[MacDV] Sony HVRZ1U Impressions

[Ron]

There is a wealth of information here: http://adamwilt.com/

Links to several pro newsgroups or you can contact Adam himself.

On Apr 25, 2005, at 5:56 AM, Richard Brown wrote:

> I just wrapped episode one of the new reality show "Shut Up and 
> Model!" as director/d.p. where we used five Sony HVR-Z1U cameras (two 
> on Sachtler DV14's, one on the Steadicam Flyer, two handheld) and, 
> with five operators reporting, have found some serious issues with the 
> camera:
>
> 1) The camera cannot find focus in autofocus properly... rather than 
> weighting autofocus to the central area of the frame, the camera very 
> often ONLY focuses on the area of brightest contrast... then, worse...
>
> 2) In manual focus, the focus drifts... this was terribly evident in 
> certain studio situations with sit down talking head interviews... no 
> subject nor camera motion, BUT the focus would just drift.
>
> 3) White Balancing: the camera can be truly messed up as the white 
> balance memory gets easily boggled, where the camera cannot take a new 
> white balance without resetting the camera first. It just stays stuck 
> in a previous white balance "forever." In essence, it may be best to 
> simply USE the defaults, being careful to set the color temperature 
> (which is in a MENU rather than a switch!) when moving between 
> daylight and tungsten, for example.
>
> 4) The MPEG compression adds granular noise to all things in all 
> lighting conditions.
>
> The next phase: POST, starts today... with only 15 terabytes on our 
> FCP SAN, we will have to offline first as there is too much footage. 
> We will use DV translation, then redigitize after the rough cut is 
> done.  The curious issue: can the HVR-Z1U's footage be post-corrected 
> without image devastation? With known issues of camera color 
> mismatches, we will be finding out the deal very soon.
>
> Will report here.
>
>
>
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