In addition to the two Sony PDW-700 XDCAM’s we currently have in stock. Ron Hill Imagery has added two Sony PDW-F800 XDCAM HD422 cameras. The major differences between the PDW-700 and PDW-f800 are the PDW-f800s abilities to shoot native 24p(23.976), and over & under crank its frame rates from 1 to 60fps. Both the PDW-700 & PDW-f800 record a full 1920×1080p resolution to a proprietary XDCAM professional disc. Recording formats for the PDW-700 & PDW-f800 are as follows.

Recording Formats:

MPEG HD422 (MPEG-2 422P@HL) (CBR: 50 Mb/s)
MPEG HD (MPEG-2 MP@HL):
HQ mode (VBR, maximum bit rate: 35 Mb/s)
SP mode (CBR, 25 Mb/s)
LP mode (VBR, maximum bit rate: 18 Mb/s) (Playback only)
MPEG IMX (MPEG-2 422P@ML) (50/40/30 Mb/s)
DVCAM (CBR,25 Mb/s)

Image Quality:

There is no doubt about it that the PDW-700’s & PDW-f800’s image quality is top notch, and truly produces stunning HD imagery. More and more networks have been requesting this camera and are quickly adopting it as “The Networks Camera of Choice”. Check out the some recent footage we shot for CBS’s 48hrs in our Video Gallery. Many of the shots were done using this camera.

Work Flow:

The work flow for both cameras is pretty simple assuming your using FCP, I will post an update for AVID users later.
To start, all footage must be processed using Sony’s proprietary “XDCAM Transfer Software”. You can download it form Sony’s website free. Go to download site. Once  the transfer software is installed you can begin to ingest your footage. To get the footage into your system you can go 1 of 3 routes.

1) Via firewire straight from the camera to your system.
2) Utilizing one of Sony’s VTR XDCAM Decks
3)Using Sony’s PDW-U1 Disc Reader.

From here it is just a matter of selecting clips, setting in and outs and adding any additional meta data that you may want to attached to the file on import. XDCAM Transfer’s interface is very similar to FCP’s Log and Transfer function.  Also don’t forget to set your import location from the preferences menu. In the preferences you may also choose to import directly to FCP, however it has been my experience that imported clips are not inserted into a bin and only show up in your viewer window. Each clip will start a new instance of the viewer window. If you have a full disc this can be a little annoying. Then before you can start working you will need to drag each clip from the viewer to your projects bin. I find it way easier to transcode to a folder on my HDD and then import the folder and all of its content into my project. After that your ready to edit.

Once your piece has been edited you can then re-encode it and lay it back to disc, as long as your final render does not exceed the discs native capacity of 23GB for a single layer disc and 50GB for a dual layer. The process of laying it back to disc can be done directly from FCP as long as a compatible device is connected. Simple go to your file menu, then Export, and select Sony XDCAM.

Conclusion:

In reality Sony’s decision to release an updated model to the PDW-700 only 4 months after its debut was a bit shocking. But regardless of the politics involved in such a decision both the PDW-700 and PDW-f800 are great cameras. The work flow is fast and the ability to archive or master a project back to the disc it came from is a nice bonus. When learning to shoot any new camera there is always a slight curve to get around, but anyone familiar with shooting this style of camera should have no problem figuring it out.