Do remember - this is only one obnoxious opinion, slightly slanted towards my beloved beta format(s)
Pre-Scrip:
If you don't read the whole post at least read the bold type:
Before you buy, why don't you ask the producers themselves what they want and need?
"Starting out in HD", in my opinion you can't just buy the appropriate gear and jump into it. Unless the producers have worked with you on SD shoots countless times before, I doubt that they will choose a new guy (even a ten year beta sp news vet) just because he has the right HD tools.
For HIGH END corporate:
Well you got nine years in news using a real ENG camera, not bad at all. However I'm willing to bet that most corporate shoots "done in HD" will be very big indeed, from my understanding, most of these corporate HD shoots are replacement of film shoots - hear-say on my part only. As for the high end "SD" based corporate shoots, there is a huge number of established guys using Digi-Beta, if anything - (in my humble opinion) these are the folks that have a-foot-in-the-door to upgrade to HD gear.
Don't forget, a lot of the SP based network guys may fit into the "above" category as they are well known and may be soon moving themselves to HD and many are already renting/owning digi-beta and HD gear.
For MID END corporate:
I think this is the position were "YOU" can establish yourself. I'm not slamming you as this is the level I consider myself to be in. Much lower budgets then above yet they still expect broadcast quality gear and quality personnel. I suppose a quality 2/3 inch camera like the IKE-7 or Sony-570 or a Pana 2/3 inch DVCpro could be used. I just don't want to let-go of my beloved beta
format. Lucky for me, there are plenty SP and SX
units available. I suppose it matters most what your prod & post houses have available, what your producers or clients prefer. If you're a gear O&O for what else will this gear be accepted???? Oh and most important of all don't forget to think of the future - read the bold type below for the real reason to go with 4:2:2.
A thing to remember is that the world won't all of a sudden change from SD to HD. I know that in the United States the nets are preparing to make the jump, hell Seattle and some other markets have already made the leap ahead of the nets but unless you're an established net shooter - don't count on making the leap so soon to HD. Even when sports and mag shows make the leap, I doubt that all hard news will make the leap. A perfect example is Seattle - Net HD programming is re-broadcast in HD for a long long time, now local Mag Seattle shows are just starting to go HD but NEWS is STILL shot on good old SX and from what I'm hearing there is no big plan to swap SX for HDcams. We are talking QUALITY DRIVEN Seattle shops here!!!
Remember:
Your United States mandate to go digital does not mean to go HD. It only means that the analog channels have to be duplicated on digital and eventually the analog spectrum to be given back to the feds. As far as the government is concerned, the stations DO NOT need to shoot, edit, route in High Def - they are only required to output to air in digital. Anyway, I'm willing to bet that the feds won't demand the analog channels back until most Americans have digital tuners - not at the store shelves but at home. Perhaps in 2025? By 2006 they probably will demand a dupe signal on digital to push the change-over.
Here in Canada we have no mandate requiring for (over the air) broadcasters to EVEN GO DIGITAL. Although there is a mandate for certain specialty cable channels to be on digital. Two brand new local over the air channels recently in Vancouver. Both put on the ANALOG spectrum to remain on the ANALOG spectrum. They have brand new HIGH END DIGITAL SD decks. IMX looks sweet when broadcast over the analog air, so does SX. HD - all HD gear would be over-kill for a NTSC air channel / SD digital air channel.
I think the HD thing, both in the USA and Canada will be "market driven" who wants to be on top and who wants to be on bottom. As I see, many broadcasters (for the moment) seem to want to be on the bottom - remember NBC side letter 11 and now ABC wanting the same??? In my opinion Panasonic and Sony WILL NOT stop making SD gear for a very long time. The thing is when we all have HD sets at home - will we be willing to put up with watching CRAPPY SD GEAR PRODUCTIONS??? I think not!!! Will we be willing to put up with HIGH END SD GEAR productions??? I think so!!! THAT IS WHY I THINK IF GOING SD --GETTING A HIGH QUALITY 4:2:2 CAMERA!!!! Perhaps that is why rumour has it that Pana will stop DVCpro-25 and concentrate on DVCpro-50 (50 Mbps 4:2:2 Perhaps that is why Sony is concentrating on IMX for SD (50 Mbps 4:2:2
Perhaps the manufactures know that with high-end sets folks can see a dif between 4:1:1 and 4:2:2, pre -broadcast process, especially on HD sets transmitting SD signals.
My feeling is that never again will there be such a mainstream format like "betaSP" Those times are gone forever. In the times of early SP days SP only had competition from M11 and SP clearly won. Later on Panasonic took a great chunk of the local news market away with DVCpro-25. Sony countered with SX and took a fair share mostly in the "BIG CITIES", CBS, CNN and two thirds of Canada, not to mention a whack of networks overseas. DVCpro-50 and DVcam-25 also have a piece of the pie.
What, now in SD we have
1)) Digi-beta
2)) IMX -beta
3)) SX -beta
4)) DVC-pro50
5)) DVCpro25
6)) DVcam-25
7)) DV25
8)) D-9
Guess what? SP beta still out numbers any of these formats. (broadcast)
In HD, it will be the same.
Sony already has three HDcam formats, Panasonic has D5-HD, DVCproHD etc.
One day a NEW better HD-disk system will come out - then the competition will retaliate with a better one.
I have a friend that frequents B-ROLL, he is a vet working for a shop in usa tornado alley area. They are an old beta SP shop waiting for things to shake out yet they replaced aging SP decks with you guessed it brand spanking new SX. Any bets that those decks will remain there for the next TEN years? Any bets that this isn't the only shop that has done this?
What about our good buddy LS, you know what 'editing" he advertises? SP/SX, yep SX. In fact John sent me a pic of him rolling for a client using no other then a SX camera. Big big world out there gents. I think we all know the high caliber cliental LS has established for himself.
We all love beta SP but you are right, eventually it will be out - and I think no other format will completely take over again ..... Sorry for the rant (again)