Anyone can help Chris out?

Alaska Prep
 

I've gone to Alaska and taken good footage with a TRV 900 (counter part to your PD 100) and my current camera, the PDX 10. I don't have any suggestions for additional filters, but you might want to carry a white card and light blue card to white balance your camera for those low light scenarios.

You didn't mention a tripod and monopod. I have found these items to be a key for successful shots. Also a good 2x telescopic attachment is a must if you are going to shoot the wildlife in the area.

Finally, make sure you have a good mike to record those ambient sounds! Don't forget to bring extra batteries!!! If you're in an area with salmon bring an underwater bag, like an EWA to shoot the salmon migrating into the rivers!

Good luck. I'm taking my father on trip to Alaska this summer and going to document the father and son experience!

Daniel Iwata

I use a TRV 950, but I went on an Alaskan cruise last July so I thought I'd chime in.

I always use an ND4 filter outdoors with my 950 but found that Alaska was not that much different in terms of brightness. Maybe because I went in July, there was as much green as white. The ice-fields are obviously white, but they are dirty-white from the ground up rocks, and the fissures and crevasses keep it from being a blinding white surface. Also, the odds are it will be cloudy, if not raining, fairly often.

Keep the exposure on manual and adjust it on the fly (literally). You won't have any control of the lighting from the air as you turn this way and that, so you'll need to react quickly. Use the Zebras to help. You should get some excellent footage from the air. I didn't have a polarizer but that would help with glare out the window. Keep the camera rolling. Get some shots of your travelmates in the copter or plane for cutaways. I alternated shooting out the front window and out the side. That allowed me to edit down the trip significantly without obvious jump-cuts.

I think a good mike is also important to pick up the sound of running water under the ice and to hear your guides speak. There are lots of other activities where a good mike makes a difference.

A tripod, though a hassle to carry, is critical for decent footage from the boat. You'll likely want to zoom in on waterfalls, etc, so stability is important if you want your footage to be watchable.

Get some shots in and around the ship. You can piece that together later with some music for your family to watch.

Have a great time!

PDX-10 review
 

Well it's yesterday's news, but I just stumbled across this review which I hadn't seen before: http://videosystems.primediabusiness...x_dv/index.htm

I agree with many of his impressions, although his assertion that it doesn't have optical image stabilization contradicts Sony's own specs. I also think that saying 12dB of gain is not noticeable is a little optimistic. And of course we all know about the undocumented internal ND filters and the fact that you really cannot shoot at f28...

Actually, that review persuaded me to buy my PDX10!

Of course, after I got mine, I tried to write a better review, of which there is a recently updated version sitting somewhere on a hard disk. You can see a less recent version of my review here at DVinfo, but keep in mind that at that time I had very little experience as a camaraperson, and had not discovered the super-secret ND filters you get for free with your PDX10: http://www.dvinfo.net/sony/reports/pdx10-ir1.php.

Thanks guys for the reviews.
Ignacio, it was reading your review that helped sway me to buy the PDX10p. I had read several reviews that came straight from the Sony manual, yours was, as you put it "I am not a professional videographer or video engineer..." thanks Ignacio.

Oh, and I am glad I bought it too ;)

Yes, I've written to Steve Mullen about the mistakes in the review. But I was pleased to see his conclusions were the same as mine with this cam - if you leave it to its own devices (ie leave it in auto) then it does a mighty fine job. Trouble is pros should never leave a cam in auto...

tom.

PDX10 focus issue
 

My PDX10 in autofocus mode, seems to lose focus while I zoom in or out at any speed. It takes longer to correct the focus when zooming at higher speeds, but it is still very noticeable at even the slowest zoom. It snaps back into focus as soon as I release the zoom rocker.

I also tried manually focusing around 10x, then slowly zooming out wide. While I did not get a blob as described in a previous post, the image is completely out of focus (not just soft).

I tried resetting the camcorder to make sure it wasn't being caused by some setting I had made. No change.

Any ideas? Could my backfocus need adjustment? Does anyone know what Sony charges for adjustments and cleaning? Thanks.

