Shooting PAL

iHD

Well-known member
First, I have no experience with PAL. However, an incredible opportunity has presented itself that involves working with foreign journalist who travel to Washington to turn stories to take home with them. I currently can only shoot NTSC but can convert the material in Adobe Premiere. How many of you work with PAL here in the US and what are your thoughts with regards to conversion and output?

I've been considering buying a new AJ-HPX300 so I looked over it again today and realized its not switchable to PAL like the AJ-HPX2000 is. I really don't want to buy a new camera just for PAL use so what other options would you suggest?
 

Chugach3DGuy

Well-known member
If this is going to be a long-term and lucrative gig for you, it might be a good idea to check out that HPX-301 that ISDV pointed out. Also, I think the Sony Z1U cameras can switch between NTSC and PAL, but HDV might not cut it for what you're doing.

Converting NTSC to PAL in Adobe Premiere is one of the most painfully slow things I've ever experienced. I don't know if this is something limited to Premiere, but it took one of my machines a couple of hours to convert about 30 minutes of PAL to NTSC. I had about 17 hours of video all together, and the client wanted the video converted quickly and burned to DVD over the course of a couple days. There just wasn't enough time, and she didn't want to pay for the time it would take for me to encode everything to NTSC, so I ended up having to encode the PAL as Quicktime files that the client's clients could play back on their computers.

So, if these stories are in any way time sensitive, doing a software conversion from NTSC to PAL probably won't cut it. At least not in Premiere.
 

netnews

Active member
NTSC converted to PAL is not generally accepted by most European producers I work with as there can be significant quality loss in the conversion. They tend to do this when the original material exists only in NTSC.

In almost every situation they want to shoot in native PAL. That's the nice thing about the newer HD cameras that are being made, the ability to shoot either format by menu selection.
 

iHD

Well-known member
Thanks for all the input. I'm going to price the HPX301 and go from there. I'm fine with buying a new camera if it fits within my budget and is switchable between NTSC & PAL. I just don't want to buy a camera that only shoots PAL. Anyone know what the 301E prices out at?
 

2000lux

Well-known member
I was told the AJ-HPX300 can be upgraded by Panasonic to shoot PAL & NTSC for $500 (I believe it's a software thing), or you can get the 301. Also, Z-1 does the conversion in software. The newer Z-7 and Z-5 can be upgraded by Sony to shoot PAL & NTSC. They need to install some thing in the camera. They tell me it's "real PAL" this time.

According to Sony the EX and XD disk cameras shoot 50i and 60i (NTSC and PAL), out of the box.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Douglas

Well-known member
Before you get too deep into choosing a camera, you better think about what the client wants you to deliver to them. HDV tape? Compact Flash? SxS card? P2 card? SD card? Hard drive (and what kind)? XDCAM optical? etc. PAL is just one thing you've got to deal with. Delivering is another. What do they want the footage on?

Brian is correct, the Sony EX1 and EX3 both shoot NTSC or PAL. So does the F350. The beauty of the F350 is that you can just hand them a $20 disk and be on your way. Coincidentally, I do have an F350 for sale. :)

Doug

PS. F350 is CCD
 
Last edited:

2000lux

Well-known member
They're going relatively inexpensively used too aren't they? And they don't have CMOS chips!
 

freedom

Well-known member
I'm doing a bit for BBC. I tried and tried to get them to go EX. They insist on renting a PAL digbeta and fly it in to me for the one day shoot.

Somebody said it right; PAL is only half the equasion. if you try to deliver a DVCPro tape and they are Sony bound...
 

nautilusvideo

Well-known member
PAL but pick a format too

I do a fair amount of work for overseas clients using PAL and the cameras/formats they prefer are XDCAM HD, EX3/1 and Z1U (if it's a lower budget shoot). I've yet to have a request from an overseas company (BBC, corporate, etc.) for Panasonic P2.
 

FOCUZ

Well-known member
I have convinced a few PAL clients that are familiar with Sony to use my Panasonic HDX-900. I have to give them a break on the rate because they have to rent the deck, but I still make more money then renting another camera.
 

Nino

Well-known member
Many of my European clients are shifting toward the EX-1/3 format, this is what prompted me to get a EX-1 in the first place. These include the BBC and German TV as well as some of the European commercial clients. The rest of the package, lighting-audio and a 2 men crew remains unchanged. They transfer the cards into their computers and immediately get to work on the editing, by the time they get back home the program is done.
 

2000lux

Well-known member
I found out today that the Panasonic AG-HPX170 can also be upgraded to shoot PAL and NTSC for $500 dollars.

Has any one worked with one?
 

Macro

Active member
I just had a situation where a client in the UK wanted PAL digibeta for delivery. I offered PAL XDCAM and they could dub to digi. They chose to go NTSC digi and convert to PAL. ...Not what I would have expected.
 

Focused

Well-known member
HXP170

I have used the 170 that is capable of this a few times. While taking the time to get use to it I bounced it over to PAL mode just to see how things work. I think three menu clicks and it was done. I didn't record anything but wish I would have discussion sake.

Another option would be a 3rd party recorder such as the Convergent Design Flack xDR recorder. It can do different modes and I am pretty sure 50i in in the menu.

http://www.convergent-design.com/CD_Products_FlashXDR.htm
 

Ruff

Well-known member
I got the XDCAM 700 and the EX3 so that I can shoot PAL for local and European and switch to NTSC for the USA and Japan.
If the client does not have a deck I offer to send them a small hard drive with Quicktimes on it - almost everyone agrees to that!
 

freedom

Well-known member
I'm really stumped by a BBC producer rejecting my EX-3 for a PAL digibeta. it's costing them an extra $600 to go digibeta plus tapes
 

freedom

Well-known member
Unfortunately the BBC will only use specific cameras.... Have a look at their specs and stuff in their R&D section. http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp034.shtml

If they havent "approved" the camera.... bad luck. :mad:

Ben
Ben

I don't understand your meaning of "approved". The EX-1 & 3 are listed on the sheet you've linked to. I didn't see any specific "approved/not approved" listing.

BBC has created a set of scene files for the EX cameras so they've spent a bit of time in doing that. I doubt they'd disaprove a camera and then create a file for it.

The job I'm doing is on SD digibeta. The EX-3 will do just fine for a sitdown interview vs a digibeta. From the BBC whitepaper: "Although there is no standard definition recording mode, the 720p mode is very clean and should be the best way to shoot should the camera be expected to produce an SD output. The quality of this 720p mode is highly unusual in any camcorder."
 
Top