Get to ProRes. The new format by apple is fast becoming the new standard, offering uncompressed quality images, at file sizes not much more than double that of most current HD. This means, manageable file sizes, yet with the quality of what is usually very hard to manage. I am now offering on-set services with direct to RAID capture to ProRes 422 ensuring a better quality capture by never compressing your video to fit onto tape or P2 media. Not only does it ensure a higher quality image, but it also saves time in several ways. When direct capturing everything is already digitized and converted into playable quicktime files. There is no need to rent a deck and capture tapes, or to ingest/convert P2 media. You also get instant playback with no rewinding and re-queuing. Without messing with the camera at all. You can be reviewing takes white the camera is busy doing something else. You also get more monitoring options. With just a single BNC cable coming off the camera, I can break it out into several monitors of several types including SD or HD SDI, Component, Composite, HDMI, and even DVI. You have the option to not slate anything, because every clip can be labeled digitally while you're shooting. Good takes, the best take, and alternate takes can be noted on the fly. Another huge time saver. This system will save you an entire work day in post that is normally spend logging, capturing, and finding the good takes. Not to mention the time saved because of the increased image quality. Think of it as a combination of video playback, 2nd AC, DIT, DAT, and assistant editor all rolled into one. With the added benefit of capturing in what is basicially uncompressed quality.
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Finally, a way to safely and economically acquire video at Uncompressed HD quality with manageable file sizes. The problem with Uncompressed acquisition, other than cost, is that it is often unrealistic to work with quickly in post, and often even unable to be played in real time on many systems. ProRes offers the quality of uncompressed, with files that you can actually work with in real time.
With ProRes HQ, not only are you capturing more data, but the data your capturing is being used more efficiently, this means that the actual quality of image difference is not accurately represented on the graph above. ProRes has 120% more data than DVCPROHD, however the actual image quality is far greater than that, and closer to Uncompressed HD quality. ProRes is 10 bit, and has square pixels, which means it has all the pixels. No pixel stretching is going on as is in other formats such as DVCPROHD.
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