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

Hey Stelios,i don't want 2 hijack the conversation but if you record on hdv then you downconvert to SD you will gain the standard quality of the SD!
Is it right guys?
Peace

So far I have never read anywhere, that someone found a camera, that performed the downconvert better than can be done by your NLE.

I will tell you that the SD quality of the Z5, with the camera set to "SD", is better than my VX2100. In my mind that's very good.

That is not what I ment. Recording can be done in HD as well as in SD, but you can export HD footage as SD, by changing the play settings to DV. That is down converting.

The real advantage for Stelios would be to have a HDV master to keep for the future as well as deliver in SD now. Unless he likes shooting in DV LP the tape times are the same so there is no real downside in shooting HDV. Downconverting from my FX1 or exporting SD from an HDV timeline I can't see a noticeable difference. Before the NLE's got faster at editing HDV I would downconvert and edit in SD DV. Today I would stay HDV and export SD from the timeline.

Ron Evans

I'm very familiar with downconversion Jo, but I'm simply stating that the normal DV quality of the Z5 is already excellent and better than my 2100. So I see no need to shoot in HDV and downconvert. In fact, I've not seen any better quality by downconverting HDV in Edius Pro (known for some outstanding conversion codecs) than what the cam is already doing when it's set to SD.

My feeling is if you need SD out of the Z5, shoot in SD...unless of course you need the HD footage too. The great thing about the CF Card Recorder is that it allows you to shoot in HDV on tape and downconvert on the fly to SD on the card. Although I haven't tried it, my friend who has a Z5 says the quality is the same as when the cam is set to shoot in SD.

I also don't see the point in recording in HDV if I am not going to deliver in HDV. And for those people who say that if you record in HDV now so in the in the future your customers might ask you to deliver to them in HDV, I doubt that. Who knows what the format will be in 3 to 5 years time?

Stelios

Ron

What do you mean that I like shooting in DV LP? I though I I shoot in DV SP.
Is LP=Long Play?

Stelios

Then you have no idea what you could do with HD footage on a SD timeline.

When I shot in DV I often used LP because it gave me 90mins record time which for the theater shows that I shoot is important as they often go more than 75mins before a break. I now use 80min tapes and shoot HDV as well as using a SR11 AVCHD for the full stage camera that could shoot for 7 hours!!!. SD was with us for over 50years I do not think the current change to HD is going to change any sooner. That means your HDV tapes will be able to be edited to whatever the deliver format may be and will be viewable in true HD. I assure you that once you have seen HD on a good display you will not want to watch SD anymore. To expand on something Khoi hinted at you have more editing flexibility using HD on a SD timeline to pan and zoom within the image to get a better framing for the SD output as just one example.

Ron Evans

I agree with Ron here 100%...

Everytime I see a post about somebody buying a $3000 - $5000 HD cam so they can continue to shoot in SD I'm just beside myself. It doesn't make any sense as you might as well ingest in the best possible quality you can to give you the most flexability during the editing process. A decent computer edits HDV as though it were DV, the tapes don't record any less time with HDV, and even though HDV is GOP, the recording quality of it is superior to that of DV. Heaven forbid you should ever need to do any color correction, masking, compositing, anything as the HDV footage is going to perform far superior than DV.

The footage you capture, create and deliver also can extend beyond what you hand to the client. What about HD footage you would need to present your work down the line? If a potential client a nice new 52" 1080p LCD monitor on hand, why not show them a demo in the full resolution that device is capable of playing back in? The footage looks stunning and when I client can see that you can shoot and playback in the same quality they pay big bucks for either Blu-Ray or their HD channels from their cable/sattellite supplier, it adds credability. This is just one of a few reasons why I strongly believe capture and edit in HD, deliver to whatever format your client requires and move on..

Jon

Tell me then Khoi? What can I do? You are the expert!

Stelios

This is why the ideal scenerio is using the CF Reader while recording to tape in HD and downconverting on the fly to the CF card in SD. Best of both worlds.