I've had the 330 for about three weeks and have shot a bit of test stuff, and also some shoots that were for standard def but where I used the 330 in HD mode to collect a few more HD shots. This is an edited piece only in the sense that I trimmed the shots - there's no rhyme or reason and the music is only there because it can be. I just wanted to get a few shots posted and work towards getting an online HD demo for my clients.

This was pulled into Avid Liquid in the FAM from the 330, plopped on the timeline and exported directly from the timeline. The first link is a lower bitrate and the second is double the bitrate and a much larger file.

http://www.streamload.com/JohnGodwin/HDTV_Samples/xdcam_hd_tests.wmv

http://www.streamload.com/JohnGodwin/HDTV_Samples/xdcam_high_bit_rate.wmv

Looking forward to comments....

Thanks,
John

Thanks John for that.

Are you using any knee tweaks or DCC? Or are things set to default?

It varies a bit from shot to shot - generally I had it set to Cine 4 all the time and the dcc on when it was outside, especially on the 24p shots. Most of the 1080i stuff was straight out of the box, I just wanted to see what the camera would do.

That's what I figured, the 60i stuff was Sony defaults.

Can't wait until I get mine. Argh.

Nice--what lens did you use?

Nate: I feel like I've just scratched the proverbial surface with this camera.

David: I'm saving up for a hd lens. This is the 1/2 sd Fujinon S13x4.6 BRM-28 I've been using on my dvcam. And the video online doesn't show how sharp the image is on a hd tv (not a real monitor, a tv). The shot of the girl, particularly, was really too sharp and I see why I'll need to get my matte box fitted to the 330 and use the skin detail. I shot all this with only a sd monitor and couldn't really see it as it was until playback in my office. I intend to rent an HD lens soon and try that out....

Very nice stuff. I really liked the 24p and was surprised at what you got with the SD Fujinon lens. Thanks for putting it up....

I got the 350 body over 2 weeks ago and I'm still waiting for the lens!!! These clips just make me more impatient...

John, I'm going to be getting a 330 or 350 this week or next, and will be getting an SD lens also to get me started. I've seen the camera with an SD lens attached on a 42" plasma and it was at least as sharp as the HVX next to it, but I know the plasma hides a lot of sins.

Can you post a still frame from your lens? I'd like to make sure I know what I'm getting myself into with an SD lens.

need to get my matte box fitted to the 330 and use the skin detail

Never use skin detail. Horrible little digital effect. Just go into the Paint menu and turn the detail off. Much more effective. Then if you really need to soften it you can diffuse it in post.

Nate: Here are links to 3 stills. These are the first I've tried to export and I hope they help.

Simon: I've never used skin detail and didn't have high expectations for it. So thanks for the info.

http://www.streamload.com/JohnGodwin/HDTV_Samples/330_still_1.TGA

http://www.streamload.com/JohnGodwin/HDTV_Samples/330_still_2.TGA

http://www.streamload.com/JohnGodwin/HDTV_Samples/330_still_3.TGA

(I looked at the stills myself just now via download and they still don't look as sharp as the video on an hd tv....)

Thanks so much John. Truly, truly helpful.

I can see the shortcomings of the SD lens in the plant still, and some other shots in the WMV you posted. Are they showstoppers? Not in my book, especially for a job that otherwise would be shot with an HD100 with lower resolution and would exhibit a lot of lens aberrations anyway!

I think Sony could sell a lot more of these if they'd market a lower end lens for it. JVC has more or less done that with the HD100.


(I looked at the stills myself just now via download and they still don't look as sharp as the video on an hd tv....)

Such is the nature of viewing video stills on a computer monitor, in my opinion. It's like a microscope that shows you everything that's wrong with an image.

Good point about cheaper HD lenses---I think thats the one component thats holding back the sales of HD cameras. Look at the new Panny HDX900 that is being released---Fairly reasonably priced at 27,000 bucks---but in order to do this camera justice, you would need to spend an additional 15,000-20,000 for a top-notch 2/3 HD lense. I wonder what the margins are on these lenses---

The F330 comes as a kit, with a cheap lens, I bought it, the quality of the lens, is superior to that supplied with the HD100.
Not as much CA.
Not as much distortion in wide.
No breathing.

As for sharpness, I can’t tell, but it is as least as sharp.
I don’t have a HD monitor just a 1680 x 1050 HP f2105 LCD screen.

The price for the lens, bought in the kit, is as far as I can calculate around 4000$.

So yes, Sony can supply a cheap lens.
It works.
Picture quality is fine.
The only real drawback is the endless spinning focus ring. This doesn’t make the lens useless though. My experience is that it is not a problem, focusing with it manually.

For around 4000$ you get a useable lens..
Is it HD? They state it is!

In the perfect world, I would also like to be able to buy a 25k lens, but for now, the money isn’t there.

What is a HD lens? The ability to resolve more lines!

I read an article from Sony, where they explain the various terms regarding the components in a camera. They also came over the subject about lens quality. Their conclusion was, that it is not always the lens with the best resolving power, which gives the best picture!!!

The explanation for this was, that is wasn’t a law of nature, that the lens with the best resolving power, also is the sharpest in the middle area, where most of the details in the picture is
.
You could end up with a lens with a high resolving power, that looks not as sharp as the one, with less lines, because the one with less lines is sharpest in the area where most of the details in the picture is.

I admit I am not an expert on the subject, I only comments on the things I have read.

Brian, you have that correct. Also note that more sharpness in the mid-frequencies will make judder more apparent when in 24/25p modes.

Will be testing an F350 and F330 side by side with a Z1 and F750 HDCAM over the weekend. I will be trying both HD and SD lenses on the F350. I have been using a Canon 19x6.7 half inch SD lens on my F350 and I have to say that while not perfect it produces very sharp images. Compared to a 2/3 inch HD lens the difference may be tiny as 2/3 lenses are after all designed to work with larger imagers with larger photo sites so they don't need to project such a sharp image onto the CCd as the equivalent half inch lens.

Alister, will the 750 have the V2 software? Any chance you could take a look at the new cine gammas compared with the XD's?