Shoot Review — Sony PDW-530 XDCAM

Professional shooters, especially ENG shooters, know the syndrome well: each day we generate new footage that must be offloaded to a hard drive or server, the good takes culled for the immediate need — be it a news story or reality show — before the original tapes in their entirety are logged, labeled, and consigned to shelves or boxes in a closet or a Kansas cave. It's a colossal waste of time, money, and manpower to back up and archive terabyte upon terabyte of media, 98 percent of which we've already rejected. No wonder we face such immense media overload: we don't separate the wheat from the chaff soon enough.

The Sony PDW-530 is a three-CCD, disc-based SD camcorder that''s switchable between DVCAM (25Mbps) and MPEG IMX (at 30Mpbs, 40Mbps, and 50Mbps).

Nonlinear editors have dominated postproduction for almost two decades, but the shooter's world, dominated by videotape and helical scan recordings, has locked us into a notably inefficient and largely linear workflow. The XDCAM's disc-based acquisition can finally free us from the chains of the videocassette, as recorded files now can be quickly scanned, organized, and pre-culled prior to offloading to the editor.

Culling original camera material in the field can markedly reduce the volume and subsequent downstream handling of original camera footage, as a “meltdown cut” can be prepared easily and quickly prior to transferring only the select takes to a server or workstation hard drive. Sony's PDW-530 XDCAM enables just such a workflow, one I put to the test on a two-day shoot.

The PDW-530 camcorder is a disc-based standard-definition camera featuring switchable recording modes: DVCAM at 25Mbps 4:1:1 (NTSC), and MPEG IMX 4:2:2 at 30Mbps, 40Mbps, and 50Mbps bit rates. The flexibility of shooting multiple formats further expands the PDW-530's economy and efficiency as an EFP/ENG workhorse.

The PDW-530 shares some features with the earlier tape-based MSW-900 (see the February 2004 issue of Video Systems or videosystems.com for my review). The two cameras have the same 16:9 chipset, viewfinder, and 12-bit I/O processor up-sampled to 30 bits for further encoding. Both cameras exhibit very low noise in dense shadows — a boon for shooters who frequently must work in the recesses of dark churches or menacing city alleys at night.

Sony estimates the archival shelf life of its blue-laser media at 50 years or more, compared to perhaps one-fifth that for most tape media. For the parsimonious shooters among us, the disc media is rated for 1,000 passes, compared to only 100 passes for professional-grade videotape. Clearly, XDCAM offers considerable economy on many fronts.

The MSW-900's low-light response at 0.15 lux was impressive. It served as a kind of revelation to shooters accustomed to a cacophony of noise and artifacts in deep shadows. The PDW-530 goes farther; its rated low-light response at 0.13 lux is so sensitive that the camera now exceeds the viewfinder's capability to adequately represent image detail in such low/no-light conditions. I found a high-resolution field monitor almost imperative simply to see what I was doing. No doubt the PDW-530's low-light performance will draw ample oohs and ahhs from your director/producer and clients, but if you can't see a beautiful shot taking shape in the VF, you might not realize it and stay with it. It has happened to me.

Other improvements in the PDW-530: a half-second shutter speed is now possible in super slow shutter (SLS) mode. The 18 (!) pages of setup menus are customizable and may be added to the general user files and memory stick — a control-freak shooter's dream. The memory stick has also been relocated to a more convenient location beneath the menu setting switch on the camera's left side.

I for one like it when a camera manufacturer listens to feedback from shooters. In the MSW-900, the rear VIDEO OUT BNC connector with a cable attached was prone to damaging stress when a shooter would place the camera on a hard surface. That risk has now been eliminated with the introduction of a gently sloped rear deck in the PDW-530.

The PDW-530 features four general-purpose buttons, including two on the carrying handle that enable the shooter to adjust almost any parameter while “rolling,” including the ability to enable or disable Turbo Gain (up to +48dB) or the 5600 degrees K daylight filter for shuttling between indoors and outdoors. The shooter has enormous creative possibilities, such as on-the-fly application of black stretch or mid-scene color correction.

