Re: Setting up a new system

Unless you have money to start playing with the big boys, talk of "fraud" is probably going to keep you from making any move at all...

The Scarlett you started talking about will likely use a Bayer sensor like the RED One, which is structured to gather a half-res green image and a quarter res blue and a quarter res red image and combine them to create a full resolution image...

The HVX200 has a 960x540 sensor that is used to make a 1280x720 image that is reduced to 960x720 when it's recorded, or is ineterpreted all the way up to 1920x1080 and is reduced to 1280x1080 before recording.

HDV on the Canon or Sony end is really a 1440x1080 image played out as 1920x1080...and it's MPEG...but hey, it's HD for the same bitrate as DV.

HDV on the JVC is still MPEG, but it's used most often to record 720p material, and its sensor is 1280x720...maybe the least "fraudulent" of the bunch...and even if it does interpolate up to 1080p, it's much closer than the HVX is...

The bottom line is that you need to be realistic when you're looking at your options. Your total budget is about 1/3 to 1/4 the cost of a professional HD camera body (without a lense) like the F950 or the Panasonic 3700. Trying to avoid compromise won't get you anywhere. The only reason you can even have this conversation is that manufacturers have made some compromises and made technology very affordable.

However, don't waste much time looking for something that will "hold its value", in our business with our equipment, an automobile looks like a good long-term investment.

Technically, you can always find some way that a piece of equipment makes a compromise. 1080p uncompressed is great! ...but even with your nice Mac, I don't know if you've got the stuff to store or even playback 7.5 Gigabytes per minute of video. So...image compression is another compromise that makes the data manageable.

I like Bob's idea of going with separate cameras and editing the thing afterward. Switching cameras with HDMI or FireWire is a pain with long cable runs, not to mention that camera synchronization is impossible.

The TriCaster idea is OK if you're going straight to the web...otherwise it's completely incompatible with your Mac...it's a PC based system.

As others have said, this is a tall order on the budget you've stated.




TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,