PD150 Questions

James Connors · August 2nd, 2005, 10:35 AM

Some might remember the audio probs I had earlier in the year with my PD not recognising an input on one of the channels, something I put down to the camera falling out of a bag, then solved with a reset.

I think I've found the problem, and its a bug (I consider it a bug anyway..) in the PD and not related to it hitting the concrete...

1. If you goto playback mode and choose a single channel (ie either ch1 or ch2, not both which is the default)

2. Go into record mode, and monitor your inputs.. regardless of the manual setup on the cameras flick switches, both inputs will react to whichever input you chose for playback...

Might be fixed on the 170, but I've never heard anyone mention this on the 150 before, and I refuse to believe its an undocumented feature, because its already done with the ch1.ch2 switch if needed.....

Pat Sherman · August 14th, 2005, 07:24 AM

SAME DARN THING WITH ME! I was about to toss it in the garbage..It's like one the first PD-150's made.. So it had the audio bug anyways..

I got some good news though, I just bought a used PD-150 kit with 4 Century Optics Lenses, hard case, batterie(S), Bayonet Mount, Manfrotto tripod and fluid head.. I got a sweet deal, the lenses alone are more than I paid for everything..It's in good condition considering it's been used all over the world for a small film company..

So now I have 3 PD-150's I shouldn't have jumped the gun when I thought the one was broke.. Oh well..

Pat Sherman · August 17th, 2005, 08:08 AM

This may or may not tie into this same problem.. Early PD-150's have several problems one being the famous HISS problem when using manual gain the other is the sound not recording to the proper channels selected or none at all..

Well the simple fix for this is to do a hard reset on the camera and then all channels work as they should. I have one of the first PD-150 and about every 100 hours or so, it happens to me and I just do a hard reset and all is well again.

Shawn Alyasiri · February 13th, 2006, 05:27 PM

Hi. I just noticed that one of my trusty PD150's has a single pixel out. A number of my bigger cameras have pixel masking utilities, where the camera automatically tries to fix the missing pixel(s) by blending, etc.

I'm curious if the PD150 has any similar abilities, hidden factory service menu's or other utilities (hidden or not) to minimize or eliminate the anomaly.

Hopefully there's something handy that can be done by the user.

Any advice?

Thanks much,
Shawn

Don Bloom · February 13th, 2006, 10:40 PM

none that I'm aware of or have ever seen in my 150s.
Sorry;-(
Don

Ben Furfie · March 28th, 2006, 11:20 AM

I'm currently being offered a PD-150 PAL with usage times of:

Operation
100x10 Hrs

Drum Run
59x10Hrs

Tape Run
31x10Hrs

Threading
141x10hrs

Plus:

1
DSR-PD150P Serial Number – 1038966

1
Standard Lens Hood

1
Standard Lens Cap

1
Small Viewfinder Rubber Cap

1
ECM-NV1 Top Mic

1
Top Mic Foam

1
Large Rubber Eye Piece

1
Sony VCL-HG0758 x0.7 Wide Angle Conversion Lens

1
Front W/a Lens Cap

1
Rear W/a Lens Cap

1
AC-V700 F Series Battery Charger

1
Figure 8 Mains Lead

2
NP-F960 High Capacity Sony Batteries

1
HVL-20DW2 Battery Powered Top Light

1
Instruction Manual (English)

1
1550 Peli Case – Foamed out to fit the camera Perfectly!

How much do you recommend I pay at the most?

Tom Hardwick · March 28th, 2006, 12:47 PM

Does it come with any sort of guarantee, even for a few weeks? Have you had a close look at it, inspected the screw heads and the front element? I'd say it was in the £1500 ball park, because the accessories are valuable.

Remember you can get a brand-spanking new VX2k1 for less than £1600.

tom.

Neil McLean · April 26th, 2006, 06:31 AM

Hello,

I'm looking for a camera that will cover a width of 45 feet (13m), from a distance of 25 feet (8m) away.

