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MillimeterNAB 2006
Mar 5, 2006 12:30 PM, By S. D. Katz, D. W. Leitner, and Dan Ochiva
More for Your Digital Dollar
Arriflex D-20 camera with Arrihead 2 tripod head
Cameras & Camcorders
Steve Jobs declared 2005 the year of HD, but it was more like the year of HDV. Unless you've had your head in the sand this past year, you know all about new HDV camcorders: Sony's HVRZ1U and HVRA1U, JVC's GY-HD100U, and Canon's XL H1. You even know that Panasonic's entry in the Handycam-sized HD camcorder sweepstakes, the AG-HVX200, captures not MPEG2-based HDV but DV-based DVCPRO HD, with discrete frames for simpler editing and less compression than HDV.
You may even have heard last year that HDV was Sony's fastest-selling professional format ever. That's what happens when you hit that bull's-eye at the juncture of economy and technology. So expect a continuing swarm of interest in HDV and DVCPRO HD products this year, now that all promised camcorders are finally out and working in the field.
There remains confusion, however, about which HDV decks by which manufactures will play tapes from which rival manufacturers. Perhaps company reps on the floor of NAB will be helpful in addressing this confusion. Bring a recorded HDV tape, and see if they'll let you play it in a rival's deck. Isn't HDV an agreed-upon standard?
Grass Valley Infinity
An especially popular destination will be the P2-based Panasonic HVX200, enthusiastically anticipated on the Internet since first announced at last year's NAB. Since working versions only arrived in the waning days of 2005, NAB 2006 will, for most, provide a first hands-on encounter with this breakthrough DVCPRO HD mini-camcorder. (It will be interesting to see how Panasonic prevents those wee-but-pricey P2 cards from accidentally drifting away.) Expect companion P2 products and camcorders to be introduced by Panasonic, which has boldly staked its acquisition future on IT-based P2 capture.
The next bump up from 1/3in. HD camcorders at NAB will be 1/2in. HD versions; here Sony will set the pace with its XDCAM HD camcorders. Both PDW-F330 ($16,800) and PDW-F350 ($25,800) will have just entered the field as NAB begins. In a nutshell, these are 3CCD 1/2in. camcorders recording 1080i and 24P at 18Mbps (variable), 25Mbps (constant), and 35Mbps (variable) using long-GOP MPEG-2. Output is HD-SDI or IEEE 1394 (FireWire) for 25Mbps capture, functionally equivalent to HDV. Cartridge-enclosed Blu-ray type discs (with proprietary Sony tracking) capture 60 minutes of HD at 35Mbps, 90 minutes at 25Mbps, and 120 minutes at 18Mbps. Both camcorders boast time-lapse interval recording and slow shutter speeds; the PDW-F350 adds variable frame rates from 4fps to 60fps.
Clearly, these low-cost but high-tech HD camcorders are intended to spark a demand for HD ENG. CBS, for example, moved its 17 owned-and-operated stations to XDCAM for its newsgathering operations.
Expect independent producers to jump in, too, although lenses will prove a concern at the outset. (See “Lenses” section on p. 43.)
Sony PDW-F350
Sony will also unveil a makeover of its flagship HDW-F900 HDCAM. The new F900R will be squeezed into a slightly more compact HDW-750 chassis, and will now include once optional boards for slow shutter, time-lapse, and variable frame rate recording, just like its XDCAM HD siblings.
Sure to generate interest rivaling Panasonic's P2 HD camcorders will be Grass Valley's own venture into tapelessness, the 2/3in. 3CCD HD/SD Infinity Digital Media Camcorder. Grass Valley opts to embrace off-the-shelf storage, with two slots for consumer-grade compact flash memory and an internal bay for Iomega's innovative REV removable 35MB hard disk, about the size of a stack of 3"×3" Post-it notes. If these won't do, I/O choices include SDI, HD-SDI, composite analog I/O, FireWire (IEEE-1394), three USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and (in a future release) HDMI for direct digital display. There's also user selectability of three dissimilar codecs: DV, MPEG-2, and JPEG2000.
Yes, this is the first camcorder to offer wavelet-based intraframe JPEG2000, the same compression adopted by Hollywood's Digital Cinema Initiative for theatrical projection. Using standardized MXF (Material Exchange Format) file wrappers, Infinity will generate .j2k bit streams at 25Mbps, 50Mbps, 75Mbps, or 100Mbps. (Like Panasonic's P2, Infinity is way IT-centric: Inside, a CPU runs everything via Red Hat Linux.) Infinity will initially support both SD (4:2:2, 10 bit) and HD (4:2:2, 10 bit, full 1920 width) at 1080i/50/60, 720p/50/60, 625i/50, 525i/60, and later, per Grass Valley, 720p24/25/30 and 1080p24/25/30. (See next month's issue for more.)
