PDX10 -- various questions

[Chris Beacham]

Ari Shomair: "Anyone know of any movies shot with the PDX?"

Hi Ari,
I know of BONDI TSUNAMI
http://www.madmancinema.com.au/CatItem.php?CatNo=MMA2300.
(and other google links...)

An extract from Video Camera Mag Sept 03....

Equipment: "Rachel Lucas is best described as a child of the 'do it yourself on DV' guerrilla movie making revolution. She has a special interest in Australian music and is highly regarded for her surreal, satirical and sensual visual moviemaking style. Lucas has the ability to successfully interpret and complement different types of music with simple and striking ideas which can be produced on a minimal budget.

"We decided to use a DVCAM recorder to shoot Bondi Tsunami," explains Lucas "At first I chose the 3- DSR- PD150 with an anamorphic lens to emulate 16:9 widescreen to shoot the movie, however we then discovered the smaller and lighter PDX10 with it's native 16:9 CCDs.
"The results were amazing" says Lucas . "I have shown some edited scenes to several professionals and they have been convinced that it is shot on Digital Betacam, with some even suggesting that it was originated on 16mm or even 35mm film!".
"The tiny PDX10 made it possible to do some unconventional things," Lucas continues,"We could do dolly shots on car bonnets hanging onto the wipers, shoot odd angles from trees and rooftops, and even stand in waist deep water for some of the surfing sequences".

Lucas also highlights the importance that post production has in giving Bondi Tsunami it's filmlike look and feel. She says that editor Michael Jones created 'magic'. Jones says that his 1 MHz Dual Processor Apple G4 has 1.5 gig of RAM and he has daisy chained 5 external Firewire hardrives (with close to a terabyte of storage) from the 2 Firewire ports. He laments that the disc space is still not enough to cope with the 150 hours of raw DVCAM footage shot by Lucas.
"There have been very few problems with the system to date. The one or two problems we encountered were solved by a simple reboot" claims Jones who says the Final Cut Pro has an amazing tool set. "The filters are terrific; I have been able to colour-match scenes that have a wide colour range almost perfectly with the software. Using drop frame technique, experimenting with filters and applying layers I was able to create a texture to the movie so that it doesn't necessarily look like film but it definitely doesn't look like video," he explains. Like Lucas, Jones says professionals who have seen the treated footage are amazed and refuse to believe that it was shot on the tiny DVCAM recorder. Even 'Avid Snobs' as Jones calls them, find it almost impossible to fault the look and feel of the output...".

[Tim Kolb]

<<<-- Originally posted by Damien Greaves : thanks for the help i actually forgot about the pc monitor calibration its just that the footage looked so good in the lcd even in the b/w viewfinder

but i think i found my problem the lcd wasnt st true - meaning the lcd is brighter than my camera is shooting so i went into the touch screen and hooked the camera to an external monitor and lowered the lcd level to that of the external monitor oh i did also match it with the bars etc before

but any more help would be appreciated -->>>

The biggest problem with using the LCD (and this includes almost all camera LCD panels...) is that the blacks aren't anywhere near black. This causes the whole picture to be brighter at gamma and below.

I use the zebra on my PDX-10 to determine what iris setting I need...then adjust the LCD so the picture helps you compose, but for dependability, nothing beats a well-adjusted, not-very-sexy, black and white viewfinder I'm afraid.

[Jaakko Simo]

Does PDX10 work as a webcam? Does it need some drivers or software I'm using Windows XP.

[Boyd Ostroff]

Yes, it can stream MPEG over USB. I've never used this feature since I'm on a Mac and I only think it works under Windows. Have a look in the user manual, it's covered towards the end http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=22998

[Ignacio Rodriguez]

Oh I have used it in this fashion from time to time. Feels great to be the only guy on the 'net with a 3CCD webcam. You have to put the PDX10 in video mode, not photo mode, 4:3 and make sure the USB streaming function is set to 'on'. Works especially well if you set the camera to 1/30 or slower because the resulting extra low noise image results in an efficiently compressed image through MSN Messenger. Way better that any US$29.95 webcam.

[Matt Stahley]

I dont have a pdx10 (yet) but i have used my 1chip PC110 with the firewire port as a webcam using yahoo messenger on a Mac.The 110 is in regular video mode.

[Ignacio Rodriguez]

In camera mode, the time code options might be greyed-out because you are in DV SP mode. Try in DVCAM mode. Anyway, I think it will not be able to record external timecode in any way, as Joe says.

[Craig Bellaire]

I have a PDX10 and was wondering about filters? What size threads... The camera says 43.5? Does it take screw on threaded filters? If so then do I need a new lens hood? Also I just got the manual for the Micro35 and this is the reason I am asking… Thanks for the help...

[Boyd Ostroff]

The PDX-10 uses 37mm filters, not sure where that 43.5 number came from? You will still be able to use both of the supplied lens hoods with the filters screwed on the lens.

[Craig Bellaire]

I was trying to go off memory for the misquoted numbers... Thanks for the help...

[Sean McHenry]

I am wondering if you have tried this over firewire. Seems to me if you are making a dub from the DSR-11 to the camera, so you can have a copy for instance with matching time code, that should work but admittedly, I also have not tried it.

Time code in firewire is part of the digital signal. It may very well transfer directly. You will have to test it.

On the flip side, there is no method to bring in an outside time code to either the DSR-11 or the PDX10 camera. Sometimes that is useful, like in analog transfers or dubs, you would need the analog audio and video as well as digital input for the time code transfer. Time code is also sometimes transfered as an audio track.

All that is a moot point as most of us don't have to worry about that anymore in the digital world. Used to be a big thing in the analog days.

Let us know how the test goes.

Sean McHenry

[Craig Bellaire]

this looks way cool... take a look
http://homepage.mac.com/gnattress/PhotoAlbum7.html

[Nevin Aragam]

I like it. The barn doors look rather shabby but thats what duct tape is for.

Do matte boxes help reduce vertical smear any?

Cool stuff,
Nevin

[Craig Bellaire]

It doesn't help with the smear part but it's for filters and other add ons... PLUS it looks cool... BUT.. it's $1,400.00.. which means I can buy another X10.

[Nevin Aragam]

or make one of my own...duct tape... wood... and titanium... here i come.
thanks,
Nevin