This camera will form part of a multicam shoot, with the other cameras being PD150s.

Previously I've used a PD150 and fitted a 0.3 partial zoom lens, but wasn't very happy with the results.

I done a multicam shoot with an Italian a few years ago and he used a Panny that had an extremely wide lens that came as standard on the camera. Unless I am mistaken, the Panny was in the same price-range as a PD150/PD170, though it might have been marginally cheaper. From what I recall, the Panny was a relatively new camera at the time.

Ideally I'd like a camera to compliment the PD150s that will form part of the multicam shoot.

My final output delivery will be DV, though this doesn't necessarily mean the camera has to be DV or DVCAM. I'd consider an HD camera if it was sufficient to cover 45 feet, from a distance of 25 feet away.

Whilst I appreciate you only get what you pay for, I don't have a mega budget to call upon, so I'd welcome any thoughts regarding the options open to me.

Neil

Mike Rehmus · April 26th, 2006, 09:52 AM

Neal,

Why not hire a Pro camera with the required WA prime lens? Much better optical quality and if you get a Sony 370/390, it will match fairly well with the 150's. You might have more problems getting a Panasonic to match up all that well.

I have a DSR-300 that I shoot as the prime camera with a PD-150 in a supporting role (for jobs that pay for the big stuff) and it works very well. Although I don't have a very WA prime lens for the 300 but I do have a Century WA adapter for its lens that works very well and has about a 5 inch front element.

Neil McLean · April 27th, 2006, 11:40 PM

Hi Mike

I actually typed a reply to your post a couple of days ago, but can only assume I forgot to submit it - DOH!

I'm beginning to think just hiring a camera might be the way to go.

Which ever route I decide, I'm now of the opinion the camera needs to be a Sony for a better match.

Many thanks and regards
Neil

Myron Iwankewich · June 9th, 2006, 06:59 AM

The people who made the hard case for my pd150 gave me a call and asked if I knew of any other PD150 owners who might be interested in their last two cases. I had my case custom made by these people. Using my measurements, they made a lot of five. They have two left. These are top grade cases made by a firm that builds cases for professional audio and video companies. These won't be suitable for the casual shooter, you wouldn't want to lug this around to the park! They're heavy. For the travelling pro only.

I promised them I would give it a try. They will let these go for $150 each. I paid $250. They are out of Toronto Canada. You can e-mail me if you would like more information or a picture.

Myron Iwankewich
iwankewich2001@rogers.com

David Aguilar · June 13th, 2006, 03:22 PM

Im looking to purchase a PD150 for a friend of mine, and found one for sale locally.

The hour meter reads...

Operation: 1570
Drum: 400
Tape Run: 560
Threading: 3610

are those hours good, fair, or bad?
guy is asking $1500 for it, is this a good price for it?
FYI the camera is 3-4 years old and comes with the standard accessories .

TIA

John Harmon · June 14th, 2006, 08:36 PM

That's a lot of hours, but less than were on mine when I got it in January. Mine had, to the best of my recollection, 1770 operation, 720 drum, and I forget the other two. I got the camera, wireless remote, three Sony "8-hour" batteries, a Sony twin-lamp light, deluxe charger with digital display, Canon wide-angle adapter, and memory stick reader, all in a custom hard case w/padding inside, for $1950 + shipping. I wasn't happy that the guy shipped the whole rig in just the naked case w/o packaging it at all, but it did arrive here in good condition.

The camera did work well despite a problem with the display, but it malfunctioned badly just under two weeks ago - it looks like a CCD chip went bad. I have sent it to Armato's Video in New York (they received it on Monday according to UPS), and I'm waiting to hear from them.

My advice is to test the camera as thoroughly as you can. If it works well, go ahead and buy it, but be ready to shell out a few hundred more for repairs in the future. The good news - these cameras are actually worth repairing.

