On the Panasonic HPX370, HPX300, HPX170 and HVX200, the white balance offset is found in the Scene Menu.

HPX370 with a Cool Offset

HPX370 with a Warm Offset

On the EX1, EX1R and EX3, the white balance offset is found under the Picture Profile -> White Menu. Notice below that the warm and cool looks have opposite values when compared to the Panasonic cameras.

EX3 with a Warm Offset

EX3 with a Cool Offset

On the HDX900, HPX2000, HPX2700, HPX3000 and HPX3700, the white balance offset is under the Paint -> RB Gain Control. Here you can adjust both a red and blue value for each white balance setting (preset, A and B). The reason it is called “Gain Control” is because an offset is really a very subtle gain increase in one color channel, but not to worry, it won’t add an noticeable noise to your image.

Offsets are under Gain Control

On the PDW700 and PDWF800, the white balance offset is under the Paint -> White. Here they allow you to set an offset for both red and blue for A and B. The Preset white balance can also be adjusted in another menu.

Offsets are in the White Menu

The PDW700 and PDWF800 have both received a firmware upgrade. Firmware Version 1.63 adds several new features including support for a wifi adapter and live logging. The wifi adapter (CBK-WA01) attaches to the camera’s USB port and allows for wireless LAN access and logging of material as it is shot. Sony software will preview footage as it is shot and meta data can be added on the fly. The latest version of the Sony PDZ-1 Proxy Browsing software supports this feature, and in the future there will be mobile apps for both Windows Mobile devices and the iPhone. Other upgrades in this firmware release include 23.98 shooting in SD, additional viewfinder display options, and several small bug fixes. See the release notes here.

The PDW-HR1 will also get an update in the near future. The HR1 is a mobile XDCAM disc player and recorder, but if you look on the side of it you’ll also find two SxS card slots. New firmware will allow footage from an EX camera to be transferred onto an XDCAM disc. The video clips can be transferred as data (into the UserData folder on the disc) or transcoded to match the codecs found in the XDCAM HD camcorders. This is a great product for anyone mixing XDCAM disc and SxS cards.

Sony will also be releasing a new XDCAM Browser application that will combine all current XDCAM applications into one. If you’ve worked with the different Sony XDCAM software then you know how confusing all the different software can be. This new XDCAM Browser will be both Mac & PC compatible and combine the proxy browser, XDCAM Transfer, and XDCAM EX clip browser. Live logging will also be an option for this application, as well as ingest into Final Cut Pro. Look for the new software to come out sometime this Fall.

Finally the biggest news about XDCAM is the higher capacity disc. Sony will be releasing a quad-layer 128 GB write once disc, and they should cost under $1/GB. The new disc will work in their new XDCAM Station, which has both SxS and XDCAM disc inputs. It can read quad-layer discs with much faster transfer speeds than previous decks as a result of dual optics on one head. The XDCAM Station is both a playback/recording device and a network device. With built-in storage and network access, the XDCAM station will serve as a fast ingest station and network storage device. This technology has many different applications and will no doubt find its way into news stations, and become a standard for archiving data. Sony will also be releasing a small XDCAM drive, similar to the PDW-U1, for desktop use. This small drive will support the quad-layer discs and high transfer speeds over USB3. The 128 GB discs, XDCAM Station, and new single disc drive will probably come out around this time next year.

Read a full press release about all these updates here.

Here is a quick “How To” guide for both Mac & PC:

Camera Setup

First insert a USB memory stick into the camera, any store bought USB stick will do the job. The video data rates is a low 1.5 Mbps so you’ll get about 1.5 hours per gigabyte of storage. Above is my orange USB stick inserted in the camera.

Then we need to setup the memory recording option in the camera, and because the F800 and 700 have the same menu structure this will work for either.

1) Enter the lower camera menu (hold in the scroll wheel while turning on the menu) and enter the Operation menu.

2) Scroll to the Power Save menu and push in the scroll wheel to enter. Enable the Ethernet/USB option, which is disabled by default to save power. Restart the camera and reenter the Operation menu.

