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NAB 2007

Mar 1, 2007 12:00 PM

HD harbingers and post workflow solutions.

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Introduction
New Cameras
Postproduction Systems

New Cameras

By D.W. Leitner

There's the Gregorian solar calendar, the Chinese, Hebrew, and Islamic lunar calendars — then there's the NAB calendar, a product of a different orbit altogether. Yep, it's that time again. Time to ask what new cameras April has in store for us.

First, let's recap what NAB's last calendar year has wrought. I don't mean 1/2in. 3CCD Sony XDCAM HD camcorders — which actually materialized, in contrast to those that haven't yet (more below). I mean harbingers, signs of where our world is heading.

For me, two harbingers stood out most: the “film look” (insert irony here) of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, shot with the Panavision Genesis, and Fox News Channel's use in October of live on-air video shot with Palm Treo 700 smartphones, broadcast during breaking stories about the Amish school shooting and the Manhattan plane crash of Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle.

Neither Genesis nor Treo is a video camera per se — and I can't imagine two greater extremes in camera technology — yet these served to bracket the breadth of innovation roiling our field. Put another way, consumer-prosumer-broadcast distinctions are deader than ever. Costly or Costco, bits will flow and buckets will fill up. The only remaining question seems to be: what combo of lens, sensor, DSP, and compression?

The beautiful thing is this can be a bean-counting exercise (What HD camcorder can our station afford?) or, increasingly, an artistic choice (What look do we want for our indie feature?). Or it can be both. You have only to attend a bellwether event such as January's Sundance Film Festival to appreciate the full spectrum of technology in play these days — road-tested on tight budgets, I might add.

I mention Sundance because camera manufacturers recognize that risk-taking indie filmmakers have become the true early adopters. Manufacturers en route to NAB now make a small side trip to Park City, Utah, to preview their very latest gear in the laid-back, festive atmosphere of Sundance. One afternoon during Sundance 2006, for instance, I played to my heart's content with an Arriflex D-20 and a set of Carl Zeiss Ultra Primes — no NAB crush to share them with — then another day with a Sony XDCAM HD with B4 mount adapter and new Canon HD primes.

At this year's Sundance, I played with the new Arriflex 416 Super 16 camera; Panavision's incredible new Hylén effects device, which mounts behind the lens of a Genesis and enables something akin to aerial image photography in realtime; and JVC's new 720/24p GY-HD200 with HZ-CA13U PL-mount adapter. JVC's Craig Yanagi had mounted a 16mm T 1.3 Carl Zeiss Super Speed (vintage, but a great 16mm film lens) to the PL-mount adapter and further tricked out the HD200 with a lightweight rod system, dual handgrips, and geared focus knob. My skepticism at building out an HDV camcorder to resemble a cinema camera melted away as I walked around “filming” with it. The balance was perfect, and the Super Speed looked fabulous despite JVC's relay optics. (Again, these items are headed to NAB, and I got a running jump on them.)

Think I'm over-emphasizing the groundbreaking role that indies play? Did you happen to enjoy those two charming “no-budget” 30-second Doritos spots that aired during the Super Bowl? The ones shot with a JVC GY-HD100 and a Panasonic AG-HVX200? The first one cost five bags of Doritos plus one HDV tape; the second recycled a pair of 8GB P2 cards. (No consumables.) Young indies, folks.

If conventional notions surrounding cameras and costs have frayed somewhat since NAB 2006, the next 12 months — starting in April — will cause further raveling. Take, for instance, the HD200 that Yanagi previewed at Sundance. JVC's new 200-series 720p24 camcorders look identical to their predecessors, the HD100 and HD110, yet under the hood they've been hot-rodded. JVC has given them a wider-band analog front end (before A/D), a new 14-bit DSP (upgraded from 12-bit), and a more efficient MPEG-2 encoder.

Both the “economy model” HD200 ($8,000 sans lens) and the HD250 with added HD-SDI and genlock ($10,000 sans lens) can now output 50p and 60p to disk via FireWire, written as either HDV-native M2T files or (by NAB) as QuickTime MOV files. With 24p as basic frame rate, they enable 60p overcranking for slo-mo — a capability until recently limited mostly to Varicams and HVX200s. What's more, an HD250 with HD-SDI can now output uncompressed 50p or 60p. For indie filmmakers, there's even a new gamma for film-out to 35mm.

Last year at JVC's booth, as it happened, the HD200, HD250, and PL-mount adapter were displayed as prototypes, which fits a mounting trend at NAB: public showcasing of mock-ups that won't materialize as production cameras for a year or more (Balsacam, anyone?). A glaring example is Grass Valley's tapeless Infinity digital media camcorder, announced in fall 2005 at IBC. A handful of working units appeared at NAB 2006 — then, nothing. What happened? Concerns over size and power consumption were partly to blame.

