Panasonic SD9

R

rpmnava

Active member
Hi everyone,
I love these boards and learn so much from them every-time I have a question. That said after researching the Panasonic SD9 for awhile both here and other boards, I decided to go ahead with the purchase.

I heard so many positive remarks I was really disappointed after using it for the weekend. I gotta say Im not in love. Let me start with my systems:

PPC 2.5 quads, 16 gigs ram, Kona LHe, FCS 2 with all the updates, Raptor HDs on both systems.

So, heres the deal:

1. Shooting good picture after tweaking I expected more by the posts Ive read.
2. Menu, hard to work with again I expected more, and curser sucked.
3. Offloading media: if your working on anything less that an Intel mac dont by this camera.

Allow me elaborate. I work in a fast paced environment which includes both firestore and P2 workflows off of HVX's and sony decks off the switcher into firestore or tape. So being efficient with my time is a huge deal.

To incorporate these SD9's, and if your on PPC's you need to use perian, Voltaire or what ever just to read the mts files this camera creates. its slow, and a pain even with the hardware we use. I know its not the newest or best but Its plenty fast for Uncompressed HD so its should be just fine for these MTS files.

So the opinion from a non-indie news oriented producer on a mac is...

This camera is fine for the consumer on a windows machine thats not in a hurry to produce content. As a "B" cam for the HVX 200 or the 170. I wouldn't do it.

Just my 2 cents.

Nava
 
For what it's worth, it's been no secret the AVCHD support in FCP is limited to Intel machines, and transcoding to pro res or AIC.
 
Ron, I share your pain but also I know the joy of the Cam. You are right, the menu sucks.. the controller is the worst thing ever, the ports are in the wrong spot.. and all of that about the Powerpc is so true. But this is more of Mac not giving a crap about powerpc people.. and not the camera. On a macpro this stuff inports real time so that's not bad at all. It's also a really darn good image for such a small camera.. and no jello vision.

One other option.. which is really really awesome, is to capture it through a blackmagic card or through the intensity card into your mac. You might want to look into this. It's realtime, transcodes on the fly to DVCPRO HD and it's awesome. I have done this a bunch of times before FCP started to work.





On my macbook it does take forever to import.. as it does with the Voltaic and I share that hatred of how slow things are. BUT.. the footage does match well with the HVX and its such a great covert camera, that I am willing to put up the hassels..


I feel that a new Macpro will be in my future next year. Apple is clearly moving on and so will I. The camera, albeit a pain to deal with on a Powerpc or a slow intel box.. does shoot some really really nice video.


Keep up the faith. You picked a good cam.. it's just the post that stinks. If you have the means.. try and get another capture device and then it's all solved.
 
Thanks for the words.... I did capture via Kona .. came out ok. I did return the camera with no restocking fee siting the wording on the box witch states ( any OSX10.4.) So they gave me a break.

I went ahead and purchased a few new lipstick cams and a small on-board deck to get me through till I figure something out.
Nava
 
If you're still looking for an AVCHD cam in the future (after going Intel) I have seen direct comparisons that say the Canon HF100 has better image quality especially in low light. It's also a little less noisy. I like Panasonic, but in the direct comparisons I saw, the Canon was cheaper and had a better picture. You can also get a Canon with 16GB built-in memory (HF10 I think).

I did the research when we were looking for a "b" cam, but we just got a 200a instead. :D Now the 200 is the "b" cam.
 
Thanks for the tip!! I love these boards.. Looks like the next MP revision will be when I take the intel leap. Not that I dont want to..... I just dont think my machines are out dated yet.

I am extremely happy with their performance.

Ron Nava
 
YES. I bought this camera to mount on our RC helicopter. The canon cameras CMOS chips produce the worst wobble, rolling shutter and jello vison. The SD9 is a perfect body mount cam too.
 
Hey David, Let me load a movie if you want to se some wobble from this SD9. Chances are It was operator failure... But never, ever had a wobble this bad in 15 years of doing POV on race cars..... Ever. and yes its a real shock padded bar mount built specifically for this size and weigh camera.

http://rpmtvonline.com/motion/shaky.mp4
 
yes.. that doesn't look like its padded or seated.. It looks like what happened when I tried to strap my camera to my lawnmower.. Not jello, but shaky unusable stuff like this.
 
David,

We have a Century Predator Gasser.. Largest gasser you can get without it being custom. We are using the E4 gyro stabilized mount from helicamsolutions. got the SD9 camera.. and a whole bunch of custom and self made components. We have full downlink and telemetry readings.. we've gone really high tech.


You can check out some of our footage here: www.skycamchoppers.com


Site is still under development. I've been a victim of my own video business success this year. My side project hasn't gotten off the ground too much as I've been too busy shooting. We plan on having a website launch soon and doing more promo stuff soon. It's also quite a heafty investement. We've got 15K invested thus far.


cheers
 
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