By Robert Render Harrison, April 25, 2007
Early in 2006, based on the record-to-disc principle of the XDCAM SD cameras, Sony introduced a new camera with 1/2-inch chips recording up to 35Mb/s, yet at a list price of $25,800.
Does the new camera, the PDW-F350, perform as well as the CineAlta HDW-F900? No. It's not intended to replace the HDCAM cameras but to provide native 1080 acquisition at a fraction of the HDCAM equipment cost.
All cameras are a compromise. The F900 could be said to compromise small size and low price for outstanding performance; at the other end of the scale, the tiny Sony HVR-A1U HDV camera compromises ultimate image quality to make a camera the size and weight of a decent burrito. It's all compromise. What we have to do is decide which equipment best meets our budget and handling requirements while still delivering sufficient image quality for the job.
A Brief History of XDCAM
The introduction in late 2004 of the Sony HDV cameras narrowed the performance gap between prosumer Handycams and high-end professional HD imagery, but there was definitely room for something in between.
Sony is to be congratulated for creating in the XDCAM HD format an image quality acceptable for much of content acquisition for TV together with the convenience of recording to a tapeless, disc medium that can not only be edited in-camera but has the added benefit of archival (50-year) permanence.
The XDCAM HD recording medium is a 12 cm. diameter, single-layer disc housed in a plastic cartridge that opens only inside the camera to prevent, among other problems, the entry of dust into the mechanism. The antistatic cartridge is designed to withstand both heat and shock. The disc can record up to 23.3GB of data. It has a much greater physical depth of recording than a regular CD or DVD, so there's less depth of the disc devoted to protection, which is one reason it's housed in a cartridge. Called the Professional Disc for DATA, it uses an optical head to read/write to a maximum speed of 144Mb/s, compared with a consumer Blu-ray, which has a write speed of 36Mb/s.
PDW-F330 and PDW-F350
There are two XDCAM HD cameras: the PDW-F330 and the PDW-F350. Each has the same three 1/2-inch, 1.56-megapixel (1440x1080) HAD CCDs and 12-bit A/D conversion with 4:2:0 color sampling. Both record only 1080 HD video (not 720) in 29.97i, 50i, 29.97p, 25p and 23.98p, and the operator can select the desired bit rate in which to record video, either 35Mb/s, 25Mb/s or 18Mb/s depending on the desired picture quality and recording length. As these are dual-format camcorders, they can also record in DVCAM mode at 25Mb/s.
The F350 has more features than the F330, which lists at $16,800. Additional or upgraded features on the F350 include a 2-inch widescreen B&W CRT viewfinder (F330 has 1.5-inch), HD-SDI output, 5-pin XLR audio output and timecode I/O separated. (The F330 A/V interfaces are HD/SD component out, unbalanced audio out and timecode I/O switchable.) Both models offer genlock and a front stereo mic.
The other major difference between the models is that the F350 records in slow and fast motion, while the F330 does not offer variable frame rate recording.
The F330 is a silver color, while the F350 is a more professional-looking charcoal gray. Unique for professional-grade, shoulder-mounted cameras, both models offer autofocus, providing that the Canon KH19x6.7 lens, the only 1/2-inch mount autofocus lens, is used. The cameras will accept 2/3-inch lenses via the camera's lens connector and optional lens adapter, which multiplies the lens focal length by 1.37x.
The F330 would make an excellent and economical backup to an F350, or for the shooter on a budget; with the autofocus lens, the F330 was also designed and priced with schools and industrial users in mind.
Popularity Contest
I recall Mike Bravin, chief technology officer at Band Pro Film & Digital in Burbank, a major Sony equipment reseller, saying that the F350 was outselling the F330 about 30 to 1. I'm not sure if it's because most users want a "loaded" camera, or whether it's the over/undercrank features that are so appealing, but apart from that feature, the image quality will be identical between the cameras.
1080 HD can be recorded in one of three quality choices: 35Mb/s variable bit rate (VBR), 25Mb/s constant bit rate (CBR) and 18Mb/s VBR. Recording times are 66, 87 and 113 minutes, respectively, recording 4-channel audio, at the minimum--meaning you could get a little more due to the VBR. The cameras also record DVCAM, sampling at 4:1:1 for NTSC and 4:2:0 for PAL, in 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio
. 1080 HD is always recorded in 16:9, of course. Recording time for DVCAM is about 85 minutes.
