Nick Hiltgen
February 23rd, 2006, 05:35 AM
Well ok everyone, here it is, what this camera was meant for (or maybe not). Finally got a chance to put this camera up on a multi-cam (evertz e-cast) system.
A little backround on the system for those who don't know, skip this part if you don't care about professional multicam. The Evertz system is a great system that allows for live event coverage through fiber cable to a big switcher and directors station so that a line cut is available. This particular system was introduced about a year ago and now that we've got all the bugs out of it, it's time to introduce a new set of challenges.
This particular set-up had 4 sony f900's and two canon xl-h1. The canon's were completely stock (obviously I wasn't operating otherwise one would have had the CRT black and white viewfinder). The inputs used were HD-sdi genlock and timecode.
the lowdown.
The hd-sdi (when configured correctly from the engineering station) worked beautifully. Timecode also seemed to ruin fine, but I believe there was a proble with the other canon camera (not mine) that I'll attribute to some sort of battery issue. This same camera lost genlock as well.
I discovered that on "camera signal" (or whatever the menu title is) you need to make sure the camera is taking in timecode, this is done through the genlock set-up where the camera takes both genlock and time code in. (this was a big "ohh, duh" moment for me in setup). The whole system took some tweaking on the engineering end (where I was) but for the most part worked really well. At one point the non nick-owned xl-h1 randomly lost genlock but that was fixed by a power cycle of the canon. Other then that no complaints from set up side of things.
Picture quality. Well to be honest, the canon looked really really good. SUPER close to teh f900, there is more reolution there though, but on a lot fo the shots, you really couldn't tell and I was analyzing on a 1920x1080 monitor, calibrated to CRT standards (it's made by e-cinema, and they're more then welcome to contact me about a free monitor for pinping ther stuff on-line) The EOC, said he could tell the difference between the f900 and the xl-h1, I was pretty sure I could too, but to be completely straight in a blind picture test (hmm blind picture test, seems a little oxymoronic) I don't know that I'd be able to tell you which camera is which. Now we were monitoring the uncompressd out of the canon so I'm sure that helped things out as well. We'll see how it all cuts together. (if they use any of the HDV portion of the footage that didnt' make the line cut)
Shhesh this is to long, basically the camera worked great looked even better and is a good substituion for expensive cams, but it wasn't without some quarks. The show was Nada Surf and it was sponsered by network live, so check those guys out when you get a chance and if you get to watch it in HD see if you can tell which camera is which.
A little backround on the system for those who don't know, skip this part if you don't care about professional multicam. The Evertz system is a great system that allows for live event coverage through fiber cable to a big switcher and directors station so that a line cut is available. This particular system was introduced about a year ago and now that we've got all the bugs out of it, it's time to introduce a new set of challenges.
This particular set-up had 4 sony f900's and two canon xl-h1. The canon's were completely stock (obviously I wasn't operating otherwise one would have had the CRT black and white viewfinder). The inputs used were HD-sdi genlock and timecode.
the lowdown.
The hd-sdi (when configured correctly from the engineering station) worked beautifully. Timecode also seemed to ruin fine, but I believe there was a proble with the other canon camera (not mine) that I'll attribute to some sort of battery issue. This same camera lost genlock as well.
I discovered that on "camera signal" (or whatever the menu title is) you need to make sure the camera is taking in timecode, this is done through the genlock set-up where the camera takes both genlock and time code in. (this was a big "ohh, duh" moment for me in setup). The whole system took some tweaking on the engineering end (where I was) but for the most part worked really well. At one point the non nick-owned xl-h1 randomly lost genlock but that was fixed by a power cycle of the canon. Other then that no complaints from set up side of things.
Picture quality. Well to be honest, the canon looked really really good. SUPER close to teh f900, there is more reolution there though, but on a lot fo the shots, you really couldn't tell and I was analyzing on a 1920x1080 monitor, calibrated to CRT standards (it's made by e-cinema, and they're more then welcome to contact me about a free monitor for pinping ther stuff on-line) The EOC, said he could tell the difference between the f900 and the xl-h1, I was pretty sure I could too, but to be completely straight in a blind picture test (hmm blind picture test, seems a little oxymoronic) I don't know that I'd be able to tell you which camera is which. Now we were monitoring the uncompressd out of the canon so I'm sure that helped things out as well. We'll see how it all cuts together. (if they use any of the HDV portion of the footage that didnt' make the line cut)
Shhesh this is to long, basically the camera worked great looked even better and is a good substituion for expensive cams, but it wasn't without some quarks. The show was Nada Surf and it was sponsered by network live, so check those guys out when you get a chance and if you get to watch it in HD see if you can tell which camera is which.