a few files. We've got a lot more, but the PAL footage taught us we need to be bandwidth-prudent.
So, some FX1 footage in various modes, is up there now.
http://www.vasst.com/HDV/FX-1_images-Surfers.htm

The PAL footage is there too, on the same page as before.
We'll put up Z1 footage as soon as Sony gives us the go-ahead.

That looks amazing!

thanks for that link.

Have anyone with the FX1 had any problems with the manual iris.On my camera it has a tendency to switch to auto even though it is on manual.I haave checked that the auto gain is turned of.I dont know what to do about this. At some occations the autofocus is not working when I want it to work.Any ideas?

You will need to also put the shutter on manual, and gain on manual in order for full iris control.

well,

i am either buying another HDR-FX1 or I will Wait it out untill the HVR-Z1 is released. but my concern is if the two cameras will match during a shoot? it will be a waste if i cant use the two together. so, should i get a second HDR-FX1 or go pro?



thanks,



joel

See my FX1 - Z1U comparison chart at http://www.hdvinfo.net/articles/sonyhdrfx1/compare.php.

They share the same CCD block, lens and DSP. There's no reason why they wouldn't match each other perfectly.

Admittedly to my uneducated eyes, I'm looking at the available pictures of the FX1 and the Z1 and wondering if there's room for at least a simple UV filter behind the lens hood/cover contraption. Can anyone who has had hands-on experience share the love? Thanks!

Yes, there's room for 1 filter with the hood installed. I leave a UV filter on it most of the time. I've also used a polarizer.

Without and with CF, please!

Hey all, I got this link from another site.....it's Z1 info. translated from French. This guy apparently got a Z1 in the mail.

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.repaire.net%2Fsite%2Ftournage%2Fhdv_sony%2Fz1%2Findex.php&langpair=fr%7Cen&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools

Murph

I have added some very short movie to my page

www.eidomedia.com/hdv

You can download them until the hosting site doesn't close for too bandwith used... If someone want to offer a bigger Bandwith/diskspace I'll appreciate a lot.. Feel free to copy

Matteo

I have only seen the first short clip, it seems very sharp!

Dunno if this has been posted already but I just found another FX1 review with some fairly good full size screen grabs.

http://www.repaire.net/site/tournage/hdv_sony/index.php

From the legendary Adam Wilt (the original "DV Guru" for all of us):

CF24, CF25, CF30: How the Sony HDV cameras fake 24, 25, and 30 fps (http://www.adamwilt.com/HDV/cineframe.html)

This is a "must read" for all those who are interested in how CineFrame modes work!

I read in the Z1 brochure that the camera can record video at a resolution of 720 x 576 pixels in PAL format in the DVCAM setting, native 16:9 widescreen.

Would it be possible to convert this to 720p PAL and then to 720p NTSC? Would this also approximate the look of 24 fps?

Told me as soon as the Z1 was talked about, sales basically stopped on the FX1. He is not sure when he will get the Z1, or final price, but, he will call me when he gets, or I will call him when when I see someone else says they have in their hand.

I told him I have up to 4 folks who may be ready to buy the Z1 if we can get a good bulk buy.

I also want to wait a week or two after folks get them to see if they have any bugs.

Dave

Any group buys must be kept off the DV Info Net boards and be conducted by private email. Thanks,

Not sure what you're asking.

If you're asking if PAL video transferred to NTSC will look like 24p, the answer's no. PAL video is 50 fields per second, and it looks pretty much like NTSC except that it looks more "flickery" to those used to seeing NTSC.

Can PAL video transfer to film better than NTSC? Yes. But not as well as 24p does (or 25p from a PAL camera).

If you're wanting to transfer to film from a Z1, probably the best bet is to just shoot in 1080/50i and let the film transfer house do the conversion. The results should look pretty good, and will almost unquestionably look better than DVCAM PAL -> 720p/50 -> 720p/60-> film.

DP interview about Z1U used on JAG and Z1U With Focus rig etc.

http://www.sundancemediagroup.com/media/Jody.wmv

We have a discussion already going about this... please direct all replies to the original thread!

The link is http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38555

Thanks,

Okay, whats the difference between a NP-f970
and a 2np-f970?

Size? Cost?

I could not find a 2np-f970 on the web.

Will my f960 work in the zu1?

thanks

Dave

I just posted a message in Laird Telemedia (makers of CapDiv) forum. The message is about whether there are firmware upgrade plans for CapDiv drives to support HDV signal.