Then there is the growing success of camera mods. Vince Pace of Los Angeles's PaceHD, himself a DP, has transformed a Sony HDC-F950 into a true cinema camera called Advantage, repackaging the inner works into an artfully milled aluminum body with handles, rosettes, and threaded holes where you'd expect them. In a further nod to legacy film camera design, there's a single on/off record button and that's it. Gone is the tangle of mini-toggles. 4:4:4 is output via thin fiber cable. There's also a Cine Advantage version with a PL mount, an Anamorphic Advantage with a built-in, behind-the-lens cylindrical lens for anamorphic conversion, and a hand-holdable 3D version combining two F950s with motor-controlled convergence. Do yourself a favor: Seek out whatever booth he's sharing this year.
Focus Enhancements FireStore DTE recorder for Panasonic’s AG-HVX200
Also seek out whatever booth 21st Century 3D is sharing. Don't miss its twin tapeless 3DVX3 camcorder. It might as easily be called 2DVX, since it joins two Panasonic DVX100 camcorders in tandem at nearly real interocular distance for stereo 3D capture. This year, 21st Century adds impressive modifications: a unique dual 800×600 LCoS (one for each eye) binocular viewfinder and an onboard recorder comprising dual stripped-down Mac Minis running OSX (boot drives replaced by flash RAM) with dual removable 7200rpm hard disk recording modules to capture 10-bit 4:4:4 RAW files from a total of 6 CCDs. Now that's a heck of a hack!
On the Digital Cinema camera front, Red Digital Cinema (South Hall booth SU1401) plans to announce technical and cost details of its Red camera. Reminiscent of Kinetta (still in development), Red promises a Super 35-sized CMOS sensor, 24.5mm × 13.5mm, with 4520×2540 active pixels, progressive scan with variable frame rates from 1fps to 60fps, optional 1080p or 720p, output of RAW files via dual Fibre Channel or 4:2:2 via HD-SDI, selectable compressed output from 19Mbps to 100Mbps, and choice of PL-mount or Red-mount lenses. (Red plans to announce its first three Ultra Definition Cinema Lenses at NAB.) Backer Jim Jennard says Red will be film camera-like in design, compact and considerably smaller than a Varicam. He has committed to showing a nonworking prototype at NAB, and says he hopes to have working cameras by year's end.
For its Arriflex D-20 camera, also featuring a 35mm-sized CMOS, Arri will introduce onboard recording in the form of a Grass Valley Venom FlashPak “Arri-ized” to resemble a 200ft. 35mm mag. Called Arri FlashMag 112 (112GB of flash RAM), it mounts atop or behind the D-20 like any Arricam mag would. Capacity is 10 minutes of 4:4:4 HD capture at 25p or 15 minutes of 4:2:2.
— D.W.L.
CMOS, or Not CMOS?
Speaking of CMOS, NAB 2005 was supposed to be the year of CMOS camera breakthroughs, but the chips didn't show up. JVC, Ikegami, and Kinetta were left high and dry. Only Sony's single-CMOS, bantamweight A1 appeared later in 2005. (And what a little performer it is. At Sundance, where Jonathan Demme's Neil Young: Heart of Gold premiered, Demme filmed his panel with Neil Young with one, while Haskell Wexler claimed to “have the hots” for one.) Sales of CMOS imagers (mostly camera phone sensors) from CMOS manufacturers Agilent, Canon, Cypress, Kodak, Micron, OmniVision, Sony, STMicroelectronics, and Toshiba America reportedly outpaced CCDs for the first time in 2005, and are expected to multiply several-fold over the next few years. So, will NAB 2006 be the year of CMOS? Or perhaps NAB 2007?
— D.W.L.
What: Ikegami HDN-X10 EditcamHD camcorder
Why: The first camcorder to use Avid's DN×HD mastering codec, this shipping version of the three-CMOS device delivers full-raster (1920 by 1080) HD resolution imaging. FieldPak2 swappable drives now come in 120GB size, providing more than one hour of HD recording time.
What: Discreet support for Sony HDCAM-SR
Why: Discreet Inferno, Flame, and Flint to include support for 720p 10-bit, 4:4:4 RGB output of Sony's HDC-F950 camera and SRW-5000 videotape recorder.
