330 test... year long doc starts monday

[Rob Stiff]

Dutch, you won't regret your decision! Only negative on the
330L is that the viewfinder is a bit not up to par; I think you
have to have a more careful eye in the 330L's view finder.

I went with Canon KH20x6.4 lenses on all of my XDCAM cameras.
Nice glass.

But, I see alot of talk on the boards about 2/3 " HD lens..

Can someone explain the advantages to using 2/3 " HD lenses
on the 330L/350L XDCAM Cameras?

[Nate Weaver]

Originally Posted by Rob Stiff

Can someone explain the advantages to using 2/3 " HD lenses
on the 330L/350L XDCAM Cameras?

Some people are already heavily invested in 2/3" HD glass. That's it. There's no argument that 2/3" HD glass performs better than 1/2" HD glass. If anything, theoretically, it could perform a little bit worse.

[Alister Chapman]

My experiences and test have suggested that 2/3" HD glass no better than 1/2" HD glass. There may even be a very slight loss of resolution with 2/3" lenses.

[Dutch Rall]

Thanks Bill,

Of course I'll send a submission. I'd love to attend your festival.


Rob, Nate, Alister,

I'm using the Fuji 1/2inch HSs18X5.5BRM-M38.

If you check out the last image on the lefthand side that I mentioned here:
http://www.theincurable.com (the guy with the pencil in his mouth) you'll notice it's main flaw... which is at the middle of the zoom, it is soft around the edges. It looks o.k in some shots because it "appears" that I'm doing some sort of effected critical focus.

Zoomed in... glorious, perfect, wow! Zoomed out... you notice the limitations of the 1/2 chips (but still fantastic for the price).

The mid-zoom/ edge softness thing has been o.k. in 24p on the narrative feature I'm doing partially because it's a actor's script and there are lots of close-ups... eye glances, etc.

On the doc I'm shooting for the station, it's only really been a serious problem once: a two-person interview in 60i. Because of the tight space we were shooting in there was no way to have them both on camera and in focus.

I haven't had time to try any 2/3 inch glass. My thought is that when it's time for me to spend that kind of money, it will be time to get a new camera as well. And I'm giving myself at least 6 more months to work with what I have before moving on to RED, 2/3 inch XDCAM, Iky Editcam or whatever they tempt us with next April.

[Bill Pryor]

I'll look forward to seeing it, Dutch. We're still small but fun. George Romero was here this year, and it was a blast. Everybody thinks of him as a zombie filmmaker, we think of him as an early independent antihollywood filmmaker. Miguel Coyula was here last year with his film "Red Cockroaches." I found him on that other board where he got flamed for posting something cool about his film. He got a direct to DVD distribution deal right after the festival (nothing to do with us but it sounds good) and is well into his second film of the trilogy now.

[Dutch Rall]

If anyone is in Austin this Wed and wants to see what the PBS project looks like in HD on a decent HD screen, let me know. I'm putting it to HDCam tape. It won't air for a few more months.

Again, this one was 1080i. 35mb. Cine4. Hi Sat. 1/2 inch fuji lens. Color correction, etc were done in an Avid 145 timeline.

Also, if you're in Austin May 10, 11 or 12 and are a fan of dance, Ballet Austin will be showing some things I made at the Paramount. This would give a good idea of what to expect if you're an indie film maker.

The Paramount is 1200 seats. They'll be using a 1024 x 768 projector onto the bigscreen.

I shot this in one day at 23.97. Shutter off. Cine2. Hi Sat. Same lens.

[Uli Mors]

rg. focussing:

did u use the 1,5" or did you go for the 2" wide viewfinder?

Regards

ULI

[Dutch Rall]

Just had the 1.5.

With practice... and if you turn the peaking way up, it works just fine.

[Dutch Rall]

Just wanted to close this thread by saying that the PBS doc has aired locally and has been accepted by the national PBS feed.
I should air on PBS stations in TX, NM and who knows where else this Fall 07 in HD.

We ended up with an HDCAM master at 145.

Locally, the show did really well during pledge and was our station's first locally produced HD program to be broadcast. I've been nominated by our Emmy chapter for the photography of the doc. A regional grocery chain has orderd dvds to be sold in their store's wine section.

XDCAM HD was the right choice at the time and still is as of now for our purposes. We've tested the new Iky editcams, some Pana and JVC and nothing has come close in regards to price/ image/ workflow.

Now if that new 2/3 model has 23.98, everything will be fine.
Otherwise, I may be seeing Red.

[Thierry Humeau]

One setting you absolutely need to change from the factory defaults.

PAINT MENU #04

Set the KNEE SATURATION to at least 100. Mine is set to 130 out of 200. 100 should have been the factory default but for some reason, it is set to zero. This will make your picture highlights (hot spots on skin tone, color gradients highlights) look much smoother. Also, I like the HISAT Preset Matrix combined with the Gamma 4.

Enjoy!

Thierry.

[Bob Willis]

What's the name of the doc? Looking forward to seeing it.