Amphibico Phenom FX1E Review & comments

Hi Guys

I think www.airsealand.com/home

is

www.hdvhousings.com

so I suppose thats why they knew alot about the Phenom. And yes it is good value when you compare the others and the lenses they come with.

Pal to NTSC with procoder does rather a good job, it's not perfect but to the normal person they would not be able to pick it. It seems to make the NTSC image abit softer when playing them side by side on twin screens at the same time but overall, I was impressed.

Downconverting to DV in the camera and editing in DV then out with procoder is alot faster the doing it in HDV thats for sure.

Mike, are you using upper fields or lower fields when encoding to DVD? In HDV I use upper for both PAl and NTSC as thats what HDV is. I also found that downconverted HDV in the camera to DV still needed to be upper when encoding otherwise bad flickering on old DVD players. I'm thinking even though its downcoverted it's still upper and not lower like normal Pal DV. New players should be able to handle it anyway.

Pal and NTSC HDV has the same res 1440 / 1080, it would be interesting to see them playing side by side, I think the quality would be the same.

If you get thoses mantas in clear water, you should get stunning results.

Wags

Paul have you tried deinterlacing the clips for a progressive feed? This way it will play much better on plasma and LCD screens too. There will also be no issue of upper/lower fields. Magic Bullet Suite is a wonderful deinterlacer and gives you the option of a film look. Works out of Adobe AE, Premiere, Vegas and FCP.

Mike

The mantas would look awesome even in crappy viz if you had a SWA. I'm thinking of getting Fathoms to build me a custom version of their 107° lens. Only problem is I still haven't made up my mind on the housing for the Z1. Sucks to have a choice really! LOL SWA is very important esp since I saw some clips of a HDWF950 with a 12mm panavision lens and even in 10ft viz, it looked like 30ft.

Hey Drew

Yea it does suck to have choices doesn't it? If it means anything, the screen that the Phenom has up top is absolutely awesome. Not sure if Gates has that or not. I didn't think it would be much use as it is flush but i tell ya it is fantastic, can shoot from the hip really well, especially in a current which helps keep things steady.

The prism you were talking about from DEMA should be out in December.

Only problem with the crap viz around here is it is so green at times that even when you get a nice full frame it just looks green....oh well, i am really playing with the WB these days, different slates, different settings on the camera etc...

And a 107 would be awesome!

Yes that is a big plus that prism. And L&M has the LCD as well but no prism.

Hello Drew

Progressive scan, correct me if I'm wrong but there are alot of old DVD players out there that cannot play progressive material still, and alot of people's TV's that cannot play a progressive signal so the progressvie DVD player outputs a inerlaced signal to the TV anyhow.

Blue Ray or whatever comes out, suppose to be able to play wmv 9 files which is like as good as the raw footage on my LCD screen. Just burn them to normal DVD disks. They will be cheap, easy to make, replicate and will also play on computers.

I think the 120 degree lens for the Gates is SWA. $$$ though. I have heard Amphibico are working on a new lens for the Phenom as well.

Mike, I'm with you on getting the prisim for the Phenom, I use the screen all the time and having the prisim would make if perfect. Gates have not got it.

Well... will just get all the gear and something new will be out again.

Wags

Paul

That's right, but if you put it in progressive, all the field problems are solved and also people who play the DVDs on plasma, rear projection and LCD screens will have a much better picture. Any new DVD in the last 2 years should be progressive scan.

Magic bullet now handles HDV as well so once my quad G5 arrives I'll see how the number crunching goes.

Well I think for this project it can stay the way its is. We have it all finished and ready for the replicators. I will look into it more when we do our next DVD. DVD players have been around for many years now and we would hate to have people having problems playing them. However will be interested in seeing how you go when you get your new system.

I think the limtiations of DVD specs Mpeg 2 is worse for quality than interlacing. I hate those blocky artificats you get. Does not mater how you encode, they still show up in blue water. I just watched Jurassci park again the other day and it had horrible Mpeg artifacts in some bluey shots.

We have tested the masters on many players, PC's and MACS some renown for showing up bad interlacing and they played perfect.

Encdoding a 8mbs CBR Mpeg2 and 8mbs CBR HD wmv9 file is like chalk and cheese.

Looking forward to the new HD players.

Wags

Well FYI the post production guys at Digital Jungle and others and they only produce progressive DVDs since 2003.

