Charlie White's review of Pro Z1... is he wrong?

[Toke Lahti]

Just wanted to add, so that my input wouldn't be all that negative, that there are lots of features in fx/z1, that has never been in these small cameras.

First of all this is the first with real 1/3" 16:9 chpis, isn't it?
XL2 has 4:3 chpis, so its 16:9 area is smaller than 1/3".

I've been waiting for this since -95 when I bought myself first 16:9 tv and vx1000.

This Expanded Focus thing also sounds promising; it's been hard to focus with pd150's lcd...

How is the sensivity of the z1?
I noticed that in tele end of the zoom max aperture is only 2.8 instead of pd150's 2.4. Combining this to very small pixels in ccd, this doesn't sound promising...
Is the sensivity same with hdv than dvcam or might there be somekind of coupling of ccd pixels in dv mode to get more sensivity?

That's also nice that you can have both stereo mic and a shotgun mic on the camera. I wish there would have been 4 audio tracks; if xlr's would have been 4-pin stereo ones, it would not have needed even more surface space from the camera.
Many times it would be nice to get eg. two body mics, boom and camera mic all to the same tape.
Well, maybe it's better to have more from that limited datarate to video...

[Gary McClurg]

I didn't really see anything wrong between the debate between Douglas and Toke.

But I find it funny that you jump all over Toke for wanted his questions answered or misunderstanding, which ever one.

But you don't jump on the person who wrote out his answers in caps and boldface.

My understanding using caps is shouting on the net. Now if its in bold is that not screaming?

I wonder why you didn't call down that person as well?

Again I think they were saying the same thing but in different ways and they just couldn't figure out between them what was going on.

[Chris Hurd]

Toke:


<< So the quality is incredibe, but the idea is to make profit?
See the problem? >>

No. I do not see any problem. If the quality was poor, it would not be in demand, it would not sell and therefore it would not be profitable.


<< Idea is to make as much profit as possible, which means to offer optimum quality-price ratio that increases the sales the most. No "best quality". >>

I'm sorry but you are mistaken. This is incorrect. Throughout the worldwide market, the "best quality" products are always the most profitable. Automobiles for example. The highest quality BMW or Mercedes car also carries the highest profit margin for the manufacturer. You are trying to draw a relationship where high profit equals low quality and this simply is not true. In fact, in reality the opposite is true. In general terms, best quality equals higher price equals most profits.


<< Are you also amazed that you can by 100 times faster pc with price of one quarter than 10 years ago? That's called progress.
And in 10 years there has been very slow progress in prosumer cameras. Just from vx1000 to pd150, mainly. >>

I do not think this is a good analogy. For twenty years now there have been only two "formats" of PC's that dominate the market share: Windows and Mac. The improvement of internal components such as operating systems, processor speeds, drive speeds and memory capacity is amazing. But it is done in increments, a little at a time. With camcorders, who wants to switch formats every two years? But a format change is what you get if you improve a tape transport by making it run faster. Continuously changing formats is not a good business strategy for a videographer.


<< Why would they go to 720p instead of 1080p? "That's not in the hdv specs" is wrong answer. >>

Actually it is the right answer. Consult the HDV specifications. There is no such thing as 1080p in HDV. And if there were, what do you think the entry-level price point would be? Certainly not $3700.


<< Neither was dvcam in the dvc specs. >>

And the vast majority of DVCAM gear is far, far more expensive than the vast majority of DV gear (the only two exceptions I can think of are the PD170 and PDX10 style cameras, but even these are still more expensive than their DV counterparts).


<< There is nothing wrong with expanding, but I feel a little bit cheated, when I have to buy a new thing every year, when they could have made it today for the next five years. >>

Well, here is a problem with the way that you are thinking. The truth of the matter is that you do NOT have to buy a new thing every year. Any dedicated filmmaker who is passionate about the story they want to tell can take a ten-year-old camera and a two-year-old computer and editing software, and create a work of art with it. You are never "forced" to buy something new. You can produce award-winning quality work using only mildly outdated equipment, and that's a fact. Perhaps you might feel like I do at times, just a little jealous of those who are just getting into this for the very first time and their choices are always better than what we had when we first got into it. But that is the nature of rapidly evolving technology in the marketplace. It is a mistake to think that you "must keep up every year." If you are careful with your business, you can change up your equipment every few years economically. If you are running a business, all of this gear should pay for itself within a few months at the most anyway.


