Thanks. Ok I just wanted to make sure I wasn't imagining it.

I don't know, this is a close call. The unpredictability of it is the problem. Do I use the Z1, a known entity, and spend the days of computing time converting to 24p, or use this at native 24p and risk driving myself nuts with this bug?

I still say they should never have released this camera unfixed. Too late now I guess.

my outlook on this camera...
 

This is for Peter Moore and anyone else out there worried about the split-screen problem, that photo you just posted up, is from what i see not showing the SSE problem as I know it... it seems like in that photo you are just looking at the blocks of the mpeg 2 compression... (I could be wrong i have not seen the full res. shot of the small photo you just posted, and if im correct that photo is a screen shot from footage of a girl running in the street, if so and you have seen the footage where she fall down and you can see the street and the SPLIT SCREEN then YES THIS IS WHAT EVERYONS WORRIED ABOUT)

but if you are thinking that from that little photo that’s what the SSE problem is, its much worse looking than that... I have seen lots of footage with the split screen problem, some much worse than others. The split happens at exactly 50% of the screen and is noticeable when you shoot on many different darker situations. It also will happen when you shoot something like a bright light or lit object, with a very dark area in the same shot. There is a post of a shot that you can clearly see the SSE problem posted here... http://www.cineform.com/video/slomo2.wmv ... the split is right around where the wall on the left intersects with the sky on the right(the satilite dish shows the split the best). Straight down the middle you will see the shade difference. (This is also not the best example, but this does show you that it can happen in a "day time" shot.)

[EDIT]... the second half of that footage with the darker fast moving shots, you can see that there is NO SSE problem at all [END EDIT]

Now there is good news (no I’m not about to tell you how much i saved with an insurance company) this problem is completely predictable from what I’ve learned, and if you plan to take your time and setup your shots, and check your monitors, and properly light things, then you are going to be fine. I think the trick for getting low light shots with the camera is to stretch your blacks a bit (by 3) on the settings of the camera. This will help with getting some more black in the shots without having to have such a dark "set". Now i am speaking from a film maker point of view, where (most of the time) we have a certain amount of control over our shots and lighting... If this is coming from someone who will want to shoot events and other things like that its basically get in there and shoot, i have limited experience and know-how with this cameras ability in that realm.

I will say this... I was VERY worried about this cameras ability to shoot and have this split screen problem. But now with footage I’ve seen (again I don’t have the camera in my hands to test yet), and I’ve seen quite a bit of footage, you can work around this and if you setup is proper you will not run into a major problem. That said, I am willing to shoot my new film (budget around $50,000) with this camera properly set up (and a good 60% of my film calls for VERY dark shots). This camera really does an incredible job with all of the footage I’ve seen (I’m talking looks like REAL film!), and I have to say with the features, settings, and control this professional camera has, it is at the top of its game in my book... Everything else I’ve seen and used still looks like video to me... This hits the spot with the real film look in my book (granted you don’t have money for a varicam or cinealta).

It comes down to this... rent or borrow (steal from a buddy, haha) the camera and put it through its paces... use it in the situations that you know you will be using it for, and most importantly .... VIEW IT ON AN HDTV right out of the camera (remember the component output will not give you the 24p look, the component out is 60p, so don’t worry when you say 'wait this looks like "720i" ). When you look at everything in its native format on an HDTV that’s when you are sure what you shot is what you want.

Hope you have a great time with it, and good luck!

Saw that WMV. Wow, that's even worse. That's completely unacceptable.

I hear what you're saying about framing the shots predictably. We're shooting a live play though. We don't have time or even ability to be picky about our shots or adjust camera settings on the fly when the lights get dark. So while I'll rent the camera to shoot some movies, I don't think I will rent it for the live show.

yeah unfortunately it is what it is... i have a feeling jvc had this camera tailored to film shoots anyway... this would not be good for shooting uncontrolled lighting in my opinion. but if you do have the chance to rent it im sure you will get some good shots out of it regardless... now i understand that the wmv that you saw that i posted might be from the early camera (after words jvc said they "fixed" the problem on the newer ones)

so again, its really just about you getting the camera in your hands and actually seeing for yourself

[add-on] ... by the way... is this stage play lit for video? (usually means brighter lighting setups)

Yeah all sounds about right. No, it's not going to be lit for video. I could insist on it, I suppose, but I think it would be quite distracting for the audience to see such a bright stage even if the DVD will look kickass. The event is really more about the live show, with the DVD just being an archive.

yeah, oh well i guess thats all with the fun of shooting these events... one take .

Maybe I need new glasses but I really don't see anything wrong with the footage in this clip, http://www.cineform.com/video/slomo2.wmv , can someone please explain SSE to me?

Giuseppe & David, Please indicate your source when pointing a direct link from someone's site. This video sequence has a context un-related to the purpose you are using it. These are very early slow-motion test sequences from http://indiefilmlive.blogspot.com -- we don't mind that reference just the wasted bandwidth without any indication of its source. This is an early model camera so the artifact you are looking for is not relevant to today's units. What you should be noticing is that is a 60p over-cranked slow-motion from a camera that is supposed to do only 30p (read more here : http://indiefilmlive.blogspot.com/20...explained.html.)

101 works ok in live
 

Hi All

I got my 101 here in Western Australia back in November last year. I have used it across a wide range of situations including TVC's, corporate, news and event recording and have not had any issues with it in regards to the SSE.
In regards to the live events, to stay close to this thread, they have all been at our local entertainment centre and have been school graduations, dance school grads and concerts etc.
At all times I am using the camera in full manual mode with blacks compressed at -1, shooting 16:9.
In most cases the stage is lit for the audience so I make sure that as well as wearing headphones for audio monitoring, I also use the theatres talkback system to keep in touch with the lighting director and request when necesary for a little more foreground light...
All of my clients have commented that the quality of their productions are great, previouisly I shot with a Canon XLS1.

regards
Dean