digital to film..which the best?

[edwave]

wondering which digital camera with affordable price (so no CineAlta or Varicam) would give me the best results once transferred to film.
i mean progressive or not? HD or not?

thank

ed

[edwave]

no ideas?
no related threads?

[khmuse]

Certainly a progressive camera is going to be better suited to film out than an interlaced one. Since the total cost of a film out project is high the added expense of renting a better camera for a project wouldn't greatly effect the total cost. A film out project isn't one that a novice should consider undertaking as a first effort. I would recommend renting the DV camera of choice, try a short test to film and see if you like the projected results. I have used the DVX (with the anamorphic adapter) for a film out project last year. The results were certainly very good considerig the camera's cost (much less than the film output) but if I were to do another project, I would either purchase or rent a better camera.

[taubkin]

Man, you have to test! How the hell should we know. I know there are two films being shot in Brazil right now that are shooting Z1, and I'm woring on one that will be shot DVX. All the three tested and chose based on their needs.

Objective approach: When put to a side by side, the first reaction would be to think the Z1 is much better because of the extra resolution. It indeed makes a huge difference. BUT you can see the lenses on the Z1 are never all that sharp. Then when you look at motion deffects the Z1 has, like the blurring of fast motion, you can rule this camera out for some shots, like camera car or car mounts. (one of the z1 films here shot it's car scenes on a varicam). The movie I'm working on is mostly in a car, so we chose the DVX. We also didn't care about resolution that much, because we wanted GRAIN, viscious, torrid, excessive GRAIN, or so I was told. So we took the DVX.

If you are doing film out, you have to test. Now if you are worried about what camera to get based on film out capabilities, well, that might not make any sense, actually.

Hope it helps,

Cheers

[Landon D. Parks]

With the new HVX200 coming out, I'd save up for it! With Native 16:9, DVCPRO HD (100MBPS) footage, it is basicly a down scaled Varicam. Only difference is the Varicam has 2/3" CCD's, the HVX has 1/3"... The Varicam has interchangable lenses, the HVX has a non-interchangable zoom lense and the HVX records to a P2 card (along with other options) where as the Varicam records to DVCPRO HD tape stock.

Dont let the difference between Tape stock and P2 scare ya though! They both still record DVCPRO HD, which is the same compressions, color space, in either format (tape or P2).

So really, the HVX is as close to a Varicam as your gonna get right now. The Canon XLH1 would have been a nice camera, has they not opted for HDV or HDSDI output, which is not practicle unless you have a $100,000 computer and $80,000 in disk arrays to store it on or $60,000 to buy an HDCAM deck or DVCPRO HD deck.... Then, with the decks you still have log and digitize all the footage, where with the P2 cards, you just offload your clips, and voala, Native 720p or 1080p DVCPRO HD footage, and your total cost? $10,000! Thats $50,000 less than the Varicam w/o the lense, so really by the time you buy a nice HD lense, your saving about $65,000 off the Varicam, and to me the few downsides to the HVX is worth the price offset.

I love Panasonic!