<< Same thing eg. with Nokia's phones: they keep adding one feature at a time, although they could give all the features at once. So you had to wait 5 years to get a phone with fm radio and bluetooth. >>

You are complaining about the continuous incremental change in the technology of electronics products. Yet this is the nature of the marketplace. Blame capitalism, if you like. But the situation will not change. You are welcome to complain about it all you wish, but the situation will not change. Therefore I will ask you not to complain about it on my forums, because it does not help anybody and is not productive. My intention here is that we help each other to work within the limitations of the provided technology, and to explore what those limitations are and how to do productive work to the best capabilities that we can discover within ourselves and share with others.

There is a lot we can do on this forum to help each other. Helping each other is is a practical thing which serves a worthwhile purpose. It accomplishes something. Complaining about the nature of incremental product changes is not practical. It helps no one and accomplishes nothing. Now I respect the desire someone may have to change the system. Perhaps an effort can be led in a combined assault upon the Japanese electronics industry and the western capitalistic business model. But our forums here will not be the platform for that. You will have to use some other part of the internet to stage that campaign.


<< They wouldn't have to switch tape format. Eg. you can record to dvcproHD tape with 100M, 50M of 25M. Why not with hdv? 40 minits of hdv50 to a 80mins minidv-tape would sound very reasonable to me. >>

I think you may have answered your own question. There are other HD formats such as DVCProHD, HDCAM and HDCAM SR that will already do what you want. HDV is intended to be an affordable, inexpensive format. Your proposal will raise the price of HDV equipment. Why do you want to make it more expensive, when another existing HD format will meet your needs already?

[Chris Hurd]

Gary:

<< Now if its in bold is that not screaming? >>

My understanding was that if it's in caps, it's screaming. But if you like, I can disable our ability to to use bold, underline and italics.

<< I wonder why you didn't call down that person as well? >>

Because he did a great job of answering it very well the first time.

[Heath McKnight]

Great conversation going on here! Thanks for the clarifications, Chris!

heath

[Gary McClurg]

<< I wonder why you didn't call down that person as well? >>

Because he did a great job of answering it very well the first time.

To me that just shows how misunderstandings can take place. Because they both kept it going. I understood what Douglas was saying but according to Toke he didn't.

I just felt that both parties should have been told to knock it off. It doesn't matter if one party did a great job of answering it very well the first time.

It was the second time that mattered. But I do admit he did quit so maybe he did see the errors of his ways so we can get onto more important things.

[Toke Lahti]

<<< Originally posted by Chris Hurd : Toke:
<< Idea is to make as much profit as possible, which means to offer optimum quality-price ratio that increases the sales the most. No "best quality". >>
I'm sorry but you are mistaken. This is incorrect. Throughout the worldwide market, the "best quality" products are always the most profitable. Automobiles for example. The highest quality BMW or Mercedes car also carries the highest profit margin for the manufacturer. You are trying to draw a relationship where high profit equals low quality and this simply is not true. In fact, in reality the opposite is true. In general terms, best quality equals higher price equals most profits. >>>

I think you are wrong here. "Best quality" products are in niche and big profits are made with bulk products which sell 100 times more than "best quality".
If you sell one car in a year with 90% profit you don't make as much money if you would sell 1000 cars with 10% profit.
And I'm not saying high profit equals low quality, I'm saying that high profits don't equal best quality.

Eg. sony has made more profits with pd150 than with any other pro camcorder even if it's one of the cheapest pro models.

<<<
<< Are you also amazed that you can by 100 times faster pc with price of one quarter than 10 years ago? That's called progress.
And in 10 years there has been very slow progress in prosumer cameras. Just from vx1000 to pd150, mainly. >>
I do not think this is a good analogy. For twenty years now there have been only two "formats" of PC's that dominate the market share: Windows and Mac. The improvement of internal components such as operating systems, processor speeds, drive speeds and memory capacity is amazing. But it is done in increments, a little at a time. With camcorders, who wants to switch formats every two years? But a format change is what you get if you improve a tape transport by making it run faster. Continuously changing formats is not a good business strategy for a videographer. >>>

I think this is a perfect analogy.
You are right in that videographers don't want to change format every year and because of that when format changes once in a decade (dv->hdv) there should be great improvements like giving more bitrate.



