i am looking to purchase a good 3ccd Camera up to $2,500. i would be greatful for any advice you could give me as to the camera options avaliable. Most outlets give such different views that it is difficult to know whats best.

I also need to be able to finish my film making in both PAL and NTSC format. Should I buy a PAl system and convert to NTSC or vice versa.

Any advice would be welcome as to the best way to work with both formats. Is there software that will enable me to transfer film to either Pal or NTSC.

Thanks for your help

The easiest format to convert to both PAL and NTSC is.... film. You could get a low-end camera for under $2,500 no problem but I don't think that's the answer you're looking for.
The post heads will be able to answer this better than I and I hope they correct me if I'm wrong (Which I probablly am). I believe you need hardware capable of converting NTSC to PAL or vice-versa. Even if software can effectively make the switch you will at least need a deck or decks capable of recording to both formats. Even that may be tricky. Figment of your life had an interesting post about this on the old board (http://pub20.ezboard.com/fstudentfilmsfrm10.showMessage?topicID=45.topic).

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply, if my end media is DVD wouuld this mean i could use a pal camera and use software to change to NTSC

Hmmm.....
I really have no idea how regional DVD encoding plays into all of this. I'm sure someone around here can answer you in time though.
If nothing else you can probablly just pay for someone else to make dubs in both formats for you. It may be easier here in Hollywood than on the East Coast but it shouldn't break the bank (You only need one master of each and then dupes come cheap en masse).

I don't know a whole lot on this subject but I'll impart what I do know. Regions on a DVD have nothing to do with what the footage was shot in. Once you get it to DVD, the footage has to be compressed to mpeg format. You set the regions in the DVD software again, nothing to do with PAL or NTSC.

Please someone correct me if I'm mistaken here but, the difference in PAL and NTSC is how it is played on TV. Do a search about the differences between PAL and NTSC, there is plenty of info on the net that can help you out.

The only reason DV filmmakers in the states go with PAL is because it shoots at 25 fps, which is closer to film which shoots at 24 fps, I believe.

Here's a couple of links:
http://members.chello.hu/mezei.attila/dvtools/
http://www.vcdhelp.com/pal2ntsc/pal2ntsc.htm
VCDhelp.com is a great resource for most things when it comes to actually outputting your footage
http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/userguides/78178.php

Good luck!

POP STALIN PRODUCTIONS
---
"brought to you by the propaganda party"

The main difference between PAL and NTSC is the appearence on video. 29.97 fps ntsc and 25 on pal.

The main problem in conversion (besides the pulldown) is color. I learned this first through playing a playstation from indonesia. It was black and white on an american tv. The reason being the colors are more compressed in pal and ntsc broadcast type televisions don't recognize the compression so they come out black and white.

I say the best thing to do is just do a pull down in preimere and output it as ntsc. Should be fine. I'm not sure on the audio but it'll work for the image.

I also posted an interesting fact on the other board (as figment of your life). The USA was converting from black and white to color and in doing so they couldn't figure out how to add color except to add more to the video signal. This resulted in the 29.97 frame rate (though how can you really frame up video?). They never looked back, other countried just bided their time with the standard Pal style.

Oh and the necessity of shooting in pal now to get a closer to film feel is almost unecessary with the growth of progressive scan type recording camera as from canon and sony. PAL should only be used when thinking of transferring to a film print.

"The worst times in life happen the moment before the dreams come true"

Hi,

I think you're getting your colour carrier mixed up with the fact that PAL video (here in the UK at least), the colour "black" has an RGB value of 0,0,0 wheras in NTSC, the same black is actually raised up above this.

Something called IRE 7.5, which also makes life fun trying to convert between the formats.

It's a story told many times over in film schools in the USA. Fact is though run anything in PAL here on an american tv and it's in black and white. I assume the color is weeded out so the frame rate will look normal in the television scan.

"The worst times in life happen the moment before the dreams come true"