I suggest XDCAM shooters assign the Good Take Marker to one of the general-purpose buttons on the handle or on the left side of the camera. Some folks may remember similar markers in Betacam SX cameras, but now you can really take advantage of them. At the head of each take, the PDW-530's Record Start function generates a thumbnail that we can reference later when creating our meltdown reel. Good takes then can be saved; the crap, deleted. Wow. My camerawork suddenly looks a whole lot better!

As a minor point I had a problem with the two top-mounted buttons. They're so small that those of us with Homer Simpson hands might have trouble engaging them cleanly, especially on a cold morning with gloves or mittens. Maybe Sony engineers can figure out a way to address this issue in the future, perhaps by enlarging the handle at that point. Just a thought.

The speed, efficiency, and reliability of the blue-laser disc recorder are compelling. No shuttling through hours of tape cassettes. No pesky dropouts due to migrating dirt or edge debris, and no regular camera shutdowns due to condensation forming on the tape heads. In the XDCAM, file handling is a dream come true. With the Windows-only software included with the camera, the disc drive mounts on a PC desktop, providing simple and fast drag-and-drop transfer of files. No more realtime capture sessions, which in itself can save hours.

It's worth noting you cannot inadvertently overwrite previously recorded material on a disc. In crash record mode, the laser always picks up from the last recorded section, so in this important way, the disc system acts like a conventional tape drive. The formatting of XDCAM discs is also rather foolproof, taking about the same time as threading a conventional tape cassette. Still, for ENG shooters under pressure, it may make sense to pre-format multiple discs before heading out.

While blue-violet disc recorders operate at bit rates up to 72Mbps (twice the maximum of consumer Blu-ray), the PDW-530 supports file transfers at up to 144Mbps over Gigabit Ethernet. For 50Mbps IMX content, that translates into 2.5X realtime; for DVCAM (25Mbps), that's 4X realtime, making 1Gbps Ethernet a preferred networking solution, although FireWire is also an option via the built-in iLink.

An MPEG-4 proxy video is generated in tandem with the full-resolution files, and this thumbnail movie can be transferred over FireWire or Ethernet networks at speeds up to 40X realtime. This allows for editing to commence well before the actual transfer or delivery of the IMX or DVCAM media files. The MPEG-4 proxy video is also used when scanning through footage at speeds greater than 2X. Thanks to the relatively lightweight frames, a steady image is assured even at high scan speeds.

Downstream, the MPEG-4 thumbnail videos serve another useful purpose, as these proxy files may be integrated easily into a Filemaker archive or other media-savvy database. The efficiency of this system with respect to archiving is further reflected in the metadata captured with every shot. Such data as lens focal length, f/stop, and distance can be critical later in order to recreate scenes or setups precisely. The most common application in my experience is the matching of frame size in reaction close-ups. Previously, on most EFP shoots my assistant would try to maintain these details in a log, which under the pressure of a harried production often didn't happen.

Like red states vs. blue states or the Mac vs. PC discourses, shooting on disc has its share of proponents and detractors. To some, spinning discs conjure up reliability issues, an understandable concern at first glance, given the rigors of today's typical ENG shooter.

Anecdotal evidence from the field should help to dispel such fears. Compared to relatively fragile videotape, current disc technology is far more resistant to heat, humidity, and dirt. Recent reports from the field have described unimpaired playback of discs left all day on the dash of an SUV in 110-degree desert heat. Discs subjected to wet conditions also proved highly resistant, as the design of the cartridge and the blue laser's high heat at 750-1100 degrees F help spin off and disperse condensation. Only in the wettest, most extreme conditions, Sony claims, would the camera's DEW LIGHT shut down operation.