BJ, see the following thread which discusses a similar problem: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=35310

It is possible that there's a problem with your camera... is it out of warranty? Contact info for service centers may be found here http://bssc.sel.sony.com/Professiona...cecenters.html

Custom Settings on PDX10P
 

hi all,

does anyone change the settings in the Custom Preset menu on the PDX10? What changes do you make generally?
I was thinking of keeping all the settings standard except for bumping up the colour by 2 notches. Anyone experienced anyone problems when doing this?

Does everyone like their coffee black? I was thinking of adding a little sugar, has anyone experienced problems with this? ;-)

Well of course the custom presets are there to let you tune the image to your taste, and after getting used to the camera just about everyone will experiment a little and make adjustments depending on the circumstances.

We've discussed this a lot here in the past. Here are a few threads:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=16952
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=19812
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=16186

PDX10 eject problem
 

Hi all, I just registered to look for help with this problem:

When I open the door to tape eject, the tape carrier mechanism rises up (as normal), but then the tape holder does not pop out. Instead, nothing happens for a couple of seconds, then the mechanism goes back down.

There is no tape in the camera. This started happening a few days ago. There is no error code, and the camera otherwise operates normally. Although I live in a humid climate, this does not fit the symptoms of a condensation problem, as far as I can tell.

Also, I have experienced this problem once before, several months ago. However, at that time, it went away after a few hours and did not recur until now.

Anybody else had this problem?

Sorry, haven't seen that one although I can recall maybe once or twice when I opened the outer door and the inner one didn't open. The standard response would be to tell you to push the camera's reset button. If this doesn't help then it may be service time....

Thanks for the tip, but resetting didn't fix the problem.

Any other ideas? I'm borrowing someone else's camera for now, but I really don't want to take my cam in for servicing for something that SEEMS so simple.

Slow Motion with PDX10P
 

Hi all,

Whats the best way to get a decent quality slow motion from the PDX10P (PAL model), in regards to shutter speed, software to use, etc etc...

I don't think the issues would be any different on the PDX-10 than any other interlaced camera. Use our search feature and you'll find extensive discussion on this topic. My personal opinion is that you should leave your shutter at 1/50 which gives the optimum amount of samples. Using your NLE software you should then be able to slow the captured clip down as desired. In FCP there is a "frame blending" option which general helps smooth things out; I imagine other programs have something similar. There is something called "Twixtor" which others report good results with, but I've never used it myself.

PDX10 Hours
 

Hi all,

I checked the hours of use for my camera, and would like to know if this is considered light use, moderate use or heavy use?? I may be selling this camera in the not so distant future.. and want to be able to give an accurate assesment of the Cameras condition..

Here are the hours
operation 14 x 10 hours
drum run 4 x 10 hours
tape run 2x10 hours
threading 19 x 10 hours

Thanks,
Mike Moncrief

Which platform is most compatible with the PDX10?
 

I'm interested in hearing your experiences with the PDX10's compatibility with Macs and PCs. I've just bought the PDX10, and I've used both Macs and PCs in the past. Personally, I perfer PCs, but I've also heard mention of audio problems with PCs and the PDX10. I'd certainly be willing to go Mac if it is the most compatible platform. Any suggestions on what I need to consider?

Thanks,
Chris Nelson

I gather there are some problems with stereo sound when capturing via firewire on the PC. There are workarounds however. See the following:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=25252
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=17454
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=26190
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...&threadid=7958

I can report however that FCP on the Mac doesn't have any of these problems. Other than this, it really shouldn't matter which platform you use. The PDX-10 shoots standard DV-25 and should be compatible with all the popular NLE's. Pick the hardware and software you're most comfortable with personally.

PDX10 vs. Final Cut Pro: round 9678769
 

Ok,
Great camera, great quality, great everything.
However, I can not capture footage from the tapes I used in my pdx10 to final cut...when i try i get an error telling me i havent set the capture bins, but i have. what in the world is going on?
I have tried capturing the tapes, onto my computer, with another camera but i get the same error. I tried capturing old tapes from other cameras through the PDX10, and i had no problems.
Has any one else had this problem? What in the world?
I am about to go crazy...
If any one knows what to do i would really appreciate it. I have footage on this tape that is irrespaceable and I need it for a project I am currently working on. I could dub the tape but I would rather figure this problem out now rather than suffer for years to come.
I have been tryign to figure this out in several fincal cut pro forums but its been a few days and still no progress. So, i thought maybe other pdx10 users may have run into this problem as well. Let me know...
ANY and all help would be appreciated,
Thanks,
Nevin

Matte-box for PDX10
 

Another decision I had to postpone when I bought my PDX10 was the matte-box.

