Announcing the Texas HD Shootout

[Pete Bauer]

Hey Everyone,

LONG but very fun couple of days of shooting so far. I'm exhausted, as I'm sure everyone else at the Shootout is, so this will be very short. But wanted to say that our fearless leaders guided us on schedule -- or even a little ahead -- through a demanding shooting schedule today that included fair-skinned and dark-skinned talent in front of the green screen, and two male martial arts experts doing their best to stress the codecs.

It is a real privelege to try out all these fancy HD cameras, and an even greater honor to meet and work with the esteemed professionals involved in the Shootout! Every single person here is enthusiastic and dedicated beyond reproach...all are as thorough and scientific about every detail as humanly possible. Everyone on the planet knows this already, but Adam Wilt is a tireless genius; it is simply amazing to see him in action! Greg, Boyd, and I each shot a little bit of candid "making of" sort of video with our personal cameras so as time allows for each of us, we'll try to get you some frame grabs or short clips uploaded -- maybe later in the week for me.

Tomorrow will be some outdoor shooting in Austin, TX. Then in the evening and again on Monday will be tear-down, followed by lengthy processing, organizing, and analysis. Information will released as soon as it is fully validated, but I'm pretty sure that complete and final results will be some time in coming (weeks at the least???). Yes, yes, I know. We all want it all, and right now..but doing this right will be a huge job. I'm right with you in looking forward to it. Now, though, I'm off to dreamland...another busy day is only hours away!

[Jung Kyu]

color corrected hdv footage...really intrested in f900 and varicam.

http://www.dvuser.co.kr/zboard/data/...okHD_1080p.wmv

[Chris Hurd]

Thanks Pete -- the final analysis is probably a post-NAB thing, a few weeks away. There's an awful lot of material to sort through! Mike Curtis has posted some notes about Day Two (Saturday) on his blog:

http://www.hdforindies.com/2006/04/t...wo-of-shooting

[Greg Boston]

Just arrived about 30 minutes ago. Was a great weekend and lots of good exchange of information and ideas. Everyone was very professional and it shows by virtue of how many setups we were able to achieve each day.

Some audio commentary from Adam Wilt was recorded Sunday evening while reviewing footage from the various cameras. It will be made available in some form at a later date.

Stay tuned while all the 1's and 0's get churned and tossed. I think many folks are going to be surprised by the outcome of all this just as we were. That's all I am saying for now.

-gb-

[Chris Hurd]

Glad to see that all you guys made it home safe and sound... meanwhile Mike Curtis has posted his Day Three (Sunday) notes over at his uber-blog:

http://www.hdforindies.com/2006/04/t...three-last-day

[Chris Hurd]

Mike is unstoppable, here are his notes from Day Four (Monday):

http://www.hdforindies.com/2006/04/f...ughts-on-texas

[Greg Boston]

Just wanted to mention to those who are reading Mike's blog that there is an error with respect to the JVC HD-100. Mike reports that no flavors of HDV are available via FW. You can actually capture 720p 24 and 30 frame via firewire. You have to use the component out and a capture card to get the 720p 60 because the data rate is too much for FW. Confirmed this with Carl Hicks of JVC today.

-gb-

p.s. I sent Mike a message about this but I'm not sure he has gotten it yet.

[Chris Hurd]

And some notes from Mike about the tear-down yesterday. We cleared a bunch of stuff on Sunday, but Mike, Adam, Li and I came back on Monday to clean out the shooting area as best we could, and sort out all of Omega's gear we had borrowed. I'm just sorry I had to bail on Mike before he had his truck loaded, but I had to book on down to the feed store before closing to satisfy our high-maintenance horses.

http://www.hdforindies.com/2006/04/t...ay-capture-and

[Steven Davis]

I think this is great. This should be published and republished. The results will be of great importance to me as I plan to upgrade soon, probably the Z1.

And I'm surprised that Sony, JVC or the like hasn't tried to bribe you in the results. Or have they..........(enter twilight zone music.)

[Pete Bauer]

Steven, I know you were only being light-hearted, so don't worry about it. But because of some severely ugly trash-talk in the past, the idea of anyone inappropriately influencing the results is a sensitive one and we definitely don't want to go there.

I'm already on record about the integrity of the TX Shootout (see my April 9, 2006 post in this thread). So let me say absolutely clearly again to any potential trolls:

The TX Shootout was conducted by a highly professional team who took great pains to do it the best it could be done. Camera owners representing each camera were there and NOBODY had the slightest gripe about the proceedings; rather, we all had a great time spending long hours working together toward a common goal of objectively assessing each camera's strengths and weaknesses. And for that matter, it isn't over...many of them will be putting in huge hours over the next weeks to complete this mammoth project. They are all fine, honest folks.

Chris Hurd owns this board and is the final arbiter, but I think it is fairly safe to say that any inflammatory comments that can't be clearly substantiated by proven fact will not be tolerated.

[Chris Hurd]

Thanks Pete, and just so the world knows: for the record, no manufacturer's representatives were present at any part of our extended weekend of camera tests. Plus, Adam and I put this thing together with Mike Curtis, so there's sort of a triumverate there. Bullet proof three times over.

[Gary Bettan]

Will an official "article" be coming?

Mike's notes are fantastic, but I'm wondering when and where will the results be published in a more organized, easier to follow and read article?

Will it be picked up by DV Mag or another magazine?

The more folks who get exposed to this first hand, real world comparison the better!!

Gary

[Boyd Ostroff]

Yes, Adam says that DV Magazine approved an article on the shootout. But of course you'll be able to find in-depth coverage right here at DVinfo. Just be patient, a mind-boggling amount of data was generated by these tests and the sort of exhaustive study that we're hoping for will take some time.

[Chris Hurd]

Everybody who was present at that event is strongly encouraged to post about the experience and provide feedback, however it'll probably be sometime after NAB before anything formal in the way of video clips, etc. is presented.

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Boyd Ostroff

Yes, Adam says that DV Magazine approved an article on the shootout. But of course you'll be able to find in-depth coverage right here at DVinfo. Just be patient, a mind-boggling amount of data was generated by these tests and the sort of exhaustive study that we're hoping for will take some time.

Hey Boyd,

I got the article from DV Magazine today, I haven't read it, but no offence to the magazine, but I would imagine the stuff people from here will write will lean alittle more direct as to applications and such, since most people here make money off of thier product and just not money off of testing.

Pete, Yeah, I was just cracking a joke. Not as funny as the one I put in Area 51, but a joke never the less.

Although I am annoyed that my Canon Gl2 wasn't included in the shoot out................................yet another joke. :}