My wife taking my photo 1.5 hours ago at the store...
http://www.shannonrawls.com/images/z1u-1.jpg

My wife taking my photo 15 minutes ago showing you the box...
http://www.shannonrawls.com/images/z1u-2.jpg

My wife taking my photo 15 minutes ago trying to see if my AT-897 mic will fit...
http://www.shannonrawls.com/images/z1u-3.jpg

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Where did I get it from? ----> http://www.evsonline.com/

I picked it up and a new tripid and was helped out by Josh, Ryan & Tommy (the sales team) . They hooked me up. Make sure you speak with them and tell them SHANNON W. RAWLS sent you. They have over 10 in stock, and are selling them now.

I was the first to get it, and they said most likely the first in the entire state of california to own one, because they are the first to distribute them and the have them early (ofcourse this could all be wrong) Most others wont be shipping until next week.

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ok, now to the nitty gritty. As I am not a director, nor DP, but a Producer who likes to own all his own equipment.....

Is there anything you would like me to check, test, see about, try out, flip, push, or click????

- ShannonRawls.com

i'm so jellous. post some full rez stills when you can.

Express Video Supply has been a DV Info Net sponsor for quite some time now. Glad to hear the Z1's are shipping. You did yourself right by going with them -- but I guess you already know that! Congrats on your new baby, er, camcorder!

(By the way, that's a nice set-up -- even the aquarium looks pretty cool!)

Hey Shannon, that's totally cool and thanks for sharing! Can do a low-light test? Any test is good...I'm really curious to know how it deal with lower light conditions.

Also, I just bought a ticket to LA for this coming weekend - I'm going to be visiting a lot because I'm moving out there soon.

If you're going to be around maybe we can hookup for a beer? I'm going to try and hookup with some others I've never met on here like Charles Papert - maybe we could all meet at HOB or somewhere like that? I'll be in the Burbank/El Segundo area for 2-3 days if you're in that area too. Also, downtown Hollywood for a day. If you wanna come to a Superbowl party I could introduce you to a bunch of my friends (it's in El Segundo)...they're all video/film/music people.

Murph

Shanon's been immortalized on our HDV Info Net front page:

http://www.hdvinfo.net/index.shtml

Two thumbs up!

LoL! The smile that launched a 1000 Z1's!

Chris, you might want to change the verbage - it reads, "even though it hasn't been released yet". It definately has been at EVS!

OK everyone....sorry for the delay. Last night I had to run an ADR session, and when I finished I began to read the owners manual from cover to cover (and fell asleep in the process)

So, today, I am filling requests.....

In response to: Chris Murphy - The cameras low-light sucks (can i say that?). *smile* I mean, I want to say noting but good things for a camera I just shelled out $5 grand for, but I cannot tell a lie. The low light is not good whatsoever. Hypergain, is a mess too. I tried that, and I doubt I will EVER use that for ANYTHING.

I shot you a low-light test clip.... When I reviewed the footage, I couldn't beleive it...it was like I was staring at a black wall. But with my own eyes, it was clear. The room was bright guys, trust me. Even when I closed all the doors, I could still see EVERYTHING. I wouldnt have bumped into anybody if someone else was in there with me. And then towards the end, when I opened the door back up, it became bright enough in there that I could have sat down and read a freaking novel! Seriosuly.

So....Low-Light....is not happinin' on this camera. Not like a PD170 or VX2100. No way no how!

However, if you are a movie maker...and you have a DP with lights....you now have a Weapon of Mass Destruction!!! *smile*

Did anybody see that movie COLLATERAL?? Did you listen to the DIrectors Commentary when Michael Mann was discussing the low light capabilities of the f900 in the scene when Tom Cruise was hunting Jada Pinkett in that hi-rise building office with the low lights. Remember what he said about how it was so dark that people couldnt move around and the crew had to wait until the lights were turned on to move because if they did, they would have ran into something, however the F900 could see everything in that dark room..... well....

Well, if Michael Mann had a Z1U....it would have been a pitch black picture, LOL, because my eyes are better in low light then this camera is. (and I wear glasses)

I still love it though, and its better then a DVX100a (i own one of those too)

Here ya go. Since I am currently uploading and it looks like it will take 30 minutes, this link will be active after 5pm PST today.

http://www.ShannonRawls.com/hdv/z1u-lowlight.m2t

- Shannon W. Rawls

In response to: Anthony Miles - The camera is not 48Hz. It is 60i/60Hz all the way while in cf24 mode (unless you chnage the shutter). The even though the shutter is adjustable and the speed can be set to whatever you want, 1/48 is not one of them.
I shot you a clip while on Robertson Blvd. in Beverly Hills. I did fast panning and quick zooms and all that. I even spun around in a 360 like Michael Jackson (got dizzy).