While I was not able personally to evaluate the camera's resistance to extreme shock, my two-day ENG-style test shoot on a densely crowded convention floor and inside several moving cars produced no dropouts or loss of signal due to physical stress on the disc mechanism. Sony has obviously addressed the reliability concerns by incorporating into the XDCAM an extremely robust buffer and solid suspension system.

With no springs, tensioners, rollers, or pressure pads to go out of alignment the disc recorder offers many advantages with respect to reliability. Curiously, one would think that given the absence of a power-hungry tape transport, power utilization in the XDCAM would be less than that of the MSW-900. This is not the case, however: Sony rates the PDW-530 at 36W (with the built-in LCD off); the MSW-900, at only 27W. (Note that switching off a range of features in the PDW-530 can reduce power consumption by 4W.)

Table 1: IMX vs. DVCAM runtime for 23GB PFD-23 disc ($30 street)

Sony's proprietary MPEG IMX format offers excellent performance and fast transfer of files, but I believe that IMX proliferation has been constrained by the lack of native support inside the most popular NLEs. (Avid, though, supports interoperability between its Media Composer and NewsCutter systems and IMX-formatted material from XDCAM. And with the recent explosion in NLE software that can handle HDV, one would think support for IMX wouldn't be too far off.)

The audio section of the PDW-530 is very quiet, with PCM audio (AES/EBU) recorded at 16 or 24 bits. IMX supports up to eight channels at 16 bits but only four channels at 24 bits, so some event shooters might want to keep that potential limitation in mind.

Yes, it's a rare sight in broadcast cameras, but I for one welcome it with an open Kata bag. The PDW-530 features a small flip-out LCD screen that displays, in addition to composite video and setup menus, the thumbnails and key functions used to perform a simple edit prior to transfer.

The 2.5in. display seems a tad small in my opinion, and too fragile for rigorous ENG use. I'd like to see a more robust implementation with reinforced hinges and a sturdier shell. Some kind of protective sunshade should also be provided for better daylight viewing of vital camera functions.

The PDW-530 camcorder merges the elegance of enhanced workflow with the benefits of disc-based acquisition. Creating a mini-EDL at the conclusion of a shoot can significantly reduce the unnecessary junk entering the pipeline. This translates into reduced logging and general handling at every stage of postproduction, up to and including the archiving of the original camera footage. Do we really want or need boxes of freshly recorded tapes constantly clogging up the works? We all love our loggers, but the work is drudgery, after all. Perhaps by adopting the XDCAM system we can finally assign these folks to more meaningful tasks.

The ability to pre-cull footage offers shooters a major advantage as well, as I can deep-six my miscues and gaffes before the material leaves my purview and control.

I look forward to seeing the IMX format more easily and economically integrated into the most popular NLE platforms like Adobe Premiere and Apple Final Cut Pro. While the optional SDI card ($1,300) offers a high-end solution to broadcasters, a large swath of the middle market needs a more efficient means of utilizing the 50Mbps format without the bulk and hassle of needlessly bumping the files to 167Mbps “uncompressed” SDI.

The addition of iLink to the PDW-530 is a positive first step, and indeed DVCAM files out of the PDW-530 can be taken directly into almost any NLE without additional hardware. Beyond looking to its own Vegas to provide the required IMX support, Sony reports that the major NLE vendors are working on their own solutions with respect to importing high-resolution XDCAM files. So stay tuned.

The PDW-530 has an MSRP of $34,000. The DVCAM-only PDW-510 is also available at $19,900 MSRP. The 24p board is a $2,500 option. Colorimetry is identical in both camcorders.

Company: Sony
Park Ridge, N.J.; (201) 930-6000
www.sony.com/professional

Product: PDW-530 XDCAM

Assets: Disc-based acquisition, switchable between IMX and DVCAM, excellent low-light performance, flip-out LCD screen.

Caveats: Uses more power than a similar tape-based camcorder, flip-out LCD screen seems fragile for a camera in this class.

Demographic: Facilities that need a speedy workflow.
Price: $34,000