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Volume -2
Issue -1


Winter 1999


1999 - First Issue


Some 1999 News For You


High Definition  - 1999-
It's Here, It's  On The Air


Any New 1999 Products?


This is the First News Letter of 1999. We can tell you that we are doing very well as a non commercial site, considering we offer only advice and information, and we have only been on line since the 18th of March, 1998. Current additions, from last year, to the site include 16X9 information on camera resolution and how it effects your picture; a pair of free Broadcast Camera Forums, where you can write to your hearts content about your camera issues and comments; the BSC1-F1 section for the Film Look Gamma Curve chips for the DVW700 series from Sony, and our own Barnes and Noble.com link for your personal book or magazine searches and purchases.

The 16X9 section is an interesting section with some information not heard before regarding band width and resolution and how it relates to the Wide Screen Picture. The Broadcast Camera Forums are here for all to post their comments, suggestions or messages. One Forum is on InsideTheWeb.com; a separate domain and server. It's the easiest of the two to read and post on. As soon as you link to the new site, the messages are there from the most current to the oldest. The second Forum is on Delphi.com. Hopefully the link we have provided works for you. (Delphi may require some type of free membership to view the messages. Please give this forum a trial and see what you think about it. Mail your comments/suggestions to us and if you have trouble accessing the forum mail me. If we find that this link or forum does not work for us, we will remove it.) The BSC1-F1 Film Look section includes theory and setup information on the "Film Look" for your DVW700 or DVW700WS. Also here is the Basic Setup section for those of us that would like to find some great looks from our analog cameras still. This is a great section to check out for suggestions for a specialized look for your camera, and to get some suggestions on how to make your own special look.

Take some time to check us ALL out, and, if you want, send us your comments in the NEW Comments section we have added. (It's a nice little place to give us some suggestions or comments or even any insight on our topics here on the Broadcast Camera Support Page site). This is the year for us to grow and provide you with more information! Please join our Mailing List, you will be one of the first to know when something new appears on our site. The mailing list can be accessed from the Home Page, next to the ListBot logo. (The mailing list is private and not given out to any other company. You can be assured that we will be the only ones that send you mail from the list.)



The BIG TRUCK from National Mobile Television, HD2 was on hand to cover the Rose Parade this year for Tribune Broadcasting, KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles (A WB Affiliate). This is the Number 2 high definition truck from National Mobile and is based on the West Coast. It currently has 8 HD cameras with the ability to support 16. It contains complete compliment of HD recorders along with Digital Betacam recorders to supply the 525 NTSC signal. It has to be one of the nicest looking trucks we have ever seen. The Rose Parade was broadcast in both High Definition and in Standard Definition this year. Both versions looked great, according to some West Coast sources, who managed to see the HD signal on satellite and the regular signal off air.We probably need to get ready for the Emmy's and Oscars in Hi Def, as rumor has it that the truck has been requested to cover those events. Believe it or not, we have heard of many more people going out and getting their HDW700 High Definition cam/corders from Sony. Others are waiting for the next generation of 1038 Progressive Scan HDW700s, and some are pinning their hopes on a 24 Frame Version which is rumored to be coming some time in 1999. If you haven't noticed, some of the Japanese consumer companies have begun delivery of their consumer Hi Def monitors and satellite receiver systems. They seemed to have been here just in time for the Late Christmas Rush. And from what has been seen at some of the High End consumer stores, they are looking good.

Again, it seems that nothing is really new for 1999. It may be we are all waiting for NAB to occur and see what is the trend for the future. The most memorable products, we have actually seen or used here, are the HDW700 High Definition Camera Recorder from Sony, along with their new HDC750 hand held camera. There is also a build up kit that makes the HDC750 the equivalent of a 'hard" camera, but allows you to return it to hand held in just a few minutes. The current generation of Hi Def monitors from Sony look fairly nice to me, but what about the current sizes?. It seems hard to really view a high definition image on a 20 inch monitor. The 30+ inch monitors of the past, which are becoming harder and harder to find, really make the picture stand out. The signs are that the flat screen, plasma monitors or something of that type design may become the next generation in monitor technology, including the high definition types. We have seen a few of the plasma monitors from various manufacturers and found them all to look quite nice from a distance. Only when you get up close, on some of them, that they look a little odd, due to the fact they are not scanned but actual using pixels or dots to display the image.


