New DTE camera mounted HD

[WindyHillsVideo]

I just stumbled upon this interesting story link on Mac Observer to a Press Release about a new DTE hard drive that can be camera mounted. (See Below)

MCE Unveils QuickStream Portable DV Hard Drive
by Jeff Gamet, 3:15 PM EST, February 15th, 2008

MCE announced the immediate availability of its new QuickStream portable hard drive for DV/HDV video recording on Friday. The hard drive includes a FireWire interface, can capture HDV footage directly from many cameras, and is camera-mountable.

The QuickStream is available in 6 hour/80GB and 9 hour/120GB configurations, can play back footage to through the camera's built-in display, includes a hot shoe mount, 4-pin to 6-pin and 6-pin to 6-pin FireWire cables, and an AC power adapter.

The QuickStream DV/HDV (http://www.mcetech.com/quickstreamdv-hdv/) is priced at US$799 for the 6 hour model, and $999 for the 9 hour model.

[JamesB]

That's cool. Those are very reasonable prices as well.

On a similar note: Sony is releasing a new camera, the Z7U, that will allow recording to CF with the use of an adapter. This adapter can also be used with a special mount/sled to be able to connect to any number of Sony cameras with 1394a (including non-Sony cameras?) Forget about proprietary and expensive flash formats, forget about filling up your hard drive and then quickly trying to dump it to a laptop!

Here is a link to the PDF spec sheet for the Z7U:

http://www.sonybiz.net/res/attachment/file/81/1193315642481.pdf

The Memory Recording Unit I was speaking of is on page 11.

[MediaConcepts]

The HVR-S270E may be my next camera. Shoulder mount, full size tape, real lenses, CF card recording, finally someone has made a decent camera!

Joe

[WindyHillsVideo]

That's cool. Those are very reasonable prices as well.

On a similar note: Sony is releasing a new camera, the Z7U, that will allow recording to CF with the use of an adapter. This adapter can also be used with a special mount/sled to be able to connect to any number of Sony cameras with 1394a (including non-Sony cameras?) Forget about proprietary and expensive flash formats, forget about filling up your hard drive and then quickly trying to dump it to a laptop!

Here is a link to the PDF spec sheet for the Z7U:

http://www.sonybiz.net/res/attachment/file/81/1193315642481.pdf

The Memory Recording Unit I was speaking of is on page 11.

I'm confused by the specs on all the similar cameras that Sony has released over the past year. It seems like they are competing with themselves quite a bit.

Does anyone know if Sony is dropping the Z-1 and replacing it with the Z7? Going only on the specs, and some footage samples I saw a while back, it seems like the Z-7 was a downgrade from the Z-1. What's up with that? Are these new CMOS sensor based cameras as good and reliable or just cheaper to manufacture?

Michael

[JamesB]

I'm confused by the specs on all the similar cameras that Sony has released over the past year. It seems like they are competing with themselves quite a bit.

Does anyone know if Sony is dropping the Z-1 and replacing it with the Z7? Going only on the specs, and some footage samples I saw a while back, it seems like the Z-7 was a downgrade from the Z-1. What's up with that? Are these new CMOS sensor based cameras as good and reliable or just cheaper to manufacture?

Michael

Well they are still in the Z-family so I wouldn't call it a replacement. The CMOS are easier on battery life. I have heard a lot of good things from V1U owners. I would like to hear from someone here in this forum if they have experience with Sony's ClearVid CMOS sensors.

[Doug Puckett]

I would love to hear from anyone who purchases one of these new DTE devices. While I am always looking for ways to save money, it just looks cheap compared to the firestores.

[Maureen]

I have one of mcetech's quickstream devices that I bought a couple of years ago. It doesn't work, it never worked. And by "doesn't work" I mean it would work sometimes, just long enough for you to think it would work and than it would not record when you pressed the record button. I would never buy something from them again.

[RatVega]

I'm confused by the specs on all the similar cameras that Sony has released over the past year. It seems like they are competing with themselves quite a bit.

Does anyone know if Sony is dropping the Z-1 and replacing it with the Z7? Going only on the specs, and some footage samples I saw a while back, it seems like the Z-7 was a downgrade from the Z-1. What's up with that? Are these new CMOS sensor based cameras as good and reliable or just cheaper to manufacture?

Michael
As good? The RED 1 uses a 12 megapixel CMOS sensor...

...or just cheaper? Sony is using CMOS imaging chips for the new Nissan "around view" 360-degree viewing system and they're unveiling it in a mini-van, not an infiniti...

As far as quality and reliability go, I'd say the closer you get to RED, the better your chances are... :grinning-smiley-021

It's a newer, more highly integrated (CCDs require external circuitry to convert the voltage levels to digitial values) technology with the attendant advantages in power and size savings.

[WindyHillsVideo]

As good? The RED 1 uses a 12 megapixel CMOS sensor...

...or just cheaper? Sony is using CMOS imaging chips for the new Nissan "around view" 360-degree viewing system and they're unveiling it in a mini-van, not an infiniti...

As far as quality and reliability go, I'd say the closer you get to RED, the better your chances are... :grinning-smiley-021

It's a newer, more highly integrated (CCDs require external circuitry to convert the voltage levels to digitial values) technology with the attendant advantages in power and size savings.

Thanks for the clarifications Tom

Seeing as how I'm merely 'price shopping', like many of the potential clients I've been working with lately, I'll remain on the sidelines with regard to purchasing HD cameras. Sony has the biggest selection out there by far. Having seen some output from the EX camera at the LAFCPUG meeting last month, perhaps the best deal out there is to buy a couple of Z-1 cameras when everyone upgrades to one of these many newer Sony models...

Of course, as you've said before, the first thing I need is some customers willing to pay for an HD production. :devil-smiley-076:

Michael

[RatVega]

Most of the pro HDV cams are capable of some pretty spectacular work if handled correctly. I saw Z1 footage that was indistinguishable from that of a $165,000 Sony F900 that gets a lot of work on NCIS. The problem was that all the footage was either captured live via Kona to a Mac + RAID or uprezed on an HDCam deck that cost more than a nice Mercedes.

Looking at the downside, I see the Z-1 as having two faults in the basic design: it's an interlaced camera (the Z7 is native 25p) and it records Long GOP MPEG-2. As I mentioned back last year, these are both concessions to the moment at which the camera was released. I'm not saying it's no good, I'm not even saying it's not very good. What I'm saying is that any scheme than discards over 95% of your picture before it hits tape (like Long GOP MPEG-2) isn't going to be as forgiving in bad situations where color correction becomes important.

[WindyHillsVideo]

Most of the pro HDV cams are capable of some pretty spectacular work if handled correctly. I saw Z1 footage that was indistinguishable from that of a $165,000 Sony F900 that gets a lot of work on NCIS. The problem was that all the footage was either captured live via Kona to a Mac + RAID or uprezed on an HDCam deck that cost more than a nice Mercedes.

Looking at the downside, I see the Z-1 as having two faults in the basic design: it's an interlaced camera (the Z7 is native 25p) and it records Long GOP MPEG-2. As I mentioned back last year, these are both concessions to the moment at which the camera was released. I'm not saying it's no good, I'm not even saying it's not very good. What I'm saying is that any scheme than discards over 95% of your picture before it hits tape (like Long GOP MPEG-2) isn't going to be as forgiving in bad situations where color correction becomes important.

So, right now, besides Red-1 camera, what's your choice for HD capable camera ?

Michael