Regardless of how fast you shot, you have about 4400 frames stored in the 16Gig memory. If you were playing back at 23.98fps, you have 185 seconds or just over 3 minutes playback. If you want playback at 29.97fps, we have 2.4 minutes of playback. The "CineMag" greatly increases this memory as well as offers significant workflow advantages. I will cover the CineMag a little later.
One issue to watch in playback deals with the 3:2 pulldown we commonly use in commercial production. There is a duplicate field for every three fields or so that is created when doing the 24 frame to 30 frame conversion for broadcast. Rarely can you really see that duplicated field, however, in extreme slow motion where you are paying close attention to the action, it is entirely possible that you will sense a jitter in the motion. For feature film or projection when we usually deliver in 24fps, this is not an issue, however, when we have to deliver in 29.97fps, we really need to consider this pulldown as an element in the decision to record the Phantom playback at 23.98 or 29.97.
Now about capture and playback. Once the camera is pointed in the right direction, and everything has beautiful lighting, the art department has all their ducks in the row and the clients are impatiently waiting for the action to happen, we want to make absolutely sure we capture the action at the exact right moment. We can trigger the camera to record on the word "action,” or we can put the camera into a recording loop, wait and make sure the action has happened, and then trigger the camera to stop the record loop. The software has a pulldown menu controlling "post trigger." We can set the "post trigger" to "1 frame" which means the camera will begin to record immediately into its memory. As the memory fills up, it then begins to erase and rewrite the current images. The camera will continue to record in a loop until you hit the trigger saving the 4 seconds prior to your trigger. This is the most common way to work with the camera. Waiting until you see the glass break or the liquid curl into the glass, guarantees you have the action. The "continuous loop, post trigger" method does not always work, so the software allows you to put your trigger anywhere within that 4 second action range. The operator can trigger the camera at the camera or the Digital Image Tech can control the camera back at the computer. The "trigger" on the camera, by the way, is either a physical button attached to the camera or it is a software button you can right click your mouse on within the software.
Now that we have just captured the most amazing action in super slow-motion and it is sitting inside the cameras memory, we have several options in viewing and exporting. To immediately review the shot, within the camera software, we select "video playback." This opens up a window that looks just like any other deck playback buttons. When you hit "play” the camera will playback the recorded video at 23.98fps. You can see exactly what you've got and if the action is exactly what you need. With three minutes playback, you could be watching for a long time before anything happens. There is a timeline at the bottom of the playback window. You can slide through the timeline until you see the action starting; mark this as your start frame and playback from that point. You can also mark when the shot is over. If you do not like what you see, you can dump the memory immediately and get ready to shoot again. If you love the shot and want to save it, once again we have several options.
The single BNC connector on the back of the camera can be set through the camera software, to export 10-Bit 4:2:2 HD video. (You can set this BNC to export in a wide varity of HD and SD formats through the cameras software.) Many, many commercials that I work, we record this video into an HDCamSR deck or directly into a Digital Drive Array as we are watching the playback. This actually becomes the deliverable to post production. Now this is not the best data the camera can produce, but it may be all that is required. It certainly is the quickest and most direct workflow method. We see what we have, we now have it recorded, we dump the memory and set up to immediately shoot another take. Extremely efficient and the quality of the image is still competitive with post requirements.
If we want every bit of data, resolution, color and contrast range, we would download the RAW data files in the memory through the 1Gig Ethernet communications into our laptop of PC configuration (more about RAW files to follow). This is not at all quick, worst case, if you wanted the entire 4400 frames, and you are saving to a firewire drive, it would take 15 - 17 minutes. On top of it taking forever, you cannot shoot again until it is finished. You can see a live image while the camera is downloading to the computer, so if you have a long reset, it is not a total waste of time.
This is where the CineMag is a lifesaver and worth every penny of an expensive rental. With the CineMag, a full download is 7 seconds. Not only is that a HUGH savings of time, you have some additional workflow capabilities. With the Cinemag mounted on the camera, when you are shooting below frames rates of 450fps, you can stop & start recording just like any other video or film camera. At higher speeds, you record into camera RAM and "upload" to the CineMag in seconds. There are two sizes of CineMags, the most common demand is for the 512Gig. With the 512G you have 66 minutes of playback time. You can mix and match rates within the CineMag and they are truly "hot-swappable."
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Phantom CineStation is a simple interface that connects to a PC using GigaBit Ethernet. Users simply snap in a CineMag to the CineStation and use the supplied software to view each cine stored on the CineMag, play the cine files over the dual HD-SDI ports or component video ports, set in- and out-points to trim the cines, and save the files to a connected hard disk drive. The Phantom CineStation comes with dual HD-SDI outputs allowing for 4:4:4 playback of the recorded cine files at all HD formats (except 60p which is 4:2:2), making it easy to review and select shots to download and archive.