Mike Rehmus · June 14th, 2006, 09:03 PM

I'm trying to figure out how one gets fewer drum hours than tape hours. The heads probably have one-half their life left but the numbers bother me.

Shawn Alyasiri · July 26th, 2006, 08:22 AM

Hello.

I've got a couple of PD150's I use for B-roll. The newest of the two recently bombed out, occassionally showing a purple streak/blip/tear, total purple image, and then back to correct colors. It records that way on the tape, and passes that image to a firestore as well (so it's not just the LCD). I would turn it on/off and wouldn't see it do it again.

I turned it on a couple of days later, saw the same anomaly, then it went away. I tested it for an hour or two before a shoot last week and it was fine. Then at the job, it started doing it right away. I was fine, because I had a 2nd cam, and brought other backups.

However, now, it's purple all the time...

Anyone ever seen this happen? I don't expect that it's anything easy (ie: 'factory reset' - if that's even available), and would expect that Sony will have to look at it.

Does anyone have any good leads on where to send it (fair examination price, quick turnaround, etc)? It seems like the last time I called Sony (I had a spec of lint on the inside of the lens), they were charging a flat fee of $575 to fix these (or maybe just look at it). I ended up fixing that one myself.

This looks far more serious - perhaps a CCD going bad...

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,
Shawn

August 2nd, 2005, 10:35 AM	#166
James Connors Major Player Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Cardiff, UK Posts: 223	PD150 Odd Problem.. Some might remember the audio probs I had earlier in the year with my PD not recognising an input on one of the channels, something I put down to the camera falling out of a bag, then solved with a reset. I think I've found the problem, and its a bug (I consider it a bug anyway..) in the PD and not related to it hitting the concrete... 1. If you goto playback mode and choose a single channel (ie either ch1 or ch2, not both which is the default) 2. Go into record mode, and monitor your inputs.. regardless of the manual setup on the cameras flick switches, both inputs will react to whichever input you chose for playback... Might be fixed on the 170, but I've never heard anyone mention this on the 150 before, and I refuse to believe its an undocumented feature, because its already done with the ch1.ch2 switch if needed.....

February 13th, 2006, 05:27 PM	#169
Shawn Alyasiri Major Player Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Bloomington, IL Posts: 256	PD150 - single pixel out - any masking utilities in the camera? Hi. I just noticed that one of my trusty PD150's has a single pixel out. A number of my bigger cameras have pixel masking utilities, where the camera automatically tries to fix the missing pixel(s) by blending, etc. I'm curious if the PD150 has any similar abilities, hidden factory service menu's or other utilities (hidden or not) to minimize or eliminate the anomaly. Hopefully there's something handy that can be done by the user. Any advice? Thanks much, Shawn

March 28th, 2006, 11:20 AM	#171
Ben Furfie New Boot Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Runcorn, UK Posts: 9	How Much For This PD150 I'm currently being offered a PD-150 PAL with usage times of: Operation 100x10 Hrs Drum Run 59x10Hrs Tape Run 31x10Hrs Threading 141x10hrs Plus: 1 DSR-PD150P Serial Number – 1038966 1 Standard Lens Hood 1 Standard Lens Cap 1 Small Viewfinder Rubber Cap 1 ECM-NV1 Top Mic 1 Top Mic Foam 1 Large Rubber Eye Piece 1 Sony VCL-HG0758 x0.7 Wide Angle Conversion Lens 1 Front W/a Lens Cap 1 Rear W/a Lens Cap 1 AC-V700 F Series Battery Charger 1 Figure 8 Mains Lead 2 NP-F960 High Capacity Sony Batteries 1 HVL-20DW2 Battery Powered Top Light 1 Instruction Manual (English) 1 1550 Peli Case – Foamed out to fit the camera Perfectly! How much do you recommend I pay at the most? __________________ Ben Furfie Project Manager AlienPants Ltd

