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NAB 2009 Journal

Jun 9, 2009 4:38 PM, By D. W. Leitner

Cameras, lenses, and flash recording on the cheap.

           

Steadicam meets Segway.
Photo by D.W. Leitner

What all this means—given the availability of affordable HDMI-to-SDI converters from Convergent Design (HD-Connect MI, $575) and Blackmagic Design (HDMI to SDI mini converter, $495, introduced at last year’s NAB)—is that just about any recent HD camera or camcorder, from consumer on up, using HD-SDI or HDMI can send uncompressed HD to advanced or visually lossless, high-bit-rate codecs for capture to cheap, convenient flash memory. Nonlinear and file-based. Surely a new era dawns.

Where does this leave P2, the granddaddy of flash recording? Panasonic announced a fast PCI Express five-slot docking station, AJ-PCD35, for lightning transfers (1Gbps from multiple 64GB cards). The really big P2 news at NAB, however, wasn’t cool new pocket recorders but P2 cards themselves. Traditional tape suppliers Fujifilm and Maxell are now branding P2 cards. (Do they really fabricate memory?)

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A new, more affordable P2 card also arrived, called E-series by Panasonic to distinguish it from its original series, which is now called A-series. A-series P2 is based on single-level cell (SLC) flash, which stores one bit per memory cell. It’s fast and durable, and it consumes minimal power. E-series P2 is based on multilevel cell (MLC) flash, which stores three or more bits per cell and is less expensive to make. However, it’s slower, has a shorter life, and consumes more power.

In August, Panasonic will offer a 64GB E-series P2 card for $998, compared to $2,600 for a 64GB A-series card. A 32GB E-series card, likewise, will be $625, compared to $1,650 for a 32GB A-series card. However, while A-series P2 cards will likely outlast their owners, E-series are good for only about five years of daily use. Panasonic says a warning will appear in P2 devices when a particular E-series card has reached the end of its life.

Make no mistake, each trend noted above is gaining traction fast. (Camcorder-mounted hard-disk recorders seem so 2006.) The same goes equally for LED lighting at NAB, 3D camera systems, and 3D flatscreen displays—plasma at Panasonic and LCD everywhere else—or, for that matter, 4K displays. (The CRT at NAB is herewith declared officially extinct.)

To also explore these trends more deeply, I would need to write several more reviews. Meanwhile, many of these items are profiled in short clips on YouTube and Vimeo. Another growing trend.