http://indiefilmlive.blogspot.com/2006/06/heads-and-grips.html

Some great pics of the heads in action on Spoon, including a Glydecam shot showing how easy it is to mount the head on a rig and fly it.

Very nice. I'm guessing it's a V20. EDIT: I just read the text on the post. It's a V8. Wow, that head's pretty darned light. Impressive.

I'm excited about the possibility of shooting with cameras like the RED and the SI on the Steadicam, but I do have a few quandries.

1. Cables, although it seems like not a very big problem, I'd just prefer to avoid them. Is there a rough weight figure on the full camera? Because that'll determine how much of a rig I'd need to fly the entire thing.

2. SD Video outs. Basically, for monitoring on my rig, I'm going to need SD outputs. I know that both the RED and the SI are equally guilty here. Sure, SD may be going the way of the dodo, but until I can pick up LCD monitors in HD which have high enough brightness to be even remotely useful for under $300, it's a no-go for me.

(Speaking of which, I should post this up in the RED forum too.)

I went more extensive in the RED forum also, but as far as SD--there's always an outboard downconverter (AJA, Miranda, Evertz)

1.) Why would there be a difference in brightness between an LCD monitor with SD input vs VGA input?

2.) The full camera (DVR) is still in design and we dont have a final weight. It should be on par with traditional Film cameras.

I went more extensive in the RED forum also, but as far as SD--there's always an outboard downconverter (AJA, Miranda, Evertz)

However, more handy if the downconvertor built in like the HDW 750 and has the option of composite out

Certainly more convenient--as I detailed on the other thread, it would be a nice built-in option, and even better if it had the potential of being swapped out (like an expansion board) when not needed to use the real estate for something else. Within a few years, there may not be much call for SD output.

A SD signal is very important so we can use proper steadicam monitors (green screen s or super bright transvideos).

A SD signal also enables us to use wireless video monitors.

Some kind of standard def picture is an absolute must for me. How would you work with a downconverter on this beast? VGA scan converter to composite I suppose would also work.

Thomas, so far none of the high-end HD cameras are including down-converters, so I would hardly expect one to be built in to a tiny camera like this. We as Steadicam operators are the only ones clamoring for such a thing and to me its more of a function of us trying to maintain status quo with our current gear. In a few years (hopefully), there will be a flat screen HD display that will equal the specs required by our sub-sector e.g. anti-reflective, wide vertical viewing angle, 1200+ nit brightness, frameliner etc. and it'll likely cost less than our good old greenscreens to boot. Hard to imagine at that point there will still be much call to manufacturers to include downconverters. Of course we'll have to deal with different wiring in the posts to accomodate the HD-SDI signal but once again--frankly, that's our problem. The alternative of flying a downconverter isn't much of a dealbreaker, as they are neither heavy or exceptionally power-hungry (I'm starting my second Genesis show this week and have to use one).

As far as SD video transmission, since there is already a cable coming off the camera to the recorder and likely another one going back to engineering/DP's monitor, no reason that a downconverter and transmitter couldn't be placed there. I've done that one and it works beautifully, in fact the transmitted image is better for those who need it because it is coming from a fixed point rather than a moving one. With this scenario, it would even be possible to piggyback a nice thin cable carrying the downconverted video back to the rig along with the output cable, so you could avoid the downconverter.

Thankyou so much for your reply Charles,

I was intending to buy the $21 000 body and head system as a music video camera. I was hoping that this was all enclosed and I would not need to send cables out to laptops etc. As this would really not suite the logistics (chaos) of my shoots.

I am certainly not planning on sending a signal to an engineer as I am hoping I can do all of this with the marvels of the cineform codec in post.

I am the Dop, so the DoP can suck eggs.

Anyway, no cables, run and gun promo system.

So there is an HD-SDI signal? Straight off the body? Can I use the Miranda downconverter as per the varicam? Will this work at all frame rates? Is there a sampling frequency on the head that you tune the downconverter to and then select what frames to flag so you can Down convert all frame rates.

There is a VGA out ? can I just take a scan converter off that signal ? giving me SD at whatever framerate

I know what you mean Charles, we have some catching up to do. But I want to make my money back on this camera in the first 9 months (Febuary to October '07) and don t see any technical options of catching up my steadicam accessories or underater monitors for this period.

Transvideo are coming out with a superbright Hidef camera.

As a second note, will you be able to remove the handle ? So we can use the full body in the AR (see www.thomasenglish.co.uk/AR)

I am super super interested in buying one of these bodies.

Yes, you can remove the handle.

Also there's a DVI-I ouput which has VGA on it, so that can plug into a scan-converter.

You might also want to try the Doremi DVI->HD-SDI/SDI converter, which is a small 3"x4" box that can go from DVI and convert to HD-SDI or downconvert to standard definition SDI, all in one box.

http://www.doremilabs.com/products/XDVI-20.htm