Newbie from Spain at DVinfo.net

David Lorente · January 5th, 2008, 05:11 AM

Hello everybody! My name is David Lorente. I live and work in a small town called Cuenca near the centre of Spain (160 Km east from Madrid, that's 100 miles for the american guys!).

I work in a small studio. Our video gear is a bit stuck in the past: we still use a Betacam SP camcorder (camera model DXC-537AP docked to PVV-1AP VTR), and edit with a Canopus DVRex RT Pro. Yes, we are very very poor! But that old gear can still produce nice pictures, and if you capture carefully the analogue component to the DV NLE you can produce very good DVD's.

The fact is that we have not upgraded our gear in many years because video is a bit dead in our region, nobody wants to do anything - at a professional cost, I mean.

But I finally convinced my boss to upgrade to HD, I think at the same time as many people: when, at last, a very good HD camera has gone into sales for a ridiculous price. I talk about the Sony PMW-EX1. Prior to that camera, I have been considering to update to other models, but the gap between pro gear (XDCAM HD) and prosumer gear (HDV) was too large: we couldn't afford the cost for a pro camcorder, and we didn't trust very much in 1/4" tape formats (though I know a lot of people has done very nice things with these small cameras) because if you have a drop-out in Betacam you have several lines doubled by the TBC, but with a drop-out in HDV you loose half a second of video. And I have seen enough drop-outs, tape jams, clogged heads and all the related problems in what has always been reputed as a robust format to run away from all the DV variants, either DVCAM, DVCPRO, miniDV or HDV.

So, going tapeless has been a major factor for me, the others being full HD capability with true 1920x1080 imagers, color reproduction, low light handling, and, at last, a better highlight handling than my Betacam! (Maybe it was just me, but I had always have the feeling that this old 2/3" Hyper HAD CCD's had a very high latitude, and that prosumer cameras had not still catch them - until now)

That's why I have discovered this forum: I was searching for reviews and opinions from real camera operators, and I found the right place :) .

So I hope to share valuable technical info, tricks, as well as funny things, with all of you DVi people! And I apologize for my low level english, hope I have not made too many mistakes.

January 5th, 2008, 05:11 AM	#1
David Lorente Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Cuenca (Spain) Posts: 92	Newbie from Spain Hello everybody! My name is David Lorente. I live and work in a small town called Cuenca near the centre of Spain (160 Km east from Madrid, that's 100 miles for the american guys!). I work in a small studio. Our video gear is a bit stuck in the past: we still use a Betacam SP camcorder (camera model DXC-537AP docked to PVV-1AP VTR), and edit with a Canopus DVRex RT Pro. Yes, we are very very poor! But that old gear can still produce nice pictures, and if you capture carefully the analogue component to the DV NLE you can produce very good DVD's. The fact is that we have not upgraded our gear in many years because video is a bit dead in our region, nobody wants to do anything - at a professional cost, I mean. But I finally convinced my boss to upgrade to HD, I think at the same time as many people: when, at last, a very good HD camera has gone into sales for a ridiculous price. I talk about the Sony PMW-EX1. Prior to that camera, I have been considering to update to other models, but the gap between pro gear (XDCAM HD) and prosumer gear (HDV) was too large: we couldn't afford the cost for a pro camcorder, and we didn't trust very much in 1/4" tape formats (though I know a lot of people has done very nice things with these small cameras) because if you have a drop-out in Betacam you have several lines doubled by the TBC, but with a drop-out in HDV you loose half a second of video. And I have seen enough drop-outs, tape jams, clogged heads and all the related problems in what has always been reputed as a robust format to run away from all the DV variants, either DVCAM, DVCPRO, miniDV or HDV. So, going tapeless has been a major factor for me, the others being full HD capability with true 1920x1080 imagers, color reproduction, low light handling, and, at last, a better highlight handling than my Betacam! (Maybe it was just me, but I had always have the feeling that this old 2/3" Hyper HAD CCD's had a very high latitude, and that prosumer cameras had not still catch them - until now) That's why I have discovered this forum: I was searching for reviews and opinions from real camera operators, and I found the right place :) . So I hope to share valuable technical info, tricks, as well as funny things, with all of you DVi people! And I apologize for my low level english, hope I have not made too many mistakes.