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Future Workflow, Today

Aug 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Barry Braverman

Shooting with Panasonic’s AJ-SPX800

It's unusual for shooters and other mere mortals to glimpse the future with such clarity and insight. Over the last 30 years, many of us prescient industry professionals could only recognize the great leaps forward after the fact — the introduction of Sony U-Matic in 1971, Betacam in 1982, and DigiBeta in 1994; Panasonic's Varicam in 2001 and the DVX100 24p camcorder in 2002. Now it seems we're on the cusp of another quantum leap, only this time we can see it coming. In December, Panasonic is expected to ship the AG-HVX200 P2 camcorder — the much-fawned-over, not-quite-there star of NAB 2005.

Apart from the diminutive HD camera's impressive features, the other story behind the HVX200 will likely be the surge in popularity for the P2 recording system. New purchasers will discover P2 and the extraordinary — no, make that revolutionary — workflow that goes with it. For many digital craftsman, shooters, and producers, P2 will almost certainly be the big story of 2006. But P2 is also very much about today, in the guise of Panasonic's current P2 broadcast camera, the AJ-SPX800.

The SPX800 is a standard-definition 2/3in. camcorder featuring 24p, 30p, and 60i recording modes at DVCPRO 25Mbps and 50Mbps resolutions. The front of the camera is nearly identical to the company's elegant SDX900 model, one of the best, if not the best SD camera ever designed, manufactured, and marketed. Period.

Like its SDX counterpart, the SPX800 is extremely low-light capable with a sensitivity of only f13 at 2000 lux. This measure of low-light sensitivity is inherently more honest than the minimum illumination rating often given by manufacturers that fails to consider actual performance. Many current-generation cameras measure f11, and some older cameras come in at f8 (at 2000 lux), so the SPX800 and SDX900 models are considerably better suited for low-light situations than most broadcast cameras out there. In my own tests, I particularly liked the -3dB gain setting; the excellent detail maintained in the SPX800 looked indistinguishable from many competing cameras at 0dB.

There are differences worth noting in the physical configuration and menu setup options of the two cameras. The SPX800, for example, features only a single filter wheel instead of the usual two as in the SDX900. (Sony, interestingly, makes the same concession in its entry-level XDCAM model.)

The SPX800 also features an LCD flip-out screen, a long overdue assist now found increasingly in top-end broadcast cameras. Another feature migrating upward from the prosumer ranks is the digital zoom. Yeah, I know. I used to believe it, too, that no professional worth his lens cap has ever used the worthless thing. But now I have to admit, in some cases, the SPX800's 2X digital zoom makes sense. In low light, an optical extender will often produce images that are too dark and lacking in contrast to be usable. The SPX digital zoom, on the other hand, provides comparable 2X image magnification without the loss of light or contrast. Of course in bright scenes, optical magnification will almost always produce better images, so this should still be the preferred route in routine applications.

Speed, the SPX800's raison d'etre

The Panasonic SPX800 is a pleasure to use and operate, as all essential controls can be easily accessed by simple touch. This means the ENG user facing the camera for the first time will quickly feel right at home. From decades of experience I can say unequivocally that few cameras feel as comfortable and empowering as the SPX800.

The camera's friendly posture means you're more likely to take advantage of the P2-enabled features. One feature is the camera's almost instant run-up time. From a cold start with the camera powered down, I was shooting and recording in less than two seconds. Now that's fast! No waiting for the usual servo conniptions and startup histrionics. The byword of the SPX800 is instantaneous — instantaneous review of recorded footage, instantaneous cueing and rewinding, instantaneous true random access.

The P2 advantage

Housing five P2 memory cards, the SPX800 offers unique advantages. First, recording is accomplished with no moving parts — no springs, tensioners, pressure pads to knock out of alignment, and no spinning heads, drums, or lasers to pick up dirt and moisture or somehow jar loose. Whatever your ideological persuasion in life regarding disc versus traditional tape transports, in my mind the memory card offers advantages over both technologies in terms of workflow efficiency and absolute reliability.

