My first experience with the XDR unit.
 

Hi,

My background is that of a Advertising stills photographer.
Having worked wirh 35mm through to 8x10 film formats.

I use the Canon XL H1 which I think is a terrific camera in it's class.
I am using 2 1/4 square still lenses and adapter with this camera. Ziess.

Did a test at 50i i frame with the Sandisk Extreme 60mb/S, static camera.
Seemed to be Ok.

Changed to 25 PsF and XDR gave me a warning ( Card to slow ).

Sorry, this was at a bit rate of 220 I frame.

Changed to 160 i frame at 25 PsF and all was well.

I imported two cards at aprox 44 Gig into AMC 4.02 using DNX 185X ( 10 BIT ).

Avid showed this on import as XDcam HD.

The images are of flowers with water Droplets.

Now I have spent my life looking through magnifing glasses at images.

But these images are just stunning. The detail and colour are just truly amazing.

Will try and upload or give a link for download of a clip for any who are interested.

Just a BIG THANKS to all at CD who have made this possible.

Mike.

Dear Mike,

We appreciate your kind words.

The Canon XL H1 and the Flash XDR or nanoFlash work well together.

Hi Mike-
Thanks for the feedback! Great to hear the Flash XDR is working well. Yes, would love to see some images.

On the next firmware update, due in a couple of weeks, you will be able to run 220 Mbps with the Extreme card. We are re-vamping the Compact Flash write alogorithm for faster performance.

Best-

A Fellow XL H1 & XDR User Recommendation
 

.....Hi Mike: I recommend you do not use the *PsF* setting, as the XL H1 is *Not* a PsF type camera. If you decide to shoot in Canon 24F you must check the 3:2 pull Down Removal box in the Video Settings Menu.

....The XL H1 is an amazing camera for its class. I am sure that with the use of your Ziess lenses and the XDR set @ high data rate recording in I-Frame or Long-GOP your results will be truly stunning. It's too bad Canon totally goofed with the rather pitiful viewfinder they smacked on the H1. I suggest you use a good HD Video monitor, like the Sony 9 inch LMD-940W to be sure your focus and exposure is accurate. (You can't tell from that freakin crappy viewfinder !)

Canon XL-H1 Settings
 

Hi Mike, Mark-
Just a slight correction on the Canon XL-H1 settings.
1) If you shoot in 24F mode, then the HD-SDI output is 1080i59.94 (pull-down frames added). So to record in 1080p23.98 you need to enable the 3:2 pulldown removal and disable PSF-IN.

2) If you shoot in 25F or 30F mode, then the HD-SDI output is 1080psf25 or 1080psf30, respectively. So, you need to disable 3:2 pulldown removal and endable PSF-IN.

So the Canon does support psf, but 24F mode is a special case in which the stream is mapped to 1080i59.94.

Best-

Hi Mike:
OK. understood. Thanks for that info.

Hi Mike,
I'm really happy to read your post.
You are a photographer and really appreciate how you value of the NANO/XDR.
I'm a bit disappointed because it seems that many of my fellow video-makers do not appreciate what its worth the device.
I'm a bit tired of people asking for 10b Uncompress or Proress recording.
First because with their demands many people shows that have no a basic knowledge about digital video.
Second because it seems that most of the people have been their whole life shooting Betacam Digital and now a poor MPEG-2 is not enough for them.
I'm working in this job since 1.983.
When I started I worked with all the big machines(1'B, 1"C, ADO, ABEKAS,..).
When I set up may own shop, I have to start with DV and DVCam. For me was a bit like going to the second division.
Now the NANO just put me back in the first line.
Cheers,
rafael

The Greatness of SSDR
 

Hi Rafael:
I agree the XDR & the Nano represent what is nothing less than bleeding edge video technology. Mike & Tommy Schell & Convergent Design now have their place in the history of evolution of digital video development with the first practical Solid State Digital Recorder (The Flash XDR). We were told this sort of technology was coming for about 15 years now, but CD were the first company to actually do it.

As far as asking for uncompressed recording capability, this was something that was promised by Convergent Design since before even the XDR actually shipped. Folks asking for this feature usually want it for digital cinema production, whereby you acquire full raster HD uncompressed for a later film out to 35 mm for cinema distribution.