Q&A: Camera op Jody Eldred on HDV vs. F900

Jody Eldred is one of those camera guys who likes to try everything – he’s gone scuba diving with the PD-100, he covered the war in the Persian Gulf in 2003 with a PD-150 for ABC News, and he recently went airborne with the Sony Z1U to get what he believes are the first true HD images shot by a skydiver. He’s even gotten shots for CBS’s JAG using the Z1U for quick inserts and even a consumer-grade PC110 Handycam for helmet-mounted or night-vision shots. His "main axe" is a D600 Betacam, and he also owns an F900. We asked him about HDV quality, and how he protects his HDCAM investment.

When you’re jumping out of a plane and moving at 120 mph, you’d think you’d have some artifacting. But it’s totally clean. I’ve shot over five hours of test footage – not an hour-long interview or a bunch of B-roll, but challenging stuff. The fountains of the Bellagio, or the balls of flame at the Mirage at night. I shot cheerleaders yelling and jumping, wearing red and white outfits, against black sky with bright stadium lights behind their heads. I put it through everything I could think of, and it performs better than the specs would indicate it should.

For one thing, they’re not going to have shallow depth of field. Yes, you’ll have film cadence with the Z1U if you shoot in Cineframe mode. What you won’t have is a cinematic feel, with the shallow depth of field that we like in interviews. The lenses won’t go there. And it’s very hard to focus that itty-bitty lens. But with ENG or film-style lenses on the F900, you have great control of focus elements, and in HD that’s crucial. In terms of color space, the color is much richer with a lot more going on. And the imager is twice as large. It’s an incredibly beautiful picture. The Z1U is still beautiful, but it’s not quite the same.