3) In the Operation menu, scroll down to the Mem Record page. Here you will find the option to enable Memory Record and also copy existing proxy video to a USB memory stick. You can copy just the current clip or all clips from a disc onto the stick. This is also where you can format the USB stick memory.

When you enable memory record, and a USB stick is inserted, the camera will record proxy data to both the disc and the USB stick.

5) After enabling this function a icon will appear on the viewfinder screen that lets you know if a USB stick is inserted and how much record time is remaining. The image below shows how the icon will appear in different conditions. Note: If this does not appear, make sure that your viewfinder settings are set to show this function on screen.

6) Now you are ready to go, so start recording or copy your existing proxy data on to your USB flash memory stick.

Computer Download

When you’re done you can hand off the USB stick to anyone with a computer. Here’s how to view the material on both a Mac and PC.

Mac OS X

There is one key piece of software for any XDCAM users on a Mac – it’s called XDCAM Transfer. This piece of software is free from Sony and enables the Mac to interface with the camera and other XDCAM hardware. It is designed to ingest material into Final Cut Pro, but it has a host of other uses also. Download the latest version here – XDCAM Transfer v 2.11.

1) Insert the USB stick into your computer. You should see a folder called MSSONY on it; confirm that and we will come back to that later.

2) Run the XDCAM Transfer software, and set up your import preferences. In the preferences menu, you can specify where material is imported to. Specify where you want it to go, because that is where your QuickTime converted proxies will end up.

Here is what XDCAM Transfer looks like.

My import directory is set to desktop right now.

3) Click the ADD button in the lower left hand corner of the window. This will bring up a dialog box to choose which material to add.

4) Now go to your USB stick and open the MSSONY folder. You’ll find a folder in there, and then another, and another, until you reach the MEMREC folder. In this folder you’ll find one or more folders with the name of your disc (or discs). By default this will be a long string of characters unless you specified a disc name in the camera. We will call these “disc folders” to make things easier. Still in the dialog menu, open the disc folder and enter the SUB folder. Select all the proxy clips in this folder and click open.

XDCAM Transfer will display all of your proxy material from the disc folder. If you have multiple disc folders on the same USB disc, then just repeat the step above for each disc folder.

5) Now you can go through your proxy material as needed. If you want to edit this material in Final Cut, then click the Import button. This will copy your proxy material to the destination you specified in step 2 and convert it to a MOV file.

6) Now you can view your proxy video or export it for a quick edit. Oh, and you can put it on a iPhone too.

iPhone / iPod Conversion

XDCAM Proxy material is not in a format that the iPhone can play without conversion, even when it is in a MOV format. But we can convert it quickly and easily.

1) Drag the MOV files you created from your proxy video into the iTunes movie directory.

2 ) Select your material, and choose Create iPod or iPhone Version from the Advanced menu. This will create new clips that will appear as they are converted.

3) Upload to you iPhone and enjoy.

Windows PC

Sony makes a specific piece of software for Proxy viewing in Windows. This is called the Proxy Viewing Software. This is the only tool you’ll need to view your material on a USB stick. Download the latest version here – PDZ-1 Proxy Viewing Software Version 2.60.

1) Insert the USB stick into your computer. You should see a folder called MSSONY on it; confirm that and we will come back to that later.

2) Run the PDZ-1 Proxy viewing software, and set up your workspace folder. In the tools menu, you can open the options menu. Then visit the workfolder tab and click the Work Folder Change button. The default is the Documents folder on your PC, so feel free to skip this step if the Documents folder is a good location for you to store proxy data.

Here is the PDZ-1 Proxy Viewer Software

Here you can set your work folder if needed.

3) Import the proxy data by choosing Read File From ProDisc from the File Menu. This will launch a window called Select Port Dialog. Choose the USB stick as your source. In this case my USB stick is called ABEL.

4) After choosing the USB stick, another window will appear showing Disc Information. This window lists all the clips on the memory stick in the Import Files section. Because we only have access to the proxy data on the USB stick, just click Execute on the bottom of this window, and it will import all proxy files.

5) Now click on any of the clips to play the back. You can also add titles and comments as needed.