Corporate or Individual Sponsors


Comments Section

If you would like to have a link with this page, please write us.
Mail To Camera Dave
Or, if you would like to become an individual or corporate sponsor, please write and tell me. There is room here for advertising space for you, or we can simply link to your page. Be assured this site will grow and become a great support to all types of Broadcast and Professional camera owners and operators. Please feel free to write us and we can send you some simple HTML code, including a graphic, to place on your page, that will link to our site here. Feel free to send us some code or information on how to link to your page.

Here we are, the first issue of 1999. Go ahead, give us your comments on our last year's performance! Hopefully none of you feel shy about sharing your comments on our site.... To be honest, we didn't received that many comments during 1998. The actual count is only been two or three so far. Don't feel shy, please visit our new Comment Section, fill out the form and send us any feelings, comments, or suggestions you have. We have over 110 pages on this site now, with room here for many, many, many more pages.Why don't you give us your suggestions as to what the other pages might have on them. We have room for a section on Job Openings, custom camera setups, user information and so on. So, please, don't hesitate to send your comments! We promise to read all the comments and mail, and we will respond as soon as we possibly can. Thanks for dropping by and checking us out!


News/Production Formats


Comments to:
Camera Dave


Let's be honest, the News Formats seem to have taken a back seat to production formats this year. Sony is quietly promoting their SX Digital Betacam format. Where does Sony's SX Digital betacam fit in? Is Sony promoting it as a news format, or a production format? At this time it's very hard to tell. Most of the SX product seems to be in the midwest at the moment, but it is appearing on the West Coast and Nevada now. (It may be replacing another manufacturers format or upgrading from analog Betacam at some sites, according to our inside sources.) Once client did bring his DNW9WS in along with some documentary tape shot in South America. The actual images were stunning, with none of the digital artifacts that others had hinted might be seen there. After seeing that tape, all of our opinions about the SX series have raised dramatically. As for the tiny, digital formats, Sony is promoting it's DV-Cam format as an acquisition, Panasonic is pushing it's DVC-Pro format as both an acquisition format and a news format. Is this some kind of a "format war?" Both Panasonic and Sony have brought out newer version of the DV-Cam and DVC-Pro formats. Both the DVC-Pro and DV-Cam formats look very nice in their demonstrations. We have a hard time determining which looks better, so we are all reserving our opinion for the moment. The problem is that it's hard tell how sturdy these units will be for the long run, and for Heavy Duty, Rough, News work. And then again, what about true Production formats? Is the 1/2 inch digital Hi Def format the choice for the future or can one use 16:9 Digital Betacam? Will it be 1080 or 1035 lines, progressive or interlace, or even 24 frame 1080 progressive? Some of the networks are calling for 1080 interlace, while others are looking a progressive scan formats. It's going to be a tough call to tell which format will be the one of choice. The good news: if you produce in 1/2 inch digital Hi Def now, it can be converted to standard 525 or 525 16:9 very easily. Only time will tell which format will be the way of the future....Feel free to share your opinion in the comments section, or the forums or even mail us, and, if you allow us to, we will print it in these pages as part of the upcoming user comments section if you would like.

Looks


Remember if you have any specialized "looks" or setups for your Broadcast or Professional camera, and you would like to share them with everyone, we would like to put them in the Basic Setups Section of the site. There are a couple now, but we would love to have several more! Please mail them to us. We may even open up another section for our users special looks for various cameras. So send us the special setup you use and we will make it available to all that read our pages!

Camera Dave
Copyright ©
1999 Camera Dave Limited Partnership

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