April 26th, 2006, 06:31 AM	#173
Neil McLean Regular Crew Join Date: May 2003 Location: U.K. Posts: 125	Camera to Compliment a PD150 Hello, I'm looking for a camera that will cover a width of 45 feet (13m), from a distance of 25 feet (8m) away. This camera will form part of a multicam shoot, with the other cameras being PD150s. Previously I've used a PD150 and fitted a 0.3 partial zoom lens, but wasn't very happy with the results. I done a multicam shoot with an Italian a few years ago and he used a Panny that had an extremely wide lens that came as standard on the camera. Unless I am mistaken, the Panny was in the same price-range as a PD150/PD170, though it might have been marginally cheaper. From what I recall, the Panny was a relatively new camera at the time. Ideally I'd like a camera to compliment the PD150s that will form part of the multicam shoot. My final output delivery will be DV, though this doesn't necessarily mean the camera has to be DV or DVCAM. I'd consider an HD camera if it was sufficient to cover 45 feet, from a distance of 25 feet away. Whilst I appreciate you only get what you pay for, I don't have a mega budget to call upon, so I'd welcome any thoughts regarding the options open to me. Neil

April 26th, 2006, 09:52 AM	#174
Mike Rehmus Wrangler Join Date: May 2002 Location: Vallejo, California Posts: 4,049	Neal, Why not hire a Pro camera with the required WA prime lens? Much better optical quality and if you get a Sony 370/390, it will match fairly well with the 150's. You might have more problems getting a Panasonic to match up all that well. I have a DSR-300 that I shoot as the prime camera with a PD-150 in a supporting role (for jobs that pay for the big stuff) and it works very well. Although I don't have a very WA prime lens for the 300 but I do have a Century WA adapter for its lens that works very well and has about a 5 inch front element. __________________ Mike Rehmus Hey, I can see the carrot at the end of the tunnel!

August 14th, 2005, 07:24 AM	#167
Pat Sherman Major Player Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: DuPont, Wa Posts: 325	SAME DARN THING WITH ME! I was about to toss it in the garbage..It's like one the first PD-150's made.. So it had the audio bug anyways.. I got some good news though, I just bought a used PD-150 kit with 4 Century Optics Lenses, hard case, batterie(S), Bayonet Mount, Manfrotto tripod and fluid head.. I got a sweet deal, the lenses alone are more than I paid for everything..It's in good condition considering it's been used all over the world for a small film company.. So now I have 3 PD-150's I shouldn't have jumped the gun when I thought the one was broke.. Oh well..

August 17th, 2005, 08:08 AM	#168
Pat Sherman Major Player Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: DuPont, Wa Posts: 325	This may or may not tie into this same problem.. Early PD-150's have several problems one being the famous HISS problem when using manual gain the other is the sound not recording to the proper channels selected or none at all.. Well the simple fix for this is to do a hard reset on the camera and then all channels work as they should. I have one of the first PD-150 and about every 100 hours or so, it happens to me and I just do a hard reset and all is well again.

February 13th, 2006, 10:40 PM	#170
Don Bloom Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,609	none that I'm aware of or have ever seen in my 150s. Sorry;-( Don

March 28th, 2006, 12:47 PM	#172
Tom Hardwick Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Billericay, England UK Posts: 4,711	Does it come with any sort of guarantee, even for a few weeks? Have you had a close look at it, inspected the screw heads and the front element? I'd say it was in the £1500 ball park, because the accessories are valuable. Remember you can get a brand-spanking new VX2k1 for less than £1600. tom.

