Canadian SX
March 5 2002

I have been shooting news and field production since1984. Have used almost every format out there. I am presently employed with the number one news cast in Canada and our station has made the switch to SX including laptop and suite editors. I have an SX and it does have it's quirks. I find throwing some blue gel in front of the lens gives the SX a warmer look when white balancing. I also set my gain to -6db. I have yet to use filter 3 it's just way too sensitive. However nothing beats it for night time shooting unless you're using infrared. The view finder is typical SONY, it will break eventually since it has limited movement.The bracket that slides the view finder in/out has already broken, simply from transporting back and forth. Over all though I love it. As for the laptop editors in our live trucks, thats a different story. I cut twice a day for two newscasts with no more than an hour to do the story. At first it was overwhelming since we had no training on anything. The SX editors are so fast, the viz just fly's by, marking audio cues are difficult as too many words can fit in a digital frame. And you better have tiny fingers cause the buttons are small which leaves room for error. As they say "perfect practice makes perfect"

"pinto6961"
CH. 9 Toronto Canada

Digging for Gold
Jtreadgold@aol.com
August 3, 2001

Our station is a top 10 market and is about 50/50 Sony SX and Sony SP. For low light use the SX cannot be beat...You can shoot night recscues using existing overhead road lights...HOWEVER....the SX is very touchy in rainy even highly humid weather... With the same storm gear on the Sony SP will run 10 times as long without camera trouble. We cover a lot of weather and I'm amazed at how often I see photographers trying to get their SX gear to work.

IN live trucks, the full size SX edit gear seems to do OK...but the little lap top editors go down very often when its humid and people are getting in and out of the truck. Maybe the SX problem is the way the tape is inserted into the camera versus the old SP cameras...maybe the seals should be better or a built in drying circuit installed...Sony needs to do some mods. Many network freelance crews I know are keeping their SP cameras and going to the canon and Sony mini DV cameras as second cameras or run and gun cameras. Many foreign network crews are going with these instead of SX/DVC/ and some networks are reportedly considering all "b roll only" shoots to be shot on the small DV cameras...John Treadgold, Houston, Tx.

Shooter in the frozen North (Canada)
From: Don Wright
February 10, 2001

Our station just switched to Sony DVCam about two months ago... we started trying the format about 1 year ago...as usual I was the slug who had to try it. I though great a home camcorder  when I first saw it but now.... the cameras are light, run two to three days on one battery and the colour and editing facilities are fabulous. We have dragged the gear all over the country and found it to very reliable. The other real plus is if we run out of tape on the road we just pop in into a wal mart and grab a minidv tape....... good to go.

We also love the option feeding from any beng box we need to without a deck and with the laptop editor and firewire connection we have virtually no generation loss. Our stringers have camera that cost less than 8g's(lens needs some work) but the DXC-35 and DSR1 back is great to work with. Light, reliable and very user friendly. I used dvcpro and found it not as reliable, adaptable, or as good in lighting conditions.

November 15, 1999

I love my sx camera!

• I love having four real channels of audio - and the auto level - which I never used before-actually works pretty good.
• I love being able to record the audio from a live shot onto my tape without using two microphones, using the cable out to the truck. 
• I love the variable boost levels, and the menu which allows me to change those as needed, and set them from 6, 9,12,18,24,36, and 48db.
• I love the black stretch, which allows me to change the contrast of the black levels, (going to a 3 or 4 stretch inside a burned out house so as to see details in the black ash.)
• I love the weight, which is at least 15 pounds lighter than the big old sony 5 pig cam I had before.
• I can't wait to shoot in wide screen if and when the station gets the letterbox accessory.
• I even have gotten used to the 75% zebra bars, (once we narrowed the response down) so my exposures are way more accurate.
• I think I will love the auto trace once I learn to trust it, or know its litmitations thouroughly.

