Interview with Bob Ott, Sony VP of Optical & Network Systems

[Marcus Marchesseault]

Personally, I don't particularly like the stuttered motion of 24P very much, but 1/24th shutter speed sounds interesting. I hesitate to leave the realm of good low-light sensitivity like on the VX2000/PD cams and this could get things one f-stop closer.

Eric Gorski said:

"THIS IS EXCITING."

In reference to greater exposure latitude, I wholeheartedly agree. Every single f-stop of better exposure latitude is a huge improvement in quality. Alongside resolution, I believe this to be the most important factor in visual quality. After high resolution and exposure latitude is achieved, I think we should then wish for 60p with 1/60th exposure. That would retain a nice bit of motion blur while providing that smooth IMAX look.

[Michael Wisniewski]

I thought the internal 1080/60p comment was the most interesting. It makes it sound like the V1U's technology is only one step away from outputting 1080/60p. Makes me go hmmm ...

Ott: What the camera does is the imagers are 1080/60p imagers. Going into the EIP chip is 1080/60p and then it outputs it to the circuitry as a 1080i signal.

[Chris Barcellos]

What you have to admire about the Sony people is they they are secure enough in their market to make their own wave. They don't seem to be concerned about "purist" arguments. If they think they can get a look another simpler way, they have no problem with point the industry that way... They may have missed with Cineframe, but they move on unfazed...

[Stu Holmes]

Originally Posted by Drew Long

Is that right? The DR60 drive has to be sustaining 3g before the head is lifted?

What the 3G drop protection does is it retracts the head and powers the drive down, so that if you did drop it past a force of 3G, you don't wipe out the drive

If you drop something it travels at 1g. So this drive is so tough only 3g can damage it? I don't get that.

It's not really Bob Ott's turf, but he needs to take a little physics lesson... ! He got that almost completely wrong.
- He made the mistake of seeing the "3G" term and got it all wrong.
It has accelerometers in 3 different axes, each at 90degrees to each other (commonly referred to as x, y, and Z axis). This means that when it's dropped, it can be at any orientation and the electronics will read each of the sensors readings and deduce that the unit is undergoing a 1G acceleration, i.e. it's under free-fall (being SLIGHTLY pedantic, you could in theory simply accelerate the unit yourself in any direction at 1G and the unit would think it was in free-fall too, but thats huuuugely unliklely to happen).

Sony say the unit can "survive" being dropped from heights "up to 1metre".

When you drop it from 1 meter (just over 3feet) above the ground, it will be travelling at 4.4meters per second (9.8mph) when it hits the ground.

Even assuming a "very optimistic" scenario of a landing in fairly deep-pile carpet, i.e. assuming it decelerates from 9.8mph to 0mph in a distance of 1cm, it will still undergo (& survive) a deceleration of 98G !! (for a very short time).

So very short but massive deceleration. If it hit a solid surface, like concrete, it would undergo a deceleration of about 1000G (assuming it stopped in 1mm).

3G deceleration for an object hitting the ground is absolutely nothing :
If you dropped the DR-60 from a height of only about 1.2inches above the deep-pile carpet, that alone would equate to a 3G deceleration for the DR-60 unit in the short 1cm (0.4in.) distance it has to stop in.

[Marvin Emms]

Just to be pedantic, free fall is 0G in all directions.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Originally Posted by Marvin Emms

Just to be pedantic, free fall is 0G in all directions.

Yeah, well.....aside from the fact that you're incorrect, relative wind is a couple G's, opening shock is several G's, depending on the pack job and the type of main being worn. Additionally, there are significant G forces during almost every RW maneuver, and of course, depending on winds, landings can vary between 0G's on up to body shattering forces.

[Stu Holmes]

Great thread, enjoying it (even if its wandered a little).

Who needs wikipedia.org when you've got dvinfo.net ? Learn about gravity, skydiving, wuffo's, DR-60's hitting the ground, and free physics lessons too!

ps. slightly disappointed that Bob Ott hasn't registered and contributed to this thread. If anyone knows him, can they give him a prod please.

[Dominic Jones]

Originally Posted by Marvin Emms

Just to be pedantic, free fall is 0G in all directions.

Hmm.. At the risk of getting flamed, I'm gonna be pedantic too - actually, terminal velocity is zero-g. Pre-terminal free-fall is 1g at point of exit, reducing to zero-g as you gain speed (and therefore air resistance in the opposite direction).

Of course, that's assuming a stable spread and lack of DSE's previously noted accelerations!....

Man, there's nothing like falling outta high stuff! :)

And FWIW, in my experience wuffo is used in both mildly derrogatory (i.e. good-natured mickey taking) and completely non-derrogatory (i.e. simple delineation as previously mentioned) ways - I've certainly never heard it used with any real venom. Skydivers are - despite having a very strong sense of "tribal unity", if you like - a very friendly and non-exclusive group of people. The very first time I jumped (as part of my AAF course), I didn't want to tell the more experienced guys it was my first jump for fear of the "oh, you're some peon tourist" type attitude - in fact, everyone I told clapped me on the back with a huge grin and told me to have a great jump. Great people, without exception...

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Dominic?! Do you jump? We'll be holding an Xtreme Sports session at NAB Post Plus in NYC in a couple weeks; skydiving videography is part of the course.
Would love to do a jump w/you if you're anywhere where it's warm over the next six...

[Marcus Marchesseault]

I just checked the stats on a recent Seagate notebook drive and it's non-operating shock rating is 900G. Just a tiny bit of padding around the unit (particularly at the corners as that is almost always what hits first) would protect them from G loads like that. The auto-retract system is designed to park the heads so the drive is sort of in it's non-operating state where the tolerances are higher.

Darn Sony is trying to get ALL of my money!

[Stu Holmes]

Originally Posted by Marcus Marchesseault

I just checked the stats on a recent Seagate notebook drive and it's non-operating shock rating is 900G.

Aha ! That ties in almost perfectly with my calcualtion that it will undergo an approx. 980G deceleration when dropped from a 1metre height onto a SOLID surface where it decelerates to zero in 1mm (1mm probably principally due to material flexing etc....the concrete ain't moving..).

Sony quote that it can survive drops from 1metre, so that pretty much ties in for the "max. 900G" shock.

ps. we're specifically back onto the DR-60 issue, so i felt that i can post again on that !!

[Marcus Marchesseault]

I agree that 900G is not realistic, but just a tiny bit of padding goes a long way. Change the surface dropped onto from concrete to carpet and 1-meter should be no problem. Personally, I would want to add padding that changes the safety zone to the height of a tripod...

[Stu Holmes]

Originally Posted by Marcus Marchesseault

I agree that 900G is not realistic, but just a tiny bit of padding goes a long way. Change the surface dropped onto from concrete to carpet and 1-meter should be no problem. Personally, I would want to add padding that changes the safety zone to the height of a tripod...

I agree some padding goes a long way. eg. a 2mm-thick rubber surround would lessen impact from about 980G to about 327G (concrete hit).

In all these scenarios, so much really depends on orientation of the hit and such like. At the end of the day, i have never dropped any camcorder or significant accessory, and i don't think that anyone will be too keen to drop their US$1100+ (approx.) DR-60 onto ANY surface, however trusting they were in Sony's drop-protection..

Martin makes an excellent point about where the heads pysically are when it's dropped: over the disk platter or not will be critical.