I recently taught a class at MassArt, Documentary Video Boot Camp, and one of my students, Adam Weiss, used his new Canon VIXIA HG20 camcorder in the class. As a result of seeing the video Adam shot for his assignments, I think I have to say that the Canon HG20 AVCHD Hard Drive camcorder (street price around $600) has to join my list of favorite video cameras under $10,000, which has at the top of the list the Panasonic HPX170 DVCPRO HD P2 camcorder (street price around $4,930) The HPX170 is similar to the HVX200 which has been a favorite for quite some time since I first used it and wrote the article, “First Look: Panasonic AG-HVX200 DVCPro HD Camcorder back in 2006. This Canon is the first small camcorder that has caught my attention in a serious manner. Last time I was in the market for one was quite some time ago and I ended up buying a Sony HVR-A1 HDV camcorder. The fact that it is tape based has tainted my impression of it, and I’ve often said, “this is the last tape-based camcorder I will ever buy,” but at the time, hard drive recording of HD was a different story than it is today. It has become viable due to the availability of more efficient codecs, the ability to pack more computing power into little cameras, smaller and cheaper hard drives, and SD card prices following suite.

Panasonic HPX170

The interesting thing to note is that the image quality difference between the consumer-priced HG20 and the pro-sumer priced HPX170 cameras is nowhere near in proportion to the cost difference between the two. Much of it has to do with supply and demand. Professionals make up a smaller market segment and thus must pay a premium for professional features. Clearly the overall quality of the image, true 24p, variable frame rates, the many professional features, and the ergonomics of the HPX170 make it a better camera, however, I can think of a lot of situations where multiple HG20 cameras might provide better coverage of an event than a single HPX170. On the other hand, for a formal interview or narrative shooting, the HPX170 wins hands down. But what if your camera budget is in the hundreds, not thousands, of dollars? The HG20 is a compelling option.

The Canon HG20 AVCHD hard disk camcorder is a delightfully small and light camera with stunning image quality considering its size and price. It records video in the AVCHD format to an internal hard drive or SD memory card. It has a 1920 x 1080 1/3.2″ 3.3Mp CMOS chip providing gorgeous high-definition images. You can record quite a lot of video on the internal 60GB hard drive at either high quality (24Mbps) or standard quality (17Mbps). The camera also captures 2.76Mp still to the SD card or from video stored on the hard drive.

Other features include 24p Cinema mode and 30p Progressive mode (both are recorded at 60i). The camera does not sport a viewfinder, so in bright light situations you will need some kind of hood for the LCD display. And unlike many tiny cameras today, the HG20 provides an external microphone input. This is an essential feature for anyone serious about good audio recording. This allows you to use professional audio gear via a BeachTek adapter or use microphones that are designed to be used with 3.5mm minijack inputs. The camera has an odd Mini “S” Accessory Shoe for attaching Canon accessories like microphones or lights, but the standard microphone input is the the way to go for connecting quality microphones. Cameras come and go, but audio gear is a long term investment. A wireless remote to control rounds out the features so you can stop and start the camera from a distance.

Gone are videotapes. And not a moment too soon. No more timecode break headaches. No more capture headaches and dropped frames. But, like any technological improvement, we gain something, and we lose something. You now have to keep a good archive copy of your digital media, for there is no tape on the shelf. This is a huge topic for another blog post.

Canon offers a less expensive model with the same imaging chip called the HF-100 (Street price around $530). The major differences are that the HF-100 does not have an internal hard drive (which makes it a lighter), the menu system is a little different, and it records AVCHD video at the 17Mbps data rate only.

And what about editing? When you capture media from this camcorder to Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro, you will experience large file sizes upon capture (compared to the smaller AVCHD files created by the camera). This is because in the case of Final Cut Express, footage is transcoded to the Apple Intermediate Codec and in the case of Final Cut Pro, you have a choice of transcoding to Apple’s ProRes 422 codec or the Apple Intermediate Codec. Although MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 is a nice compact file format for recording and delivery, it is not good for editing because it requires too much computing horsepower to decode and recode individual frames. Editing will go more smoothy, and image quality preserved, when editing is done using an intermediate codec designed for editing like the Apple Intermediate Codec or Apple’s ProRes 422 codec.

Here are some support documents on Apple’s web site you should consult if you’re editing AVCHD with Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro:

• Final Cut Pro 6.0.1: About transferring AVCHD footage
• Final Cut Express: Ingesting AVCHD clips may not work from the Log and Transfer window
• Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express: Unexpected quit during AVCHD ingest
• See also Working with AVCHD Footage in the Final Cut Express 4 User Manual.

HG20 Specifications

• Power: Proprietary Lithium-ion battery or AC adapter
• Weight: 13.4 oz
• Street price: around $600
• Sensor: 1/3.2″ 1920 x 1080 3.3Mp CMOS
• Video format: AVCHD (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264) video at 24Mbps or 17Mbps
• Audio format: Dolby Digital 2 channel (AC-3 2 channel) audio
• Still capture: 2.76 Mp JPEG stills
• Lens: 12x zoom, 4.8mm-57mm, f/1.8-f/3.0
• Optical Image Stabilization
• LCD Display: 2.7″ Widescreen
• Viewfinder: None
• Recording Media: built in 60GB Hard Disk or SDHC Memory Card
• Stereo microphone input (3.5mm stereo minijack)
• Stereo headphone output (menu selectable via 3.5mm A/V minijack)
• Video outputs: HDMI (mini, Type C); Component out; A/V out (3.5mm minijack)
• Data interface: USB 2.0 (mini-B)
• Controls: Auto mode or manual control of White Balance, Focus, Exposure
• Power: Proprietary Lithium-ion battery or AC adapter
• Weight: 13.4 oz
• Street price: around $600

In summary, given the price, the HG20 is a compelling contender if you’re looking for a small HD camcorder under $1,000 and are ready to say goodbye once and for all to ye-olde video tape technology. Curious how my other favorite camcorder, the HPX170, is the successor to the camera that introduced semiconductor memory recording in the under $10,000 camcorder category. From P2 cards to SD cards, the speed and convenience of solid-state or hard-drive storage for recording video is hard to beat.

In this demo and presentation at the Boston Final Cut Pro Users Group meeting on Thursday, July 24, 2008, I discussed the features and benefits of the camera and demonstrated the simplicity of XDCAM EX workflow with Final Cut Studio 2. I wrote about my first impressions in a earlier post.

Dowload PDF of Presentation Slides(from SlideShare)

View Presentation Slides Online (at SlideShare)

In terms of first impressions shooting with the camera goes, the first thing I noticed is that while the camera is a bit on the heavy side for hand-holding in “handycam” mode, the adjustable handle with the ergonomics of a pro 2/3″ zoom lens handle made it easier to use as a handheld camera. Of course, on a tripod the camera is right at home. A camera’s handholdability is all relative, I’ve grown used to shooting with my HVR-A1 and a friend’s Sony HVR-V1 over the past year, so I find the EX1 to be a big change in terms of weight. But the extra weight is worth it, for the image quality is absolutely spectacular. Goodbye HDV (and good riddance to videotape), hello XDCAM EX!

The PVM-EX1 features a 14x zoom with pro-style controls
and real focus and iris rings. More photos available on Flickr

There’s lots of serious glass in this camera, as the 1/2″ sensor requires a larger lens than 1/3″ chip cameras like the Panasonic AG-HVX200 (still an excellent performer). And while it’s still not providing the 2/3″ image sensor look of a professional camcorder, the 1/2″ sensors are a big improvement over 1/3″ sensors in most prosumer cameras. It’s easier to get separation between the foreground and background. I’d like to see Sony come out with an APS-sized single sensor camera (like a documentary form-factor Red) someday, but I digress. The EX1 is clearly not in the middle of the pro-sumer price range, it straddles between pro-sumer and low-end professional gear in terms of price. While the camera alone sells for $6,500.00, by the time you add a couple of 16G memory cards and extra batteries (which you’ll need), a wide-angle adapter, and a few other gismos, you’re looking at something hovering around a $9,000.00 purchase. That’s a serious chunk of change when you compare it to the HVR-Z1 HDV camcorder, but if you look at it another way, this camera does most of what the Sony PDW-F350 XDCAM HD camcorder does for much less dough. So it’s either a very expensive pro-sumer camera or an amazing price/performance breakthrough in professional level cameras.

Not all things are rosy, however. Audio was clearly a second-thought with this camera, with digital recording there is no reason why Sony can’t support four channels, but it only supports two. One of the features I’ve really enjoyed with the Panasonic HVX200 is recording camera mic audio on channels 3 and 4 while running audio from my mixer into channels 1 and 2. Having the ambient sound is a nice plus, as well as it often makes it easier to hear a director’s questions in an interview. Battery life is short, so you’ll have to buy one or two additional high-capacity batteries with this camera. In addition, for folks who shoot with a 35mm lens adapter, you’ll not be pleased with the camera’s inability to invert the viewfinder image. There is no ability to shoot in standard definition, so for those quick and dirty jobs that require standard definition deliverables, your stuck converting in post. But no camera can be all things to all people, and this camera seems to have most of the bells and whistles most people want.

