Z1 or what?

F

foghound

New member
I am soon to begin shooting a documentary on a small sail boat. I want to shoot on HD (for future proofing reasons) but a *real* HD camera would be out of the question both financially and from the perspective of ease of handling. The Z1 looks as though it might be a good possibility, but I would appreciate some hands on comments.
Given the situation of shooting at sea in varied sea conditions, movement will be a factor which I am planning to reduce by the use of gimbolled shooting positions - but it will still be a major issue.
I will also be editing on location so a laptop or micro system will be the way to go.
Any experiences or suggestions relating to this would be greatly appreciated.
Can't afford film.
Many thanks,
Bruce
 
If you want to start shooting soon, and you want HD, the Z1 is your best bet. You might also take a look at the Fx1 or the new consumer HD camera as well from sony. IF you wait a little bit JVC will have the HD100 out, which from the specs seem to beat the Z1 hands down, but there has yet to be any screen grabs or movies posted online. Any newer pc or mac laptop with firewire will allow you to edit on site.
 
The Z1 is a very nice camera, and if all you need is the interlaced "video" look (which seems to be quite well accepted for documentaries) then perhaps the Z1 would be the ideal camera for your purposes.

The only caveat is the question about how the Z1's mpeg-based HDV format will handle sailing. Splashes of water and glints of sunlight can add up to overpower the codec -- I don't know if the Z1's 25mbit data rate will have a problem with that or not. Hopefully someone who's used it in that circumstances can chime in and let us know.

If you want/need the 24p look, I'd say the JVC looks interesting, but it won't have any sort of image stabilization so you'll have to factor that in. The Z1 will have a substantially wider wide-angle view on it (unless you get/rent the $12,000 wide-angle lens for the JVC!) If you're operating in cramped quarters, that wide-angle view may become necessary.

If the waves and splashes and motion don't give the MPEG encoder headaches, then I'd say the Z1 is probably a pretty good choice among available camera options.
 
Just shot some waterfall footage yesterday with a Z1. I tried it in a number of modes and shutter speeds and was quit pleasantly surprised. The best was 60i with CF30 being next best. CF24 was not very real looking at all. Played the footage on an Apple 23" HD display and a Pana 42" plasma even the close shots of water splashing off rocks at the bottom of the falls looked good. Not varicam HD but impressive for price and nicer than DV.

Richard
2K-Plus
Atlanta
 
That is awesome and something dea to my heart. I dream of one day sailing around the world in a 40' Sloop. Sigh.......................

Future proof Smoocher proof. Is HD going to make or break the future production? I have heard this term thrown around quite a bit "I want to future proof it". For what? For 10 years down the road? Go for the film look. Go 24p. A sailing adventure that appears almost S16 would rock; not some 60i nonsense.

Dont mind me I am just Pimping as usual. But really; I'd shoot a sailing adventure as 'filmlike' as I could get it. You can't afford film; which tells me you wish you could; then shoot 24p; the next best thing. Sailboats, Ocean, Islands. 24p man.

Future proof. Come on.
 
To be honest, I see so much MPEG compression artifacting on HD documentaries (run on Discovery HD, for example) that I wonder if it would kill a sale. (Just a minor rant.) It’s not the cable company’s feed, because it’s not in every show.
 
It’s not the cable company’s feed, because it’s not in every show.
Click to expand...

Provided the channel runs at constant bandwidth, it's probably workflow related. Any broadcast HD is highly compressed (more compressed than HDV) - and doing a good job of that compression and managing the workflow is going to become an art apparant to a lot of people when they invest in an HD camcorder.

Per pixel, DVCPRO-HD isn't any less compressed than miniDV... compressing it for broadcast HD (or any other delivery medium) and maintaining quality will be just as difficult as doing it with your current camcorder in SD.

-Spiff
 
Jubal28 said:
To be honest, I see so much MPEG compression artifacting on HD documentaries (run on Discovery HD, for example) that I wonder if it would kill a sale. (Just a minor rant.) It?s not the cable company?s feed, because it?s not in every show.
Click to expand...
Isn't it that the signal the cablestation receives (and feeds on their cable network) is comming from the satelite? Thats where the artifacts are coming from, the high compression on the satelite signal. Sometimes the signal even breaks away completely.
 
Thank you all for your input and suggestions. I guess when it comes down to it one of the most difficult problems I'm going to face is keeping the camera dry and out of harms way - not easy on a small boat. I have time to wait for the JVC, but certainly image stabilization and a wide angle lense will be important factors...and money.
Thanks again.
Bruce
 
Image stabilization and wide angle are two areas where the Z1 will have a decided advantage over the JVC. You could get the wide-angle lens for the JVC and have a 30% wider field of view than the Z1, but that lens costs about $12,000 to buy ... don't know about rentals yet, or when it'll be available. Comparing stock lenses, the Z1 will be about 20% wider than the HD100.
 
xray said:
Isn't it that the signal the cablestation receives (and feeds on their cable network) is comming from the satelite? Thats where the artifacts are coming from, the high compression on the satelite signal. Sometimes the signal even breaks away completely.
Click to expand...

I would agree if it were consistent from show to show, but it’s not. Many shows look great. But when the artifacting occurs, it occurs within one show, occurs throughout that show, and then goes away when that show is over. That tells me isn’t a problem with feed, it’s a problem with the individual show.
 
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