Actually when you are shooting at the Pier into the snappers, have you tried panning quickly to see if the Z1 artifacts on backgrounds of small baitfish? I'm debating whether to go with the Pana HDV200 now that there is larger and cheaper storage available. I'd hate to see the housing for that though.

Hi Drew

Here is a link

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:WqiYqij...laced+DVD&hl=en

From what I have read, one should encode to whatever the source materail was. The Sony shoots upper interlaced so encode upper. Interesting topic though and I will do some more research.

When filming fast schools of small fish, the raw camera footage is perfect showing no artifacts and shooting up into sunlight bluey water shows no artifacts. Even very grainy footage there is no artifacts only untill you down encode. 25 megs MPEG 2 can handel it, it's only when you down encode to MEPEG 2 for DVD that artifacts show up (even at 9mbps CBR). Even the Blue Planet has bad artifacts.

Also because of the res the quality kind of drops as you pan. Once the shot is steady again the frame looks sharper and is also sharp on fast moving objects. Well it does on my editing LCD computer screens (refresh 8mps). On the TV it looks fine and straigth out of the camera.

The HDV200 looks like a nice camera, burn the files straight to Blue Ray Disks for storage after the edit and no time wasting sucking in tapes. Also no compression to a 25 meg stream I believe. What happens though if you fumble and drop the card onto a hard surface in the field, data gone. I once had a electronic orgainiser for a few years and one day I went to use it and all data gone. I had it in a draw on my computer desk and it must of got zapped from the computer somehow. DV Tapes are cheap and have been around for years.

I think if money is no object, get a Sony F900 and put that in a housing. The little HDV cameras don't shoot as good as the F900 HD but they are not 20 worse, nor 10 times, but like around half as good and with the smaller camera one can get alot more shots than lugging a huge box around.

All I know is the HDV underwater footage looks stunning and watching it side by side with normal DV on the screen is funny. We are looking at getting one of the HDV A1's as a second camera, not sure about how it will go though. CMOS and not CCD and not as good in low light.

Were are you?

Wags

Drew

You kind of got me thinking about this progressive scan thing and after some testing tonight from the HDV timeline, I made some test DVD clips, the normal way and progressive way. The progressive files do look and play better on my LCD sreens. I will make a demo DVD and play to see how they go in different players etc.

Here is a link to see a side by side screen grab. Guess which one is progressive??

www.ningalooreefteach.com/HDV.htm and scroll down abit....

Wags

Paul

The HDV200 is probably the mother of the small HDV cameras. DVC Pro HD at 60P? Imagine the slo-mo from that!!! But the problem is storage. Hopefully the firestor will be good enough since 16GB (8GBx2) costs 4k and only allows 16 mins of HD.

I'd have to get the Gates housing for it so the whole rig will be over $13k. Sheesh I need to sell a kidney.

As for your pics, difficult to tell from a still but to hazard a guess, left is progressive.

Hi Drew

Here is a link

 

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:WqiYqij...laced+DVD&hl=en

 

From what I have read, one should encode to whatever the source materail was. The Sony shoots upper interlaced so encode upper. Interesting topic though and I will do some more research.

 

When filming fast schools of small fish, the raw camera footage is perfect showing no artifacts and shooting up into sunlight bluey water shows no artifacts. Even very grainy footage there is no artifacts only untill you down encode. 25 megs MPEG 2 can handel it, it's only when you down encode to MEPEG 2 for DVD that artifacts show up (even at 9mbps CBR). Even the Blue Planet has bad artifacts.

 

Also because of the res the quality kind of drops as you pan. Once the shot is steady again the frame looks sharper and is also sharp on fast moving objects. Well it does on my editing LCD computer screens (refresh 8mps). On the TV it looks fine and straigth out of the camera.

 

The HDV200 looks like a nice camera, burn the files straight to Blue Ray Disks for storage after the edit and no time wasting sucking in tapes. Also no compression to a 25 meg stream I believe. What happens though if you fumble and drop the card onto a hard surface in the field, data gone. I once had a electronic orgainiser for a few years and one day I went to use it and all data gone. I had it in a draw on my computer desk and it must of got zapped from the computer somehow. DV Tapes are cheap and have been around for years.

 

I think if money is no object, get a Sony F900 and put that in a housing. The little HDV cameras don't shoot as good as the F900 HD but they are not 20 worse, nor 10 times, but like around half as good and with the smaller camera one can get alot more shots than lugging a huge box around.

