The Mac Pro happened. I had been editing on a G4 and in my free time whilst rendering small things I’d write posts. Generally I’d slowly write a post as the day progressed and then post it when I was done. Gave me something to do which wasn’t being bored on the internet and stooping to the level of playing inane FaceBook games for hours on end.

Anyways, long story short, overheating killed yet another HDD in my poor old MDD and I knew it was time to move on. Luckily I was able to retrieve all my data, though part of it was slow like the platter was warped and either hard to read or physically impeding the movement of the read head. It only happened on one particular ‘section’ of data too. Anyways, G4 DP MDD went away and was replaced with a shiny Mac Pro DP dual-core 2.66GHz. The problem herein was that this new machine with its many cores and significantly faster speed meant that small renders went from minutes to seconds. MPEG2 CBR at 1:1 became MPEG2 VBR at 1.5:1. Everything was so much faster I found that I worked more, and worked faster.

However, with great power comes great responsibility, and as my skill set expanded so did the demands of my employer. Jobs became longer and more complex, but the pay wasn’t budging. So January came around, after 12 months of 7-day a week working and my sanity hanging by a thread I quit working for that particular employer.

Armed with only the small list of contacts I had I set myself up to brave the world on my own, which I’ve been doing since January. Freelancing, despite the pitfalls and difficulties, has proven quite a pleasant way to work.

So now I return to this blog, posting in this new thing I have called ‘free time’ and trying to keep up with the general theme of where I left off. Shortly I’ll be changing my URL and all those bits to something a bit more coherent and easier to give over the phone. I’ve learned a lot over this last year, including ‘how to charge clients ACTUAL money’, ‘tape sucks’, ‘Blu-Ray is laggy’ and so on. Nothing ground breaking.

Until next time – awa!

JVC finally came out and revealed a few things that I think have finally pushed me to upgrade my 111 at almost any cost. The GY-HD200UB finally adds something that many people have been pining for – 1080i shooting (ok, so it actually came a few weeks ago in the form of a 201 + Firestore promotion). For me though, the camera has won me over on one big thing: the new SDHC/HDD recorder. Permanently mounting on the battery connector, this allows the HD200UB to shoot 1080i50/60 or 720p24/50/60 direct to SDHC card or HDD. The only thing missing here are TC/genlock and HD-SDI and this camera would be perfect. I am anticipating an updated 251 later this year.
So with this revelation, it may be that I’ll be looking to swap out my 111 for a 201UB, and grab myself an order for RED Scarlet. *phew* this is all BIG news. My personal plan is to continue producing projects such as the football show on the JVC, using its ENG-style run and gun design to cover theater, the football show and things like that, and use Scarlet to start really getting into cinematic projects.
I’m anticipating spending at least ten grand on Scarlet over the next year, which is going to be a fair amount on a camera which will essentially and very realistically be a camera for ‘personal projects only’. There may be some use for it with clients, especially with 120fps shooting, but the post workflow is something I’m really going to want to get my head around before jumping right in there with it. I’m anticipating a 35mm or 16mm lens adapter to be released for Scarlet in the very near future, and I think that’ll be a vitally important piece of the puzzle. I’ll probably grab some glass from RP Lens for the time being, especially because this would give me a great chance to practice focus pulling and getting used to shooting with such a shallow DOF.
In fact, for the budget film-maker/low-end studio AV guy, I can’t think of a better combo than the 200UB and Scarlet. Use the 200UB for shooting sports, events, smaller projects, and crank out Scarlet and a tiny crew for creative projects, including ads and creative projects. Basically, a combo of doco camera and cine camera.

