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Reader SurveyNAB 2008
Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM
Perspective on this year’s show.
Although it’s out of Canon’s consumer division, and not the pro group, the Vixia HV30 updates the very popular HV20, winner of a number of camcorder-of-the-year awards in 2007 and an ideal second camera to take on a shoot. Introduced at CES 2008, the HV30 adds a 30fps frame mode (in addition to 24p and 60i), an improved LCD, and an easier-to-manipulate zoom lever.
By Dan Ochiva
In some minds, years of savvy marketing campaigns and innumerable product introductions have made Sony and Panasonic the “go-to” camcorder makers.
But there are plenty of innovative offerings from other manufacturers — including Canon, Grass Valley, and JVC. It was JVC, for example, that introduced the first interchangeable lenses on 1/3in. HDV camcorders in 2005 — an approach Sony took with its most recent products: the handheld HVR-Z7U and shoulder-mountable HVR-S270U.
Meanwhile, Broadcast Engineering gave an IBC 2007 Pick Hit award to the flexible Thomson Grass Valley Infinity Digital Media camcorder, which records to a variety of “open” formats including Rev Pro disks, pro-grade CompactFlash cards, and even USB or FireWire drives.
Canon may not have as deep a product line as other major players, but over the past 18 months, the company has been building a rep with solidly built camcorders that parallel the innovative optic and design flourishes of its well-established professional SLR still camera line. In a 2007 review, for example, Jan Ozer described the XH A1 as “as close to perfect as any camcorder in its price range.” (Read the article at digitalcontentproducer.com/cameras/revfeat/canon_xh.)
Delivered early in 2007, Canon's XH A1 and XH G1 HDV camcorders offered up lower-cost, single-piece alternatives to the top-of-the-line XL H1, which boasted an interchangeable lens system. The simpler design of the later models enabled entry-level pricing compared to the $9,500 list of the H1. The single-piece A1 ($3,999) and G1 ($6,999) are basically the same camcorder, but the G1 bundles the flexible JackPack interface — much the same as the one used in the H1. If you want 4:2:2 output from your G1 or H1, the JackPack is the only way to go. It offers HD-SDI output (with embedded audio and timecode), genlock, and timecode I/O.
These days, some producers seem willing to consider only some flavors of HD, but standard-def formats still have a place at the table, according to Mitchell Glick, manager, video marketing division, Canon USA. “Many pro users still find themselves needing to shoot in standard definition due to budgetary and workflow needs, as well as other requirements,” Glick says. “That's why manufacturers including Canon continue to sell standard-definition models. Canon's XL H1, XH A1, and XH G1 HD models all offer the option of shooting in standard definition, as well as the ability to shoot in high definition and downconvert to a standard-def signal.”
But for the wide range of professional users to which Canon markets, there's still the inexorable movement of the broadcast and non-broadcast markets toward HD, as well as the need of a wider range of storage options, according to Glick.
“There are two main trends occurring in the professional arena,” Glick says. “The move from standard definition to high definition and the move from tape to alternative, tapeless methods of storage. It's hard to deny that the market is beginning to adopt solid-state storage. But though there are certain markets where such storage is demanded, for certain applications, tape proves to be a more viable option.”
While tape-based products offer their own advantages and still sell well for the company, Glick says, Canon also makes sure its camcorders interconnect to nonlinear devices such as Focus Enhancement's popular hard-disk drives.