The Cavision was the best option, probably the best deal too, if you compare it to the Century.

The only problem is that it is a non-returnable item if you buy it from B&H. And one thing I learnt is that you do have to take advantage of their 7-day no questions asked returns. By doing that I could return the Century WA and the first Manfrotto monopod I bought, to get different ones.

Now there's another question, also just asked to Cavision: focus rods. It would be great to add an external focusing wheel, riding the PDX10 focus ring. The focus ring is at it should be, as it doesn't move the front.

BTW, more things to think about on the Manfrotto 682B monopod I got. As you may know it has a very useful set of three-legs on the other end that you can use to place your monopod on the floor.

But one use I intend to give to it is as a poor-man steadicam. The PDX10 is quite light, so the balance is not too good. I was thinking of finding a way to add some weight down there, perhaps screwed in as the original cap holding the 3-legs is.

Has anyone tried anything like this?


Carlos

PDX10 - record external time code?
 

Hi, how do we set our camera to not regenerate the time code but to copy the time code on the source video when recording from a DVCAM deck (Dsr 11).

I looked in the menu and all the time code options are greyed out and I can't access them either. In VTR and Rec mode....

Can the PDX10 copy the source video time code?

Any tips how?

Re: Matte-box for PDX10
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Carlos E. Martinez : It would be great to add an external focusing wheel, riding the PDX10 focus ring. -->>>

Personally I think that would be "good money after bad." As we all know, the focus ring on the PDX-10 leaves a lot to be desired in terms of accuracy and responsiveness. I wouldn't spend much money to connect any sort of follow focus to it.... Or maybe I'm not understanding you?

Re: Re: Matte-box for PDX10
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Boyd Ostroff :
Personally I think that would be "good money after bad." As we all know, the focus ring on the PDX-10 leaves a lot to be desired in terms of accuracy and responsiveness. I wouldn't spend much money to connect any sort of follow focus to it.... Or maybe I'm not understanding you? -->>>


Why you wouldn't understand me? Of course you do.

But you are introducing information that we all should know and I don't know if we all will agree on it.

What I found hard to accurately handle on the PDX10 was the zoom button, so I bought a Varizoom to take care of that.

The focus ring, in my opinion, suffers from the same malady focus rings have in all prosumer cameras: it whirls infinitely. But that doesn't mean you can't use it with reasonable precision if you have the right tool to do it.

In any case this might be a pointless discussion, as Cavision does not manufactures a focus setup for this rod size.


Carlos

One of the biggest issues with the focus ring is the huge depth of field on the PDX-10's little chips.... see this thread (see my post about 4 down from the top). The good news is that most of the time focus is not very critical, unless you're zoomed way in on something.

<<<-- Originally posted by Boyd Ostroff : focus is not very critical, unless you're zoomed way in on something. -->>>


That's the one I am worried about, and on such cases I might need a good fine adjustment.


Carlos

I'm pretty sure the PDX-10 isn't capable of this function. You'd need to record the copy in a deck like the DSR-45 that can duplicate with matching timecode. I don't recall all the decks that have this function, but generally it's only the top couple of models.

Keep my PDX10P or Buy New Z1?
 

hi all,

I currently own a PDX10P with a custom made water housing which I mostly use for weddings & surfing footage. over the next 12 months I plan to shoot, edit & produce a surfing DVD which will be for sale in the retail surf shops (all going well that is)

my question is do I keep the PDX10P with its water housing for this project (& the occasional wedding too) or do I sell it all & buy a Z1 & get a housing for it too?

Its going to be a standard def PAL widscreen 16:9 DVD release. I plan on doing some slow motion in the production & time lapse recordings also. Would I be much better off shooting with the Z1 in HD mode, doing all the necessary slow motion, colour correcting etc then using good software to down-convert to SD output or will it be almost as good starting off with standard def PAL video from the PDX10P & doing all my colour correcting, slo-mo etc without having to do the down-rez to SD.

