nateweaver
09-02-2005, 09:25 AM
I got my camera yesterday, here in Los Angeles. I was very lucky because the numbers available are very small, but keep in mind I had a good chunk of money down on it in March! I'm not going to say which dealer I got it at because he definitely does NOT have enough to go around.
I myself am very satisfied with the things I was concerned about:
1-Chromatic Aberration on the 16x: It's there, but only jumps out on the long end of the lens. I only use long focal lengths for the odd occasion, so I'm not concerned in the slightest. I consider something like this par for the course when all preceeding lenses marketed as "HD" come in north of $10K. If this was the tradeoff so the lens was the right price, and passed the necessary resolution to the chips, then I say they made the right choice.
2-Dead pixels: I have no dead pixels, but some that spend more time on than off while being noisy in 18+ gain. I don't plan on ever shooting more than +6 gain, so again I'm not worried.
3-The "Split": For those of you just tuning in, there's an issue with two halves of the image being SLIGHTLY different brightnesses/colors while in +18 gain. I've seen some cameras where I didn't notice it until it was pointed out to me. Mine has it also, but again, it's a high gain issue and I'm not concerned. Keep in mind it's non existant at lower gains, unless you get a microscope out. At 0 gain. it's not there even with a microscope.
After spending 3 fat paragraphs talking about what's not-quite-right, I'd like to try to give this some balance...overall, I'm VERY VERY happy with my purchase. I can't say enough good things about the build quality or the ergonomics, or how nice it is to be shooting with a camera set up for a professional at the $6k mark.
I expect this camera to really clean up, especially for people still delivering in SD...shooting HDV 24P and then downconverting is almost as good as doing the same thing with an F900, and that's awesome.
I myself am very satisfied with the things I was concerned about:
1-Chromatic Aberration on the 16x: It's there, but only jumps out on the long end of the lens. I only use long focal lengths for the odd occasion, so I'm not concerned in the slightest. I consider something like this par for the course when all preceeding lenses marketed as "HD" come in north of $10K. If this was the tradeoff so the lens was the right price, and passed the necessary resolution to the chips, then I say they made the right choice.
2-Dead pixels: I have no dead pixels, but some that spend more time on than off while being noisy in 18+ gain. I don't plan on ever shooting more than +6 gain, so again I'm not worried.
3-The "Split": For those of you just tuning in, there's an issue with two halves of the image being SLIGHTLY different brightnesses/colors while in +18 gain. I've seen some cameras where I didn't notice it until it was pointed out to me. Mine has it also, but again, it's a high gain issue and I'm not concerned. Keep in mind it's non existant at lower gains, unless you get a microscope out. At 0 gain. it's not there even with a microscope.
After spending 3 fat paragraphs talking about what's not-quite-right, I'd like to try to give this some balance...overall, I'm VERY VERY happy with my purchase. I can't say enough good things about the build quality or the ergonomics, or how nice it is to be shooting with a camera set up for a professional at the $6k mark.
I expect this camera to really clean up, especially for people still delivering in SD...shooting HDV 24P and then downconverting is almost as good as doing the same thing with an F900, and that's awesome.