Re: PDW 700 and 24P

Hey Guys,

I'm a PDW-700 Owner/Operator and there are a few pieces of bad information in this thread:

1. The PDW-700 does not do 24p to date. In June an upgrade board will be available for a list price of $4,500.

2. The PDW-700 does not do 1080p. It does 59.94 1080i.

The PDW-800 was announced a few days ago. and will list for somewhere around $42,000. The main differences between the 700 and the 800 are.

1. The PDW-800 will do 24p out of the box

2. The PDW-800 will allow variable frame rates out of the box. No word yet if the PDW-700 will be upgradable for this feature.

3. The PDW-800 has a split filter wheel breaking out the ND and the Color Temperature. The PDW-700 has a ND filter wheel and Color Temperature is maintained electronically.

4. The PDW-800 will also be able to record in SD as MPEG IMX or DVCam files. (This is an upgrade board for the PDW-700).

I think that's about it. As for why I went with the 700 over a Red camera, I did so because the Red is really for Narrative/Commercial work - jobs where you have an assistant or two. The depth of field of that CMOS imager is really wonderful but the system is not designed for non-narrative Television work. If you do doc work and/or shoot for Discovery, Nat Geo or most of the other Network shows that have a "non-fiction bent" then you should check out one of the full-sized camcorders made by Sony or Panasonic. These are what the Networks accept for primary acquisition.

By the way, the idea that the PDW-700 is "for ENG work" is a joke. It has higher resolution (1920x1080 vs 1440x180) and better picture quality (lower S/N ratio and higher latitude than an HDW-F900. . . . the camera that they shot Star Wars with.