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The lucky guys over at Mercedes-Benz Digital Media get to shoot promos for all of the newest cars, and these promo videos appear on television and in Mercedes-Benz dealerships across the country. Recently they approached us to test out the Sony SRW-9000 on one of their shoots. With its 4:4:4 recording, extreme dynamic range and the high quality of the HDCAM SR format, the camera made for an easy choice. I traveled out to Lompac, CA – a city near Santa Barbara that boasts incredible views of the Pacific – with two cameras packed into a small rental car. Once there, I met up with DP Robert Campbell, Production Supervisor Kyle Smith, and the whole Mercedes team. They put one SRW-9000 on a special camera car rigged with a crane, and another on sticks for pass-by shots. Additionally, they used the CamTram system for some tracking shots. Fujinon provided several lenses, and Mercedes already owned the amazing HA13×4.5 lens with built-in precision focus. Robert, the DP, really liked having the ability to change frame rates up to 60P in 1080, and especially appreciated that the camera could ramp the frame rate while shooting. The shoot went smoothly and Mercedes-Benz captured some beautiful footage of several cars, including the new SLS. Check out the video above to see some of this footage, as well as some behind the scenes shots. Notice how well both highlight and lowlight information is preserved, especially during the sunset shots; we also ramped several shots so keep an eye out for those as well.

Anton Bauer recently released a new flexible Solar Panel system that can charge batteries when combined with their Tandem 150 charger/power supply. The Solar Panel folds out to 59 x 43 in (149.9 x 109.2 cm), and uses direct sunlight as an alternate power source. The panel is ideal for remote locations where no power is available, though charging times can vary based on available sunlight, of course. The Tandem 150 is the ultimate light power supply and charger in one. With 150W of power, the unit works with the most power hungry cameras, including the Sony SRW9000 and ARRI ALEXA. When attached to cameras with lower power draw (<75W), it can simultaneously charge a battery as well. The good news is that it will automatically detect the power draw and switch the battery charging option on or off. The Tandem 150 is extremely flexible – it can charge batteries when combined with the solar panel or act as a power supply/charger when working with standard AC or DC from a vehicle (when combined with the CA-TMCL – Vehicle Power Outlet adapter). Combining the the Anton Bauer Solar Panel, Tandem 150, Vehicle Power adapter, and Anton Bauer batteries would make for an excellent power kit that would work in just about any situation.

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When Sony first released the SRW-9000, they also revealed their future upgrade path for the camera to include a PL mounted 35mm sensor. Joseph Schimizzi, Sales Support Engineer, for Sony Electronics took a moment to speak with me about the new features of the SRW-9000PL. Watch the video to see all the new features of the SWR-9000PL.

Sony’s legacy of creating industry leading content creation tools took the next step today with the announcement of an HDCAM SR camcorder platform and upgrade roadmap that raises the price / performance standard for broadcast and Digital Cinema production. The new platform will exist in both 2/3” and 35mm formats and will work in seamless concert with both tape and memory based media for “full cycle” workflow and archival capability.

The first iteration of the new platform is the recently introduced SRW-9000, which is now available. This 2/3” triple CCD camera writes to a built-in HDCAM SR recorder for a combination of high performance and operational portability. Some key features of the SRW-9000 are 1080/60P “overcrank” recording in 4:4:4; and 14-bit A/D conversion, which translates to a dynamic range of over 12 stops.

…continue reading Sony Details SRW-9000 Future Proof Roadmap

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We first saw the SRW-9000 back in April at NAB. It made a real impression in our booth and had us all excited about a shoulder mounted HDCAM SR camcorder. Sony promised the camera would be out in December ‘09, and they delivered. Abel will have the SRW-9000 available for both sale and rental within days. There are a number of reasons to be excited about this camera. It has the same proven chipset as the F23, and it records to the visually lossless HDCAM SR format. It shoots in 720p at up to 60 FPS, and 1080P at up to 60FPS as well. It records in 4:2:2: and 4:4:4 modes, offering the ultimate in quality for broadcast and Digital Cinema – and all of these features come in a shoulder-mounted form factor.

The big news today, though, is that Sony has upped the ante on the SRW-9000. They have announced that the SRW-9000 can be upgraded in the future. The 2/3″ block can be switched with a 35mm size sensor, the same as found in the F35. Sony will perform the upgrades to switch the sensor and add a PL mount. This is a serious option for owner-operators and rental houses everywhere. Additionally, they will offer an option to switch out the HDCAM SR tape-record mechanism for an SR Memory recorder. The memory recorder will record in HDCAM SR compression (Mpeg4 Simple Studio Profile) to extremely high-speed and large capacity memory cards. This technology is still in the works but promises to be the recording media of future Sony cameras. Lastly, they have announced a new deck, the SRW-5800/2, and an upgrade to their SRW-5800 deck, which will enable MXF file download in the Simple Studio Profile (SStP). This means that HDCAM SR video can be downloaded off a tape as data files. These are the first steps in making HDCAM SR a full data format. Needless to say this is a serious announcement that lays out Sony’s longer term vision.

Lucky for us, Jesse and I got our hands on the SRW-9000 and did some testing. We spent an afternoon with it, shot some charts and walked out to the water to get some footage. Here is a quick overview of what we found.

…continue reading Hands On With the SRW-9000