BUT

I am frustrated by white balance troubles. Not that I can't white balance, or realize when it's bad, but there are times that the camera doesn't want to white balance, like at football games, under mixed light, the camera will just not balance - I get time out messages, or bad white area messages when I know I got a good white area and good light. Any suggestions or tricks in this area would be helpful. Any tricks in the menu, user or engineering that would give me any other areas of control over my pictures would also be helpful. If anyone has any questions that I can answer, let me know.  Thanks, e-hansen@b-roll.net

August 15, 1999
I've enjoyed looking over the various opinions of the new digital tape formats. Last fall we started shooting on Digital-S (or "D-9," as we like to call it) using the JVC BR-D40 dockable and BR-D92 studio VCRs. Previously we did our taping and editing on one-inch type C. This spring we completed our conversion to digital by purchasing two more JVC BR-D92s for linear online editing.

To date, our experience with D-9 has been very positive. We feel that the 1/2 inch tape adds to the robustness and archival qualities of the format. The machines are easy to use, and they work well. The picture is sharp and artifact-free, and with four channels of digital audio on the BR-D92s, we have a very adequate audio-for-video multitrack situation. In short, the D-9 equipment is well-behaved, and we are able to concentrate on making good pictures and sound.  I would be interested in current opinion concerning HDTV vs. SDTV in terms of picture quality. After working with D-9 and 4:2:2 component digital, I wonder just how necessary HD equipment is. Until the cost of HD equipment and tape comes down, it seems like standard definition component digital offers a lot of performance for a fraction of the expense.
From: Jeff Carr, CE, TV Prod. Dept. Bob Jones University

December 3, 1998
Our station has gone digital. We shoot on DVCPro and it's pretty tasty. Heck, it beats dragging a 3/4 inch deck around all day! I haven't had any problems shooting with these cameras. In fact, I've actually named my camera and put a wig on it once. But that's another story... Editing on these bad-boys is another game. Editing digital one might expect the accuracy to be dead-on. Well not so. There have been NUMEROUS times when the preview looks good, real good, and the actual edit knocks out anywhere from two to ten frames. Have this happen on EVERY EDIT for your package and you might say as many foul-mouthed curse words as I do. It isn't pretty. The only other problem editing on these machines are the tiny audio knobs. I swear you need a pair of tweezers to pod your sound up and down. CRIMINY! And those are my complaints. ONLY TWO. Beats the hell out of three-quarter!
From: PhilFakes4@aol.com

September 5, 1998
My station has been using DVC PRO AJ D-700'S for almost a year now. I was the guinne pig at our bureau and have been using it for almost two years.  As was stated in a previous letter by a chief enginner, you can hear your audio if you have everything set up right. Deep in the camera menu where Panasonic or your engineers don't want you to necessarily go, is a function to set you cue audio. This must be set to Ch 1& 2 so that you record both channels on the cue track. Also the monitor switch on the edit deck must be set up right. I love my DVC PRO. Being the guinne pig for the station I learned the gear backwards and forwards and learned the gear better than our engineers till they went to school for it. I believe we have worked out most of the bugs. I do not hear many complaints from our editors anymore. Most of our problems tend to be from clogged heads and need for software upgrades ( some freeze frame changes) more recently. Two tips for the videographers. 1) If you switch your camera to color bars and change your audio input for channel one on the side of your camer to your front mic, it will produce tone from your camera to lay down on your tape or to dial in live shots with portable live gear. 2) Make sure you keep your heads clean, especially after covering a fire. When the camera head gets clogged it creates the funkiest thing you have ever seen. I records in certain areas and in the others it leaves the old video. So parts of each frame may have new info while others continue to have the old unerased info. Any questions E mail me.
JIM FLANAGAN CHIEFVIDEOGRAPHER KION-TV 46 SALINAS/MONTEREY CA