April 27th, 2006, 11:40 PM	#175
Neil McLean Regular Crew Join Date: May 2003 Location: U.K. Posts: 125	Hi Mike I actually typed a reply to your post a couple of days ago, but can only assume I forgot to submit it - DOH! I'm beginning to think just hiring a camera might be the way to go. Which ever route I decide, I'm now of the opinion the camera needs to be a Sony for a better match. Many thanks and regards Neil

June 9th, 2006, 06:59 AM	#176
Myron Iwankewich New Boot Join Date: May 2004 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Posts: 20	PD150 hard case The people who made the hard case for my pd150 gave me a call and asked if I knew of any other PD150 owners who might be interested in their last two cases. I had my case custom made by these people. Using my measurements, they made a lot of five. They have two left. These are top grade cases made by a firm that builds cases for professional audio and video companies. These won't be suitable for the casual shooter, you wouldn't want to lug this around to the park! They're heavy. For the travelling pro only. I promised them I would give it a try. They will let these go for $150 each. I paid $250. They are out of Toronto Canada. You can e-mail me if you would like more information or a picture. Myron Iwankewich iwankewich2001@rogers.com

June 13th, 2006, 03:22 PM	#177
David Aguilar Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: San Fernando Valley, California Posts: 36	purchasing a used PD150, hour meter? Im looking to purchase a PD150 for a friend of mine, and found one for sale locally. The hour meter reads... Operation: 1570 Drum: 400 Tape Run: 560 Threading: 3610 are those hours good, fair, or bad? guy is asking $1500 for it, is this a good price for it? FYI the camera is 3-4 years old and comes with the standard accessories . TIA Last edited by David Aguilar; June 14th, 2006 at 02:27 AM.

June 14th, 2006, 08:36 PM	#178
John Harmon Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Warren, Michigan, USA Posts: 96	That's a lot of hours, but less than were on mine when I got it in January. Mine had, to the best of my recollection, 1770 operation, 720 drum, and I forget the other two. I got the camera, wireless remote, three Sony "8-hour" batteries, a Sony twin-lamp light, deluxe charger with digital display, Canon wide-angle adapter, and memory stick reader, all in a custom hard case w/padding inside, for $1950 + shipping. I wasn't happy that the guy shipped the whole rig in just the naked case w/o packaging it at all, but it did arrive here in good condition. The camera did work well despite a problem with the display, but it malfunctioned badly just under two weeks ago - it looks like a CCD chip went bad. I have sent it to Armato's Video in New York (they received it on Monday according to UPS), and I'm waiting to hear from them. My advice is to test the camera as thoroughly as you can. If it works well, go ahead and buy it, but be ready to shell out a few hundred more for repairs in the future. The good news - these cameras are actually worth repairing.

June 14th, 2006, 09:03 PM	#179
Mike Rehmus Wrangler Join Date: May 2002 Location: Vallejo, California Posts: 4,049	I'm trying to figure out how one gets fewer drum hours than tape hours. The heads probably have one-half their life left but the numbers bother me. __________________ Mike Rehmus Hey, I can see the carrot at the end of the tunnel!

July 26th, 2006, 08:22 AM	#180
Shawn Alyasiri Major Player Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Bloomington, IL Posts: 256	PD150 - nothing but purple image Hello. I've got a couple of PD150's I use for B-roll. The newest of the two recently bombed out, occassionally showing a purple streak/blip/tear, total purple image, and then back to correct colors. It records that way on the tape, and passes that image to a firestore as well (so it's not just the LCD). I would turn it on/off and wouldn't see it do it again. I turned it on a couple of days later, saw the same anomaly, then it went away. I tested it for an hour or two before a shoot last week and it was fine. Then at the job, it started doing it right away. I was fine, because I had a 2nd cam, and brought other backups. However, now, it's purple all the time... Anyone ever seen this happen? I don't expect that it's anything easy (ie: 'factory reset' - if that's even available), and would expect that Sony will have to look at it. Does anyone have any good leads on where to send it (fair examination price, quick turnaround, etc)? It seems like the last time I called Sony (I had a spec of lint on the inside of the lens), they were charging a flat fee of $575 to fix these (or maybe just look at it). I ended up fixing that one myself. This looks far more serious - perhaps a CCD going bad... Any ideas are greatly appreciated. Thanks again, Shawn