I think they will also have a 9500 deck due out in June----Has anybody had any experience with the existing line of XD CAms.

I'm going to a demo tomorrow (Thursday). Assuming I get a chance, does anyone have any questions I should ask?

Mark

Please ask the 2 questions in my post above (lens and deck).

I assume you are demoing the SD version? Like coursedesign, I would be interested in lens options---also how does it feel on your shoulder, and basic ergonomics.

Thanks for the questions.

The HD version is being shown, I presume by a Sony rep, given this stuff isn't in public hands yet.

You guys might want to check this fairly nice intro video on the camera at the sony site


http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/markets/10014/xdcamhd_info.shtml

No J2K?
$9K for deck?
Grass Valley Infiniticam looking very more competitive.
Bob.

I ordered the xdcam promotional dvd and folks, if the HD version maintains the visual quality of the SD version, a lot of people in the professional market are going to forget about 1/3 inch cams.

for examples of the sd version,
Extreme Makeover Home edition
That reality show where INXS was looking for a new lead singer.

And you can treat the camera as an external CD drive(true random access to all the files, and software to mark and select cuts...) You don't actually need the deck if you can't afford it.

Will the first run of cameras be able to handle dual layer blu-ray discs when they become available?

$25K? Man, I would have to refinance my entire life to afford one of those.

or examples of the sd version,

Darn! Here I was sitting in front of my TV thinking this was a great example of the benefit of shooting with a $80,000 DigiBeta camera... :O)

Seriously, that show looks absolutely damn good. That gets my attention, big feather in the hat for this camera.

Maybe Barry can point out how much "better" the Pana DVX/HVX are to the XDcam HD camera line. -------- Just joking, but they did reference the Sony 900 line in general discussion. Sony needs to drop the other shoe a little sooner than later, in my view. But Sony semiconductor div sells a lot of CCDs to the "other" manufacturers, which is a very profitable business. Its sometimes differcult not to laugh when someone claims their CCDs and electronic subsystems are so superior.

According to their press release, single layer rewritable only.
But I don't think that will be a problem, since they are relatively inexpensive (compared to other tapeless solutions) and you can easily copy the files to your PC. But Dual layer would be nice none the less.

here is the link to the xdcam hd brochure

http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/markets/10014/docs/XDCAMHD_broch.pdf

This new 350 camera greatly interests me. Rumours still persist of a 2/3" version coming out though.

However the 350 really does look good. What interests me most is that the variable framerate can be adjusted in 1fps increments. Given that my PDW-510 allows menus to be accessed and changed while the camera is recording, I wonder if realtime speed ramping might be possible with this camera.

I am definitely looking to upgrade my current SD XDCAM with a HD model at some point. This new camera does look really good, but I would certainly want to wait and see what Sonys plans are for a 2/3" intraframe model first before even considering.

For most applications though I can see the 330 and 350 being very popular.

2/3" for the full HD would be nice. The Variable frame is a big point in selling to college sports programs. Cost will be probably in 32k-35k range if production volume/demand is there. I was hoping the entire xdcam line would drop even further in price, with more college sports boardcasting operations looking at the cam.lines.

XDCAM HD vs. HDV - FORMAT quality comparisons?
Can I load & edit XDCAM HD footage in Vegas?


thanks

Not yet, but since you can edit all flavours of current SD XDCAM in Vegas including IMX I doubt it will be far off.

As for quality, well, HD XDCAM can do 35MB/s compared with 25MB/s of standard HDV. XDCAM HD's audio is uncompressed, the DSP in the camera will be much better, the lens is far, far, far, better, and the camera will also have similar menu adjustments to the current line I would imagine (read: you will be able to configure the picture precisely).

But then this camera is not aimed at the FX1/Z1 market. It is a bridge between that market and the high end cameras.

CBS O&Os (owned and operated stations) are now moving to XDCAM HD for ENG.

Feather in the cap for XDCAM HD.

About time for the viewers, too!

Is XDCAM or XDCAM HD a friendlier or better format to edit with compared to the HDV format?

XDCAM doesn't specify a codec as such. The video is recorded inside a MXF wrapper which uses XML to define things such as the codec used for each clip. So on the one disk you could have I think HDV and DV, you also get mpeg-4 proxies for fast viewing of footage.
Bob.

You get proxies yes. But you can't record SD and HD on the same disc. You can record different datarates on the disc for HD XDCAM however.

I will say that I love editing with SD XDCAM. I hated tape ingest, but now its like copying pictures from a digital camera. I can't recommend it enough.