Syrian Filmmaker with no money.. Sony HVR-Z1U (HDV) or Sony DNW-7 (Betacam SX) ??

[salamfilms]

Hello everyone..

I'm shooting a short dramatic film next week here in Damascus, Syria and have a very low budget..

There are interior day/night scenes as well as exterior day/night scenes and no slow motion/special effects..

The last and most important scene takes place in an apricot orchard at dawn..



I have two cameras at my disposal free of charge..

The compact Sony HVR-Z1U (HDV) camera.. shoots 50i or 60i

or..

The large and slightly bulky Sony DNW-7 (Betacam SX).. PAL (shoots 25 fps.. not sure if its 50i or 25p)


My question to you all is which camera should I shoot on and why?


Below are some notes/ideas/information for you to take into consideration..


My DOP is an older guy (from the generation of Syrian filmmakers that studied in the Soviet Union) who insists his DNW-7 as it is a "professional" camera where the HVR-Z1U is a "semi professional" camera so the lens isn't as good..

Also the DNW-7 has 2/3 inch CCD's where as the HVR-Z1U has 1/3 inch CCD's..

We did a side by side INDOOR test on his monitor and I must admit the DNW-7 had more detail and the colors were bolder and more pronounced.. but it was also an SD monitor.. would an HD monitor do the HDV camera more justice?

Also the output from the DNW-7 was BNC to a BNC plug in the monitor where from the HVR-Z1U it was a mini plug to RCA with a little BNC converter into the monitor.. would that have a significant impact on the picture quality?

Another concern of mine was about the latitude.. as the DNW-7 is SD therefore would the HVR-Z1U, have a better latitude because of it being HD even though it uses MPEG 2 compression?

I plan on editing the film back in Canada on Final Cut Pro and I have a friend who works a technicolor in Vancouver therefore I plan on color correcting it there... an option I'm seriously considering is converting it to 24 fps (de-interlacing 50i to 25p and slowing it down 4%) and blowing it up to HDCAM there..


Thank you for your time and I appreciate your advice/comments..

 

[lawriejaffa]

Ooooh theres a tough one, well the DoP may have greater familiarity with his own recommended gear - and that's half the advantage of any DoP - finding someone who knows where and how to stretch the equipment they've got.

Putting an HDV camera before him may not yield quite so predictable results!! As regards to latitude (forgive my ignorance an expert will correct me) but i should think the larger sensor of the DNW will pick up more highlights and shadows than a 1/3 cam full stop regardless of its high definition quality.

It depends too on the importance of HD for this project, but personally i would never put that 'above' a confidant DoP using gear that lets him and your project excel. Lower res competence beats higher res incompetence

Good luck in Syria - perhaps you can visit the ancient Christian monasteries there?

 

[salamfilms]

Thanks for the response.. you're right.. it's quite an advantage that he knows his camera.. also good point on the 2/3 inch vs 1/3 inch chips..

There was a problem with a location so have delayed shooting until tuesday.. my production manager is also negotiating with someone to let us shoot on his Sony F900R.. which would be nice.. but I'm not going to get my hopes up..

Something I forgot to mention is that the DNW-7 shoots 4:3 so we would frame for 16:9 and then matte the image in post... am I losing a significant amount of resolution to warrant shooting HDV which shoots 16:9 natively?

Any other opinions/comments?

Thank you..

p.s. I have checked out several ancient Christian monasteries.. one of them being in Maloula.. one of 2 towns in the world (both in Syria) where they still speak Aramaic