Since I’m Macintosh and Final Cut Pro user, I found this camera integrated seamlessly with my Final Cut Pro workflow. I have previously worked with XDCAM HD and I found the workflow to be pretty much identical, except there is no need for a camera or deck. If you’ve got a MacBook Pro you’re all set, you simply slide the SxS card into the ExpressBus/34 slot. Otherwise, you can use the camera to transfer media via USB2 to your computer or use an external USB2 SxS card reader available from Sony. For all of this to work, you’ll need to download two pieces of software, the SxS card driver (from here) and the XDCAM Transfer Utility (from here). It was a snap to ingest footage, rename the clips, and bring them into Final Cut Pro. The much fast transfer time of the SxS cards was a welcome change from having to do HDV captures in real-time. And the footage shot in the HQ mode looks spectacular. Ahh, the beauty of real high definition progressive scan images, simply breathtaking. Some sample images and images of the camera can be found in my Sony PMW-EX1 Flickr set.

Minor revisions were made to this post on 22-Feb-09.

Detailed session descriptions follow:

Web Video 2.0: Delivering Your Video Online
Friday, March 07, 1:00PM – 3:00PM, $25.00
Video on the web is hotter than ever and the excitement is moving beyond YouTube and into corporate web video, web-based episodics, delivery of films directly to viewers, and new applications of video never before possible. Through examples, demonstrations, and discussion, you will learn how you can make web video work for you. A practical how-to approach will provide you with an understanding of delivery options (e.g. progressive download vs. streaming), compression and format tips (codec and player choices), video sharing and streaming services, and monitization strategies. This session will be of interest to producers, directors, videographers, editors, and site designers who want to deliver video online and/or integrate video into their web site. Back by popular demand, this follow-up to last-years sold-out session has been updated with new material and examples to reflect the latest tools, techniques, and trends.

Art of the Interview: Strategies and Techniques for Better Video Interviews
Saturday, March 08, 9:00AM – 11:00AM, $25.00
The interview is a fundamental element of most documentary films, many video blogs, and event coverage. Through video examples and interactive discussion this session will provide you with practical strategies and techniques you can apply to your work and includes coverage of how and why to use interviews. You will learn how to: choose the right interview style (e.g. walk-and-talk vs. formal sit-down), choose a form of address (e.g. first-person vs. third person), prepare for an interview, put your subjects at ease, conduct an interview, and more. A discussion of how technical components (camera, sound, lighting, environment) influence the results is included. Designed for both beginning and intermediate documentary filmmakers, videobloggers, and event videographers. For an in-depth exploration of lighting for interviews, consider attending the “Interview Lighting” session that follows later in the day.

Interview Lighting: Professional Results On A Tight Budget
Saturday, March 08, 1:00PM – 3:00PM, $25.00
A demonstration and discussion of several approaches to lighting interviews ranging from low-budget existing light and one light techniques to classic three-point lighting using professional fixtures. Session covers: review of lighting fundamentals, survey of popular lighting fixtures and kits, screening and discussion of practical examples covering aesthetic issues and technical trade-offs, and suggestions for putting together a kit based on your specific needs. This session provides an excellent follow-on to “The Art of the Interview” earlier in the day. Prior attendance to “Art of the Interview” is helpful but not required.

I hope to see you there.

I’ve been shooting with a Canon S100 Digital Elph since 2000, and after seven years the camera was looking very long in the tooth, with dead pixels and starting to fall apart, it was time for an equally tiny replacement. For serious still shooting I’ve got a Canon 10D w/ an EF 24mm-70mm f/2.8 lens, and for video, a Sony HVR-A1U HDV camcorder, and even though the images from both of these puppies are spectacular, I don’t always want to deal with the weight and bulk of these cameras. I like having a small digital camera I can take with me wherever I go, that I can wear on my belt and forget it’s there. But I also would like to shoot short movie segments, so I’ve been waiting for something with at least 1280 x 720 (720p) video capability in the Digital Elph form factor. Finally Canon introduced the TX1 that fits the bill, so after years waiting and considering, yet not purchasing, many alternatives, I settled on the TX1.

In a subsequent post I’ll Post and discuss some of the movie clips I I’ve shot with the camera, as far as stills go, check out the May 6, 2007 Boston Media Makers Meeting Photo Set I recently posted to Flickr, all of these images in the set were shot with the TX1. I’m not going to go over the features and specifications of this camera in great detail, that information is readily available in Digital Photography Review’s review of the camera. In this post I’m going to focus on my qualitative experience of the camera and summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the camera.

The camera is small and easy to handle after a short aclimation period. The LCD viewfinder is bright and crisp, and shows grid lines to make it east to keep your photos aligned nicely.

I was pleased with the overall quality of the still images I shot under good lighting conditions or using flash. Photos taken with the flash were sometimes over-exposed, and I got the occational red-eye (even through red-eye reduction was set on) more often than I expected. When you shoot without Flash, if you set the ISO on auto or to 800 and above, the images are really noisy, as you would expect. I still prefer to use my Canon 10D w/ 24-70mm f/2.8 lens for hand-hend phtography in low-light, often with a monopod, not only are the high ISO results better, but the auto focus is much better. It’s not fair to compare a $1,500 D-SLR and a little $500 point and shoot, but someday I hope it is. Some of the TX1 photos in the above set were shot with a monopod to offset the effect of camera shake so I could shoot at a lower ISO rating.

The camera uses a 7.1 megapixel CCD imager with a 6.5-65mm f/3.5-5.6 (35mm equivalent 39–390mm) 10x optical zoom lens, but that’s the price you pay for such a tiny lens. My gripe is that the wide is not as wide as I would have liked, I do lots of close-in shooting. The OIS (optical image stabilization) worked reasonably, and Canon claims the camera uses their Digic III image processor. The camera is capable of shooting in very low light if you don’t mind lonts of noise in the image, with an ISO rating of up to 1600.

Video quality is reasonable for such a tiny camera, however, even though video can be recorded at a resolution as high as 1280 x 720 at 30fps, it’s not anywhere near as good as video shot with an HDV (MPEG-2) or AVCHD (MPEG-4/H.264) camcorder. The TX1 uses Motion-JPEG, an older format with a much higher bit rate for the quality compared to H.264 or MPEG-2. The only real advantage of Motion-JPEG is low processor overhead, and in such a tiny camera, it’s an issue. I suspect, over time, we’ll see the move towards using better codecs in this form factor. The 1280 x 720 movies look much better when reduced to half-size 640 x 360, but I’ve not been shooting the smaller size movies because starting with the larger image gives you some flexibility in terms of zooming if you need it.

My greatest disappointment with the camera is that even though I found the face-detect auto focus worked reasonably well, the problem for me is that the camera does not offer an easy way to quickly switch between face-detect auto focus and standard auto focus. Sometimes the face-detect auto focus works well, but when it’s not working, you want to be able to turn it off in an instant, and turn it back on when you think it’s going to work well and then back off when the situation changes, and so on and so forth. Instead the mode switch has to be done by going into the menu. The camera offers one assignable button and this switching should be assignable to that button, but it is not. Although the camera automatically switches to AF mode when it can’t detect a face, the problem is when it detects the wrong face or you want something other than a face focused upon. The 9-point auto-focus is only available in single shot mode, in continuous mode it’s based on a center point. There is also no maunal focus. This would be nice, but I don’t exect it in a camera like this.

In a nutshell, the strengths of this camera lie in the small form-factor, and ability to shoot both stills and video, the use of high capacity and high performance SD memory cards, and reasonably good image stabalization.

Weaknesses include the widest lens setting is not very wide, there is no quick on/off face-recognition auto-focus button (you can’t quickly turn it on and off), long shutter lag, lack of manual focus, and very noisy low-light results.

Great camera if you want something small and need both stills and video. I suspect as memory prices continue to drop and tiny embedded processors get faster and faster, we’re going to see a growing number of hybrid camera/camcorders on the market, I think the TX1 is just the beginning of a whole new wave of tiny HD cameras.

If you live in the Boston area you will not want to miss the 17th Annual Pro Video Show sponsored by The Camera Company to be held Friday and Saturday, March 9-10, 2007 at Stonehill College, in Easton, Massachussetts (Exit 17B off Route 24). This annual event provides local media makers with the opportunity to check out new equipment, talk with fellow media makers, and attend a wide range of workshops and seminars. Yours truly will be presenting two of the seminars, “Delivering Video on the Web” and “Champagne Production Values on a Beer Production Budget.”

Here’s a description of my seminars:

Delivering Video on the Web
Learn how to make video available on the web, earn money with it, take a look at how it can be delivered to devices and web browsers, and examine the opportunities and challenges it presents. The launch of the video iPod, availability of video on iTunes, the explosion of viral video, Google’s purchase of YouTube, and the amazing quality of shows on blip.tv are all part of a tectonic shift in the media distribution landscape. Television producers, independent filmmakers, communications specialists, advertising executives and entrepreneurs will all learn how to benefit from the tremendous opportunities made possible by delivering their video on the web. Cost: $25. Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 12:00 NOON to 2:00 p.m.