FYI so it makes it easier to answer my question:
-being surfing most of it is fast action, some on tripod from the beach, some from the water inside the housing

-i'd probably get the editor from my TV station to do the colour correcting, slow motion post work etc as he's pretty good with that type of work

-being my first commercial production (besides weddings but they're not really commercial!) i'm not sure how well it'll sell

the reason I ask these questions is I plan to do a fair bit of slo-mo, colour correcting, etc to the final production & my production manager at work tells me once Avid release HDV support it'll give you better SD video once HDV is down-rezed.

thanks to all who reply...

If you have the money go for a Z1, there's no question about it: go buy it right away!

The advantages of a PDX10 (real 16:9, small size, affordable price) are not really up to what a Z1 or FX1 has to offer: 16:9 1/3" CCDs, more control over image, HDV capability if you want it, Zeiss lens, 50i/60i (on Z1)... the list can be long.

In my case I bought a PDX10 (and I am happy with it, as I found it to be superior to a PD150 I am now using too) because my funds were diminished. But my next camera will certainly be an HDV, whether it's Sony or JVC.

Your underwater jobs won't suffer a bit for the extra weight, but the "surface tasks" might be. You will need a better tripod and the accessories will certainly be more expensive. But it's a whole new world.


Carlos

Spend a little while browsing through the FX1 group and see if you can form an opinion about the "problems" with fast motion footage. Some people dislike the results, others say it isn't a problem. I suppose the only real way to tell would be shooting a test of your own.

Only other thought is that an underwater housing for the Z1 will probably be expensive, if it's even available at all yet. But other than this, I pretty much agree with Carlos.

pdx10 shooting problems - help
 

hi i have a pdx10

i have been doing some shooting and the picture via the lcd looks great but when i view on a cpu or monitor it looks dark

i white balance etc

what i end up doing is enhancing the video via my pc

has any one has this problem?

Generally speaking, any video is going to look too dark on your PC monitor because they are calibrated to a different standard than NTSC monitors. I don't think there's anything wrong with your camera, you just need to be sure that everything is calibrated in the right ballpark. Have a look at this short tutorial:

http://www.videouniversity.com/tvbars2.htm

Your PC editing software should have the ability to display color bars as shown in that example (sorry, I'm on the Mac). Put them on your screen and use them to calibrate whatever monitor you're using. Now connect your PDX-10 to the computer via firewire (iLink) and send the same color bars to it. Adjust the LCD and viewfinder brightness to bring them into the same range (also consider the ambient light level where you're going to be using the camera and try to match that when you calibrate).

Now the image on the LCD screen should match what you see in a monitor more closely. It takes a little trial and error to learn how to set exposure properly, but eventually you'll get a feel for it. You also need to learn how to use the zebra pattern on the PDX-10 (do a search here for zebra for some pointers). That should really be your guide for setting correct exposure in manual mode on the camera, not the way the image looks on the LCD screen.

All of the above assumes that you're shooting in full manual mode on your camera. If you aren't.... well then you need to learn how to do that also! :-)

thanks for the help i actually forgot about the pc monitor calibration its just that the footage looked so good in the lcd even in the b/w viewfinder

but i think i found my problem the lcd wasnt st true - meaning the lcd is brighter than my camera is shooting so i went into the touch screen and hooked the camera to an external monitor and lowered the lcd level to that of the external monitor oh i did also match it with the bars etc before

but any more help would be appreciated

Just ordered my PDX10 !
 

Hey everyone! I just ordered my PDX10 PAL from BHPhoto! Can't wait for it to arrive.

I'm quite happy with my final decision. I'm using it for a documentary shoot this summer and was able to shave off close to 15% off the budget by using the PDX10 rather than the DVX100 (Can reuse accessories such as batteries and chargers from my sony handycam, and the price of the PDX is a good thousand dollars cheaper to begin with, also no need to buy widescreen adapter).

Shooting on PAL should also make it pretty easy to switch over to 24 fps if the oppurtunity arises.

Anyone know of any movies shot with the PDX?

