What are these Panasonic cameras!?

lawriejaffa

lawriejaffa

Veteran
Hello there, i am probably going to be hated for this ambiguis post, but bear with me.

A multimedia company bought a number of DVC-Pro video cameras in 2001, (with an number of lights, decks and microphones.) which at the time cost them approximately £70k (some er what $120k?)

Now they got this stuff when their business was considering doing 'production' as well as post production. But they changed their minds and gave their stuff to a local tv production company. Now as time has passed this tv company is using newer stuff (with their donated items sitting in storage.)

It is not going to us, and i'm wondering just what these 'professional DVC-Pro recording' cameras may have been (at least for imagine high end corporate local tv) back in 2001.

Any suggestions on what they might be. She did describe them as 'large' lol
 
probably this:
http://aacctv.stores.yahoo.net/padvcaaj.html
ITN in the UK used them up until about 12 months ago.
but they were never £70k, more like £20k body only, most people put
canon J18a lenses on them (about another £9K)
then batteries and laptop edit system (about another £25k)
It's basically a tape based DVCpro25 system, that is about 6 years old now.
It was never taken up in the UK on a large scale ( most went for BetaSX )
They are full size, handheld Broadcast camera's
they weigh about 24lbs with a lens on.

ian
 
Oh hecks my mistake guys sorry ill clarify

The whole lot, was 70k not just the cameras, i imagine the cameras may have been possibly more like 5 - 10k each but that would be conjecture. I do know that they were not consumer models.

That help at all lads?

Oh and Tommy these would have been purchased around 2001.
 
the cheapest dvcpro camera back in 2001, was the one that i described
and each camera was definatley between £15 and £20 new

either way, unless they have had an extremely easy 5 years
and you are being offered them for nothing, don't buy them.
the heads could be shot, and spare parts and maintenance will cost you
a small fortune.

ITN got rid off all of there's and now shoot DVcam on SONY 570???'s
which cost about £8k
http://vid2001.stores.yahoo.net/sonydsr570.html
 
Panasonic Broadcast sold a bunch of 2/3" DVCPRO50 ENG cameras to a number of broadcast outlets in the US in the late 1990s. In the Los Angeles market, local CBS (KCBS-2) and NBC (KNBC-4) affiliates, Reuter's, and Univision affiliate, KMEX-TV Channel 34, all acquired Panasonic DVCPRO50 cameras and VTRs, starting in late 1998 through 1999.

The early delivery units were Panasonic AJ-D700 2/3" DVCPRO50 cameras. Panasonic later replaced all of NBC's Los Angeles affiliate's 700/900-series cameras with AJ-D910 DVCPRO50 cameras, which were reported to have slight engineering improvements over the earlier 900s. Austrailian broadcaster, 7 Network, switched their Los Angeles bureau over to Panasonic AJ-D810 4:3/16:9 DVCPRO50 cameras at about the same time. A UK Channel 5 shooter in L.A. also switched to a DVCPRO50 camera as did another BBC shooter in L.A.

The 900-series DVCPRO50 cameras are high-quality, field-proven SD ENG cameras, all of which feature 4:3/16:9-switchable 2/3" CCDs. And, you have all of the benefits of a 4:2:2 DVCPRO50 recorded signal. These cameras, when new, probably sold for in excess of $25K USD without glass. I've heard from NBC news shooters that the DVCPRO transports are very robust, and that they're relatively inexpensive to replace. Although lacking any 24p capability, these widescreen, 2/3" proline ENG cameras are darned good cameras for what they are.
 
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Hey Ian thanx for the help, i think they have been mostly placed in storage apparently.

Can you tell me, what would they actually be decent for? Is there any way to use an external hd device to record em on (regarding the heads) or would they not be worth it?
 
lawriejaffa said:
Hey Ian thanx for the help, i think they have been mostly placed in storage apparently.

Can you tell me, what would they actually be decent for? Is there any way to use an external hd device to record em on (regarding the heads) or would they not be worth it?
Click to expand...

they are only SD tape based camera's, so no HD.
i don't even think that there is a firewire out on them to record straight into a Firestore.
I never used the camera ( i work for one of ITN's competitors ) We went BetaSP - BetaSX - BetaXD

If they have been in storage, then they may not have had a hard life (ITN's do)
so they will still be a good Broadcast quality camera. I don't know of any UK broadcast company that still use them though! so make sure you get them cheap.

ian
 
Yeah man we're getting them for free, but u see, i mean im pretty much small fry when it comes to the editing solutions (i mean firewire is er it) so that would be interesting, how to get footage off or whatever.

Righto time to do more research!
 
if they are free, then grab them now!!!!
you will have to shoot cd an to tape and them get a Analogue to Digital convertor.
we used to use MIRANDA boxes to get from SX to AVID (but they are a little pricey)
there are a few out there( google - CANOPUS )
mind you even a cheap convertor will cost you about £500

ian
 
ian i hate to keep pestering u with questions mate, but im a bit noobish when it comes to these broadcast cameras (i went from xls to dvx to hvx) ok maybe i should know better lol

I understand the image quality will vary a lot depending on the lens on them, but from their circuitry at least how would they compare say to sony pd170s or xls etc?

I would definatley figure a digital recording solution if they produce a decent image. I have read about them but its bouncing off my coco nut head.

Yep we're really fortunate there also giving us, a bunch of redheads, a few blondes, a number of microphones (who knows there makes, but there is a few rifles, lapelles) and a bunch of dv decks and other bits and bops.
 
in my opion (others may disagree!!)
it is all down to the chip in the camera.
Broacast camera's traditionally had a large 3ccd in them,
and shooting on to large format tapes (Betacam) meant less compression.
plus the lump of glass on the front of the camera always made say the SP stand out from DV.
but to put it into perspective : i've been off work with a slipped disc in my neck,
and went back to work last week, but have traded my BetaXD for an HVX200 (to keep the weight down.
and i am so impressed with the HVX, it really does stand up to larger camera's with £12K lenmses on them.
p.s the HVX piddles all over something like a pd170. the HVX will probably perfom better than the DVCpro.
but grab all the light's and mics, they never go out of fashion

ian
 
cooool......thanks. Trying to get a MD10000 Panasonic 3ccd shoulder mount dv camera. not the best on the market but had a decent price
 
lawriejaffa said:
I understand the image quality will vary a lot depending on the lens on them, but from their circuitry at least how would they compare say to sony pd170s or xls etc?
Click to expand...
Dude, these are BROADCAST-QUALITY 2/3" 50-Mbps cameras (TWICE the datarate of miniDV). The PD170 is a 1/3" 25 Mbps prosumer camera. The AJ-D900-series cameras sold for about 10x the price of a PD170. There's really no basis for comparison. Depending on the particular model, these DVCPRO50 cameras are GREAT cameras for 60i SD 4:3 or 16:9 acquisition, if you can support the workflow (DVCPRO50 VTRs are expensive).
 
lawriejaffa said:
I understand the image quality will vary a lot depending on the lens on them, but from their circuitry at least how would they compare say to sony pd170s or xls etc?
Click to expand...
Okay, rant over. In answer to your question, here's how they would differ:

1. Increased horizontal resolution.
2. Reduced chroma noise.
3. Better color due to higher chroma bandwidth (4:2:2 vs. 4:1:1).
4. Better contrast-handling ability.
5. Overall, prettier, sharper, more colorful pictures with greater dynamic range, and substantially less visible picture noise.
 
Thanx man for the comparison information!

Righto, well now, i will be getting the 'cameras' within the two weeks.

I will take pics and post em' of the stuff we get, so we can get to step two, which is seeing what state there in and examining work flow!
 
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