Champagne Production Values on a Beer Production Budget
Video production budgets are tighter than ever, and the increasingly saturated media environment demands that your video must stand out from the rest. In this seminar, you will learn about the strategies, creative elements, and production tools that together deliver what viewers and clients often describe as “high production values.” Practical discussion and examples help you apply cost effective methods right away, resulting in champagne production values on a beer production budget. Cost: $25. Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Other workshops and seminars scheduled at this time (subject to change) include:

• Audio for Video (Sennheiser, David Missal)
• Planning a Production (Teja Arboleda)
• Editing Aesthetics (Eric Scott Latek)
• Apple Final Cut Studio, a Complete Workflow, (Alex Kaloostian)
• A Practical Comparison of DV, HDV & DVCPRO HD for FCP Editors (Alex Kaloostian)
• Docudrama (Eric Scott Latek)
• Final Cut Pro—The Next Step (Ed Krasnow)
• Lighting For Video Film Style (Tom Musto)
• Making History! Profiting from Biography and Same Day Edit Presentations (Hal Slifer)
• P2/Apple Work Flow (Bill Kennedy and Raj Lad, Panasonic Broadcast)
• Meeting of The Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE)
• HD Outdoors (Trevor Gowdy)
• Digital & HD 101 (AJA Systems)
• Adobe Premiere Pro Basics “Crash” Course (Eric Scott Latek)
• Digital Asset Management & Workflow (Focus Enhancements)
• Reflecmedia (Bogen Imaging)

Please keep in mind that all workshop attendees must check in at the Sally Blair Ames Sports Complex (main exhibit location) at least 15 minutes prior to class.

For more information call 781.769.7810 or visit The Camera Company web site. Seminar listing subject to change.

The New England Chapter of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) held its Annual Digital Production Showcase (which has become a mid-winter tradition) on Wednesday, January 17th at WCVB-TV’s studio in Needham, Massachusetts. My photos from the event are available on Flickr. In addition to being fed sandwiches and piping hot New England clam chowder (very appropriate given the cold snap) attendees had a chance to experience hands-on demos of the latest digital production tools in a collegial atmosphere. I thank SMPTE/New England for hosting such a delightful event in which I can catch up with what’s happening in the realm of digital production.

While vendors had lots to show, the really interesting conversations were on the show floor, abuzz with speculation of what vendors might be unveiling at NAB in Las Vegas this year. This year the show had more exhibits than ever before, and while the emphasis of the show is video post production and non-linear editing, I took delight in checking out several new cameras.

Marty Feldman from The Camera Company showed me the new HVR-V1U, Sony’s first entry into an affordable entry-level progressive scan HDV camera, it sports three 1/4″ CMOS chips. Also in the Camera Company Booth were two other popular HDV camcorders, the Canon XH-A1 and the JVC GY-HD250. The HD250 is a much needed upgrade to their ProHD line-up featuring 720/60p recording, HD SDI and component out, and a decent battery connector for Anton-Bauer batteries. The cheesy add-on connector that’s available for the earlier GY-HD100 was very fragile to put it politely. With the 250 the camera line has grown up

Vendors know that many sophisticated people will be kicking the tires at this event, so they send out some of their more knowledgeable representatives for this show, it was a good evening for getting answers to tough camera and post-production questions.

There was also talk among some Final Cut Pro editors that they are tired of rendering hell and are ready to switch to some of the real-time alternatives now available on “the other platform.” As editors mix different media types on the timeline these days, the time wasted rendering is becoming a serious productivity issue. More than one editor I spoke with expressed their disappointment that Apple has yet to address this issue and is apparently more concerned with iPods and iPhones than creative production.

1 Beyond was at the show pleased to offer Final Cut Pro editors an alternatives with the Matrox Axio running on their HD Octoflex eight processor workstation running Windows XP. When it comes to HD editing, and you start to compare prices and performance, the Axio solution is in the same ballpark as Final Cut Pro on a Mac Pro with a Kona 3 card but offers better real-time performance.

Why has it taken Apple so long to deliver a true real-time solution? There were no significant announcements at NAB from Apple last year regarding Final Cut Pro. Will Apple at NAB this year finally unveil the long-rumored next version of Final Cut Pro? Will it finally address the problems of real-time performance, color correction, and media management? Apple’s acquisition of Silicon Color and Art Box leads me to speculate that Apple may have something interesting to show. In the meantime, with deadlines looming, some editors tell me they are at the point where they would rather switch that wait. Personally, I’m going to wait.

In addition to their line of P2 cameras and decks, Panasonic had on hand their amazing BT-LH2600W 26″ LCD and BT-LH1700W 17″ LCD monitors. Although the blacks are still not as good as you will find with professional CRT monitors, these LCDs come very close and do a good job of simulating the color response of SMPTE phosphors. These monitors have a useful function that will superimposed a Waveform monitor display over the image. They also provide dual-rate SDI HD or SD inputs, component input (Y, Pb, Pr) as well as a PC RGB input. Most critical viewers will prefer to use a Sony BVM or PVM series glass CRT, but since CRTs have been phased out and sell on eBay for more than their original selling price, these LCD monitors from Panasonic are really looking good as a flatter, more environmentally friendly alternative.

With digital production comes the need to manage lots of storage, with high performance and reliability. I saw two RAID storage solutions that meet the needs of small to medium sized-facilities. 1 Beyond was showing off their Intelliraid C-XPR providing fiber channel performance designed specifically for video that allows you to work with 30fps, uncompressed, 1080i video without skipping a beat. Another storage option is the Terrablock from Facilis Technology. Francis Albert, president, founder, and former Avid guy, described it as a high-performance fibre channel storage soulution that can be shared between Linux, Windows XP and Mac OS X clients running a range of NLE applications. Their 12D model can support 10 clients over 4Gbit fibre and in terms of real-time performance is cpable of serving two clients at a time playing 24P 10-bit 1080 video, or a single client running 2K DPX at 24fps.

In comparison to the many new storage offerings like the two above, Apple’s XServe RAID is looking mighty long in the tooth. Why does Apple do that? They introduce an amazing product, market the hell out of it, sell a bunch, and then forgets about it for sometimes years? Sometimes I think Apple is like an ADD teenager that gets very excited about something and and then moves on to the next crush.

Tom Talbot of Rule Broadcast Systems showed me Anycast with Sony’s new add-on board that allows it to switch high definition, as well as mix HD and SD sources. Anycast provides cost effective switching of multiple cameras for covering live events and now with the ability to bring HD cameras into the mix, is an even more compelling offering for people who need to switch multiple cameras but are working on a very tight budget. Also in the Rule both was Sony’s F350 XDXAM HD camera, which I’ve had the pleasure of shooting with and I’m very impressed with the amazing image quality, in spite of 1/2″ chips and the MPEG-2 recording. With excellent image quality, variable frame rates, progressive scan, Blu-Ray disk recording, ENG form-factor, and the ability to put good glass on it, the F350 offers a compelling middle ground in-between the crowd of low-end camcorders with the fragile and problematic HDV recording format and the higher-end 2/3″ professional camcorders. I have to say I really like the XDXCAM HD disk format in lieu of tape idea.

David Talamas had the amazing little Zylight in his booth (which I raved about in my NAB 2006 post), along with the elegant Sound Devices 744T digital audio recorder and the JVC GY-HD250 which he’s very pleased with. The JVC has done well for them, and customers are constantly amazed with the picture quality, as long as you take the time to create a look for the camera. JVC has not yet figured out that they really need to tweak their default look. One of the reasons filmmakers are so happy with the DVX100 and HVX200 from Panasonic is that right out of the box they look great. The JVC can also look very good (I shoot with one now and then) but you have to tweak the settings.

WCVB-TV was a gracious host and in addition to providing a spacious location for this event, was taking attendees on tours of their facility. There was much more to see, including the latest offerings from Autodesk, Grass Valley’s portable news room, Panasonic’s DVCPRO HD cameras, decks, and P2 players, Avid’s product line, Harris-Leitch, Quantel, Telestream, and more.

InstantHD works with several target applications: Adobe After Effects (version 6.0 and later), Premiere Pro (PC, version 1.5 and later), or Apple Final Cut Pro (version 4.5 and later). It offers a clean interface with several controls: Input Size, Output Size, Filter Type, Sharpness, Quality, and Antialiasing.

Overall I’d say it does a good job with antialiasing, this is well demonstrated with the example frames that Red Giant has on their web site (it’s the same playground footage that comes with the downloadable demo). On the other hand, if your footage looks good to start with (for example, well lit, properly exposed, shot with the DVX100 in 24p advanced with vertical detail freq. set to “Thin”) then the results are very close to what you can accomplish with a good scaler, for example, the one in Final Cut Pro.

Below are are two DVCPRO HD 720p frames upconverted from standard definition DVX100A footage (plus the original frame for reference). The footage was shot in 24p advanced and ingested into a 24p timeline. It was shot in Squeezed Mode, w/ Cine Gamma, Cine Color Matrix, Detail settings in the middle, Vertical Frequency Detail set to ‘Thin’. The first is a clip that was upconverted with Instant HD using these settings: Best Quality, Sharpness=3, Quality=10, and Antialiasing=2. The second clip was upconverted with Final Cut Pro through simply scaling the image in the Motion Tab (with the Sequence Setting Motion Filtering Quality=Best).