Congratulations on the purchase Ari. Let us know how it works out for you. I don't know of any movies shot with the PDX-10 (which doesn't mean there aren''t any), but this thread might be of interest: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=41011

Also, there are some indications that Sony has stopped production of the QM-91 and 71 batteries, so if you want the real thing it might be a good idea to buy them now...

Ari Shomair: "Anyone know of any movies shot with the PDX?"

Hi Ari,
I know of BONDI TSUNAMI
http://www.madmancinema.com.au/CatItem.php?CatNo=MMA2300.
(and other google links...)

An extract from Video Camera Mag Sept 03....

Equipment: "Rachel Lucas is best described as a child of the 'do it yourself on DV' guerrilla movie making revolution. She has a special interest in Australian music and is highly regarded for her surreal, satirical and sensual visual moviemaking style. Lucas has the ability to successfully interpret and complement different types of music with simple and striking ideas which can be produced on a minimal budget.

"We decided to use a DVCAM recorder to shoot Bondi Tsunami," explains Lucas "At first I chose the 3- DSR- PD150 with an anamorphic lens to emulate 16:9 widescreen to shoot the movie, however we then discovered the smaller and lighter PDX10 with it's native 16:9 CCDs.
"The results were amazing" says Lucas . "I have shown some edited scenes to several professionals and they have been convinced that it is shot on Digital Betacam, with some even suggesting that it was originated on 16mm or even 35mm film!".
"The tiny PDX10 made it possible to do some unconventional things," Lucas continues,"We could do dolly shots on car bonnets hanging onto the wipers, shoot odd angles from trees and rooftops, and even stand in waist deep water for some of the surfing sequences".

Lucas also highlights the importance that post production has in giving Bondi Tsunami it's filmlike look and feel. She says that editor Michael Jones created 'magic'. Jones says that his 1 MHz Dual Processor Apple G4 has 1.5 gig of RAM and he has daisy chained 5 external Firewire hardrives (with close to a terabyte of storage) from the 2 Firewire ports. He laments that the disc space is still not enough to cope with the 150 hours of raw DVCAM footage shot by Lucas.
"There have been very few problems with the system to date. The one or two problems we encountered were solved by a simple reboot" claims Jones who says the Final Cut Pro has an amazing tool set. "The filters are terrific; I have been able to colour-match scenes that have a wide colour range almost perfectly with the software. Using drop frame technique, experimenting with filters and applying layers I was able to create a texture to the movie so that it doesn't necessarily look like film but it definitely doesn't look like video," he explains. Like Lucas, Jones says professionals who have seen the treated footage are amazed and refuse to believe that it was shot on the tiny DVCAM recorder. Even 'Avid Snobs' as Jones calls them, find it almost impossible to fault the look and feel of the output...".

<<<-- Originally posted by Damien Greaves : thanks for the help i actually forgot about the pc monitor calibration its just that the footage looked so good in the lcd even in the b/w viewfinder

but i think i found my problem the lcd wasnt st true - meaning the lcd is brighter than my camera is shooting so i went into the touch screen and hooked the camera to an external monitor and lowered the lcd level to that of the external monitor oh i did also match it with the bars etc before

but any more help would be appreciated -->>>

The biggest problem with using the LCD (and this includes almost all camera LCD panels...) is that the blacks aren't anywhere near black. This causes the whole picture to be brighter at gamma and below.

I use the zebra on my PDX-10 to determine what iris setting I need...then adjust the LCD so the picture helps you compose, but for dependability, nothing beats a well-adjusted, not-very-sexy, black and white viewfinder I'm afraid.

PDX10 as a webcam?
 

Does PDX10 work as a webcam? Does it need some drivers or software I'm using Windows XP.

Yes, it can stream MPEG over USB. I've never used this feature since I'm on a Mac and I only think it works under Windows. Have a look in the user manual, it's covered towards the end http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=22998

Oh I have used it in this fashion from time to time. Feels great to be the only guy on the 'net with a 3CCD webcam. You have to put the PDX10 in video mode, not photo mode, 4:3 and make sure the USB streaming function is set to 'on'. Works especially well if you set the camera to 1/30 or slower because the resulting extra low noise image results in an efficiently compressed image through MSN Messenger. Way better that any US$29.95 webcam.