August 24, 1998
The station I work for bought the the first Digital BetaCam that came along in 94 for the production Dept. It has worked flawlessly for four years. The production photographer would not give it up at gunpoint. I work with this format every day in the edit suite , and even with the head wear problems I would not give up the format for post production , until someone shows me a better image. We found that many of the head wear problems came about from using oxide or SP tapes in the 500's and tape alignment that can be tricky, but a good maintance schedule has cured most of the problems. A very good engineer in our shop keeps my 3 decks and the other 10 in the tape room going , and I use a 10 yr old SP deck for news footage. Now Beta SX as reared it's head and everyone is screaming .We have had demos of the 700 and DNE - 1000 we were not impressed. It seams that Sony has had it's butt kicked in the NLE world by Avid, Sytex and the rest, who slid in the news buisness throught the back door from the off-line Post side of the business. Sony's attitude toward ala carte upgrades, instruction manuals from hell , and the cost of the equipment may hurt them for awhile , but you get a camera that will white balance. The upside of Beta SX is that the machines will work with the old gear until they install all the digital goodies. The transition is a pain , but so was the transition from film to 3/4 to Betacam to SP. I remember a Panasonic camera called the RE-CAM , a VHS monster that had edit decks the size of a Maytag. It was as sucessful as MII.The DvC Pro format sounds like throw away camera built for wars and water slides. It will be a router position used every 6 months for that fatal fire that "got the whole family," sold to us by a tourist. I find it strange that everytime we want something to look top quality , we shoot 35mm film.
Bryan Barbee Editor, WVEC-TV 13

My station picked BetaSX for our new format. So far, I love it. Our old, OLD, beta editing bay were failing daily, and some of us saw the engineers more than we saw the sun. Unfortunatly, we ordered our decks and cameras about the same time CNN ordered alot of each. (Something like 100 deck, 100 cameras) So we have 6 loaner digital cameras, and 5 portable editors we use to edit day to day. They have a few bugs, they sometimes drift a few frames when editing, like an old 3/4 deck, unless you are editing with time code. Also, when editing, the audio cuts out in the 5 second preroll until about 2 seconds before the edit. Apparently, Sony says these are software clitchs that they are fixing, so when we get our permenant editors, they won't have a problem, hopefully. If your station is Beta, go with SX, but if you get the hybrid editing deck, look out. Our chief photog and our top editor spent hours learning it and still can't figure it out. So, we are getting the SX deck-to-deck editing system, just like the SP editing stations everyone is used to, but digital. As for the portable editors, get them. They're great in the field.

Andy Pederson WRIC

p.s.--Sony is the better maker. After all, Panasonic is the folks who brought you the M-2 format!

Before I was trained on the Betacam SX editor I thought it looked cool.

During SX training I wondered why anyone would buy something as complicated to operate. I thought SX came up short. Now that I am trained on the editing equipment I can say for sure that SX sucks.

Nice camera, Editing from the pits of hell. The non-linear concept is fine. The gear is crap from the mind of some engeneer who never sat behind the wheel.

Keep your companies wallet in it's pocket and wait for something better. sony has soiled it's shorts.

Betacam SX SUCKS!!!
[From: Lee Wall]

Here's an odd twist... My shop took the bold step and bought Digital SVHS. You heard me right... Digital SVHS.

I know what you're thinking... THAT EXISTS??? Yeah. me too.

The upside is that it interfaces with our SVHS library (we're a legacy of a quick SVHS start-up newsroom) And it does look sweet. All those Digital ups, like crystal clear images and no generation loss. The learning curve was short, and we seem to have gotten the hang of it. It really seems to work pretty well for us now. (I say that now, and I was an early critic of it)

I had to work with DVCpro on a roadtrip recently (see the horror story elsewhere) and it made my hair fall out. Digital SVHS doesn't have the audio lag problems (just a little fuzz) that DVCpro has. You can hear audio when you shuttle on D-SVHS. Slo-mo's and all the edit toys included. I was not-at-all impressed with DVCpro.

The Digital Beta seems to me to be the best idea for a shop currently shooting Beta. Being able to use file easily is a huge thing.

Sure... HDTV will change the playing field. But look how long its taken medium & small markets to switch to beta???? (If ever!) The HDTV crew I worked with for a story on Japanese TV had to sling a deck! (actually, a grip slung the deck) A Deck?!?! Over my dead body!

Tom Combs WFTX-TV Fox

My station converted from 3/4 to digital and the difference is like  night and day. The cameras (Panasonic's AJ-D200P) produce quality   pictures, and are much lighter than our 3/4 gear, but create more than a few problems. The camera has no filters,and is extremely difficult to white balance outside on sunny days. Until a fellow photog gave me a neutral density filter, I was using a 500 speed shutter just to make the camera white balance. You also cannot adjust your audio levels manually. The camera is not real expensive (about $10,000) but you are getting what you pay for.

