Ninja 1 ProresLT 720/1080 oddity

[Mark Morreau]

Have just had the strangest thing happen.

I shot a theatre show, and had a Ninja 1 with latest FW attached to a Sony Z5 on a fixed wide camera. Have done this many times before. The camera set to record HDV1080i. As well as Ninja also recorded to CF using the Z5's CF recorder.

In the first half of the show the ProresLT files are reported (on two different Windows 7 machines) as 1280x720, which the files from the second half are reported as 1920x1080, which is what I'd expect. I mean, the Z5 doesn't even record 720i.

Anyone ever seen this? Any clues as to where the problem might lie? Can the Ninja really have recorded 720i from a 1080i output? Or is it all Quicktime's or Window's fault?

[Duncan Say]

I've had a similar thing happen in that my Sony FS100 can record internally to 720 while outputting 1080 and the reason for that is that just changing the recording spec doesn't change the output spec.

On that occasion I was asked to record 720 on the Ninja, so I changed the record spec from 1080 but forgot to change the video output spec. No harm done at the end of the day but I certainly learnt from it.

This isn't the Ninja, it can only record the signal sent down the HDMI and certainly can't up or down convert, something must have happened to you camera. Did you power down, have a battery change, or did someone adjust the settings?

[Mark Morreau]

Originally Posted by Duncan Say

This isn't the Ninja, it can only record the signal sent down the HDMI and certainly can't up or down convert, something must have happened to you camera.

Well, this is the totally mysterious thing: the camera that the Ninja was attached to was a Sony Z5E which ONLY does DV OR HDV. It has no ability or facility to record 720p...

[Duncan Say]

Well for a short while you must have entered the twilight zone! Hopefully no damage done at the end of the day but it can be puzzling what technology can do when you're off guard.