Is it just me or is the HDW-F900 a noisy camera?

Mike Krumlauf

Mike Krumlauf

Award Winning Filmmaker
I understand it's age and I also understand that shooting externally via the analog component connectors could factor this, but, at -3db and 0db gain the 900 does have this very minimal amount of noise.. its not as clean as im use to seeing these gain values at. I've sprayed electro cleaner on all the boards and connectors twice now and i'm realizing that this might have just been how the camera was built and my configuration in using it, but i wanted to ask those of you on here more seasoned with this legacy cinema camera as ive seen some really beautiful stuff shot on this, clean, no noise. Maybe the CCD block is just showing its age who knows... I had the senior camera tech at VER tweak the CCD gains for me and he got the chipsets to balance perfectly to 3200K using the scope and waveform machines.. it seemed to reduce the noise by a lot. I feel like verbally im making this out to be a bigger issue than it is, i will share some pictures asap in this new thread once i get a chance to shoot something. The weather is not being nice here in Chicago (102 and humid) so i'll opt for a cooler day to shoot a small test.. humidity can be a ***** to these cameras.
 
I don't remember the 900 being excessively noisy, but it's been well over a decade since I've shot with one and some times we romanticize the good 'ole days. 2005-2006 may have been the last time I shot on it. I'm 99% sure I never shot with one after buying my first VariCam at the end of '06. And every time we shot with an F900 it was always laid to tape internally(HDCAM). No external recording.
 
Yeah, i guess im not saying its excessively noisy at low values which its not, but, there is some very small amount of noise present and I cant figure out if its just how the camera was built or if there is a problem i need to fix. I guess i've spent so many years around newer cameras who's 0 and -3db values are clean and clear that i might be undermining the age of the camera... my serial number is fairly low and i believe my F900 is not even a version 2 (which if i remember they went to /3 before sony went to the 900R)
 
Yes in its day it was one of the ants pants cameras, top of tree and was considered quiet. Times have moved on though and what was quiet then is not considered so quite now. Also the type of noise was much more of that old chroma noise variety we are seeing less of these days. Today's "noise" seems to be a finer more granular noise not so "splotchy" for lack of a better word. At zero gain they were a mighty tool and can still deliver some great images. I still like CCDs for many reasons and lack of rolling shutter is just one of them. That's development for you and it is happening at a faster and faster pace.

Chris Young
 
I seem to recall it was heavy as sin, and prone to blocky pixellation if the brushes got the least bit of schmutz in them. I'm curious, Mike--what are you shooting that requires the F900, and how are you editing the footage?
 
captslomo said:
I seem to recall it was heavy as sin, and prone to blocky pixellation if the brushes got the least bit of schmutz in them. I'm curious, Mike--what are you shooting that requires the F900, and how are you editing the footage?
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No heavier then any other camera it's size.. at least in my experience. I'm not shooting anything that "requires" an F900.. i purchased one at a steal of a price because I always wanted to own one. It was a low risk investment given its price so I use it for personal projects and whenever a freelance job knocks at my door. I enjoy the F900 very much, more than any HDSLR i've put my hands on... call me crazy but I even enjoy it more than the Red One MX i owned 3 years back... I've always seen cameras and other gear as a "too each his own" thing. Some people follow marketing, some people need to stay current because of work, and some seem to create best and enjoy creating with some tools that have fallen to the wayside (i think the Sony F35 forum on here is a good example of that). Also judging by what rents out at my work (VER), people still use old cameras all the time. Our EX1s/EX3s and even our one F900 we still have rents out all the time!

As for how im recording.. i am recording signal out of the HD Component BNC connectors on the side using an AJA HD10A Component to HDSDI converter which routes itself into an AJA KiPro Mini. I get 10bit 1080p 24p 4:2:2 video with this setup.. better than the HDCAM tape route.
 
cyvideo said:
Yes in its day it was one of the ants pants cameras, top of tree and was considered quiet. Times have moved on though and what was quiet then is not considered so quite now. Also the type of noise was much more of that old chroma noise variety we are seeing less of these days. Today's "noise" seems to be a finer more granular noise not so "splotchy" for lack of a better word. At zero gain they were a mighty tool and can still deliver some great images. I still like CCDs for many reasons and lack of rolling shutter is just one of them. That's development for you and it is happening at a faster and faster pace.

Chris Young
Click to expand...

I agree with you on the CCD. Unless I have a job that is paying for me to use newer CMOS gear, I stick with CCD cameras through and through.. I am not a personal fan of CMOS imagers except for the Arri line of cameras. The Alexa cameras are beautiful LBH
 
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