Pilot, anyone received theirs, thoughts?

[Ted Spencer]

Originally Posted by Steven Davis

Hey Ted, what cable are you using to connect your camera video out to the pilot's video on on the camera mount? I called BH and they told me to use my Z1's component out, but this leaves me with two dangling unused wires.

And a picture that's all red, blue or green, I imagine!

Component is hi-def only and always requires all three cables, so you can't use it with the Pilot's SD monitor. Does the Z1 have a composite output (usually a yellow RCA jack)? That should do the trick.

The HVX200 has one that runs all the time, even when you're shooting HD. So I connected the black RCA cable that came with the Pilot between the camera's composite output and the Pilot stage's input. It's not hi-def of course, but it works fine.

[Mikko Wilson]

Originally Posted by Ted Spencer

And a picture that's all red, blue or green, I imagine!

Component is hi-def only and always requires all three cables, so you can't use it with the Pilot's SD monitor. Does the Z1 have a composite output (usually a yellow RCA jack)? That should do the trick.

The HVX200 has one that runs all the time, even when you're shooting HD. So I connected the black RCA cable that came with the Pilot between the camera's composite output and the Pilot stage's input. It's not hi-def of course, but it works fine.

Using a single compoenent signal into a composite input would be a B&W image .. the "Y" channel would give you a clean usable B&W picture, the "Cb" or "Cr" channels would give yous something rather unusable. - But the signals themselves are all B&W, only when you combine them in the right way, do you actually get any color.

Component can be SD or HD - depending on the source. For example BETACAM-SP (been around for YEARS as *the* de-facto standard for SD TV production) is an analog compoenent format. Most (all?) of these smaller cameras can output either HD or SD compoenent when in HD mode (and SD compoenent only when in SD mode). In fact, in general it's very rare to find a device that is HD compoenent only and can't be switched to SD compoenent.

The Z1 uses a 4-conductor 3.5mm jack for Composite Video & Stereo Audio output. You need a special cable that comes with the camera that gives you the RCA output (and this will in deed leave you with the audio connectors hanging loose). Note that the composite output isn't active when the component output is in use. - This is also the case for the HVX200 - the Composite output is disabled as soon as you connect a cable to the compoenent output.

- Mikko

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Mikko Wilson

Using a single compoenent signal into a composite input would be a B&W image .. the "Y" channel would give you a clean usable B&W picture, the "Cb" or "Cr" channels would give yous something rather unusable. - But the signals themselves are all B&W, only when you combine them in the right way, do you actually get any color.
- Mikko

Mikko, then is it worth my while to get a cable that will patch the output of my component Y, Cb, Cr back into one RCA cable to get the three combined? Or should I just use composite? Thanks for the time. I'm referencing page 52 of the Z1u manual.

[Ted Spencer]

Man...you get corrected fast around here : )

Thanks for the info.

[Mikko Wilson]

No hard feelings I hope Ted. :-)


Steven; no combibing the components into a composite signal requires active processing, it's a bit more than just adapting the wires together.
Just use the composite output.

- Mikko

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Mikko Wilson

No hard feelings I hope Ted. :-)


Steven; no combibing the components into a composite signal requires active processing, it's a bit more than just adapting the wires together.
Just use the composite output.

- Mikko

Thanks Mikko...............as a side note, the dude at steadicam was a little surprised, or acted so, that the Z1 was outputting like it was. Who knows........ But thanks again.

[Ted Spencer]

Originally Posted by Mikko Wilson

No hard feelings I hope Ted. :-)
- Mikko

Not in the slightest. I appreciate the addition to the ol' knowledge base!

In a larger sense your input regarding the Steadicam in general has been absolutely invaluable, and I thank you once again.

Ted