Here is the post;

http://63.160.24.189/viewtopic.php?t=151

Congratulations Shannon Rawls (see Shannon's great post "So...am I the first one with a Z1U???? *smile*") -- and thanks Shannon for being so responsive to the group here -- really teriffic of you.

Now: Regarding other shipments, here is the latest news from the venerable and gigantic B&H Photo here in New York:

Obviously, I misinterpreted the conversation I had with them week-before-last and my apologies to everyone for that (perhaps you saw my "Z1 is shipping tonight!" post on January 20th). Apologies, apologies...

I checked with B&H Online this morning (Tuesday morning February 1) and was told I will either receive a call from them soon telling me to come in to pick up the camera (I changed my order from 'ship' to 'pickup'), or if I do not hear from them during the rest of this week, then I should call them next week, because by next week they will at least be able to give me a shipment date.

Then I called the B&H store on 9th avenue and spoke with one of the ten-or-so guys in the ever-busy pro-video section there, and he said "We expect to have it here in the store in the next seven to ten days."

...which really pretty much matches exactly what the 'online' guy said, when you get right down to it.

So I think that's a pretty accurate picture of the situation at B&H Photo as of noon eastern time on Tuesday Feb. 1.

Thanks Scott -- we were wondering what had happened there! Much appreciated,

I called BH and they said they would ship around the 15th of Febuary.

Any stores (outside of California) have them ready to sell NOW?

I am talking about the Z1 not the FX1.

Hi Greg,

On this site, discussions about camera dealers are strictly limited to our site sponsors, in fairness to them and to our readers. You'll find a list at http://www.dvinfo.net/sponsors and you can call or click, as I've included phone numbers and sites. Please be sure to read about why those sponsors are chosen. Hope this helps,

Is the battery charger and power suply coming with the Z1 110/230V ?

not really a measurebator's shoot out, but some good over points...between an xl2, fx1, dvc60 (don't ask), and vx2000 (yes the old one)...

the magazine eventdv has pictures of comparison shots, i don't think the online article does

http://tinyurl.com/6z5ow

I got it and finally just got home and now I have to pack it for my trip to LA in the morning!! I haven't even opened the box...it's like Christmas!

I'll be in LA tomorrow afternoon with my Z1 if anyone wants to hang or shoot something on Saturday! Email me..chris.murphy@willowstudios.com

The box is so light, I hope it's in there?!!!

Murph

I can't quite make out what focus rig and mattebox the guy who shoots for the TV show "Jag" had on his Z1 cam.

Also, when you use a focus rig can you easily switch back to autofocus mode on the fly or do you have to disconnect the focus rig to use autofocus?

I know that the Z1 has "focus assist" and you can "touch up" the autofocus if needed. So you cannot move the focus ring on the FX1 while in autofocus or if you do you will damage the camera?

The answer to your first question is clearly being answered
multiple times in the original thread (which is just a couple of
threads below the new one you just created):

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38555

You can leave the follow focus on, since the Z1's focus ring
does not move when you are on auto focus.

B&H Photo on Ninth Avenue and 33rd Street here in Manhattan called me late this morning and told me to come-and-get-it, which I immediately did. The Z1U was waiting for me at the customer service counter as promised.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Greenwich Village: Nobody! Everyone else here hurtled off to a shoot in OREGON this morning...Leaving me alone with the box!!

It's no fun if there's no one else here to enjoy it!! And there's not!

I'm lucky the Oregon-bound taxi was already halfway-across the Williamsburg Bridge headed for LaGuardia Airport when the news came from B&H, or the Z1 could have ended up in flight with fingers poking it all the way to Portland (with a stop in Minneapolis-St.Paul) and the potential for real damage from an errant squirt of Dijonnaise squeezed too enthusiastically from one of those plasticine airline envelopes.

Whew!

So while I should be the very defiinition of high (ha!) to have finally gotten my hands on this thing, instead I'm putting it out of sight under a desk so I don't think about it (too much) until Monday, when everyone hurtles home from OREGON. More to follow at that time.

Not hearing much back on the Z1. Good or Bad?

Look around a little Bob, there are a lot of good things being said about the Z1. The few "not so good" things being said are mostly being said by people who either were expecting 100K performance out of a 5K cam, or people who haven't actually touched the camera.
I've got a couple, it's a great cam. You can download several free clips from the VASST site, www.vasst.com/hdv/hdvportal.htm

Ok, having a problem getting expanded focus working in Manual. I am not recording and I understand it does not function in record mode. Does it only work in Auto mode?