 

All I know is the HDV underwater footage looks stunning and watching it side by side with normal DV on the screen is funny. We are looking at getting one of the HDV A1's as a second camera, not sure about how it will go though. CMOS and not CCD and not as good in low light.

 

Were are you?

 

Wags

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Seeing that lots of people are viewing this thread I though I would load up my two CBR 8mbps PAL and identical NTSC DVD clips for all to see.

They are 14 megs each in size and the source is from a PAL 50i HDV encoded straight from the timeline.

www.ningalooreefteach.com/PALpro.m2v

and

www.ningalooreefteach.com/NTSCpro.m2v

Play then together on your computer if you can.

Wags

Hey Wags, Mike, et. al,

Are you guys using the Sony DVM63 tapes with your camera, or standard DV tape? I guess what I want to know is, is it worth while to spend $13 per tape for the DVM63 instead of $4 for the Sony premium DV tape. This is a huge price difference that can add up over time. Is it really that much better?

Dan

I am using the HD tapes, yes $13 sucks!

But, those will be the only tapes i use. The lubricant story rared its head again after so many years ago...

Supposedly it is a different lube for these tapes than standard DV tapes and all that jazz. Is it true? who knows....

But i will stick with just those tapes nonetheless, call me chicken...

Someone more technical about it will have to tell you if there is that much of a diff..., i am too lazy to be technical

Hi Dan and Mike.

I have been using $8 AUS Panasonic 63PQ's for years and now in the FX1 as well. They work fine and the only time I have a drop out is if you use the tapes more than once. I have stuff from 1999 and the material if still perfect. Just keep in a dark cool area. The HD tapes are suppose to be thiner better quality or something as when HDV has a drop out it's like 3-4 seconds long due to the long Gobs. If it was a big problem I would use them but I'm happy with normal DV tapes.

I have had lubricate problems with Sony tapes back in 1999 and have never used one every since. I even had some Sony $$$ DVCAM tapes and one of them gave me drop outs.

I think once you have a brand that seems to work, just stick with it. They probably all come out of the same factory anyhow.

Hey Mike, I have found a new encoder that's even better than Procoder for doing PAL/NTSC progressive conversion. Hows this over 16 hours to encode 70 mins but quality is way cool..

Wags

Excellent review wagsy, much appreciated. Had the opportunity to get my Phenom wet last night for the first time. Only in the pool and visibility was not that great but I was amazed how effortless it was compared to lugging the thing around on the surface. Need to adjust the ballast a bit since it is slightly negative with a list to port. Can't wait to try it out for real in Roatan third week of January.

Hello David

Welcome to the club.

Yes the Phenom is very easy to move under the water.

Zoom in abit to get around the vignetting problem.

They were going to come out with a fx but not anymore. Word is there is a 120 degree port out soon.

Lets us know when you have it wet.

Wags

Hello Wagsy,

Had a look around your site last night and am suitably impressed. You and Kelly do nice work. Really appreciated the comparison between the 3CCD camera and the new FX1. Huge difference. Must be nice to have so many diverse and interesting creatures right in your back yard; and in warm, salty water as well. Must also be nice to have so many diverse and interesting cameras to choose from! He who dives with the most toys wins.

Hi David

Well the water is not warm nor very clear all the time and it is a very very windy place, so hard to get out in good conditions. It has been blowing non stop now for over 48 hours. Western Australia stands for windy area.

Anyhow it's good in a way as it keeps the rape and pillages off the water so protects the reef more. Yes there is alot of life here.

Get yourself some macro dipoters for the internal flip arm, they work great and are better than the marco one that comes with the housing. Not sure why they did not come standard this way anyhow? Instant flip macro.

We don't have kids (we are kids) and we brought the camera's instead of a car.

Looking forward to some of your clips.

Where are you?

Wags

Hello Wagsy,

Thanks for the info on the diopters; I have ordered the +2 from Amphibico. They will ship it along with the PRISM heads up display, hopefully in time for Christmas. Do you recommend any particular diopter manufacturer and do you have any experience with the ND filter from Amphibico?

I live in Ontario, Canada, home to what can be described as some of the world's best fresh water wreck diving. This time of year our waters are especially calm; some people call it ice. My preference is to film the reef but I only get that opportunity once or twice a year. Am presently working on a web site and hope to have some clips ready soon.