Sony has created several scene files (32 to be exact) for the PDW-700 and PDW-F800 camcorders. These looks include everything from a Daylight look to a “Zombie” look for horror films. Download the whole set zipped up here – PDW-700/F800 Scene Files - and make sure to read this pdf document – Scene File Descriptions – which explains each look in detail. Thanks Sony!

The PDW-F800 camera adds some exciting new features to the Sony XDCAM lineup. If you’ve followed my PDW-700 video series, then you’re already pretty familiar with the PDW-F800, but in this video I show some of the new features that set this camera apart from the rest.

Here are some of the new features that will be included in the PDW-F800 and the PDW-700 with firmware version 1.5 :

23.98 Support – This comes standard with the PDW-F800 and F1600 deck, and will now be an optional upgrade for the PDW-700 and PDW-HD1500 deck.

Mixed Data Recording – This enables the ability to record multiple formats to the same disc as long as they share the same frame rate. For example, you could record 1080P XDCAM422, 720P XDCAM 422, DVCAM, IMX, or any other record format to the same disc as long as all formats were in the same frame rate. The HD1500 deck will support this with a firmware update as well.

Continuous Record Mode – This allows video to be captured into one single file per disk, much like a tape. Instead of creating individual clips every time the camera is started and stopped, it creates one large clip. This may be preferable for some editors and it will decrease download times off the disc because opening and closing individual clips slows down the process.

USB Memory Proxy Record – The camera will be able to write proxy video to a USB memory stick. This will be the same proxy data found on the disc normally, but very easy to hand off. 60 minutes of proxy video will take up about 1 GB of space.

On top of those upgrades there are a couple of things that make the PDW-F800 extra special. Here are the features that will only be found in the PDW-F800:

Slow & Quick Motion – That’s what Sony calls over and under cranking the camera. In 23.98P mode it can record 1-48 FPS, in 29.97 it can record 1-59.94 FPS, and in 25P it can record 1-50 FPS.

Image Inverter – This will flip the image for use with lens adapters.

Optical CC and ND Filters – They have added back the traditional color and ND filter wheels that we know and love.

Focus Assist – This is a cool feature that displays a bar graph on the screen that lets you know the focus of a center portion of your image. The bar grows as the image becomes more focused.

User Gamma Curves – You can define your own Gamma curve with the Sony CVP File Editor. Curves created for the F900R or F23 will work with the camera as well.

Lastly we will also see another upgrade to the PDW-U1 drive that will enable full UserData writing. That means you’ll be able to write any data to the disc. This is a great way to back up footage or just about anything, and the XDCAM EX Clip Browser 2.5 will allow direct copying from SxS cards to the UserData directory on the the disc.

So when can we see all of these updates? The official answer is… around the end of June. We’ll see how it all rolls out but I’m excited about the big update.

Update: I’ve posted a short video highlighting the F800 – Hands on with the F800.

Now, if you own the PDW-700 don’t dismay, an optional 24p recording board will be available in June and the SD record modes are already available for purchase. The F800 will ship with these features and be priced accordingly. Looking at the specs I can see that Sony has taken feedback from the production community and added features that make the camera very versatile. When Sony puts the ‘F’ in front of the product code (ie: the F900R or F23) they are aiming a product at a film community. And with 24P, variable frame rate recording, and custom gamma curves, this camera should fit nicely into a commercial production environment.

Click here to read a nice article about the camera from Sony Belgium.

Sony also announced the PDW-F1600 Deck. This is similar to the PDW-HD1500 deck but adds some new features as well. Again don’t worry if you already own the PDW-HD1500 deck, the discs from both the PDW-700 and PDW-F800 will work in the the HD1500. What they have added is pretty interesting though. First, they added insert/assemble editing capability which allows users to work with it more like tape. Secondly, it sounds like they added a web interface for viewing clips on the disc or browsing data written to the disc. This function should really open up the door for using the XDCAM disc as a data archive for all tapeless media. Just add the F1600 to your network and you can read, write, and browse any ProDisc. Lastly, and on that same note, they have added a dual-optical pickup for faster data transfer.

Click here to read the full press release from Sony.

Check out the new Sony brochure as well.