<<<
<< Neither was dvcam in the dvc specs. >>
And the vast majority of DVCAM gear is far, far more expensive than the vast majority of DV gear (the only two exceptions I can think of are the PD170 and PDX10 style cameras, but even these are still more expensive than their DV counterparts).
>>>

You really didn't get the idea?
Sony has jumped out of the specs so many times before, that it wouldn't surprise at least me, that they would do it again. And fx/z1 will definitely be one of the most expensive hdv cameras just like vx2100 is one of the most expensive minidv camera.

<<<
<< There is nothing wrong with expanding, but I feel a little bit cheated, when I have to buy a new thing every year, when they could have made it today for the next five years. >>
Well, here is a problem with the way that you are thinking. The truth of the matter is that you do NOT have to buy a new thing every year.
>>>

Sony thinks I have to buy, I don't. It's just when you know something about technology and what the real content makers want, you can quite accurately tell what features in a new camera could be and when they are really going to be out in a market.

If you look at a history sony did make a mistake by not putting enough features in a new camera. PD170 didn't have enough features, so it couldn't compete with 100A and XL2. Without those two cameras releasing z1 would have been somewhere in the future. So PD170's market life will be extremely short for this kind of product; less than a year.

<<< Therefore I will ask you not to complain about it on my forums, because it does not help anybody and is not productive.>>>

So it's okay to praise sony here, but not okay to give some perspective to things here.
Your sandbox, so you make the rules, no problem.

It's just funny that everybody's asking does it have 24p and somebody's telling the objective truth that it does not have 24p because
a) 24p is not what you want even if you want it
b) even if you shouldn't ask or use 24p there is a fake 24p which is better than real 24p

I'm just giving my opinion why this camera is lacking the most wanted feature from it.

<<<<
<< They wouldn't have to switch tape format. Eg. you can record to dvcproHD tape with 100M, 50M of 25M. Why not with hdv? 40 minits of hdv50 to a 80mins minidv-tape would sound very reasonable to me. >>
I think you may have answered your own question. There are other HD formats such as DVCProHD, HDCAM and HDCAM SR that will already do what you want. HDV is intended to be an affordable, inexpensive format. Your proposal will raise the price of HDV equipment. Why do you want to make it more expensive, when another existing HD format will meet your needs already? >>>

If I had money to buy dvcpro100 or hdcam, do you think I would still be in this forum?
Problem for me being freelancer indie videographer in a small country that there are no good options in a price range from 5000¤ to 30 000¤ which I could afford.
Xdcam(imx) with a good lens is way more and to a hdcam you can add one zero if you also want to edit that stuff.

I wonder why is this?
Am I alone with this problem?
Why to get the next better model from pd170,100A&XL2 you have add zero to the pricetag and there is nothing between.

I wouldn't be complaining here at all, if there would be something like z1 5k$ + 1k$ for real 24p + 1k$ for 50M + 1k$ for 4 audio channels + xk$ for 1/2" ccd etc.

But nothing like this in the market, mainly because these Japanise giants don't think they get enough profits if they don't sell 200 000 pcs of the same model.

If this text is again too much out of scope and idea of this forum, just say it and I won't bother you any more.

[Anhar Miah]

Toke,

This is very simple, if you wan to buy one do it, if you dont dont.


If you want a feature it exists its a only a matter of how much your willing to pay for it, could they make it cheaper SURE but this is reality, and we cant change that, if you dont like it go over to the HOME-MADE HD threads on this very forums they are doing some wonderfull things.

Bottom line is:

get some first actual hands on experiance and decide for your self wether this tool will meet your "requirment/ expectation"

ad really thats all this is another tool, damn there is more too life than just boring specs....