CF24 doesnt seem as bad as they say it is for some reason. I was totally skeptical of it, until today. I captured this raw HDV footage using CapDVHS, and uploaded it to my server. It's 2 minutes long and about 388 megabytes large, so download it and enjoy.

Here ya go. Since I am currently uploading and it looks like it will take 30 minutes, this link will be active after 3pm PST today.

http://www.ShannonRawls.com/hdv/z1u-cf24-fastpan.m2t

[Question from=Stoneman] can use the faster DVCAM tape speed while in HDV mode.----------

NOPE, you cannot. It has a setting that asks you 'REC FORMAT' and the options are "HDV or DV" If you select DV, then it asks you 'REC MODE' and the options are "DV or DVCAM". If you were to select "HDV" for the 'REC FORMAT' then the 'REC MODE' is greyed out.
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[Question from=Kerr Cook]how well your mic works (rather than the $300 Sony external mic).----------

The sound quality on this puppy is A-MA-ZING! Even the internal mic is awesome, but when I plugged up my AT-897 shotgun....that's all she wrote! (as far as I can hear). The headphones were crystal clear too. I have a DVX100a that has the worse headphone noise I have ever heard in my life! There is all this white noise, and there is a delay.....not on this camera....crystal clear and LOUD! and the recordings are LOUD and CLEAR. The 16bit audio peaks in my Vegas 5.0d time line were very nice and peaky.

____________________________________

[Question from=Kerr Cook]Please confirm! My guess is that the recording will start quicker than the FX1 from standby only when the head has stopped spinning (say after in Standby for a few minutes). The FX1 takes ~8 seconds in this case. I think the Z1 is just as fast as the FX1 when starting from Standby under most usage where the head is still spinning (short pauses, etc.)----------

Nope...Same delay is here. However, there is a menu setting that is called "QUICK START" that will start the recording almost immediately from STOP (after standby has gone). Only problem is, there may be a space/blank/black frame, call it what you want, between the clipos. With QUICK START is off, and you suffer the start up delay, then the clip-to-clip transitions are smooth as butter. if you activate the QUICK START option, then you'll see a blank space last about 2 frames or so. In my opinion,, the standard delay isn't even that long and was not long enough to even add the quick start part. But for some people, they may need to capture something at the blink of an eye, so QUICK START is for them.

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[Question from=philmorej]Congratulations. A complete review, would be great. Is the lens same as FX1? How does 50i performance compare to 60i performance (picture quality). Focus controlability. Component output quality vs FX1. Overall picture quality vs FX1..)----------

A complete review....sorry, I hate to type. Nor do I like to speak in the technical fashion as most evaluators do. I rather speak in a matter-of-fact fashion as if me and you were hangin' out sippin' on some brews just talkin' about what we talkin' about. So the standard "review" is not coming from me. You gotta wait for the columnists for that one. 50i vs 60i and FX1 vs Z1U *smile* Sorry again, I don't have an FX1 to compare. Nor are my eyes that trained that I can tell what's best between the two or the two formats.. The picture quality is simply amazing....period! I am one of those 'regular' people when it comes to picture quality. I don't crunch numbers and shoot res charts.

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[Question from=Kerr Cook]Can you shoot a few seconds of 1080/60i and also some 1080/50i and get them to me to post here? (in raw .m2t). I'd really like to see if the GOP of NTSC being 15 and the GOP of 12 in PAL make a difference in the individual frame's video quality, & how does the "focus adjustement" / tweak AutoFocus work?----------

I sure will Kerr. I'll shoot the exact same thing in both modes for you and post up the m2t files for you. Then you can work your magic.

The focus assist is a menu item that basically allows you to do what all the other sony cameras already did. See, the way this camera is, if the focus is on "AUTO" then the focus ring on the lens becomes dead. SPin it all you want and it doesn't do a thing. However, when you turn on the FOCUS ASSIST in the menu, then the ring becomes alive, even in AUTO mode. I think this is so you can help the camera get into focus faster then leting it do it by itself. I keep mine on Fucus Assist, so if I am ever in AUTO FOCUS mode, and I don't feel the AF is clearing up fast enough, then I can spin the ring and find it myself, and then the camera will fine tune the actual location i am pointing at. This is helpful so the camera will not focus on the background, when you really want the foreground.