InstantHD.jpg (JPEG from DVCPRO HD master, 16:9 flat, 1280×720, 210.6K) ScaleFCP.jpg (JPEG from DVCPRO HD master, 16:9 flat, 1280×720, 205.6K) Original.jpg (JPEG from DV SD original, 16:9 squeezed, 720×480, 233.3K) Note: there is slight image quality loss going from the original DVCPRO HD frames to JPEG, but it’s really insignificant when it comes to comparing these results.

There are two downsides to the Instant HD plug-in: Final Cut Pro does not allow plug-ins to rescale the image, so the documentation from Red Giant takes you through an awkward two-step process using two sequences, one as the source and the other as the master. Second, the plug-in requires you start with progressive scan footage, so if you’re converting from interlaced footage, you’ll need to de-interlace first (you’ll want to use a smart de-interlacer, not just one that drops the odd or even lines, remember, we’re upresing and we want to preserve as much detail as possible). InstantHD also takes a long time to do its thing, more than 10x real-time on my single processor PowerMac G5, while straightforward scaling right in the timeline with FCP only took 2.4x real-time.

I found the demo frustrating to work with, it crashed several times and also came up with a dialog box more than once complaining that the plug-in was not serialized. So much for the demo letting me get a chance to see how well the software can work for me. I don’t mind the watermarks, however, crashing (PowerMac G5, Mac OS X 10.4.6, Final Cut Pro 5.0.4) and complaining that it’s not serialized and having to re-install the demo several times to run tests really made the trail-run a chore. Add to that the two-step process with the nested sequence, and as far as using this in Final Cut Pro, I was left in a very ambivalent state of mind.

So unlike some of the enthusiastic reviews I’ve read, InstantHD is not performing any miracles. It’s certainly not extracting additional resolution information like the sophisticated uprezing that John Lowry did for the 15/70 IMAX film Aliens of the Deep. His upconversion from HD to film for the giant screen involves sophisticated proprietary algorithms that look at surrounding frames in order to extract additional resolution information which is available over time but not in a single frame. Having seen early clips from the film at the Montreal Science Center theatre, it was hard to believe that what I was watching on that huge IMAX screen was HD video shot with Sony CineAlta cameras (a pair of them with special lenses for underwater 3D) and upconverted by Lowry and then recorded out to 15/70 film. The results are amazing and it’s true, you can actually extract more resolution than any one frame contains. Of course this sophisticated conversion requires a huge cluster of many, many PowerMac G5s cranking away.

Maybe as our workstations get faster we’ll see some sophisticated tools end up on our desktops. I predict that within the year we’ll have quad duo (eight-processor) Intel-based Macintoshes that will arrive with as much fanfare as the original PowerMac G5 dual-processor machines did just over three years ago. With so much power, software tools can do more sophisticated image processing. For now, it looks like I’ll stick with Final Cut Pro’s own upconversion and I continue to look forward to the day that someone really delivers on the promises of “Instant HD from SD footage.”

By the way, the frame is from Log Lines, a short film I directed featuring three fine actors: Danielle Perry (pictured), Chris DeChristopher, and Christine Carron. I still need to finish the editing. Sean Hannan graced the production with his fine camerawork, Tom Robotham assisted him as gaffer, and Chris Boebel wrote the script.

1. The Zylight Z50 is a tiny LED lighting instument that can instantly changes from 5600K to 3200K light with the push of a button and can be programmed to to produce any color you want and you can save you favorites with presets. The devices can be put together and controlled wirelessly. This is a very clever idea whose time has come. Based on technology licensed from Color Kinetics and built around a HD-led (High-Density light-emitting diode) module that packs over 230 high-power elements into a single square inch, making the Z50 the brightest portable LED light available.
2. The most excitement created this year was without a doubt the excitement around the Red Digital Cinema Camera Company booth. Red is a digital cinema camera in development that promises to break the price/performance barrier for high end digital imaging. If they meet their agressive engineering targets, next year we’ll see working cameras on the show floor and what I expect will be some amazing demo footage.
3. One of the most useful tools I saw in Panasonic’s booth for P2 users working with a Macintosh was HDLog from Imagine Products. It can be used for viewing P2 video clips (stored in the MXF format) on the Mac and it will help streamline your P2 workflow from acquisition to editing. HD Log automatically creates log files from the P2 media that include thumbnails, metadata, and links to the video clips. You can use the application edit and add additional metadata, log and select clips, and convert the MXF clips to QuickTime files ready for editing. If you’re working with large amounts of media, the program can work with Imagine Product’s Mac Digital Clip Library, a library solution you can set up on an intranet or the web for IntraNet or Web to share of logs, thumbnails, and video clips.
4. Avid’s Interplay is a media production workflow and content management tool that provides centralized administration of creative, production, and business processes for postproduction and broadcast environments of all sizes. While this space has been fragmented with many vendors, a player like Avid putting a stake in the ground will change the playing field and could have a serious impact on how broadcasters and large postproduction facilities manage their creative workflows. There’s some confusion as to what the entry-level $16,000. system actually buys you, but we’ll find out as time goes by and Avid actually starts delivering solutions.
5. The KONA 3 is AJA’s new top-of-the-line 4-lane PCI Express video capture card for Apple’s Power Mac G5. It supports both SD and HD uncompressed capture and Dual Link 4:4:4:4 HD. It can play back uncompressed 10-bit and 8-bit digital video and 24-bit 48kHz digital audio. The card also supports hardware-based up-and-down-conversion to and from HD and has a live hardware keyer for compositing. There’s an optional rack-mountable 1U panel for the many connections the card supports.
6. Quietly hidden behind a laptop at the Apple booth, yet prominently displayed in the Matrox booth, was the MXO, an amazing little box that takes the DVI output from your Macintosh and converts it to broadcast-quality video. You can use it for frame accurate print to tape or to monitor HD or SD with a component or SDI display, an excellent idea that adds significant new capability to many Macintoshes that can play back compressed HD in real-time, yet don’t have the right PCI bus to support a Blackmagic or AJA video I/O card.
7. Grass Valley’s Infinity Digital Media Camcorder combines the best elements of camera design with IT recording and connectivity technologies. This 2/3″ camera has all of the bells and whistles you’d expect from a professional HD ENG camcorder and instead of using tape or a proprietary tapeless solution, it records to Compact Flash cards or Iomega REVPro disks (a professional version of Iomega’s inexpensive high-capacity REV disks commonly used to back-up personal computers. The camera will be competitively priced around $25,000.
8. Amongst the noisy demos, the shiny PowerMac G5s, and the new 17″ MacBook Pro, in the Apple booth one vendor was quietly showning something critically important as we generate more and more digital assets. Artbox Workgroup from Proximity is an asset management and workflow solution designed specifically for small broadcast and post production companies. The system helps you manage you media assets with a single media catalog that can be shared among multiple users. The system supports workflow management, search, and transcoding between a wide range of formats. They touted project level integration with Final Cut Pro. Now that the industry is almost done with the digital and high definition transitions, I think lots of attention will placed on asset management. For large organizations, there’s Artbox Enterprise that supports many additional features like access to the media catalog from within iNews or ENPS and sharing media beyond a single workgroup.
9. I had already seen this projector, but the images projected with Sony’s 10,000 lumen SRX-R110 4K (4096 x 2160 at 1.85:1) projector designed for large venues were stunning. Unlike a DLP projector, there was absolutely no perception of a grid or pixels, even while close to the screen. The projector offers great contrast (1800:1), plenty of detail in the shadows, clean highlights, and nice color. Is there a digital projector that can exceed the standards of 35mm projection? This comes close. These are the projectors Landmark has been putting into their theaters.
10. Sony’s PDW-F350 HD camcorder is an impressive contender that records onto XDCAM disks and comes in a very attractive price-point at $25,000 sans lens. Sony opted to go with three 1/2″ CCD imagers rather than 2/3″ chips. Users with existing 2/3″ glass can mount their lenses on this camera using the LO32BMT lens mount adapter. In addition to recording in 1080/59.94i, 50i, 29.97P, 25P, and 23.98P, the camera is capable of over- and under-cranking with frame rates ranging from 4 to 60 frames per second. This is the first time Sony has provided variable frame rates in a camera. XDCAM is a strong contender against Panasonic’s P2 cards.
11. Panasonic had many AG-HVX200 camcorders in the booth and although introduced last year, this camcorder was generating a lot of interest, this year they expanded their line of HD camcorders with the AJ-HDX900 2/3″ HD camcorder and the AJ-HPC2000 P2 HD Camcorder. The AJ-HDX900 is pretty much an HD upgrade to the popular AJ-SDX900. As we would expect, the AJ-HDX900 offers cine-like gamma with three film-like modes and shoots in 11 formats and, surprise, it records to tape, not P2 cards (I guess tape is still something customers want, for now). The AJ-HPC2000 is a workhorse HD P2 broadcast camera, and introduces the AVC-Intra (H.264 Compliant) as an alternative to DVCPRO HD in order to double the capacity of the P2 cards. I was disappointed to find out that neither the AJ-HDX900 nor the AJ-HPC2000 offers variable frame rates like the AG-HVX200 little brother or AJ-HDC27H big brother.
12. VFinity was demonstrating their elegant web-based solution for content management, production, and publishing that supports non-linear video editing and multimedia publishing workflows with an end-to-end digital solution that enables creative collaboration and media transcoding, digitizing, and easy reuse of any form of media. Since they have built the system from the ground up using web services and the latest open standards, they don’t carry legacy baggage like some of their established competitors. They showed me a cool demo: Searching for a Final Cut Pro project using their media asset search engine, picking it out from a set of Google-like search results, and then opening the project. Then they showed me the same thing on a different workstation connected to the network. VFinity works with any kind of media and is accessble via a web browser. Looks like an interesting solution for creative media professionals working in corporate, broadcast, and large post facility environments. I know several people involved with the company, so I may exhibit some bias.

