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Posted by Steve Guidry on 01/11/06 20:16
I didn't mean to suggest that _YOU_ were the snake oil salesman.
Rather, I was just remarking on how the OP singled out the comments he was
already biased in favor of, despite equally well stated posts to the
contrary.
Steve
> I'd agree that one should not rely on Internet snake oil salesmen.
> Definitely don't make any commitment, financial or otherwise without
> checking the facts first hand. There is the problem though of knowing
> when ones first hand experience is definitive or otherwise. Many times
> I've been presented with the results of spurious 'tests' that have been
> biased one way or the other by various combinations of wishful thinking,
> vested interest or simply the wrong equipment used for making those
> tests.
>
> Currently there's nothing confusing the innocent as much as the rear
> guard actions, by the otherwise over capitalised, against HDV and
> particularly the Z1. Very few cameras provide all round perfection,
> there's always some niggle such as the limitations of the fixed lens or
> in HDV's case the fact that there's still only one suitable edit system,
> and it's not Avid or FCP or any 'Native HDV' solution.
>
> I have no axe to grind, my company has been going for over twenty years,
> we use most formats and have owned lots of cameras. Right now, for
> completely pragmatic and tactical reasons, we've sold all our SD
> equipment accept for a DXC D30W, PVV3, DSR 1 and one each of VTR's of
> most SD types. We still offer Digi Beta and SX but we hire it in as
> needed. In the UK these formats are going out of fashion faster than you
> can say obsolete. Only HD is worth investing in. Can't afford to buy in
> the whole HDCAM infrastructure yet so that gets hired in too. We have
> three Z1's and an A1 in our in-house tool bag right now, mostly used as
> HDV but occasionally as DVCAM too. The 1/3rd inch Super HAD CCD's on
> the Z1 compare well with the 2/3rd inch types of the old BVW Beta SP's,
> though not as capable as the very latest 2/3rd types. All this stuff
> about the Z1 being noisy in comparison with last generation 2/3rd inch
> CCD's is utter tosh. Where the Z1 fails to match the large formats is
> much more to do with lenses than CCD's. Motion blur in certain
> situations is another issue, mostly not as much as some make it out to
> be and even thought aesthetically pleasing by others.
>
> The technology that's gone into the new compact Sony's are among the
> most advanced available and their CCD technology remains superior to
> either JVC or Panasonic by a significant margin. This quote from an
> engineer is interesting;
>
> "Theoretically 720/25p should have an advantage at 20 Mbps over Z1's
> 1080/50i at 25 Mbps. But the Z1 codec is 2.5x more efficient than the
> DVCPRO HD codec, so 25 Mbps of Sony HDV is like 62.5 Mbps of Panasonic
> DVCPRO HD, which is 100 Mbps"
>
> The compact P2 HD being developed by Panasonic is also interesting,
> though the hard disks only carry a few minutes at HD standard requiring
> one to carry a very robust computer around on location to store all the
> data. It will need to be significantly better than HDV to be worth the
> palaver and expense.
>
> I suspect that the next generation of low cost compacts will provide
> full HDCAM quality with advanced compact lens solutions being developed
> by Fujinon and Canon. Naturally the top end goal posts will be advanced
> in unison with this. Most likely along the lines of the 'Super HD'
> demonstrated by Arriflex Lockheed Martin, offering 5 times the
> resolution and ten times the pixels of HDCAM (sic)
>
> As I said, size does matter but usually only at a given generation of
> technology. In the world of digital technology, things tend to get
> smaller, faster, better and cheaper. That's what makes capital
> investment, timely disposal at peak used values and reinvestment in the
> next generation the essence of good business practise, unless of course
> ones production work is generating such huge profits that such
> depreciation and obsolescence is irrelevant.
> --
> John Lubran
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