I also want to apologise to Panasonic, their offerings initially basically left me saying ‘so what’ and moving on, especially in the shadow of the EX3 and RED Scarlet and RED Epic. However, I notice that I overlooked a few key pointers which give both of their announced cameras better than expected. I’ve already been giving the HMC150 love, so I don’t think there’s much to say for the little guy, but I am pleased that they included XLR audio – some of the competing low-end HDV cameras are conspicuously missing XLRs and its extraordinarily frustrating. The HPX170 as a HVX without a tape transport is nice, especially with the inclusion of SD recording formats. Would’ve been nice to see 1080p, although that may be either the DVCPROHD CODEC, or the data rate of P2. I thought I read somewhere that it had 1080 native CCDs (the HVX200 only has 960×540 or something, and takes skewed samples or something). If it has 1080 native or even 720 native CCDs, then all the more power to it. The peaking and waveform meters in the viewfinder are certainly a welcome addition – when will they add CAC to the lens though?
Canon’s presence was small, but I think their update to the XL-H1 was loooong deserved (as I have already said). I’m happy with what JVC showed – not much different but they’ve basically filled the only gap I felt they had. Now that they’re American owned, we’ll probably see the Victor Company of Japan become a bit more competitive. Like RED, JVC now probably have little interest in the polite yet cut-throat way the Japanese do business. Sony…EX3, looks like a nightmare to use, will produce very nice pictures, and the interchangeable lens mount makes it a winner – as far as I’m concerned this camera makes me lose any and all interest in the HVR-S270. I think for Sony HDV is only a step away from dead. Canon and JVC are the only players still in the HDV game at the top end, and the Canon in my opinion has too little too late on JVCs new offering.
So, am I a JVC fanboy? Probably, but there’s just too much to like, and not enough to like in the competition. Personally, I was initially afraid of the JVC, not really seeing them as a reputable brand. After all – all I ever saw around me were Panasonic, Sony and Canon cameras. JVC seemed like a newcomer, and I initially wrote them off as such. A year later after buying my HD-GY111E, I’m in love with the design and the camera – still has a few shortcomings (I’d LOVE better low light, peaking meters and waveform meters, and 5 white balance presets) but otherwise I think it is the king of the 1/3″ CCD cameras. Combined with an AB or IDX battery, its a hard working, lightweight camera and its in for the long haul.

Now…where’s more info on Scarlet??

Now, I think most important, the announcement of Scarlet (Epic was also important, but for me, Epic is a *little* on the unattainable side).
Scarlet has a fixed 8x zoom lens, full automatic or manual control, shoots 3k (3072×1728) at 120fps (up to 180 in burst mode), and carries a USD price tag of $3000. Yep, 3k for $3k. Its phenomenal, because whilst RED ONE put the Indy producer closer to a fully capable Cinema camera, there’s no reason each and every film-maker can’t just *own* a Scarlet for themselves anddo whatever they want with it, whenever they want. I expect that 35mm lens attachment systems will be announced leading up to its release.
Scarlet shoots on Compact Flash cards and has two card slots in the back. Nice bits include a single link HD-SDI (4:2:2), HDMI out and Wifi control. The post workflows will be similar to RED, so this still isn’t a run and gun camera, but its pretty damn close. And the thing is TINY!
Basically, my original plan was to see how things shaped up, and then consider selling my JVC to grab Scarlet depending on how it was designed/marketed. However, with that price, I’ll grab Scarlet to shoot film-like production on, and continue doing jobs that require a more ENG style run and gun with my JVC. Looks like I wont be upgrading to the HD-251 anytime after all. I’ll probably try to put at least ten grand into grabbing Scarlet and some bits, because this is simply too good to pass up, and I want to jump on the bandwagon with this one. I’d love to have been there with RED ONE, but despite its impressive price, it was still just too much for me at this time (I am only 21 after all, I’d like to think a fifty thousand dollar camera set-up is still a bit unachievable).

In closing there – Scarlet was all that mattered to the low end market. Canon made some LOOOONG needed fixes to the XL lens, Sony made another ergonomic nightmare that’ll garner a big fan base and Panasonic showed that they were committed to the low end market, and had no interest in moving beyond that. Personally, I’m still stuck firmly in the JVC camp as far as the 1/3″ to 1/2″ cameras go, because despite the better hardware, as I said, I like to be able to comfortably operate my camera. I abandoned my plans to buy an XL2 based entirely on ergonomics back in the day…and that awful lens. I think the improvements to the XL-H1 have have made it a viable camera, and with the IDX V-loc attachment on the back would probably be a winner as far as HDV 1080i capture was concerned.
Scarlet will just change things though. After we know more about the lens (pesky pics and mockups reveal nothing and can’t really be trusted) I think we’ll have a good picture painted for us as to what its all about. The fixed lens is a bit of a worrying point for me, but the small size of the camera redeems it a lot, so attaching a Red Rock Micro (if there’s one made) or a P+S Technik mini35 or whatever wont turn the camera into the video equivalent of a missile launcher.
Its an exciting time!

