Sony PDW-700 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder

[swsw1550]

Hi,
Just thought I would mention that I picked up my new Sony PDW-700 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder today, with a Sony HDVFC35W 3.5-inch LCD Electronic HD Viewfinder, and a Fujinon High Definition Lens, cost me an arm an a leg but should be fun, exploring XDcam. Still got my Z7 though as a backup camera now.

Cheers
Steve

[Geoff McKay]

We'll be keen to know how you find the camera and what work-flow you come up with Edius. keep us posted! Cheers

[swsw1550]

I won't be using it a lot myself, Geoff, I have a camera man I pay, but I will keep you posted how it all goes, I will say so far that it is a very nice camera. just everything is so dear for it. I have never used XDCam before so will see this weekend.

Cheers
Steve

[SoundFreak]

Wow. I Can only dream of a pickup like that, Enjoy your new toy , uuurrrhhhh, envy, envy :)

[antonsvideo]

how long did you have to wait?

I ordered mine 6 weeks ago and just been told by Sony that arrival has been delayed to the 16th October

I should have ordered a Panasonic HPX500 instead, that only had a 4 week waiting list

Sony Australia no longer stock professional video, you place order, then it appears the item is manufactured, then sits around a few weeks in Japan, then it gets stuck in Hong Kong for a week (so they told me last week) then it finally is dispatched from Singapore, obviously all done via push bike and ship

[STORMDAVE]

Steve, what glass did you get? That's most important :)

Also the Sony is about $30K while the Panny is $10k (All USD).
Sony media is cheaper and easier to archive (keep media!), and probably has a better CCD block (more resolution).

[DigitalDave]

how long did you have to wait?

I ordered mine 6 weeks ago and just been told by Sony that arrival has been delayed to the 16th October

I should have ordered a Panasonic HPX500 instead, that only had a 4 week waiting list

What happened to the 335? Did you realise what a waste of space it was?

DD

[swsw1550]

how long did you have to wait?

I ordered mine 6 weeks ago and just been told by Sony that arrival has been delayed to the 16th October

I should have ordered a Panasonic HPX500 instead, that only had a 4 week waiting list

Sony Australia no longer stock professional video, you place order, then it appears the item is manufactured, then sits around a few weeks in Japan, then it gets stuck in Hong Kong for a week (so they told me last week) then it finally is dispatched from Singapore, obviously all done via push bike and ship

Anton a cousin of mine bought it in from overseas for me, who has something to do with Sony,

[antonsvideo]

What happened to the 335? Did you realise what a waste of space it was?

DD

Channel 7 in Sydney decided to change all their cameras for news and current affairs to the 700's, so I thought they must have done their homework, so I changed my mind and decided to spend more via a 5 year lease instead of less with a 3 year lease

[swsw1550]

I am not sure Anton but I will take your word for it, As I said my cousin who is back and forth from overseas picked it up for me, still cost a lot, also got 10 50gb disk's with it which was a bonus, My cousin has part ownership in Sony (or something like that) silent parnter, all I really know is they are worth a few hundred million, (I wish I was ha ha ) Anyway I will let you know what my camera man thinks of it, I will have to have a play with it my self I think.

Cheers
Steve

[msvideo]

Been using mine since May. Beautiful and very clean images, even in challenging and low light conditions. Sharpness out of the factory just a tad high. Look for the black edges between certain change of contrast such as from skin tones to a white dress. Zoom in with Edius layout tool or on a photoshop still to see how pronounced. Been meaning to experiment with the edge detail settings but never got round to it - dont think bad enough for average clients to see. Keeping my eye out for a camera tech guru who has done some testing.

Recommend convert in Edius bin to HQ - much slicker and more responsive during the edit than using raw MPEG2.

Waiting to see if the new HDSTORM hardware has any speed boost converting to HQ within software - both within Bin and exporting from timeline to HQ.

Could do with more options to convert MPEG2 to HQ in background such as PC3 watch folder or standalone util like AVCHD. Using Edius Bin to convert locks out of using Edius on that machine for anything else.

[antonsvideo]

Hi Mark

I am curious to see how it performs with high contrast by using the built in Cine presets

I always wanted to shoot against a window without blowing out the background

[msvideo]

Hi Anton

Really made a wise move with 700 instead of 355, extra money worth every penny. Totally impractical to light everything indoors for the 355.

Not tried adjusting knee settings myself yet - everything on standard. First camera I ever had that technology now surpases the human eye. I film wedding speeches every week and mostly infront of windows - my eye on the day often sees as slight siloutte and dark faces if lighting low inside and bright behind. Rushes now look better than eye did - exposing for subject and letting background blow - no siloutte effect and the faces are much brighter, colourful and detailed. My last cam - DSR570 was not bad at this but PDW700 with same Canon SD broadcast glass is a class above.

Due to radio mics also - now both pic and sound better on video than sitting at a guest table.

[Bassman]

Wow, that's a lot of firepower to bring to a wedding!

Watch out for theft. I have heard quite a few stories of the hired help who see the equipment at every event helping themelves.

[antonsvideo]

Hi Mark

what is the result like if shooting in SD DVCAM mode

I have some regular jobs that are quick turnaround and are short lived and are for DVD output

so I would not want to waste time with converting all clips to HQ and then starting VD in the end to get it back down to SD