David Tamés: What is it that sparked the Infinity project? The camera seems to depart from a lot of the traditional thinking in ENG camera design.

John Naylor: I think the initial spark was when Jeff Rosica, who’s our V.P. of Marketing for Grass Valley, went and bought himself a new backup device called REV from Fryes in Burbank, California, and sitting there in his office playing with it he thought, “you know, this is almost perfect for broadcast media recording,” that was the initial spark. We were looking to do some strong organic growth [and] we did not have an offering in the ENG, EFP capture market at the time, so basically putting the two together. We know how to make cameras, we wanted to enter that market, we thought it was time for the people in that market, customers in that market, to be given choice between solid state recording, choice between spinning disk media, choice between the codecs that they use, choice between formats, resolutions, interlace, progressive, frame rates… We decided to put all of that into a camcorder and companion deck, so that basically ends the stranglehold that the proprietary companies have had on the segment for far too long.

Tamés: Let’s say that I’m someone who’s trying to decide what sort of camera system to invest in for quick turn-around projects like news reporting and news magazines, and let’s say I’m thinking about what am I going to replace my Betacams with. It looks like I’m currently faced with a choice between P2 from Panasonic or XDCAM from Sony, and then there’s this whole sphere of data options [based on open standards]. How do you position your design choice in this landscape of options?

Naylor: Our positioning is that the media that we use started life as generic IT media, with high availability. In the case of Compact Flash, tens of thousands of retail outlets worldwide, and in the case of [REVPro] spinning disk technology from places Best Buy, Fryes in the U.S. Whereas the other companies basically started off with something that was IT based but ended up being broadcast centric, specialized, and let’s face it, proprietary. We’re trying to end that, we don’t have huge tape plants to support, hat gives us the latitude to use what’s on the shelf, and in the case of REVPro we had to optimize it a little bit for use in broadcast, it was almost perfect, and it’s still almost perfect. You can just use a standard REV disk to record, what’s different about REVPro is that you can get two sustained streams in either direction off the drive [with] a guaranteed quality of service of 55 Mbit/sec per stream, that means you can do things like edit in place, on the device, and you can be copying stuff on and off your camcorder while you’re recording, or while you’re playing. That gives you a lot of flexibility, it’s a little bit like having a tape with two heads.

Tamés: Wow, you’re telling me the camera supports reading asynchronously from the disk while the camera records to it?

Naylor: Yes, or streaming over Ethernet, USB, or FireWire, while you’re still recording, this is basically a computer with a lens on it (laughs).

Tamés: Speaking of computers, what’s driving the camera on the inside?

Naylor: At the heart of the camcorder we’ve got a PowerPC running Linux, we chose that combination for rock-solid reliability, we understand and appreciate that people are little bit leery of having to working about “my camcorder’s got an operating system?”

Tamés: So does your TiVo and many of the devices we use every day.

Naylor: We use Windows CE for the PDA-like touch screen GUI on the side, that allows you, we’ve got some fairly useful asset management operations.

Tamés: For example?

Naylor: Say you plug in a USB drive to the camera, you can use that interface to drag and drop you assets either on or off the USB drive from the internal media.

Tamés: And what format are the assets in?

Naylor: The content that the camcorder and the deck produce or consumes is wrapped in MXF OP1a. We produce a high quality capture thats pictures, sounds, timecode, metadata, and we produce a JPEG2000 proxy with thumbnails, aLaw 8-bit audio, and timecode, [with] exactly the same metadata that goes into the high definition image. [This] means you can confidently do a cut-down edit on the proxy and know that when you conform, it’s going to be frame-accurate and everything you expected from the proxy edit that you did.

Tamés: What are your favorite design aspects of the camera?

Naylor: I think the image quality is going to be there. The fact that we’re using 2/3″ sensors is quite important, it positions us as a serious high-quality offering, it avoids all of those issues that you get with smaller sensor sizes, it keeps the noise low, and it keeps compatibility with existing glass, the image processing that’s in the camera has a long heritage, we’ve got some really smart intellectual property inside the image processing.

Tamés: What, specifically, is the heritage of this camera?

Naylor: Before Grass Valley did cameras, a company called Philips BTS did, and then Thomson acquired them and then acquired Grass Valley, and the Grass Valley brand is used across the whole company.

Tamés: So does that mean there’s a little bit of the Viper FilmStream DNA inside this camera?

Naylor: In that it came from the same design team, yes, there’s also a little bit of the LDK 6000 in there as well.

Tamés: So it’s got good genes, so to speak

Naylor: Yes.

Tamés: So what’s the delivery timeframe for the camera? The prototype you’re showing here looks impressive, but it looks like you still have some issues to work out [in terms of image quality and energy consumption].

Naylor: Initial units will be going out in the June/July timeframe, we expect the first ones [will go to] strategic accounts, this will consume our production for some time. If you buy from a retailer, then we’re [expecting to deliver in the] September/October time frame. The field recorder will trail the camera by a couple of months, but we’ll have plenty of beta units available at the same time that the camcorder is available for sale. The people buying the camcorder will be the candidates for inclusion in the deck’s beta trial.

Tamés: In addition to the IT-centric Ethernet, USB, and FireWire connections [and support for recording onto REVPro or Compact Flash], am I correct to assume the camcorder will sport all of the connections in and out we’d expect from a professional ENG camcorder?

Naylor: Yes, it’s also got a cute feature which you can press a button while you’re recording and record a voice cue like “this is where the airplane crashes” or “this is where the footballer gets his leg broken” and those are recorded onto the media itself.

Tamés: Is this implemented as MXF voice notes?

Naylor: Yes.

Tamés: So, with all these features, what will this camera set me back?

Naylor: The list price for the camcorder is $26,000, that’s with the viewfinder, the list price for the field recorder is $15,000.

Tamés: And what kind of lens do you expect me to put on this camera?

Naylor: [Any good 2/3" lens] in the range of $8,000 to $12,000. We’ll be putting a package deal together so you can buy the camera together with a lens, we just don’t know the pricing of that yet.

Tamés: What else should I be checking out from Grass Valley at the show?

Naylor: Once you’ve recorded something, you need to edit it. We’ve got a couple of good editors, with the recent acquisition of Canopus, we’ve got a craft editor in our stable now that’s called Edius that goes all the way from small laptop editors to big fully HD hardware assisted turnkey solutions, it’s worth looking at, it does grading and color-keying and all that.

David Tamés: How did the concept for Red originate?

Ted Schilowitz: The founder of a company called Oakley, which is a fairly large company, a lot of people know them, they make some of the worlds finest optics in terms of sunglasses and goggles. [Oakley is a] very data centric, technologically evolved company. The founder of Oakley, a guy named Jim Jannard is the founder of Red. So Jim has, as well as running Oakley, his passion, his hobby, his love, is photography and cinematography.

His personal challenge forever [has been] to find good cameras to shoot his own stuff with. Digital stills, he owns tons of them, 35mm stills, owns lots of motion picture [cameras], 35mm and 16mm cameras, owns pretty much every HD camera that’s ever hit the market, the ones that are $100,000 the ones that are $20,000 to $30,000, the ones that are $5,000 to $10 ,000, you name it, he’s got it, a lot of times he’s got more than one of them, likes to try them, shoot them, and never was there the right tool that made him say, “this is perfect, don’t feel there are any limitations here, I don’t feel like I’m struggling with this thing.”

[Jim has] had the desire to build something for a long time, it’s been a secret project, it’s been green-lit a little less than a long time ago, we’re very quick in the curve here, but we’re showing how quickly a company can evolve and really take and capture the desire and the imagination of a bunch of other frustrated filmmakers and cinematographers out there and you put together the right tool, you design some really good industrial design, and you show people that we’re really thinking, and we’re focused on the future, and we’re focused on delivering something completely different from anything that’s out there, and you get a lot of attention, I don’t know if you’ve been watching what’s going on [here at the show.]

Tamés: Oh, it’s been the buzz on the floor since the moment I first set foot in the convention center.

Schilowitz: It’s quite amazing, we had no idea what to expect, Jim and I were here first thing, you know the first day, and we had a tent set up because we only decided to do NAB two months ago, so couldn’t build a booth, we built a tent! But it’s a nice tent, and it’s a really cool looking tent, because everything that Jim does is pretty cool looking. The show starts at 9 o’clock, you know, we peer out, and kind of 9:04 there are like four people outside, you know, it’s better than nobody, we did not know what to expect, by 9:12 it seems like a few more people have gathered, like 20 or 30 people, by 9:17 or so, there are a whole bunch of people out in the aisle, and our little tiny booth all the way back in the back, and we look at each other and go, uh-oh, we might need a bigger booth, I think we might be on to something here. [It’s been] non-stop for the last four days, huge crowds, the other booths around us don’t even know what’s going on, what could you guys possibly be doing here, that is so exciting. Well, we’re doing something exciting, and it’s genuine, and it’s not artificial, we did not set out to create a little marketing message, we set out to build a camera, and show people what we’re building.