Kevin Cochran, Photographer, KOMU-TV, Columbia,MO

We went DVCPro. As these are my own opinions, I will not list my company. First, let me state, I am an engineer, not a photog. So far, I am pleased with DVCpro. Little problems, and if there are any, quickly corrected. I was leary at first due to MII.. We have always been a Sony shop. But let me say this from a technical point of view. Sony has become the RCA of the '90's. High prices, high parts prices and attitude. None of you in the news gathering field have worked with Sony Digital until Betacam SX. We have DigitalBetacam. They make darn nice pictures, but the headlife is absolutly horrible. Anywhere from 500 hours to one of our all time records of 1800 hours. Thats it! Note, this is Digital Betacam, not Betacam SX. I certainly hoped Sony learned a lot from DigiBeta, since it's not too pleasing, and with heads for a 500 machine ( not even the A, which in addition to DigiBeta plays SP analog back also ) going for $2500 plus, thats not to good.

As to Jeff Barnes comments about DVCpro not being able to hear audio while cuing. Yes and no. If the machine is set up right, yes you can. If the photog records his audio ch1/ch2 on the cue track, yes, you will. If the photog fails to record this, he/she blames the equipment. It's not the equipment, its operator error. These machines use PCM audio on CH 1/2.. This is a digital audio only present in Play. A cue track is ALWAYS recorded. It's what the person chooses to PUT there or FORGETS to put there. When the machines are in play, PCM is output on the monitor outputs. Any other mode it's cue ( linear analog track ). If the photog forgets it there will be no audio in shuttle.

You gotta look at it like this. It's a LOT cheaper than BetaSX.. It's a format to get you from the late '90's until HDTV when it's all going to be thrown away for new stuff. The argument about 10,000 beta tapes is moot. You already HAVE the beta machines, add a 2 posisition DB9 switch, a mixer and choose to edit from DVCpro for new stuff or Betacam, ( hit 2 switches ) for library. This is no big deal.

As far as I see, it's really a no brainer as to what format to go in the NTSC/HDTV conversion. Cost, features, etc.

Alan, Broadcast Engineer

I work at a station that went from MII to DVCPro in December. We haven't had any problems yet, but check back in a year. The cameras are lightweight and excellent in low light. The laptops editors are worth their weight in gold (so far). Editing audio is a pain because of lack of good cue system and sound not matching the frame you are looking at. We have noticed virtually no hits or dropouts on our product yet.

All new formats are intermediate until we start shooting directly to hard drive. DVCPro seems to fill the bill for now. The new Canon XL1 (DV) consumer camera is the best non-pro camera ever. Almost broadcast quality for around $4500. This will change the industry as much as any pro format. Watch and see how many independant videographers start using this unit. I plan to buy one this year and see what kind of side work that I can get. Its fun to watch the technology change and see all of us scramble to adapt!

Mike Gibson, Photojournalist, KHQ-TV, Spokane, WA

It's All Temporary
I currently work at a station that is moving to DVC-Pro. We are
currently shooting HI-8 and editing to Beta, we will aquire dvc and
still edit to beta.

Having been been shooting with 8 and trying to edit it into something
the resembles a good package DVC is wonderfull. I still don't think the
current digital formats are the answer for the future, but in 5-7 years
you will have to find a new format for HDTV and we will be having this
debate again on which standard for HDTV is better.

It comes down to the fact there is no one answer what is better. If
say you were the purchasing manager and you know that HDTV is coming and
whatever you buy is an interim solution then I think DVC is better. But
if you are going to stick with a format for longer than 5 or so years
then now may not be the time to buy. I don't think direct to disk
recording is on the horizen anytime soon(maybe 2-3 years) but I do think
that there will be a format that will support both NTSC and HDTV with
either the flip of a switch or a software upgrade. I think stations
that currently shoot with betacam SP will stick with it untill that
"switchable" format comes along.

That's my two cents worth.

Greg Smith, assignment editor/photographer WCJB TV Gainesville, FL

Well having been shooting now with DVC-PRO for almost two months, I
must make a couple of observations.

As you know we went from HI-8 to DVC. I really really enjoy shooting
with the DVC.