[Toke Lahti]

<<<-- Originally posted by Anhar Miah :
get some first actual hands on experiance and decide for your self wether this tool will meet your "requirment/ expectation"

ad really thats all this is another tool, damn there is more too life than just boring specs.... -->>>

Thanks for a good advice but:
a) this thread is about a camera that almost nobody can get their hands on for several months. If you don't like speculation, this is a wrong thread to you.
b)I've heard that there is a life out there and camera is just a tool, but then again if you care what you do, then you care about your tools and if you talk only about a tool, there isn't very much more than the specs and features and how to use them and how good they are...

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Now HERE is a total irony, IMO.

>>>>I wouldn't be complaining here at all, if there would be something like z1 5k$ + 1k$ for real 24p + 1k$ for 50M + 1k$ for 4 audio channels + xk$ for 1/2" ccd etc.<<<<<

So, you'll not accept a faux 24p that looks great nor will you accept a real 25P, but you'll accept substantially below industry standard audio? When overall audio is more important than video?
I can't follow that logic.

Further, 4 channels of audio aren't part of the HDV spec, and frankly, I can't see how it could be. It's already substantially dumbed down audio. Any dumber, it couldn't be used at all, anywhere. Maybe ADR will become super popular on low budget films or something.

No one here has suggested that the Sony Z1 has "true 24P" and that people are bothered by what you call the "objective truth."
What's objective, is that Chris and I, and a few others here on the site have seen with our own eyes, what the CF24 looks like. Some like it, some don't. We've also seen what the 30P looks like. Some like it, some don't. But we've seen it. The people who are crapping all over it HAVEN'T seen it, and certainly haven't seen it on a sixty foot screen where it's really difficult to hide artifacts. Particularly in a room of people who want to shoot it down. What's not objective is to take potshots at a camera or format you've not held, not seen, not shot, because it's not available yet.

Regardless of the tech-geek-speak, the math, and the "I know this or that because I have a life in video/film/television/monkey feeding" attitude, the camera outputs beautiful footage. It's an artists tool. It might not be the artistic tool you choose to use.
It would be really easy for me to brag on my Emmy's and Grammy's and say "Shut up because I know what I'm talking about." I won't say that, because it's meaningless to the discussion.
What I will say, is that as a professional with a long history in this biz offering his opinion, this camera looks great. CF 24 is very sweet. Is it a film killer? Nope. Is it a DVX 100 killer? If you like that cam a lot....then nope, it's not. Is it an HDCam killer? Absolutely not.
Where will it find use in the professional world?
The number one place is with television broadcasters. Great footage, and when the cameraman falls in a ditch, you can actually be (for the first time ever) more concerned about the cameraman than the 5K camera he just dumped in the mud. He won't have to worry about being fired. (BTW, that analogy came straight from the mouth of a technical buyer of one of the 3 largest networks and their Washington Bureau)
Then there are "filmmakers" and wannabe filmmakers that can't afford to shoot on film. And then there is government. And don't fool yourself for a second that they aren't already very hot on this product. They are. Sony made an allusion to that fact (which surprised the hell outta me) at the press conference in NYC. And then there is the rich traveler who wants to make home movies with the best cam he can buy that's luggable. He'll probably even hire some yuk to follow him around with the cam, since personal histories seem to be the life feature du jour right now. One of our trainers has been hired to follow a local sports legend around to make a "personal documentary" of this celeb's life, including his female conquests and his business deals.
So, this cam may or may not fit into your world. But it IS going to be a huge, monster selling cam and format. This upcoming NAB will be FILLED with the words HDV everywhere. If you don't have something related to HDV in your booth, you'll be a dead booth. I fully expect to see HDV speakers, HDV rubber washers, and HDV cable trays. Just like we saw Digital Speakers (whatever the heck those are) and USB2 moneyclips. (however they worked)

My parting comment in this thread would be to echo Anhar Miah...

>>>>>get some first actual hands on experiance and decide for your self wether this tool will meet your "requirment/ expectation"
<<<<<< Cuz' EVERYTHING else is just a guess. Or do we call that interpolation these days?

[Heath McKnight]

Good answer, Douglas!

heath

[Chris Hurd]

Toke:

<< "Best quality" products are in niche and big profits are made with bulk products which sell 100 times more than "best quality". >>

The camcorders we are discussing here are very much in the niche market. Ten to twenty times as many camcorders in the consumer range will be sold over the prosumer camcorders we're talking about here. And ten to twenty times the money will be made in the higher end professional broadcast division.