____________________________________

[Question from=epicdream] I was wondering, does the Z1 have the same metal construction as the PD 150 or is the same as the FX1???? I only ask this as I tried the FX1 two hours after the Z1 and I didnt get a good grip of it. ----------

The Z1U is plastic, just like the FX1 is. This thing seems to be twice as big as the pd150/170. As a matter fo fact, I think if I were shooting next to someone with a PD170, he would move away from me because of embrassment. LOL. people would look at his camera like a toy compared to this one. But the answer is, it is plastic, however rigig. Not toy-like like some other cameras are.



- ShannonRawls.com

Ok, I'm considering getting the FX1, don't have the scratch that Shannon has ;) and am very interested to see the footage you're posting.

How close will this footage be in quality to the FX1, if anyone knows?

Thanks!

I thought with the 2 lux it might be better in low light.
So your saying it doesn't work it a room with light? You have a $5,000 camera that won't tape the kids birthday party? A room light enough to read a book? I have a sony digital 8 that would do that. My XL1s would have done that! Maybe you had the lens cap on or some setting was wrong.

Marketing

dave

Thanks for the incredibly informative posts and clips Shannon!

Shannon,

You're my hero! nice set-up in your studio!

heath

Are the clips working?

I get errors that the file can't be found.

Thanks for your detailed reports, Shannon, although I really have to take issue with your first post regarding low-light capability - well, it's true the Z1/FX1 doesn't do a job anywhere near what the "night-vision" cams do, it's amazing how "low you can go" and never get any pixel noise. This effect is accentuated when you color-correct, use Magic Bullet etc.

We shot a few clips in a dark room after sundown with only a 6 watt fluorescent bulb from an emergency flashlight as the sole light source - it looked very much like those shots from John Carpenter's The Thing where the only thing lighting the set is one single dangling light bulb... We would look around the room, think we were crazy for trying to shoot in such "darkness" and then look in our LCD and be pleasantly surprised we were getting a very good image... this image holds when you downconvert to SD DVD, unlike low-light mini-dv footage which sometimes seems to get "worse" when you do your mpeg...

I think it's fair to say Sony continues its tradition here of being the king of low-light. Wedding videographers and Industrial shooters will love this camera. We got useful stuff with the Z1 during our test shoot that would have yielded a muddy, fuzzy pixelated mess with the DVX100A... you have to basically go to hypergain settings to introduce noise - the usefulness of hypergain as a viable feature is questionable to me...

I guess everyone has different criteria for what they expect for "low-light capability" - I for one am very happy with it - we feel in fact we could very easily pull off a "Collateral" type film with this camera - it's that "good" in low light...

Cheers!

That sounds better Mark. They way Shannon made it sound the Z1 would only work outside at high noon!! Lets us know more about the Z1,,,
So how will the Z1 footage look on TV, DVD, etc? Shannon said the sound is awesome

Hey Shannon, I've tried like 5 times in the last 24 hours to download those clips you posted. They're not working...did you delete them??

No...My 802.11b connection crapped out on me when I left it to upload yesterday.

I moved the files to my ethernet computer and will upload them today. Sorry bud. *sad face*

- ShannonRawls.com

Shannon,

Try the camera in gain. I know that sounds weird but this camera at 18db gain is AMAZINGLY clean. People are complaining about it's low light but that is because they are afraid of going to gain like with a DVX100. That camera is BAD in gain but this one is VERY CLEAN. Actually I have an FX1 but I assume it would be the same. At first I thought it was bad too, until I started to use it in gain...once I saw how clean gain looked I no longer worry about using it.

I beleive you. Actually, with the gain setting 0db - 18db, you can't really see ANY grain in HDV mode.

My thing was, the camera can't really "See that well" in darkness, period. Gain or not.

I may have over reacted in my assesment of the cameras low light capabilities. I am just used to the PD-150 great eyeball. And this camera isn't as good, that's all.

But yes, the GAIN is allmost unoticable.

- Shannon W. Rawls

That's really strange because, by definition, gain is adding digital noise. I'm really curious to see footage...even though I'll have mine soon enough. I can't wait..

