Next Wedding with new Z5
 

Just got my new Z5,next saturday I have
a 1 camera wedding,any sugestion for my
firts HD wedding with this AMAZING TOY!!
This will be a night Wedding !!!


Thanks in advance !!.....Franklin

ps-I am coming from pd-170

My advice would be to use the camera every day from now until the wedding to familiarise yourself with all the controls and settings.

Oh, and good luck doing a wedding as a one camera shoot, very brave.

Hey Phil ! thanks for your coments,any way
I might bring the pd-170-just in case !!

Franklin...

In that case, I hope takes will match.

I would recommend you get a cam light for the reception. I use this one at all of my weddings.

Bescor | KLK-65XT Light Battery Kit | KLK65XT | B&H Photo Video

I have just ordered my HVR-Z5 and I can't wait to shoot my next christening with this camera. I will post my impressions here.

One thing though, what is the difference between DVCAM SP and DV SP?

Stelios

Basically, its the speed that the tape is wound when recording, DVCAM is a format designed to reduce drop outs by increasing the speed the tape is moved during camera recording and playback. Therefore increasing the surface area and giving the footage - more "room" on the tape.

This reduces drop outs, which are especially harmful with the GOP video compression that this camera uses, but i have only really seen use for DVCAM with HD, i suppose its just a way to better ensure no dropouts are found on the tape.

You will turn a 63 Minute HDV tape into a 43 minute tape however if recording in DVCAM if i remember correctly.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Daniel for the quick reply. I hope that this camera can record in ordinary DV mode ( widescreen) as well.

Stelios

DVCAM is the pro version of DV and is SD not HD. As you say the tape runs faster to reduce dropouts so a 60 min tape will be a 40min DVCam time. The audio is also locked to the video clock so that it is possible to use a linear editor for DVCam( audio will be cut with the video) The standard DV spec allows the audio to be 1/3 frame out from the video. The pro versions of Z1, Z5 and Z7 etc have HDV , DVCAm and DV SP whereas the consumer FX1, FX1000 have HDV, DV SP and DV LP. When DV was introduced the pro segment was still using linear editors so DVCam needed to be more robust and have locked audio. Technology rolled on and effectively made the difference negligible when used with NLE's. DV and DVCAm are DCT intra frame encoders whereas HDV is long GOP MPEG2. Both are constant bit rate at 25mbps since they go to tape.
The video encoders for DVCam and DV are the same, the main difference is locked audio and a faster tape speed but the data rate is the same DVCam just uses more tape. The JVC pro DV camcorders use locked audio in the DV stream. Panasonic had their own pro version of DV called DVCPro that not only had locked audio but also a linear audio track that the linear editors were used to using so that it could drop right into the normal pro work flow. In fact DV SP and DV LP are also the same, again only tape speed is the difference. DV LP becomes more susceptible to drop outs and head alignments so really needs to be played back from the deck that wrote the data. Once they are in an NLE there is no difference as the audio is then locked!!!!


Ron Evans

Ron
Thanks for the detail explanation.
Now if you use a 16GB flash card on the HVR-MRC1 unit, they say that you can record about 72 minutes of video HDV or DVCAM. If you record though standard DV format will the capacity increase to record more that 72 minutes?

Stelios

No, If you record in DV, you will only get 72 minutes on your 16GB flash card.

My suggestion is that you record your christening on DV widescreen.

I have never seen a difference in picture quality between DV and DVcam.

Since you are going to record the Christening with your 16GB flash card, there's no worries of dropped frames.

No. They are exactly the same data rates 25Mbps so they will record exactly the same time on the flash card. The only difference is on the tape where DVCam uses more tape than DV or HDV to record the same data thus reducing the chance of a tape defect causing any problems the error correction cannot fix.

Ron Evans

My friend is getting an error message on his CF recorder when using his Z5 and a Lexar CF card. The card matches the requirements, but he seems to get the error message only when he has the cam set to downconvert from HDV to SD on the card.

That seems odd since I would think the file is essentially the same whether the camera is set to native SD or to HDV and then downconverting to SD on the fly. Since the camera is doing the downconverting, I don't see why he'd get the error one way and not the other.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks Marco and Ron for your answers.
I always record with DV widescreen in any case. There is no need,yet, for me to record on HDV, as not so many people here have the equipment to see it. Besides the outcome from my FX7 in DV mode is outstanding and I would imagine the Z5 would be the same if not better.

Stelios

Hi Stelios

It would be really nice if you could tell us how the FX7 compares to the Z5, when you get it

Cheers

hans