The biggest drawback I have found with it is shooting outside.
The camera does not have a built in ND filter, so when there is high
light you have to use the shutter, usually like 1/250 or 1/500. How
could panasonic not have put an ND filter on great all around camera? I
hate using the shutter 90% of the time, because it makes background
motion(cars passing behind live shots) look strange(you know what a shutter
looks like)

Second problem it takes forever to white balance. If you get a WHITE
BALANCE ERROR=HIGH LIGHT it takes almost 45 seconds for the error to
clear and be able to change the shutter and slow it down before you can
white bal again.

That's about the only gripes I have. As far as editing, It is almost
easier than beta, real quick lock up, 1 second preroll really speeds
things up. And we do have the laptop editor as well which is great to
use in the live truck, or if you run out of edit bays at the station.

I have also found the cameras to better balanced than the HI-8
's we were using. The HI-8's were very front heavy. Plus we use the
Anton Baur digital batteries with meters on the side, so you know how
much gas you have. And with the anton baur light, you don't have to lug a
BP-90 with you since it draws power from the one battery(I reckon you can
call this plug and play).

Anyway that's what I think so far, except for the two quips, it's really
doing a great job.

Greg Smith, assignment editor/photographer WCJB TV Gainesville, FL

Why Take the Chance
Looking through the thoughts about the differences between DVCpro and Beta SX, I concur with most. I have never had the chance to work with the Panasonic MII format. However, I'm told I'm lucky. Only horror stories about the '80's format have made their way to my ears.

So why take the chance with Panasonic again and get bitten in the #%@? In the Miami market the CBS O&O were the first that I know of to receive the DVCpro cameras and laptop tape editors. The only good thing I heard was "The cameras are nice". On the other hand the complaints kept finding their way into the rumor mill in the South Florida area. Most come regarding the edit laptops. If you get just a little bit of humidity in the laptop, it'll shut down. This has caused many migraines as a result of losing a package in the field because it couldn't get done. Also, when your trying to edit, you can't listen to the audio when your trying to shuttle. I understand that this problem might be getting resolved with future models.

Speaking of future models, the SX, I think, is the better choice. We must
have 10,000 tapes in our archive recorded in the Sony Beta format. Why be
difficult? The new DNW machines can handle those as well as your new SX
format. Yes, I can understand the frustration with how slow the non-linear
method of editing is. But, let's not forget that Sony hasn't failed us yet
and I don't think it will any time soon. The computer programs sent to us
were versions 1.0 and they had to be treated like "special" computers.
However, I am told by Sony that a new program will be coming out in March
which will sort out many of the first problems with editing like slow-mo,
listening to the all the audio channels when in the timeline jog and others.
That's the beauty about the system. It can change and get better. That's
what I'm betting on.

Man, do I sound like I work for Sony?

Jeff Barnes,Photojournalist, WPLG-TV / ABC Miami

UPDATE!!!!!!!UPDATE!!!!!!!!UPDATE!!!!!!!!!UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE!!!!!!

We have just received an updated version of the SX software (3/5/98). It
resolves many of the problem mentioned before including DMC. However, now
that the engineering department has finally gotten some machines installed,
we're finding some problems editing. One of them is that in the transition
period, we are having to master to regular Betacam format using the SX as the
player. THERE IS NO DMC!

Sony v Panasonic

This digital battle is going to get ugly and somebody is going to loose. Panasonic seems to have the edge in numbers right now but I wouldn't let that influence any of you on the fence. I was drafted into the great MII wars of the late 80's by NBC. Talk about leaving a bitter taste in your mouth. The local crews still using MII today carry a spare deck with them because Panasonic never made a unit that could work longer than a week or so without failure. And now they want us to trust them with DVCPro? I wouldn't spend MY OWN money on it.

Sony may not quite be there yet but I'd bet the farm they do it right when it comes down to it. The factor Panasonic has ignored is the vast Beta world that's already out there. Libraries upon libraries of Beta and 3/4 tape that has to fit into a newsroom's product. And the bottom line to this whole thing at this point is YOU STILL ARE RECORDING ON VIDEOTAPE!!!!!!!!!! For those that have already switched to DVCpro: You've changed to a isolated format that's not compatible with anything and you still have to wait for the tape to rewind. Hello?????? Luckily their equipment is real cheap because it (by Panasonic's previous standards) won't last very long and technology will quickly ace this format out the door (like, how long did MII last?). A tapeless system is just around the corner and if it comes from Sony first, you're screwed.

