Customer Reviews

High Definition and 24P Cinematography

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This book almost exclusively discusses the Sony F900 (now superceeded). The author is employed by Panavision and, at the time of writing, has no experience with other cameras.
Particularly when post-production fx are required, one of the most important aspects of any electronic aquisition format is the compression ratio it employs. So I found it somewhat disturbing that this issue was entirely ignored except when critisizing the Viper for having to have a hard-disk recorder because it can't compress the image (and yet the F900 is 4:2:2 with high compression).
However, the author did mention Star Wars II as an example of the quality of the Panavised camera, yet this production employed a hard-disk recorder because of the problems caused by HDCAM compression.
I think the book shouldn't have such a general title when the contents are dominated by something so specific and reads like a sales brochure.

This book is just a commercial for the HDW F900 camera and an "ode" to Panavision (the employer of the author). Nothing to learn from it it's just a brief intruduction on video shooting.
As another reader of this book mentioned : there is nothing from a technical point of view. Nothing about compression ratios, sub-sampling, and subtilities of HD formats. And nothing about post-production.
It's all about sony and Panavision and the ability of the hdcam format to equal the specifications of 35mm film (laughs). Nothing about other vendors and formats; not even a word about DVCproHD. That's really sad for a book titled "high definition and 24p".
With many errors in this book, we feel that the author doesn't seem to have any real professionnal experience as a DP on a HD or a film project.
This book should have been titled "a brief introduction to HD and panavision hardware".

The world of HD and progressive/interlaced technology can be very complex and confusing, and I've read several technical books that keep it that way. Paul Wheeler does a superb job of being concise, clear, and extremely practical. This is the first time I've read a comparison of HD and film that was unambiguous and unemotional. I get the similarities and differences now more clearly than ever. He also goes thru the various (confusing) frame rate choices and actually lists the practical situations where you might choose one over another. Astounding! And, lastly, I greatly appreciate his confidence when he says, basically: take care to set up your camera carefully (and here are the steps), take care to set up your monitor carefully (and here are the steps), and then don't fret about creating a perfect waveform--trust what you see and be creative. There is also a great deal of user-friendly description of camera types, lenses, setups, etc. which I won't directly use in my work as an editor, but they were engaging and informative, so I didn't skip over them and learned a thing or two in the process. He has some partisan preferences in terms of brands and models, but states that all up front and clearly.
Most excellent!