Anyone else dying for the links to the clips to start working? ;)

Got my vote. Shannon! What's up with the links man!? =D

Christopher C. Murphy wrote:
>That's really strange because, by definition, gain is adding digital noise.


Well, yes it is. But if you start with a less noisy picture in the beginning, then it doesn't add up that much, as with other noisier cameras like the DVX. FX1 has a very clean picture.
One day I was just shooting my old school, and just walking around with the FX1. I accidentally had left the gain up to 12dB. It was kind of sunny, so I thought all this light coming to the camera must be normal. So I just put on both the NDs and got a normally exposed picture. Well, after some half an hour of shooting and walking, I noticed the 12dB on the screen. Oops! But, when I reviewed the material on one big TV, there was some noise there, but I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't known.
So, I'd say FX1s low light cababilities have been some what "underexaggerated" - or how do you say that in english.

The way I look at it - anything is better than the horrible 35 lux rating the HD10U had. That camera really stunk in low-light...just horrible. So, any improvement is good...and this one 2 lux and I ain't going to complain to bad.

what kind of viewer do I need to view the clips??

Watched the clips, and I liked the low light at 18. That came out fairly nice imho. Hypergain is just about useless unlesss your tryign to go for a specific effect.

The other outside clip had a lot of interlaced issues. Was any post done to that clip? It almost looks like it was processed with lower fields instead of upper fields.

Saw the clips, thanks a ton Shannon!

Any chance to get some 'normal' footage up like steady outside stuff?

I know you were testing the limits of the camera in these clips, but I'd sure love to see some footage in a more controlled situation.

Thanks again!

<<<-- Originally posted by Rishard Chapoteau : Watched the clips, and I liked the low light at 18. That came out fairly nice imho. Hypergain is just about useless unlesss your tryign to go for a specific effect.

The other outside clip had a lot of interlaced issues. Was any post done to that clip? It almost looks like it was processed with lower fields instead of upper fields. -->>>

Nope...didn't touch that file at all. Went straight from cameras firewire to CapDVHS to Web server. Camera was on full automatic, the way it comes out the box. No Picture Profile or anything.

<<<-- Originally posted by Bryan McCullough : Any chance to get some 'normal' footage up like steady outside stuff?
-->>>

Not yet Bryan. We are shooting a Range Rover Spec commercial this weekend with the DVX100a. However, we may change that to the Z1U. Me and the director are discussing it, because we were going to rent a Mini35 package, but if we go hidef, we wont. So we'll see.

- Shannon W. Rawls

Shannon,

I really just meant something like the gas station footage, but holding it steady for a bit. Just to get an idea of what the footage looks like not moving around so quickly.

But my vote is to shoot the Range Rover stuff with the Z1. ;)

So how is your AT-897 mic working with the Z1, please? Anyone else with experience with external microphones with the Z1? I want to order one with my Z1 and am leaning toward the AT-897.

Why not have the best of both worlds? If you were willing to go mini35 for the DVX, you'd certainly want to really have that mini35 pay for itself in heaps if you use it with HDV!!!

But I understand your budget concerns/limitations...

It's easy here to type on the board and tell you how to stand up to your director!!! Ha ha!

(I hope at least you have your own motorhome for this shoot?)

Cheers!

If you go HDV, will you shoot cineframe modes or interlaced?

Hey Shannon, thank you for posting those clips. They were great because you explained what you were doing.

Have you checked out the "Black stretch" feature yet??

I just got my Z1 today. Came out of the blue. A delivery man turned up with a big box, so I signed, like you would, and wet myself when I saw the Sony logo inside the packaging.
Man, I think my smile was even bigger than yours - my cheeks ache! Thanks for spending the time giving us a head start.

Here's what's weird: in the latest issue of MovieMaker, there's an ad for Sony (just a pic of a woman driving with a 24p logo and a viewfinder picture) and it says "Sony has more tools to create 24p..."

Included are logos for HDCAM SR, HDCAM, Digital BetaCam, Mpeg IMX, XDCam, HDV and DVCAM.

They should be careful since not all of those capture in 24p, but it made me hope for a split second there would be a 24p HDV camera, but I'm sure we've gotten enough confirmation that it won't be...

heath

Doesn't mean 1080i can't be converted well to 24p ^_^. I think DVFilm and Magic Bullet need to be upgraded a little to make the process a little simpler though as I've been reading that a lot of conversion needs to be done first before getting ideal 24p results.