• PDW-F350 camcorder: $25,800
• PDW-F330 camcorder: $16,800
• PDW-F70 deck: $15,990
• PDW-F30 deck (available in June): $9,500
• 1/2" CCD sensors. This means it's probably got better sensitivity than the current HDV/DVCProHD <10k cameras offered by Canon, Panasonic, JVC, and Sony. Lens though--1/2 sensor?
• Recording bitrates at: 18, 25 and 35 Mbps. Also still MPEG-2 long GOP. 35 Mbps would be better than HDVs 25Mbps, but it's not as good as DVCPro's 100Mbps. I guess you get longer recording time with the Sony's. Would be interesting to compare footage.

Links at Sony's site for more info:

• Press Release
• Images: XDCAM HD PDW-F330 and XDCAM HD PDW-F350
• FAQ

Eric Escobar discusses getting started tips for the filmmaker

Note: If you cannot see the video, install Macromedia Flash Player 8 and return to this page.

Eric Escobar, a 24p filmmaker who has been accepted at Sundance twice, gives advice on becoming a filmmaker and what makes a good short film.

He also discusses:

• What you can learn by attending a film festival
• Networking with other filmmakers, actors, and crew members
• How learning to do other film-production tasks makes you a better director
• What makes a good short film
• The importance of delegating work or not doing it all yourself

An animation showing how 24p Advanced mode works.

Note: If you cannot see the video, install Macromedia Flash Player 8 and return to this page.

OK, so I had to do the 24p advanced mode since I went ahead and did standard. I duped the standard comp and swapped a few things out and used Pedr Norby's most excellent plug-in, Shine along with After Effects.

Here's my brief textual explanation to go along with the diagram:

• The recorded material originates as 24 progressive frames a second. In this example there are four frames, A, B, C, and D.
• The 24p advanced mode applies a unique 2:3:3:2 pulldown cadence to preserve the original 24p frames inside the 29.97 interlaced DV stream.
• The cadence begins by recording one frame onto two fields and the second frame onto three. Instead of recording the third frame onto two fields, it is recorded onto three, and the fourth frame is recorded onto two. When the original frames are mapped to fields, the pattern is AA BB BC CC DD.
• An NLE that understands the mode’s pulldown pattern throws away the “BC” frame (the BC frame) and uses the remaining frames to restore the original progressive footage.

Bottom Line

The 24p advanced mode sacrifices compatibility with NTSC video for frame integrity and is best suited for doing film-out, creating a 24p DVD, or creating video for Internet or CD-ROM/DVD-ROM distribution.

An animation showing how 24p Standard mode works.

Note: If you cannot see the video, install Macromedia Flash Player 8 and return to this page.

I remember when I first read about 24p video three years ago and seeing a lot of diagrams that explained the cadence, or pull down pattern associated with it. I guess after seeing these, I wanted to crack open After Effects and do an animated diagram explaining the process. Well I've been sitting around bored the past couple of weeks and decided to make an attempt. I'd like to add narration, but my voice is horrible.

Here’s my brief textual explanation to go along with the diagram:

• The recorded material originates as 24 progressive frames a second. In this example there are four frames, A, B, C, and D.
• The 24p standard mode splits these four progressive frames after capture into five interlaced frames using a 2:3 pulldown pattern. The four frames are now five and are distributed as such: AA BB BC CD DD. The footage is now running at 29.97 interlaced frames a second.
• The integrity of the original C frame is sacrificed to create the two interlaced "jitter" frames: BC and CD.
• To reconstruct the original four frames, the AA, BB, and DD frames are kept, but the BC and CD frames are decompressed and combined to reconstruct the original C frame, which is compressed again.

The Bottom Line

While the standard mode offers compatibility with NTSC video, the C frame suffers a compression hit because it needs to be generated from two video frames. The 24p advanced mode, by contrast, sacrifices compatibility with NTSC video for frame integrity.

Panasonic's soon-to-be release DVCPro 25/50/100 P2 wunderkind camera

Indies with an image fetish were more than satisfied after seeing the AG-HVX200 at ResFest 2005. I took a few more pictures, but I think the ones posted on DVXUser are much better. But before you leave, please check out the Flash Video I posted on the talk Jan Crittenden-Livingston gave on the camera. Until the Adam Wilt tell-all article appears in DV magazine, this is something definitely worth watching.

Some nifty things I heard:

• The camera is going to have remote control of zoom, focus, and iris. The DVX100a only has zoom, so this sounds super cool. It's not LANC compatible, but something new for Panasonic. The DVX100b (coming out to replace the DVX100a) will also have this.
• In addition to the Firestore, nNovia is also doing a DTE hard disk for the camera.
• Panasonic is considering a promotion where they will offer 4x4 GB P2 cards. Given the greater availability of 1 GB SD cards (P2 cards use four SD cards configured as RAID 0), it sounds like the 4x4GB option might be a cheaper bundle than the camera with 2 x 8GB cards.