Tamés: What is your role in the company?

Schilowitz: My official title, and this isn’t just for the business card, my official title on the project is “Leader of the Rebellion,” so I’m basically running the joint with Jim, we’re partners in crime, trying to put this together, Jim’s title is, officially, is “Madman.” Those are our corporate titles, so you can see the kind of company we’re building here.

Tamés: If you are the leader of the rebellion, then what is it that you’re rebelling against?

Schilowitz: It’s a rebellion against that frustration, it’s a rebellion against the fact that, why do I have to have so many limitations, why are other companies positioning and locking me down to formats that the minute they ship the thing, are already obsolete. I can’t get all the frame rates that I want, I can’t get the optical quality, or the kind of lens I want because I can’t afford to buy a $100,000 camera, why is that there, why are these boundaries there, are they real? Or are they artificial? And we’re experimenting with that and what we discovered pretty quickly is that most of [the limitations] are artificial, most of them are design by different types of corporate structures, and different philosophies, that don’t fit into our philosophies as mavericks, as upstarts, as rebels, as people that say, “screw it man, we’re going to do this thing,” you know, let’s just see what we can do, and people seem to be really locking in, they like that spirit!

Tamés: I’ve always wondered why cameras could not be more modular, why can’t there be an imager section, an image processing section, a storage section, that each could be updated, replaced, interchanged, individually, rather than the camera being a monolithic thing that has to be completely replaced every time technology evolves, why do I need an entirely new camera, rather than swap things out as different parts evolve, or as my needs change.

Schilowitz: Good question! Moore’s law is always in effect, regardless of whether you’re using a computer or not, if it’s got electronics… I would say [the camera industry is starting to] embrace [information technology] to a certain extent, I would say that a lot of cameras have a lot of computer guts, but they, some of them are, I’m not sure I’d go that far, I think a lot [of new] cameras are doing the right thing, don’t get me wrong here, we want to be a part of this community, the leader of the rebellion, well, yea, we’re rebelling against a lot of old fashioned thinking, but believe me, we don’t want to piss everybody off, just a little bit… We understand there are a lot of good tools out there that create a lot of good images, but there’s not the tool that Jim wanted to use, or I wanted to use, or all the people who have come to the booth in hundreds, and thousands, every single day, have wanted to use.

Tamés: So what are some of the things that cinematographers and filmmakers are looking for from your perspective?

Schilowitz: Well, first thing is we’re building a cinematography tool, so we chose to go with PL mount lenses, on a camera that’s revolutionary from a cost structure standpoint, we chose to go the cinema grade route as opposed to the electronic news gathering route, completely different philosophy, now there are two ways that that plays out, so that means that we’re building this tool and there are a lot of wonderful PL mount lenses out there in the world that you can use, they’re not cheap, we’re showing a lot of Cooke lenses in our booth, the lenses cost more than our camera, but they are, if you ask people what are the best lenses in the world, there are only a couple of choices, and Cooke is one of them. That’s one route you can go, but we’re also at the same time showing that we’re building our own lenses, so we’re not just building a camera, we’re building lenses and a camera, showing our first lens at NAB, [it’s a prototype], but it’s real, it’s got a real body, and it’s got amazing optics, as you might imagine from a guy that has been obsessed his whole life with vision and optics, and built a really healthy business out of it. You might expect that his lenses are going to be really darn good right out of the gate, and they are ground breaking in terms of price point.

Tamés: A combination of practical thinking and revolutionary design?

Schilowitz: Very much so. Our first lens is under $5,000, there will be a whole range of lenses…

Tamés: What are the specs of the first lens?

Schilowitz: The first one we’ve shown is a 300mm prime, it’s just the first one we had ready to show, there will be a zoom, and some others that we’re working on.

Tamés: What about the camera, will it have an imager the same size as a 35mm film frame?

Schilowitz: It’s actually S35, it’s technically three-perf S35, so it’s wide screen, Super 35, single CMOS, huge format, a beautiful sensor.

Tamés: Are we starting to get to the point of high enough yields of the large CMOS chips in order for Red to deliver cameras in quantity?

Schilowitz: We certainly hope so, cause we’ve got a lot of interest in this camera, we’ve got to build a lot of them, so yes, I think we’re going to be doing really well. Luckily we’re in a time frame where those [who] have come before us trying to prove some of this electronic digital cinematography, and with all due respect to all of them, cause we think what they’re doing is fantastic, but they were in provability mode, they were in science fair mode, they were in [the mode of] it does not matter what it costs, it’s going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, don’t worry, nobody is going to buy this thing, it’s just to prove the point that you can do this, that you can evolve, maybe we’ll rent them from time to time, and they are being used successfully, you know, some cameras are being used on big motion pictures, but they are essentially exclusionary products, they’re for people [who] have enormous resources, money, and crew to deal with these beasts and how the workflow associates with them. We’re trying to change all those rules.

Tamés: In a way, it sounds to me like you’re creating the Aaton for the digital age.

Schilowitz: That’s a good example, the Aaton is a beautiful camera, Arriflex makes beautiful cameras too, and lots of wonderful things that stand the test of time, and electronic cameras, in our mind, very few of them stand the test of time.

Tamés: I used the Aaton metaphor in terms of out of the box thinking and prioritizing things like ergonomics, size, weight, and creature comforts in the design of the camera while taking into consideration what cinematographers are looking for.

Schilowitz: Absolutely, you’ve got to be thinking, you’ve got to be thinking, you know, I’ve talked to an amazing number of very high level cinematographers, a lot of them have put deposits down on the camera, [they are] very excited about what we’re doing, I won’t mention their names, I don’t want to embarrass them, but you can put together a list of….

Tamés: I saw several of them while I was in your booth.

Schilowitz: I’ve talked to thirty or forty of them this week, guys that I’m just humbled to be in the same room with, and they are excited about what we’re doing, what our little company is doing, and nothing can give me more pleasure than to deliver a product that would help these guys realize their vision.

Tamés: What do you see as Red’s role in the camera ecosystem?

Schilowitz: Red is, if you’re going to set out to change the rules, you might want to change some rules. So we’re doing it with our philosophy, our psychology, our price-point, our orientation, our technology, our body design, you name it, we’re changing something right.

Tamés: So what are some of these changes?

Schilowitz: First thing you can do is go to our web site if you were not able to get to NAB and [take a] look at what we’re doing. And things are going to change even more in the course of the year, from a development standpoint, but we’re pretty evolved and we’ve just got this bad-ass machine that is tough and rugged and it’s a real tool. It’s not a toy. It’s going to be built out of cast magnesium, this thing is just solid, this is a good example of the rest of what we’re going to do.

Tamés: It sounds like you’re also taking a iterative design approach, listening to the people who will actually be buying and using your camera along the way of the development process.

Schilowitz: Way more than that, not just listening, we’re actively asking for feedback, saying, you know what guys, we’re building this thing, we’re having a good time doing it, if you don’t think we’re going down the right track, or if you think we maybe should alter a little bit, we’ve gotten a lot of good feedback already at the show, it’s a good time to raise your hand right now, we’re in development, we can change things, we can change things for the better, we have been for the last four months, changing things for the better, we want to know, my email is very straight forward, we want to know, and there is a general email 4K at RED.COM that both Jim and I look at and we are into this, and we want to hear from you, regardless of who you are. Regardless of whether you shot the last 200 million feature or you’re a guy who’s just coming out of film school and wants to know something exciting.

Tamés: The achilles heel of digital cinema cameras seems to be where do you put all of those bits flowing off the sensors at incredible data rates. What are you doing about storage options?

Schilowitz: Storage options is an interesting story, so obviously it’s a tapeless camera, not a novel idea, which we think is good, sometimes you want to look at things that are forward thinking but you’re not inventing every single piece of the puzzle here, tapeless is a great idea, but we don’t think it’s been well formed yet, we don’t think it’s been well thought through yet, so we’re again trying to take a more logical approach to what you need to do, so this is a camera that from 2K on down, it’s not just HD, we’re going to give you 4K, 2K, 1080p, 720p, and from 2K on down the line, you’ll be able to record on-board, we’re building a drive module, called a digital magazine, that looks and feels more or less like a little FireWire drive, something you’d hook up to your PowerBook, and you’ll have all of those industry standard ports right on it, it will have a 400 and 800 FireWire, USB 2.0, maybe eSATA, whatever else comes down the line, things change every five minutes in the storage business, our goal is to have at least an hour of visually lossless, potentially Wavelet based, we’re doing a lot of codec investigation at this point in our development, visually lossless, recording on-board, and then you take that out of the camera when you’re done shooting or in the middle of shooting you put another one in and you throw it on to your NLE environment and you can start cutting, or you dump that onto something else and start cutting.

