Commercial shoot with the HD100

[Ben Jehoshua]

Originally Posted by Ralph Keyser

The world is a bit topsy turvey these days. You're looking at a $6K camera surrounded by $50K worth of lens and accessories :-)

Hmmm, I think my AC actually said the rig was more than $125K when he put it all together in his head (Wafian alone is 15K)

Ben Jehoshua
www.imagelinemedia.com

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Nate Weaver

Good lord Paolo. The AC didn't tell you that you guys were nuts?

I suppose a zoom on the Mini affords some convenience, but at what cost?

We were all nuts, a pack of wild animals :) I think that at the end everyone in the crew was actually sold to the approach. $5K camera and several times over the amount in gear. The point here, IMHO, is that 720p is a very solid system that delivers professional quality. It was great to have the ability to capture the progressive signal at full 4:2:2. I'd love to test Chromakey with that. I did a quick and dirty test in using the HD100 in HDV (http://www.cruisercast.com) and I was pleasantly surprised about the quality.
My main gripe, since I was working on the Wafian all the time, is the interface of the Wafian software. On the side of acquisition it gives you a lot, including the option to capture 60p and convert it to 24fps on the fly. We didn't use it but it's nice.
The worse part is that there is basically no control for playback, no timeline that you could call such. No markers so taking series of takes leaves you "blind" for the playback. Renaming of the clips is a PITA, you actually have to go to the Windows explorer to do it. When you come back you get a big red Violation Error :(
In order to play back the clips for the director I had to write down, quickly, thee offsets for the beginning of the take and then eyeball it along the progress bar. Not fun, especially when the whole crew is waiting for you :)

There is really nothing too special about the Wafian that could not be replicated with a Powermac or a PC with the right acquisition hardware and software. I'm exploring the options. Ben told me that he saw something demostrated by Apple that would actually worrk on a laptop with an external converter box. Anybody has more details, specs or, dare I say photos?

You know what is the worst part of this Nate? I go back home so charged that I have to buy more gear. There goes all the money :)

Take care.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Ben Jehoshua

Hmmm, I think my AC actually said the rig was more than $125K when he put it all together in his head (Wafian alone is 15K)

Quite right. Mako quoted just one of the tripod heads, the one that we used for shooting the few times the camera was not on the crane, at $10,000. Without the legs :)

On the other hand, he brought that kind of gear because he is used to shoot with 35mm cameras that can weight 10 times the weight of our little HD100.

[Luis Otero]

Originally Posted by Paolo Ciccone

...V.3.0 delivers the same control except that it affects the mid tones a little less. In other words, with V.2.0 you have Master Black @ -2 and Black Stretch @ 1. In V.3.0 you get Master Black @ Normal and no black stretch. The way blacks are rendered is pretty much the same but the midtones are shifted less wit V.3.0. I believe it delivers a more dramatic picture.

Paolo,

Thanks for your reply and the thorougness of your explanation. Just to confirm, in addition of the Master Black and Black Stretch changes, Blue Gain was changed to 1 from 3, right?. I am asking you this since we are going to be shooting two music videos by the end of the month and this comming Friday we will be going over some tests, so I want to be sure I got everything cover from the parameters point of view.

Thanks my friend!

Luis

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Luis Otero

Thanks for your reply and the thorougness of your explanation. Just to confirm, in addition of the Master Black and Black Stretch changes, Blue Gain was changed to 1 from 3, right?.

That is correct Luis. Good luck with your shoot.

[Luis Otero]

Paolo,

I am very interested in getting the information regarding the DTE to a laptop, as you described in one of your postings. So, as soon as you get the info, could you pass it along, please?

I think the WAFIAN is nice, but too expensive for me, specially after your description of how difficult is to go over the recorded takes your director want you to show him/her immediately. I thought it had a better tagging of them so you can access them without any hassel...

Again, thanks.

Luis

[Rob McCardle]

Originally Posted by Ben Jehoshua

We probably would have used the Sony 900 HDCAM camera, or the Vericam. But we did an extensive test with a similar rig and the Wafian recorder and our client approved the look of the footage

Ben Jehoshua
www.imagelinemedia.com

Thanks for that, Ben.

cheers

[Ben Jehoshua]

Hi everybody,
As promised, here's a link to some of our footage both in TIFF files (2.6 megs) and WMVHD compression files.

www.imagelinemedia.com/hd100

Enjoy, and spread the word on this great camera!

Ben Jehoshua
www.imagelinemedia.com