With the HVR-Z1U, Sony offered a low-priced camera capable of producing footage that could be intercut with HDCAM. TV producers were delighted to have a smaller, low-cost backup camera, a crash cam, or simply the ability to economically field several cameras on a shoot. But some shooters were concerned that the audio, being compressed, might be insufficient in quality. Since the 25Mb/s recording on XDCAM HD is the same HDV format, it's worth noting that in XDCAM HD, the audio is recorded uncompressed in either two or four channels of 16-bit PCM audio at 48kHz in all the 1080 modes.
The cameras provide MXF (Material eXchange Format) support, so metadata and proxy files output by the camera can be read in the postproduction workflow. During recording, XDCAM HD cameras record a timecode-accurate, 2Mb/s, MPEG-4-compressed proxy file of the high-resolution material to disc. Proxy copies of footage, used as a reference to the high-resolution video, can be downloaded to a PC very rapidly so that editing may proceed while you are waiting for the higher bit rate files to be transferred.
The Sony PDZ-1 Proxy Browsing Software, supplied with the cameras, is required to browse footage or perform simple, cuts-only editing on a PC. The clip list can be saved as an EDL and written back to the original disc; it's essentially using the low-res proxy to create an offline edit and saving the resulting EDL to go back to the source material for the online edit at the acquisition resolution.
After working with the F350, I'd select the best quality 35Mb/s maximum VBR recording, unless you need to match HDV footage or save to disc. At about $30 per disc for over an hour of recording in 1080 HD, that's affordable media, particularly bearing in mind that it offers a data integrity rating of more than 50 years, according to Sony, which is appropriate for archival storage. I saw none of the shimmering breakup of the image when panning over fine detail that some HDV cameras exhibit, and the Long GOP "motion signature" is hard to spot.
Paws/Pause
One shot of dogs running from Mark Falstad's coverage of last year's Iditarod race from Nome, Alaska, showed a slightly unusual movement in the legs of the dogs that I thought might be due to the Long GOP. For most practical purposes, however, the Long GOP isn't noticeable to most viewers.
The monochrome viewfinder isn't HD, but with the peaking turned up, I found it easy enough to achieve accurate focus. (With the optional accessory shoe kit (A-8274-968-B), both cameras may be outfitted with the optional DXF-51 5-inch B&W viewfinder.) The Sony color viewfinder won't work with the XDCAM HD cameras. The flip-out 3.5-inch color LCD on both models doesn't have quite enough resolution for critical focusing, but it makes a good guide for framing and, of course, replaying clips.
Clips may be identified individually, where the first frame of the clip will be displayed together with its number. Or, by pressing the Thumbnail button, all the clips are shown as a small (thumbnail) image. There's also a feature that allows a clip to be subdivided into 12 or more segments. If you want to shield the LCD in bright light, Hoodman makes an inexpensive hood (model H400, $24.99) that's a perfect fit for the LCD screen.
I often shoot wildlife for my own interest, and it occurred to me that the XDCAM recording methodology would help me hone my skills in keeping the wildlife in frame and in focus. How? Because I can shoot as many takes as I like, deleting the ones I don't like to free up space on the disc. I soon learned to quickly stop and restart recording, thus creating another clip, rather than letting the camera roll. This method makes it easier to locate and delete "dud" takes. Watch out, though! Like any device recording electronically to a tapeless medium, there's the option to Delete All Clips. Even while browsing through the clips, it's possible to immediately start recording, but you can't overwrite (record over) the existing footage. Try doing that with a tape recording camera! At an introductory talk, I heard from one of the Sony technicians that a Professional Disc, when put into any camera or deck, will start exactly from where it was "parked."
The laser that reads the disc is considered good for 4,000 hours, and that's a $1,000 part. The cameras can be "painted" and the data saved to a Memory Stick. A 1/2-inch to 2/3-inch adapter is available (LO-32BMT, $710), enabling the use of ubiquitous 2/3-inch size lenses on the XDCAM HD. At 8.5 lb., it's about the same weight as the Panasonic AJ-SDX900 and 1.5 lb. more than the AJ-HDX900. Both camera models feature four assignable buttons: two on the camera handle and two on the side panel. I assigned one of the buttons on the top front of the carrying handle to be record/stop; I particularly liked the sliding plate that can cover them to prevent accidental recording. Other controls I found useful are an audio input level adjuster wheel at the lower front of the camera and a push-button to set the color balance to 5,600 K. A second push returns the camera to the previous color temperature.
I very much enjoyed my time with this camera, and I consider it ideal for television work and long-form documentary use, or anywhere where one needs to shoot a lot and have the ability to identify and select individual clips quickly. And at this price point and with the ability to record 1080, it's going to be useful for all kinds of indie moviemaking.
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