<< And I'm not saying high profit equals low quality, I'm saying that high profits don't equal best quality. >>

My own point is that within the realm of the cameras we're discussing, there is a very high level of quality for the money.


<< You are right in that videographers don't want to change format every year and because of that when format changes once in a decade (dv->hdv) there should be great improvements like giving more bitrate. >>

But doing so would decrease the total recording time available on the small cassettes. HDV is a consumer-prosumer level format and I think it's a good assumption that most users will want 60 minutes per tape. And even though the bitrate is the same (or less even), the error correction is much better. I think it's important not to get hung up on a numerical specification like the bitrate, and instead to evaluate the format based on the results it provides. The proof is in the quality of the image. You cannot evaluate that based on numbers. You can evaluate it only with your own eyes.


<< So PD170's market life will be extremely short for this kind of product; less than a year. >>

Actually the PD170 has been on the market for a year already and I doubt it's going away anytime soon.


<< So it's okay to praise sony here, but not okay to give some perspective to things here. >>

Once again, the purpose of this forum is to provide resources and interaction for people who are working with these tools, and how best to work within the limitations of the format.

There is no propaganda here. If someone wants to praise a manufacturer, that's their business (but that's not what these message boards are for). However I do have an issue with the nay-sayers and doom-speakers who like to pontificate about how useless one camera or one format is over another, or how a new camera or software or format doesn't live up to their expectations. The problem with most of these people is that they're always waiting for the next big thing, and they feel "held back" because they perceive the lack of a feature or some other limitation to be a manifested roadblock to their creativity -- they can't make their movie without 24p or native widescreen whatever. Well, that's an unfortunate mindset to have. Now a new camera comes along and we set up a forum for the people who are using it or who are going to be using it. If someone drops by and says, "I didn't buy this camera because it doesn't have xxxx feature," that's fine. But I have a problem when that person continues to hang out in that same forum all the time, talking the camera down. Just because it's not right for them, doesn't mean it's not right for everybody else. This person needs to move on. We have a large number of other camera forums. I want this person to find the right one, and to get involved with other people using the same camera that this person has chosen. If they're just hanging out talking trash about the one they didn't buy, well, that doesn't help anybody. It's not productive.

We had this happen in our XL2 forum a few months ago. A fellow gave his perspective on what was wrong with the XL2. And gave it again and again and again. Well, we heard him the first time. I would want him to find better things to do online than to talk trash about the camera he didn't buy. It doesn't help anybody, for one thing. Get over it, move on and please join us when you've made your decision on a new camera, is what I told him. No matter what he buys, we've got a message board for it.

So if you want to give some perspective about why these Sony HDV camcorders aren't right for you, you're welcome to do that. Once. This is a message boards for *users* and for people who are interested in getting one. If you've ruled it out, if it's not the right camera for you, then you can say so but then you need to move on. I would want you to join us in discussing the camera that you do decide to buy. These forums are for the owners of these camcorders to help each other out. If you don't own one and aren't interested in getting one, then you're in the wrong forum. That's pretty much how it works around here. I'm interested in setting up a technical exchange of useful, practical information for the people who are actually using this format. It's for their purposes and priorities. If the format is not right for you, I'm hoping you'll find some other part of our site that is.


<< I'm just giving my opinion why this camera is lacking the most wanted feature from it. >>

You've done so, and I appreciate that. The camera is what it is and our members here will actively discuss how to work within its limitations. But if you have no plans to own this camera in the near future, if it is no longer under your consideration and you've decided that it isn't right for you, then I'll have to direct you to one of our other forums which might be of better use to you.


<< If I had money to buy dvcpro100 or hdcam, do you think I would still be in this forum? >>

I would hope that you are here in order to share with others how to work effectively within the budget that you have.