Two cameras so far, after the jump

Firstly, the Panasonic AG-HPX 170. The successor to the HVX200, this camera offers some minor improvements under the hood and little else. 14-bit AD processing seems the biggest improvement. Other than that, its design seems to have gone boxier (sort of a hark back to the mid nineties in my opinion), and its largely unchanged from the HVX200. I used to consider Panasonic a top pick for lower cost professional cameras, but I’m yet to be impressed by their HD offerings.

Next, the Sony PMW-EX3. Seriously, someone needs to provide the CineAlta team with a good designer. After the ergonomic mess that was the EX1, we have the EX3, a 2/3″, SxS based camera with all the design cues from the original Canon XL1. After how disappointed I was with the EX1 given how promising it was under the hood, the EX3 seems a bigger disappointment. The EX3 is very impressively spec’d, so why this weird front-of-the-shoulder design and lack of IDX or AB battery? Price will be a key factor of this camera, but given the price of the EX1, I doubt it’ll be in the realm of interest for anyone, especially if Scarlett is the camera I’m anticipating it to be.

My opinions on Scarlett:
I am hopeful that Scarlett will be a mini-shoulder mount design, similar to the Canon XL-H1, but leaning more toward the more forgiving design of the JVC GY-HD series. 2k shooting (no 4k), and an interchangeable lens mount, offering a 2/3″ broadcast lens adapter out of the box, and the optional ones for Arri, Fuji, Canon etc. Put a decent kit camera at about $20,000AUD (total) and you’ve got yourself a healthy little uber-indy version of RED, complete with television and small AV company capacities.
It’ll never happen, but I can dream…

:edit:
Panasonic also announced this little bugger, which I’m much more impressed with. Barrel-cam form factor not so great, but face it, this thing is small, I’d presume light, seems full-featured for a camera of its class, and records AVCHD to SD cards up to 32Gb. It has 1080i and 720p, and I’d assume the 720p footage would be quite passable at the bit rates (up to 24Mbps, which is higher than 720p HDV). This is actually a camera I’m going to keep an eye on, truly affordable solid state, and carrying a US RRP of $4,500.

Sorry again, when its up, you’ll find it here: www.youtube.com/tasfootball

A few interesting new tidbits:
Each episode is now exactly 15 minutes long, no shorter or longer
The panel will regularly feature last year’s regular match commentator Walter Pless, and WIN news sports editor Jeremy Arnold. Each week will feature a coach, player or other associated person who will be able to discuss the games, their opinions on the state of the game, and exchange general banter.
Transitions are now cleaner and faster.
The edit time for the show has decreased dramatically.
The panel is shot in widescreen.

Any opinions on the first episode can be voiced here or on our YouTube page once they go up. We’re very keen to hear feedback, as we want to make the show as good as possible for the viewer – which ultimately is the goal of any televised programme.

Cheers

J

The Tasmanian Premier League Football Show season starts again shortly, and I’ll be making a separate YouTube account exclusively for them to get my account cleaned up a bit. I’ll be sure to mark down the address when its made.

I uploaded another of my films today, one that has been a long time coming. Just a short, made years ago when I was in college. I am pretty proud of it, but I know I can do better. So why aren’t I doing better? Good question.

Despressingly, it looks compressed to doom. Looks like a rerender and a new upload may be in order.

Damnit.

I am currently rendering episodes 10 – 15, and they will be uploaded tomorrow. Look out for 15, it had to be cut into 5 parts for consistency and its sheer length, I believe it went for almost a full half hour.

If you’re interested, check ‘em out!!

Still waiting on the VTR to arrive, and considering getting a Focus Firestore drive for my camera to ease up on the work (and hectic deadlines) of the football show. Also, I’ve been researching 35mm lens adapters and will probably do a write up on those shortly too, documenting all my findings (including the RedRock ‘Bazooka‘ Micro…)

J

J