Tom Tanquary,Freelance TV Photographer, Los Angeles.

The digital debate is hotly contested in Australia. The Ten Network announced in 1996 they would be buying the Sony SX format while the Seven Network has chosen to travel down the Panasonic DVC format. The Nine Network and it's affiliates have yet to decide what digital format will ultimately replace the faithful Sony Beta. From my own experience with both digital formats, the Sony SX camera is the thought out camera. Everything is were you expect it to be, there are few suprises. If you are familiar with a Sony Beta SP camera then there is no problem switching to the SX. The DVC Pro felt more like a toy than a professional camera and seemed to have had a rather odd lay out. I would have thought Panasonic would have copied the Sony mould.

I much prefer the Sony SX over the DVC Pro but unfortuately, I won't be making the decision as to which way the Nine Network will go. But I am impressed with the digital camera compared to a Sony Beta SP 7. The greatest difference with image quality is under low light conditions. I used an SX camera to shoot New Years celebrations in Northbridge, Perth. Due to the large numbers of drunken fools roaming the streets, I chose not to use a sun gun (this would have only attracted unwanted attention). With the SP camera, the use of available light would have been too low for any decent exposures. The only solution would have been to use gain which only adds noise to the images. With the digital camera, under such low light conditions, much of the available light meant gain was not needed. There were some situations were I used gain to see if there was any noticable difference between the two images. At 9db it was difficult to see that the gain had been used. This is in stark contrast to the older analogue heads.

From a camera operators perspective, the fact both digital formats still need tape to record the images, the decision for which format to use should come down to which format is likely to remain relevent. For many companies with vast Beta libraries it makes sense to remain with a format which is still compatable. Any short term savings in buying DVC Pro must surely be erased after the cost of wages, time and energy is added to transfer such libraries. Like all technology, the Beta SP era is about replaced by digital. But until a definitive digital format arrives which solves the editing demands of news and also eliminates the need for tape, it would appear more sensible management to replace aging cameras with digital heads and remain recording onto analogue backs.

Peter Kavanagh,STW 9 Perth, Western Australia

I recently attended the Consolidated Media Expo where they had demos of DVCPro and all the Sony formats. My question to both was, "If the FCC has already said that HDTV is the future of television and it will happen in about five years, why waste our money on anything other than HDTV?"

Pannasonic's response was that DVCPro is meerly the first step in a possible five generation family, the next generation (DVCPro50) will hit the market soon. About four more generations will follow, according to Pannasonic's plan, before the HDTV version. I'll ask again, WHY WASTE YOUR MONEY on something that (they admit) will be absolete when HDTV gets here. Hello MII!

Sony said "SX", a very nice camera with built in wireless and widescreen viewfinder that looks better than any monitor in our editbays. But what about the format? It's widescreen, but is it HDTV? If it is can it shoot NTSC until the FCC makes HDTV official? What's the difference between SX and DigitalBetacam? You can use regular beta in D-Beta machines, but can't use D-Beta tapes in SX machines. Not to mention SX cost 5-6 times as much as DVCPro. And then there's that whole DV format (Sony's version of DVC). Hello Sony give us your "format of the future". Last year it was D-Beta and this year it's SX what's the format next year? When do we get rid of tape and go completely digital?

Somebody please come up with a format that is HDTV ready. There's not a station in the country that's going to fork over the money to replace 15-20 year old Betacams with more Betacams. Let's be honest, who would?

Jerry Walker

I would be interested to hear from anyone whose station switched from Betacam to Dvc-Pro. Our station is editing Betacam to Avid Newscutter now. Is it any easier to edit from Dvc-Pro to Avid?

Is anyone out there going SX to Avid? We would love to be able to buy Sony SX but it doesn't seem to fit our budget. I would be happy to talk by phone or E-mail to anyone about their experiences with the new formats.

Sincerely,
Rob Rhodes KCTV-5 Kansas City.
E-mail: TVRhodes@aol.com
Phone:913-432-3655 (Home) or 913-677-7213(Station)

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