Important!: PDW-700 and sony vegas

[Mark McCarthy]

Hello all
I am just about to buy a PDW-700 (upgrading from a PDW F350) and I have a very important question you may be able to help with.

Can I just import clips into my pc through the 700's firewire port (ilink) as I am currently doing with the F350, then bring them into Vegas?

I don't need to get a deck to do this do I?

Very important question for me! Thanks!

[Doug Jensen]

Sure, there's no reaon why you can't do that. The 700 doesn't have the AVC mode, but it does do FAM.

But let me suggest that you consider investing in a PDW-U1 drive.
It will save a lot of wear and tear on the camera -- plus the hassle of connecting the camera all the time. I think it's faster than the camera too, but I haven't done a speed test yet. Ask me again at the end of the month and I'll be able to tell you precisely how much faster it is. I have to do a speed test for a project I'm working on.

There's another thread someplace where I posted a U1 vs. the F350 speed test, but I haven't done the U1 vs. the 700/800 yet.

(time is money)

[Uli Mors]

indeed, PDW700 + Vegas Workflow = 100% identical.

I am doing exactly that (mixing pdw330 & pdw700) day by day.

Best regards

Uli

[Mark McCarthy]

Thank you both very much for helping me out. My PDW-700 arrives next week and I am very excited about its arrival. Uli, do you find the speed of Vegas slows down much when editing the bigger PDW-700 files. I never bothered editing the F350 proxies, I have always edited with the mxf files and my system currently runs like a dream. I am expecting a little slow down..

Thanks again, Sparky

[Mark McCarthy]

Hi Uli

How are you enjoying your PDW-700? What lens are you using?
I have my 700 arriving early next week. For the meantime I am going to get a good Canon SD lens. There doesn't seem to be much difference between them and the HD lens.

Cheers, Sparky

[Doug Jensen]

I disagree that there is no difference between SD and HD lenses. I've tried SD (Canon & Fujinon) lenses on my F350 and on my F800, and I can immediately see the difference.

If you only try an SD lens you might be tempted to say it looks good enough, but when compared side-by-side to a nice HD lens there no noticable. Why skimp on a lens?

Obvioulsy not all SD or HD lenses are created equal, so this might not be true in all cases, but it's true in every comparison I've done.

Right now I'm using a Fujinon HSs185.5 BRM on the F350 and a Fujinon ZA22x7.6BERM on the F800. I'm am very happy with both of them.

[Alister Chapman]

Until lens manufacturers start publishing MTF curves we'll never really know what the differences truly are. I wish they would stop hiding behind statements such as "improved overall performance" or "new optical design" or "HD optimised" which are pretty meaningless and tell us nothing about how the lens actually performs.

I've come across several low cost HD lenses that have performed worse than similarly priced SD lenses.

[Mark McCarthy]

I've read a couple of reviews were put side by side, the Canon J17 performed pretty identically to the Fujinon HA18X7.6BERM-M.
Alister, I believe you couldn't notice much difference between your Canon J16 and a couple of HD lenses. I am not talking about freeze framing footage and blowing it up by 400% to see tiny differences, in the real world people don't view footage like this. I am sure you can see some differences then.

I was originally going to get the Funinon HA18X7.6BERM-M with the 700, but it I opted for the Canon J17 (which in tests seemed to match the Fujinon) , saving around 4k. Then perhaps I could look to selling the J17 later in the year and upgrading to another HD lens.

Seems to make sense. I shoot material for large blue chip companies in the UK and provide footage to sports networks occassionally. I edit all my material as well.

What do you think?

[Uli Mors]

Hi Mark,

its not "my" pdw700 (for now), but I can use (for little rent) a friends pdw700 if projects require it - otherwise I can choose between my own PDW-F330, Z7 and EX1.
Me and my business partner also own two FX1.

On the PDW700 I can use a HJ14x4.3 IRSE HD lens or some longer SD ones.

EDITING: Yes, VEGAS SLOWS DOWN...

Full HD 422 decoding needs more horsepower than thin raster (1440) 420 35mbit...

My well build Quadcore System easily handle HDV, HD EX, XDCAM HD, but playing back 700er files lacks a bit of power.

Anyway, when I dont need full HD preview I switch to IMX settings and preview SD thru my BMD PCI card. At dedicated points I switch back to HD.

I guess, a 8core system will perform much better, but I am too deep in some projects, so I dont want to change or expand my systems.

ULI

[Alister Chapman]

I'm happy with my Canon J16. The only thing I don't get is ALAC. Fully open and on the long end of the lens there is some softening in the extreme corners that possibly would not be as bad on a mid/high end HD lens, but then my lens cost £2k (used) as opposed to £8k plus for the HD equivalent. I do expect to get a better lens at some point in the future, but I have not found an affordable lens that I believe to be truly better than what I currently have.

As always of more importance is correct focus, exposure and framing. Get those right and most good quality lenses will produce good pictures.