<< Problem for me being freelancer indie videographer in a small country that there are no good options in a price range from 5000¤ to 30 000¤ which I could afford. >>

The vast majority of our members here are very comfortable working with the tools available in this price range. Many of our members here are quite successful in business using this level of gear. I'm not sure why you feel that the options aren't good enough for you, but if that really is the case then I'm afraid you might be in the wrong place, because that price range is the one we concentrate on primarily around here. A casual glance of our discussions indicate that most of our members think these options are workable. You might be out of our league.


<< Why to get the next better model from pd170,100A&XL2 you have add zero to the pricetag and there is nothing between. >>

Part of the challenge we face together here is how to produce effectively within a limited budget. That's a big part of what we do here.


<< If this text is again too much out of scope and idea of this forum, just say it and I won't bother you any more. >>

What I'm telling you is that I appreciate your comments, but the board is for the camera owners. Someone can ask and make a determination that the camera is not right for what they want to do. And they'll say so. And that's fine. But then they need to move on to something else.

I'm hoping that no matter what you choose to shoot with, that you'll enter discussions here with your fellow shooters and proactively discuss the tools that you're using. That is a practical thing and a helpful thing and it's what we're all about here. Talk about the tools you have. Not about the tools you don't have or don't want. There's no point to that.

[Ray Van Eng]

<<< The number one place is with television broadcasters. Great footage, and when the cameraman falls in a ditch, you can actually be (for the first time ever) more concerned about the cameraman than the 5K camera he just dumped in the mud. He won't have to worry about being fired. (BTW, that analogy came straight from the mouth of a technical buyer of one of the 3 largest networks and their Washington Bureau)….>>>

Now, you’re talking, Douglas.

I also heard that many TV networks are taking a serious look at the two Sony camcorders where before they didn’t even consider the JVC offerings. News reporting, some reality TV shows and lower budget productions are a good fit for HDV. And if you have to mount one atop a helmet for a skydive, an FX1 or Z1 makes sense also. Of course, as you have also pointed out, there are the government users, corporate and commercial videographers etc. All with an eye for a not-too-distant HD future. Actually, HDV was used in a Fuji blimp overlooking the US Open ground earlier this year in Aug/Sep. in NY. JVC was the tech supplier for that.

If the networks collectively gave their nod to HDV (which is very likely given the low entry price point for certain HD productions), it will affect the indie filmmakers also as they will use HDV to make their masterpiece and sell it to the TV stations and have it simulcast in both SD and HD. Here, I think Sony’s CF24 may play a role as well. Not in terms of converting the 60i (or 50i) video into 24P but to deliver that software derived ‘film look’ all the way from the playback console of a TV station to a consumer HDTV set. If everything holds up, that will be something to behold.

Will that be what the Sony people will touch upon at Sundance? I’ll be much interested to find out.

[Ray Van Eng]

My thanks goes to Chris Hurd for his tireless efforts in being fair and accommodating to all posters. Much appreciated.

+++++++++++++

Toke Lahti,

In the sub-$5K category, the FX1 and Z1 are the ‘best quality’ products given the commercial realities that Sony has to work under. And these two camcorders will be very profitable for Sony. I don’t think many doubted that. Sony’s got a couple of winners in their hands for sure, but Sony will not be selling very large quantities of these as they are niche products as Chris Hurd rightly pointed out. Because essentially, the FX1 and Z1 are upscale consumer and prosumer items. Many professional and serious videographers would buy them and many TV broadcasters will purchase them by the truckload too as they did with the VX1000 and VX2000 when they first came out. But the scoccer moms and many vacationers will always look for a palm-size camcorder that can deliver an HD image if they ever were looking for one.

Although somewhat evolution in scope, the Sony HDV entries can be considered a revolutionary product as it will shake up the industry like never before and help kick-start all sorts of HD productions into high gear.

[Scott Aston]

Great post Chris!

After reading it, I think you are in the wrong profession. You should run for Office. Governor, U.S. Senate..etc. It sure is refreshing to see someone be a straight shooter (the facts) and yet at the same time be very encourging. Chris I can tell from past posts that you are not one who looks for accolades from others. But I just have to say, from what I have read (posts that you authored) your'e a hell of a guy, and I thank you for taking the time out of your (I'm sure very busy) life to keep such a professional message board running top notch. Because I know it's not easy when having to deal with different personalities from all walks of life and around the globe.