Sony PDW-700: The Swiss Army Knife of HD
After years of waiting for an HD camera that was fit for broadcast, corporate and documentary use, the day has finally arrived. The Sony PDW-700 does it all, and most importantly, does it with spectacular images and flexibility of recording formats. No more tape. No more expensive media cards. This camera records to a rugged and affordable blue-ray disc cartridge, a system that has been field tested by news crews since 2003. A 23gb disc costs just over $20, and can record over 40 minutes of the highest quality HD or over 80 minutes of SD.
XDCAM HD 422
XDCAM HD 420
IMX (SD)
DVCAM (SD)
- 50 Mbps
- 35/25/18 Mbps
- 50/40/30 Mbps
- 25 Mbps
- 16x9
- 16x9
- 16x9 or 4x3
- 16x9 or 4x3
- 1080/59.94i
- 1080/59.94i
-525/59.94i
-525/59.94i
- 1080/29.97P
- 1080/29.97P
- 525/29.97P
- 525/29.97P
- 1080/23.98P
- 1080/23.98P
- 625/50i (PAL)
- 625/50i (PAL)
- 1080/50i (PAL)
- 1080/50i (PAL)
- 625/25P
- 625/25P
- 1080/25P (PAL)
- 1080/25P (PAL)
- 720/59.94P
- 720/59.94P
- 720/50P
- 720/50P
I recently added the long awaited CineAlta 24P option to my PDW-700. The full HD 1920x1080 pixel 24P images are amazing. This feature in a disc-based camera system is a real asset for the documentary film maker. See a sample here.
Tired of hiring a data-wrangler? Waiting for P2 cards to be downloaded before moving on to the next shot? Worried that USB drive might fail before your footage is ingested to your edit suite? Me too.
The PDW-700 offers a new way to look at both traditional tape and tapeless worklows: - For those with either XDCAM decks or drive units, the workflow is familiar...grab the discs and head for the airport. The data is already stored on an affordable media which can be archived for decades or reused hundreds of times. Try that with tape.
- No XDCAM at home? No problem. We can emulate that P2 card to USB drive workflow you're already comfortable with, but with a bonus. We don't need to erase the media after the transfer. Just pop in another affordable XDCAM disc and keep rolling. After we transfer the data to USB, the discs stays safe and sound in our office until YOU say to recycle it. Believe me, you'll sleep much easier on the plane ride home.
The PDW-700 offers a new way to look at both traditional tape and tapeless worklows: - For those with either XDCAM decks or drive units, the workflow is familiar...grab the discs and head for the airport. The data is already stored on an affordable media which can be archived for decades or reused hundreds of times. Try that with tape.
- No XDCAM at home? No problem. We can emulate that P2 card to USB drive workflow you're already comfortable with, but with a bonus. We don't need to erase the media after the transfer. Just pop in another affordable XDCAM disc and keep rolling. After we transfer the data to USB, the discs stays safe and sound in our office until YOU say to recycle it. Believe me, you'll sleep much easier on the plane ride home.
