Panasonic P2 cameras

All this camera talk makes me itchy in the palms and my pockets begin to catch fire!! STOP IT!! :-). Good to see you are planning for the future big Jake! Your quality clips with be HQ with the new camera.

I was under the impression that yes HDV, XDCAM Ex were still classed as SD to the BBC, and yes they do accept DVC ProHD as HD however not from the HVX200 due to the 1/3 chip size?

Maybe I'm wrong though, I'll try and find the BBC white paper with the info

Update: Here's what the beeb class as SD


The following formats are considered to be standard definition:
o All standard definition video formats
o HDV from all manufactures
o Cameras with image sensors under ½”
o Frame based recording formats below 100Mbs
o Inter-frame based recording formats below 50Mbs
o Super16 film whether transferred to tape in high definition or not
o 35mm film transferred to standard definition tape formats
o Non linear editing codecs with bit rates below 160Mbs
o Live contributions via links at less than 60Mbs (MPEG2)

I know, totally right but I didn’t say that they accept HVX Material! If you read my msg. again you will see that I was talking about the codecs and the quality of codecs.

BTW – here are the BBC sites with some pdf’s:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/dq/contents/television.shtml#Guidelines

Rudi

Here is a pretty good article on the features of the HPX170

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/hpx_170_evolution_brockett.html

Goes throught the evolution of the DVX, HVX, and the HPX

(He does give some props tot the Sony EX)

Scott

so EX1 is a SD camera? I mean, yes I know it is HD, but why would BBC classify it as SD, just because it isn't a 'PRO' level cam?

I have been reading a lot about the EX1 lately... so hot!

The resolution is HD (1920x1080), they just don't recognize the compression format as HD. The DVCPro codec has been around longer, and it is recognized as an industry standard.

Interesting panel discussion video at this link:
http://email.macvideo.tv/go.asp?/bMCV001/q3CQT7/xGR325

The panel discussion covers many areas including a look at formats
from HDV to XDCAM EX and DVCPro HD, to using KxS as an affordable alternative to SxS

Mark

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the link. Very informative information.
I'll have to re-think this Sony or Panasonic HD camera.
The price of the cards is just inconceivable. $800 for a card that gives 15 minutes of video????
Suppose I want to use this camera for a wedding or something other then stock. I would have to invest in $10,000 worth of cards.
Even the hard drive option is cumbersome and expensive.

The Kxs option is something but it seems the card that will work on the EX1 isn't available anymore and other cards may or may not work. Not something I want to gamble on.

I don't know if this is what I'm going to do now, Oh well, I have time to consider all options.

Thanks all for the input.
Jake

Do you do a lot of weddings in HD?

If you have someone helping you with the event, they can offload the footage to a laptop, as you continue to shoot. Then just erase the card and reuse it to shoot more. You will have to roll in costs for maybe 2 more cards (The HVX comes with 1 16GB P2) and a reader for the laptop. But this way you could really shoot until the hard drive fils up ;)

Scott

That would be a lot of card swapping. It would be a royal pain in the butt, and probably frustrating to make sure that data is secure on the hard drive. Could you imagine 1/2 way through the wedding the HDD fails... EEK!