Recent releases of HDV camcorders and other HD options at one-tenth the price of high-end HD cameras have producers wondering if these cheaper units are all they need. Playback spoke to a variety of HD users for their thoughts.

Tom Bradbury, CTV/TSN director of production engineering

This fall, TSN installed four Hitachi SK-3300 multi-standard digital cameras – priced around $100,000 apiece – to allow the channel’s SportsCentre and That’s Hockey programs to air in HD.

Meanwhile, TSN is eyeing Sony XDCAM HD camcorders for ENG work, according to Bradbury. With a $20,000 price tag, the Sony PDWF330L XDCAM is certainly cheaper than the studio SK-3300, but still triple the price of Sony’s HVR-Z1U HDV camcorder.

‘Would we consider using HDV for ENG field work? To some degree, the answer is yes,’ says Bradbury. ‘However, the difference between HDV and HD is comparable to the difference between DV and Betacam SX. Although both are good, you can do a lot more with the Betacam SX footage.’

Although CTV/TSN may add some HDV camcorders to its news operations, HD will remain the choice for high-end shoots.

Michael Palmer, operations and facilities manager, Breakthrough Films and Television

Toronto’s Breakthrough has rented the $95,000 Sony HDW-F900 HDCAM for HD productions such as Paradise Falls. Palmer says the company is ‘extremely happy’ with the HDCAM and HDCAM SR formats.

‘The equipment works reliably and quickly, and has justified our investment in it,’ he says.

Palmer explains that Breakthrough has resisted taking a chance on more economical HDV cameras due to ‘bad feedback from HDV users who say the format has frame accuracy problems… They’ve also reported problems working with HDV during the editing process. So we see no reason to move away from HDCAM and HDCAM SR.’

Kevin Cullen, president, Water Productions

Specializing in extreme sports production for broadcasters including rushHD and the U.S. Outdoor Channel 2 HD, Water’s Cullen relies on a $77,200 Panasonic AJ-HDC27H VariCam fitted with a Fujinon HA18x7.6BERM lens.

‘When you’ve got $30,000 worth of Fujinon glass at the front end, you don’t want it connected to a [$7,000] HDV camcorder. You want the best true HD equipment you can afford to do the lens justice,’ says the Elmvale, ON-based Cullen, who hosts Sledsense, PWCTV (Personal Watercraft Television) and GRRTV (Grassroots Racing Television).

Cullen says Water tried using an HDV camcorder, ‘but HDV isn’t really HD at all, which is why no network that we work with would ever consider accepting HDV video as HD content… At most, a small HDV cam could be used inside a racer’s cockpit for a point-of-view angle, but that’s about it.’

Norayr Kasper, director of photography, Race to Mars

Kasper recently lensed Discovery Channel Canada’s upcoming multifaceted HD project Race to Mars on a Sony HDW-F900 HDCAM system.

‘Since the movie was set in 2030, we needed the images to be extremely sharp,’ he says of the futuristic space travel production.

Asked if HDV could have done the job, Kasper answers in the negative. Not only would HDV not have made the grade in terms of image quality, but ‘although we tested it, it was not ideal for special effects.’

Attila Szalay, director of photography, Masters of Horror

Szalay would usually shoot Showtime’s compendium series Masters of Horror on Sony HDW-F900 HDCAM, but for a recent episode turned to a sub-$7,000 Panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder for a vérité look. Does he think producers can regularly use the lower-end option?

‘All of the major U.S. networks have signed off on the HVX200, and they’ll let you incorporate up to 20% HVX footage in network HDTV programs,’ he explains. ‘But the remaining 80% has to be in HD.’

Szalay will use the HVX200 for shots where a small camera is needed.

‘You can sit it on a sandbag on a car’s dashboard to get driver footage that you couldn’t shoot with a larger HDCAM,’ Szalay says. ‘But the [smaller camera’s] CCDs are only 1/3′ versus the HDCAM’s 2/3′ CCDs, so there is a real quality difference. For me, the point is not to replace one format with another, but use both together to best effect.’ *