Let's look at workflow first. The 4GB P2 card comes preformatted and can hold about 16 minutes of DVCPRO footage at 25Mbps. Lower-cost 8GB cards are due out in early fall, a development attesting to the rapidly evolving practical and economic nature of the P2 technology. (Panasonic states that contact failure is not likely to be much of an issue because every P2 card is rated for a minimum of 30,000 insertions.)

So here's the beautiful part: Once recorded, the P2 card may be removed from the camera and inserted into the PCMCIA slot of a laptop NLE. Working on Mac or PC, itinerant news producers can then go directly to air via the DV interface, and thus no longer have to rely on a VCR or other hardware to perform a required capture.

The P2 appears on the computer desktop like any other data volume, ready to offload files to a storage drive by simple drag and drop. The transfer is accomplished at a rate of 1GB per minute, a full 4GB card requiring about four minutes to transfer. While the process is slowed by the conversion of MXF files to QuickTime, the transfer times are improving markedly with recent enhancements to software. (Note that Material eXchange Format (MXF) files are generic media containers similar in concept to QuickTime. The MXF wrapper, like a QuickTime transport stream, is non-codec specific and thus can support P2 and many other formats at various resolutions.)

With one exception the SPX800 records only into the blank areas of a memory card, so there's no danger of accidentally overwriting data. A full card can be swapped out with the camera still running and recording to a backup card. Loop recording is also possible, allowing continuous recording to a fixed area. This is the only condition in which the SPX800 will overwrite previously recorded data on the P2 card.

So who needs a VCR?

Good question. One hears of P2's limited card capacity and relative high cost per gigabyte. At $1,700 per 8GB memory card, the viability of P2 would thus appear to be a way off. But hold on to your tripod handle, for it's not quite that simple.

The AJ-SPD850 P2 deck (priced at $15,000) currently acts as a bridge between the IT and video worlds. In many organizations, such a bridge is important because integration with current workflow is a top priority. The P2 deck with its full I/O complement of plugs and jacks feels like a traditional VCR with scrubbable audio for cueing and analysis. Unsurprisingly, performance is much smoother than conventional decks because, like the camera, the SPD850 contains no mechanized parts. Still, at $15K, one has to say the deck is considerably more costly than going the strictly IT route.

And that's one beauty of the open P2 system. As storage media drops in price, more of us will choose to leave our capture files permanently on the server. We'll just add more hard drives as we need them and never go back to tape or invest in another VCR.

Consider the options

The AJ-SPX800 may be equipped optionally with a FireWire IEEE 1394 ($900) and/or a 601 SDI card ($935). The Pre-Record card that many shooters opted for in the SDX900 is now standard in the SPX. The feature allows a buffer inside the camera to store up to 15 seconds of video at 25Mbps prior to pressing the record button. This interval is reduced to a maximum of 7.5 seconds at 50Mbps resolution.

The Panasonic SPX800 has minimal need for proxy MP4 video since the P2 system allows instant access at all times to the recorded material. Nevertheless, a proxy card containing an MP4 encoder is available as an option for specialized applications.

In summary

It's becoming increasingly clear to shooters and producers that one's choice of camera is worthy of considerable thought and research. As expensive hardware like VCRs and editing systems fall by the wayside, the need remains more critical than ever for a high-performance acquisition tool. The Panasonic AJ-SPX800 is one of these tools — rugged, beautifully designed, and capable of producing startling, even spectacular-looking images. The lightweight consumer camcorders gaining popularity in some circles may work for some folks, but most commercial and broadcast shooters understand the need for a more robust camera that can, among other things, support broadcast-quality optics and the ideal workflow.

In one camera we can see the future and embrace that ideal workflow. P2 is here and available today in Panasonic's AJ-SPX800.

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