Tamés: What’s your delivery timeframe for the Red camera?

Schilowitz: We have engineering targets to ship cameras by the end of this calendar year, so I’ve kept all of my stars aligned, to make sure I hit that target. I won’t insult anyone’s intelligence by saying that means that’s a hard and firm ship date, because it’s not. Another point of frustration for me, personally, is watching companies announce ship dates [like] we’re shipping on this date [or] this month and then they’ll miss it, and then miss it again… and you know what guys, just give us an engineering target and say “this is what we’re working on, and we’ll do our best,” that’s all I need to hear, I don’t need to over commit to anything. You’re working on something remarkable, we understand it’s next generation, we understand it’s ambitious, you’re giving it your best shot, we appreciate it, just keep us posted. But so far we’re right on target. Sensor stuff is looking good, industrial design is looking great, electronics are right on target, we’re going to get there.

Tamés: How did you get involved with Red?

Schilowitz: The last five years of my life have been with another very forward thinking company.

Tamés: That would be AJA?

Schilowitz: Yes, they’ve done remarkable things in the desktop world, I was the product manager for everything that touched the Macintosh, so I’m the Kona guy and the Io guy, I’m still that guy (laughs).

Tamés: I’ve used the PowerMac G5 with a Kona card for online editing, it’s a great product.

Schilowitz: Thank you very much, I’m very proud of what we did there, and I’ve talked to some other press and we’ve talked about the logic of why would you want a guy like Ted on a team like Red, other than the fact, that you know, Ted, Red, is kind of a fun moniker to have, why would you want him? He’s never built a camera before, but he certainly knows a lot about them, I actually worked for one of those film camera companies twenty-something years ago, one of my first jobs in the industry, and was a director for a long time, cinematographer for a long time, before I got into the technology side for the last five years.

I was lucky enough to be with a very forward thinking company with some of the best engineers in the world, no holds barred, that took a product line that was essentially almost non-workable back when we first stated, yea, you could put a card in a Mac and you could try to do HD and SD uncompressed video but it was really troublesome, and we evolved over the course of a few years, we had some good fortune on our side because the Macs got a lot better for multimedia work of that level, the same time we did, OS X came on, and we were the first cards to be on OS X and that [was] just perfect timing for us, and we put all of our engineering resources into making something work well with OS X, and we did, and we scored big time, then we built the Io box along with Apple, and some amazing things happened, but a few years later, and in the curve of technology, this is almost a drop in the time bucket.

A few years later, our Kona cards along with the G5 and Final Cut software are used on these fairly insignificant events like the World Series, the Superbowl, the Daytona 500, the Tour de France, all these big feature films, you name it, no compromises anymore, no more “oh, it’s a Mac, and it’s a capture card, it’s risky,” these guys are putting them in mission critical environments with the largest visual audiences in the world, so we changed the landscape of an industry. And it was not easy for someone to pull me away from AJA, I still have a lot of friends there, there’s a lot of linkage points between what I’m doing in this new world and my previous world at AJA, a lot of development strategy we’re working on together, they’re excited to be a part of and help us out.

Tamés: We’re going to need 2K and 4K capture cards to ingest all of that Red footage.

Schilowitz: Yes, we’re going to need a lot of stuff, yea, and how handy is it that the last sort of official duties in my world there were to make sure that I got the 2K stuff up and running in Final Cut with our friends at Apple, and the new product manager John Thorn and they said, “you get that going and then you can go” and that’s what I did and it was a ton of fun, and it’s running in the Apple booth, it’s running in the AJA booth, and it’s running in the Red meeting room showing off how cool 2K is.

Tamés: What’s a typical day like working at Red, what’s it like to be the leader of the revolution?

Schilowitz: Right now we’re heavy into the engineering, we’re heavy into the dramatics of all that, dealing with and motivating a whole bunch of people, it’s a huge team of really, really smart people, Jim and I are pretty much doing everything together. My day is just non-stop, balls-to-the-wall, go for it, heavy duty drama, solving problems fast, no bureaucracy, that’s why we have these sort of crazy titles and this kind of no corporate structure structure, Jim and I battle it out, and things that may take a month or two to decide, “oh, we better have a meeting about having a meeting” Jim and I go into each other’s little thing and we battle it out for five minutes and go, “OK, that’s what we’re doing” and we move on. And that’s what’s exciting and that’s why you’re seeing so much evolution is such a short time. We don’t want to have a meeting about a meeting, we just want to get it done, you know, so it creates a little excitement every day, it’s a lot of fun, you have to have the right sort of spirit for it, and we both do for sure, he’s a maverick and I’m a maverick, and we’re taking our best shot, so watch and see.

Tamés: The other camera that I find interesting at the show this week is the Infinity from Grass Valley, what do you think of their approach, clearly it’s an ENG camera and Red is a cinematographer’s camera, but they seem to have some design concepts in common.

Schilowitz: Everything that people are doing that can be chopping down some trees, clearing the way for us a little bit, is wonderful. We want to be an active part of this community, we want to shake it up when we can, we want to keep an eye on everybody, and we just want to offer what we hope is a better alternative for a lot of people.

For more information: (1) Red web site, (2) Red Digital Cinema thread at DVinfo.net, and (3) “cml-future-cameras” list via CML mailing list.

See also the HDR-FX1 and HVR-Z1U Feature Set Comparison on the HDV Info site.

The chart is a work in progress, I’d appreciate any commments, suggestions, and corrections you might have, and I’ll update the chart based on the comments I get.

A major feature that sets the Panasonic HVX200 apart from the rest of the prosumer HD camcorders is the decision to not use the HDV tape format. HDV squeezes HD video into a 25 Mbit/sec tape format using MPEG-2 intra-frame compression sacrificing image quality. The HDV format also creates hassles when editing HDV in native format on all but the fastest computers due to the nature of MPEG-2. These are just two reasons Panasonic chose instead to use their 100 Mbit/sec DVCPRO HD format (current used in their high-end VariCam HD camcorder).

So, what do you record this 100 Mbit/sec DVCPRO HD format onto?

The DVCPRO HD tape transport used in the VariCam will not cut it, too large and expensive for a small hand-held camcorder. Panasonic’s alternative to videotape: P2 cards. These are PCMCIA form-factor cards with four SD semiconductor memory cards ganged together internally in a RAID configuration. These cards can easily keep up with the 100 Mbit/sec data rate of the DVCPRO HD codec. 8 GB cards hold 20 minutes of 720P video. each.

The idea is you will record to these cards and download video from the P2 cards to a laptop in the field, archiving onto dual-layer DVD-Rs or external hard drives, eliminating the use of tape in your workflow. You can download video from an 8 GB card to a laptop in about five minutes, so your archiving can stay ahead of your recording. This also means you can now refer to clips the same way you refer to clips on your editing system. Each time you stop and start the recording a new clip is created. No more hassles of timecode breaks due to reviewing footage, no more cueing a tape to see your work and then winding to just the right place to continue shooting. You can be shooting on one card, downloading and viewing from another.

While at first this sounds very expensive, and it does require additional labor, a quick calculation on a spreadsheet yielded the following factoid: the P2 approach is only 20% more expensive that shooting HDV videotapes and archiving to HDV videotape dupes, as you will need access to an HDV deck for video ingest into your editing system if your camera is going to be out in the field shooting while the editor captures media. In addition, HDV calls for premium tape, more expensive that ordinary DV tape. It boils down to this: does this new workflow work for your specific needs.

Another option is recording onto a third party hard disk recorder, expected soon. It’s not really whether P2 or tape is better, it’s what works in a particular situation. Personally I find the P2 card approach appealing, and at least on a first shoot, it made sense unless you’re shooting four hour interviews and don’t have an assistant to dowload media to hard drives. Some people are afraid of trusting hard drives, but tapes are fragile too. No media is bullet proof. Whether tapes or P2 cards, you still need to make protection copies, that has to be part of the workflow in either case.

A photo set of HVX200 images is available.

Profiting from Biography Presentations, Presenter: Hal Slifer, Video Historian (Friday, 10:00AM – 12:00PM, $25.00) Slifer, will share his experiences producing biography videos shown at weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and other family events. Learn how to combine photographs, home movies, and video interviews in the productions and how to sell the value for greater profitability. Slifer will show some of his projects that command upwards of $5,000 to $10,000. Editorial: Digital media tools make it easier than ever to create compelling projects using a wide variety of materials, how you go beyond the tools and go about preparing and creating these biographies is where the secret sauce lies.

Color Correction With Apple Final Cut Pro 5, Presenter: Christopher Phrommayon, Future Media Concepts (Friday, 12:00PM – 2:00PM, $49.00) Phrommayon will demonstrate how to use Final Cut Pro’s color correction tools to both enhance your video images and to create stylized looks. The session will cover use of the video scopes, frame viewer, range checking, and the three-way color corrector. Editorial: Besides sound, a major archilles heel of most independent projects is color correction, this should part of every filmmaker’s tooklit.

