Varicam vs. Sony F900

[Mark Karavite]

I usually talk to the AC, and have him bring Dionics along with the camera package. Depending on your battery cage, either multiple Dionic 90's or the Dionic 160's work well in HD. I have a MK-V nexus base, so I can put 3 Dionic 90's on board. If you have alot of accessories on the camera, then you might want to put a Dionic 90 on the back of the camera to run AKS, but power the camera from your sled. I never put a Hytron 120 (or similar size battery) on the back of the camera. That setup makes a ridiculously long camera even longer, and adds a ton of weight on top. Some on board downconverters need to see a battery on the back of the camera to power them. In this case, I use an Anton Bauer plate that mimmicks a battery, and just use my PRO to 4 pin 12v camera power cable to feed power to the back of the camera. This little plate is about $80, and can save your butt.

 

If you go with the small Miranda, you might not get HD-SDI out of that downconverter. Many DP's will request that you remain hardwired as much as possible. I usually request a downconverter that provides NTSC and HD-SDI, like an onboard Miranda. Fred Davis can provide you with a nice, lightweight BNC to run a HD hardwire off the sled, and it doesn't affect 80% of your shots. In the case when you really need to be wireless, you'll catch less grief from the DP, and he'll agree to allow you to transmit when you need it. It's a big advantage for the DP to be able to monitor HD while shooting, so I give it to them when it's feasible.

 

Another advantage of the bigger Miranda is it outputs framelines, which I only use as a reference to line up my frameline generator. If you have a 4:3 monitor, you can select a 16x9 letterbox, and put your electronic bubble in the letterbox area. Most downconverts will do this.

 

Returning to the power issue, I always suggest multiple batteries on board. With 1 battery, you will eat them up like crazy, and look bad when the camera won't roll right before a take, because of low voltage. Have the DIT set the camera's voltage settings to the lowest possible voltage before the camera cuts off. There is a menu that selects batteries, and another menu where you can set the cutoff voltage. DO NOT set the battery selection to AC Adapter. This will disable the low voltage cutoff (as the camera thinks it's getting a regulated voltage from the AC Adapter), and as the battery voltage drops, the camera will go into brown out, not turn off, and fry the mother board. I've seen it before, and it's not pretty.

 

As the Director of a HD feature called it this summer, HDelay! I'll take an Arricam LT over any of these elongated power pigs anyday. As a wise man once said, long and slender is a good attribute for a female companion, but not for a Steadicam body. Like it or not, they are here to stay, so be prepared.

 

Best of luck,

 

Mark Karavite

A Camera / Steadicam Operator

mkaravite@comcast.net