Anyone Using the Maxell 50GB Discs?

[Jim Duffy]

I was wondering if anyone has used the Maxell 50GB discs. The price savings over the Sony 50GB's is pretty substantial ($34 vs $58 at B&H). I'm considering archiving my field footage on these 50GB's, since our original 23GB field discs need to be sent to the client as we wrap each project. Any feedback on the Maxell's?

[Daniel Larson]

I have not tried Maxell but use the Fuji PD711 discs all the time without any problems. I think the price for Fuji is often between the Sony and Maxell media.

Dan

[Tim Bradley]

I have used the Fuji 50's too. Never had a problem with them or any disc for that matter.

Cheers, Tim.

[Jim Duffy]

Interesting. I've posted this question in a few different web spots and not one XDCAM shooter has replied that they've used Maxell media. Guess they don't have much of a market share. Surprising though, with those low prices.

[Doug Jensen]

I would not be surprised if they are all manufactured at the same factory. :-)

However, with that said, I've always gone with genuine Sony tapes and discs for as long as I can remember (at least since 3M Scotch got out of the tape business) simply because the risk vs. reward isn't worth it to me. In the big scheme of things, a few extra bucks for media is not an issue and then I have only one company to blame if there are problems with hardware or media

Am I pissing money away? Maybe, but I've got peace of mind, and that is worth something in my book.
A problem on a tape might only cause the loss of a few frames, seconds, or minutes of video. Failure of a disc or memory card could result in total loss of all data.

[Jim Duffy]

I totally agree for the most part, Doug. Our field discs will certainly be Sony 23GB. It's just that the Maxell price caught my eye when I was looking at the 50GB discs to archive to. That's a pretty substantial savings over a year.

BTW-- We just ordered our 700. Should be here next week. But one thing I bought early was your book, which I'm just about done reading. Very well done, with lots of great info. Thanks for that. I'd like to ask you about your settings (gamma, shutter, etc.) to gain the best film look, in your experience. But that's off-topic for this thread. If you'd like to e-mail me, my address is: jim@venturemedia.tv .

Thanks.

[Trell Mitchell]

Recently, Sony introduced Quad-Layer XDCAM disc at NAB 2010.
So does this mean that Sony will be open to reducing the retail cost of their 50 Gig Dual-Layer XDCAM Disc? The average cost of $58.00 for 1 Dual-Layer XDCAM disc is pretty expensive.
Like Doug, I would perfer the Sony brand.

[Doug Jensen]

Originally Posted by Jim Duffy

I'd like to ask you about your settings (gamma, shutter, etc.) to gain the best film look, in your experience. But that's off-topic for this thread. .
Thanks.

Hi Jim, I don't think anyone will care if the thread takes a turn towards something else. It isn't like this forum gets a lot of traffic.

Thanks for the compliments on the book. If I had known how hard it was going to be before I started, I never would done it.

I don't have any special recommendations for getting a film look on the F800/700 other than the normal stuff you'd do with any camera: progressive recording mode, shallow DoF, 180 degree shutter, avoid using extreme wide angle lenses, pull down the black levels, don't overexpose. and boost the color saturation. That does it for me, but as you know, it's so totally subjective that I try not to make strong recommendations when it comes to setting up the camera. But I do prefer to choose settings that will record great looking video right in the camera with minimal post processiing needed.

FYI, the scene file I recommend in the F800/700 book is no longer the one that I use most often. I have a new "favorite" scene file called VORTEX-1 that I describe on my private XDCAM website for owners of the book.. The URL and password are provided several places in the book. I think the top of page 99 is one of them.

[Doug Jensen]

Originally Posted by Trell Mitchell

Recently, Sony introduced Quad-Layer XDCAM disc at NAB 2010.
So does this mean that Sony will be open to reducing the retail cost of their 50 Gig Dual-Layer XDCAM Disc? The average cost of $58.00 for 1 Dual-Layer XDCAM disc is pretty expensive.
Like Doug, I would perfer the Sony brand.

It's my understanding that the quad deck will be quite expensive and won't make sense for most small owner/operators. My impression was something north of $20K. That kind of money buys a lot of dual-layer discs for the U1. Plus, I'll bet the quad discs won't be much of bargain when you compare cost per GB.
But that's just speculation on my part.

[Jim Duffy]

Thanks, Doug. I'll check out your site. For the past three years we've been shooting DVC-Pro50 with the SDX-900. That camera has two great gamma pre-sets called Filmlook 1 & 2. We always shoot at 30p with Filmlook 2 and get nice cinema-like images, which the clients all love. (24p always gave us too much stutter, so we didn't use it.) I was hoping there would be some pre-set gamma settings in the 700 like this, but I guess not.

[Doug Jensen]

Jim,

As you know, there are quite a few gamma choices on the 700 so you can get the custom look that you want, but I think it would be hard to say one is more "film-like" than another. I don't have any experience with the Panasonic "Filmlook" gamma choices but whenever I hear them mentioned it sounds funny to me -- almost like choosing the "portrait", "landscape", or "sports" modes on a low-end DSLR. As if one single setting on the camera is going to do it for you. What about blacks, saturation, detail, matrix? Don't they count? I'm skeptical that a film-look can be as simple as one menu setting, but I do know the Panasonic look has tons of fans.

Whatever it was about the Panasonic Filmlook that you liked, I'm sure can be achieved on the F800/700 if you experiment a little. I'ts just not going to be called "Filmlook". I wish I could say "choose these specific settings" if you want to match the Panasonic look, but I don't have that knowledge. Someone with experience using both cameras might be able to say what the formula is, but that's not me.

FYI, right now, I prefer HyperGamma 3 or a custom curve I purchase from Light Illusion. I never shoot anything that isn't 30P.