Sony has now posted details on the new HDW-F900R. More upgrades and improvements than I thought from the original press release. The brochure seems to have borrowed lots of the artwork from the HDW-750 brochure.

http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/minisites/cinealta/shoot/index.shtml

Very nice!

Is the 950 portable, with the SR recorder hanging around, can it be run and gunned?

-also Simon, what do you prefer for a filmlook from the xdcam?
Cheers,
Ben Gurvich

Nope, the 950 can't be run and gunned.

Ben, do you mean what settings do I prefer for filmlook?

Yes, There so many things to change. I just started playing with the gamma and it seems that "video 6 gamma" is nice and more crushed than film gamma

You mean STD 6 on the SD XDCAM? Yes, that will give a very crushed look with limited range.

The XDCAM HD has no such gamma option although it could be recreated.

Usually with my SD XDCAM I either shoot using the STD 3 gamma with detail adjusted for minimal enhancement, or with a filmlook usung STD gamma 4, detail switched off completely and the knee and black stretch adjusted.

I find that crushing the tones in-camera is a bad idea. I like to find the look that I want in post. Although I have got some setups for the cliched bleach bypass look, high saturation etc, most of which do actually use STD gamma 6. But I would make absolutely sure that you really wanted that look before using it in-camera. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to pull it back in post if you decide you don't like it.

yeah its quite severe. I'd rather shot flat too and do a look in post, but i heard that you lose more information doing it in post than in camera. But, ofcourse this limits your options.

Forgive me as I haven't read the full info yet but as far as I was told the 900R is a lead free version of the f900 that incorporates HD-sdi in. But the 8 sec pre roll and the slow shutter look like fun too. Plus only 12lbs!?! Nice stuff! less camera ops and steadicam ops complaining is always a good thing.

dual post deleted

Lead free, is that for Health Reasons?

EU has imposed a bunch of new environmental requirements for electronics equipment to be sold in Europe. This includes a lead-free requirement and many others.

Michael's right there are quite a few international market's that will not allow camera's to have that much lead in them for enviornmental reasons. I had a chance to look at the 900r and was suprised at how much it was like the 750. It is pretty much a mirror image of it except it does multiple frame rates. The thing that's going to be fun is teaching a whole new set of people the menu structure of the 900r (similar to the 750) which is completely different from the f900(h).