However, there's a happy outcome: Delays opened the door to the inclusion of a new 2/3in., 2.4-megapixel (full 1920×1080) 3-CMOS sensor block, which Grass Valley says contributes to wider dynamic range, lower power consumption, and a better signal-to-noise ratio. A working preproduction version of the new Infinity will be at NAB (still tagged at $26K), along with an intriguing Rev Pro removable hard-disk module that can attach to the rear of other manufacturers' camcorders.

Likewise, for several years, Panasonic has touted a complete yet somewhat vaporous line of high-definition P2 camcorders. This year, the company finally starts delivering the goods. In November, the company announced its first shoulder-mounted HD P2 camcorder, the AJ-HPX2000 ($27,000), a 2/3in. 3CCD (1280×720, progressive) DVCPRO HD camcorder (with five card slots). At NAB, Panasonic will unveil a second shoulder-mounted P2 camcorder, the AG-HPX500 (four slots), meant as a low-cost ($14,000), full-size complement to the compact HVX200.

The HPX500 adds HD-SDI, genlock, and 50i/25p frame rates to a feature set that otherwise matches that of the HVX200. The 2/3in. CCDs in the HPX500 are a version of the progressive 520,000-pixel CCDs found in the standarddef SDX900. (Spatial offset is used to achieve HD resolution.) In selected Fujinon and Canon zooms, Chromatic Aberration Compensation automatically counteracts any color fringing.

P2 partisans can look forward to two big leaps at NAB: the availability in May of 16GB P2 cards (double the capacity of current 8GB cards) and the advent of Panasonic's new AVC-I intraframe MPEG-4 compression, which will double P2 capacity yet again. Note that AVC-I will first be available in the HPX2000 via an optional board. Also, P2 camcorders sold before May may require a driver update (via SD card) to use 16GB cards. (If I knew the projected price of the 16GB card, or the AVC-I board for that matter, I'd tell you.)

At NAB, Sony will showcase the Handycam-style 3-CMOS HVR-V1U, which captures 24p (as 1080i) to MiniDV and/or an attachable HVR-DR60 hard disk recorder, and the breakthrough 3CCD F23, a new CineAlta flagship that looks more Panaflex than HDCAM. The F23 can capture 1920×1080 4:4:4 RGB to a portable SRW-1 HDCAM SR recorder attached behind or on top of the camera like a 35mm film magazine.

On the XDCAM front, Sony will demonstrate a working prototype of a 2/3in. XDCAM HD camcorder that will eventually join the company's existing line of 1/2in. 3CCD XDCAM HD camcorders (which are fast gaining ENG street cred as worthy heirs to Betacam). Don't miss Sony's new color viewfinder, HDVF-C35W, containing a largish 3.5in. LCD screen. It fits 2/3in. CineAlta and HDCAMs but not, sadly, current 1/2in. XDCAM HD units (which have B&W standard-def viewfinders).

Versatility is the catchword this year for 2/3in. 3CCD studio cameras. Hitachi will debut five new SK- and DK-series studio and field cameras with a choice of 1080i or 720p sensors. The 1080i sensor models can output 1080 lines at 24p, 25p, and 30p using a new cross-converter. Sony, too, is introducing a dual-format HD studio camera: the HDC-1400. In Panasonic's new AK-HC3500, native 1080i CCDs are spatially offset to achieve 1,100 horizontal lines with less aliasing. Notable are a 38-bit DSP and gamma correction that varies in realtime to match image contrast.

At the loftier altitudes of digital cinema, it's no secret that Dalsa has been designing a compact version of its 4K Origin, the 500lb. gorilla (in more ways than one) of digital cinematography. And if scrappy upstart Red Digital Cinema comes through as promised on its delivery of low-cost 4K cameras, massive side bets will be won and lost — what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! But it's a sure thing that no booth at NAB will be more stampeded.

Meanwhile, Silicon Imaging (SI) will demonstrate its latest SI-2K Digital Cinema camera (single 2/3in. Altasens CMOS, 1920×1080) along with its cigarette pack-sized SI-2K Mini head. (The Mini's PL mount is nearly as big as the Mini itself.) SI and CineForm will share a booth to promote SI's bundling of CineForm's Prospect 2K software for realtime editing of compressed RAW files.

Also sharing a booth will be Abel Cine Tech and Vision Research, having announced their strategic partnership in February. Abel will provide sales, rental, and tech support for Vision's single-CMOS, high-speed Phantom HD camera (1,000fps) and Phantom 65, a unique 4K camera that achieves 120fps using a CMOS sensor the size of a 65mm motion picture film frame.

Speaking of film, if you think it's dead, Arri's sleek new Arriflex 416 Super 16 camera will have you scratching your head at what they know that you don't. (The first run of 416s is already sold out — go figure.) And, like me, die-hard fans of 2-perf Techniscope (Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns) will rejoice at the graceful stage entrance made by Aaton's much-anticipated 2-perf 35mm Penelope — if she shows.

© 2009 Penton Media, Inc.