Editing Aesthetics, Presenter: Eric Latek, Documentary Filmmaker (Friday, 1:00PM – 3:00PM, $35.00) Drawing upon examples from his own recently completed project, “Sweet Dreams,” a stylistic documentary with a narrative feel, Latek examines the creative and aesthetic aspects of the decision-making process which establishes the pace, mood and tone of any cinematic genre. Topics include shooting for the edit, producing various film looks from video sources, and cutting to heighten dramatic impact. Editorial: I saw Eric give an excellent presentation at a SMPTE meeting a while ago and I was very impressed by his work and highly developed sense of editing aesthetics.

Prosumer HD Cameras: The Filmmakers’ Perspective, Presenters: David Tamés, Kino-Eye.com and Don Berube, Noisybrain Productions (Friday, 3:00PM – 5:00PM, $25.00) The new crop of Prosumer High Definition camcorders are hot, hot, hot. In this panel discussion local filmmakers share their first-hand experiences using these new cameras and reflect on their impact on the filmmaking craft and aesthetics. If you are thinking about acquiring one of these low-cost HDV camcorders, by all means take this class and hear some highly educated opinions. Editorial: Yours truly is involved, a biased recommendation…

Basic Digital Video Workshop, Presenter: Teja Arboleda, Documentary Filmmaker (Friday, 5:00PM – 7:00PM, $25.00) Participants will learn basic technical and creative aspects of digital videography. Bring your own digital video camcorder. Learn how to create shots and scenes that tell stories and express emotion, through instructor-led critique of each participant’s work. Composition and movement theories, including depth-of-field, exposure, contrast, black and white, color, object/subject weight distribution, panning, tilting, zooming, and many other topics will be discussed. An excellent workshop for a beginner looking to dip their feet into the water. Editorial: Teja is a gifted teacher and a very talented filmmaker, this is sure to be an excellent introduction…

The Rise of Citizen Media and Video Podcasting, Presenters: Ravi Jain, ravijain.org, David Tamés, Kino-Eye.com, and Steve Garfield, stevegarfield.com (Friday, 7:00PM – 9:00PM, $25.00) Learn about the latest video podcasting tools and how filmmakers are using this new medium to distribute, promote, and collaborate. Delivering video over the internet has never been easier. Learn how to make this new medium work for you. Editorial: Yours truly is involved, a biased recommendation…

A complete list of Free Semiars and Workshops is available online.

I wrote a detailed report of my first experiences with the HVX200 camcorder titled “First Look: Panasonic AG-HVX200 DVCPro HD Camcorder, Part 1” (a more orderly and polished version of my previous posts on the camera) for NEFilm this month, check it out. Some notes from my experience with the camera are captured in two previous posts: Taking the HVX200 out for a spin, Part 2 (which has links to a short sample movie) and Taking the HVX200 out for a spin, Part 1 (with links to still frames). Clicking on the image will take you to a photo tour of the camera on Flickr.

Another concern is how far can I take the color correction? This was not addressed in this test, but it’s an issue that’s been raised about the MPEG-2 based HDV format used in all of the other prosumer HD cameras that I would expect is less of a problem with the 4:2:2 DVCPro HD codec used by the camera.

You can see the following shots in the movies below: (1) Interior, Steenbeck flatbed lit only by window light, (2) Exterior, person (it was overcast so I’ll have to wait for another time with the camera to shoot on a sunny day), and (3) Interior, office, conversation, lit by a mix of overheard flourecent lights and sunlight from a window.

I used the following camera settings: 720/24PN, Gamma: Cine-Like-D, Matrix: Cine-Like, all other settings: Default; video captured to P2 media. Exposure determined using the spot meter (checking shadows, midtones, and then deciding on an iris setting). I did not have time to repeat the shots using the camera in the 1080i mode, which certainly would provide a more ‘live’ look and present less strobing and motion blur on pans, but time with the camera was limited. After shooting I connected the camera to my laptop (used only as a media transport device, it’s not fancy enough to run the latest version of Final Cut Pro) and easily dragged the media onto the hard disk right after the shoot.

Back at home on my PowerMac G5 I imported the clips into Final Cut Pro as easily as any other file and edited the movies using the DVCPro HD codec. No color or exposure correction was performed, what you see is exactly what I shot with the camera. The movies below were compressed with the H.264 codec using the high quality multi-pass settings, automatic key-framing, and limiting the data rate. One is full size with a pretty hefty data rate (requires a fast machine to play back without stutter) and the second is a smaller movie that will play better on slower machines. In another entry I’ll post a 4:3 version for the video iPod, but that’s not going to show you much of the HD spendor of this camera.

All in all I was pleased with the results, the camera has a nice filmic look, it handled the blown-out highlights gracefully and the shadows exhibit very little noise. The image might a tad softer than the Sony HVR-Z1U (a subjective thing based on visual memory) but a more pleasing image, which I suspect has something to do with shooting in 24P as well as the DVCPro HD codec, but we’re comparing apples and oranges: HDV is an 25 Mbit/sec codec using MPEG-2 inter-frame compression with a 4:2:0 color profile, while DVCPro HD is a 100 Mbit/sec codec using DCT-based intra-frame compression with a 4:2:2 color profile. But with storage prices in decline, rising quality expecations, I think Panasonic did a smart thing looking towards the future and implementing a high-end codec with this camera. HDV offers the advantage of convenient and inexpensive tapes and a proven media management strategy, while DVCPro HD offers higher quality with the media management complications of working with files rather than tapes.

I suspect the footage will inter-cut nicely with footage shot with the Varicam, making this a high-end camera choice for low-budget productions and a very versatile B-camera for higher budget productions. I think 16mm met its match with the Varicam, now the HVX200 offers 70% of what the Varicam provides and is available in an under $10K package inlcuding a couple of 8GB P2 cards. You give up the 2/3″ chip look, the wider range of frame rates, the more esoteric settings, but you also give up the weight and price tag.

The P2 workflow is a source of much discussion and debate, people either hate it or love it, it really depends on the nature of your project. It’s different from a tape workflow, and while not right for everyone, offers some distict advantages, including faster than real-time ingest into a NLE. Focus Enhancements has announced they will soon start shipping the FireStore FS-100, a portable hard-drive recorder designed specifically for the HVX200. So if recording to P2 cards is not your cup of tea, maybe recording directly to a hard drive is. One thing I’ve heard about the FS-100 is that it will not support the 720/30PN and 720/24PN native modes, so for variable frame-rate work, you’re still going to need to record to P2 cards. I suspect many people will end up using a hybrid P2 and hard drive approach. I’ll write more about this once I get a chance to work more with this camera and the various post workflow options.

If you want to see what the image really looks like without the H.264 compression artifacts, let me know and I can arrange to get you a copy of DVCPro HD master. In a previous post I include some still frames that give you an idea of the image quality before the H.264 compressor does it’s thing.

One good thing about shooting with this camera, or any HD camera for that matter, is even though your target today might be standard definition video or even the little video iPod, is your work will be future proof. At a later time you can release a high quality HD 16×9 version.

I shot this quick little test at Documentary Educational Resources in Watertown, MA on 24-Feb-06. Special thanks to Eric Rolph and Steve Garfield for taking part in the shoot. Panasonic HVX200 camera and P2 cards courtesy of Rule Broadcast Systems.

Below are two versions of the test:

• Download Full-Size Movie (2:07, QuickTime/H.264, 1280×720, 14.7 MB)
• Download Small Movie (2:07, QuickTime/H.264, 640×360, 9 MB)

Notes: [1] These movies need to complete downloading before they will start playing, your patience will be rewarded; [2] Please don’t link to the movie files directly, link to this post, I will be moving the location of these movies as soon as I resolve a little technical problem uploading them to my media server.

My first impression is that it’s like using a slightly heavier and larger DVX100. The camera handles pretty much the same, and most controls are in a very similar location. So if you’re a DVX user, the transition to this camera will be very straight forward, at least in terms of handling.

The images are very clean, and one would expect this given Panasonic’s use of their 100 Mbit/sec DVCPRO HD inter-frame codec rather than the 25 Mbit/sec intra-frame MPEG-2 codec used by the HDV format. It’s hard to say without a side-by-side comparison, but I suspect from what I saw that the DVCPRO HD images are cleaner than HDV images, with less compression artifacts and relatively low noise in the shadows and very clean highlights. I’ll post some video clips soon, but here are two still frames:

• HVX200 First Look 1 (JPEG, 472 KB), and
• HVX200 First Look 2 (JPEG, 374 KB).

There was virtually no difference between the images before and after JPEG compression, but if you’re a purist, you can see the original DVCPRO HD frames as a two frame QuickTime movie (472 KB, requires DVCPRO HD codec). The camera was in the 720/24PN mode with most of the settings at their default values except I set Matrix to Cine-Like and Gamma to Cine-Like-D. I used the Marker feature (spot meter) to set the exposure so the highlights were right at 100 and also used it to make sure that important shadow areas were above dark black.

The spot meter is one of the many features that sets the Panasonic DVX100 and HVX200 apart from other camcorders in the same price/performance class. While Zebras are great for telling you where your highlights are at, they are useless as a precision exposure tool, whereas the spot meter lets you know exactly where a region of the frame falls in the 0 to 100 IRE range. I guess I like this method of exposure becuase when I used to shot film I would base my exposure decisions on both incident and spot meter readings, using the spot meter to accurately previsualize where everything fell in the black to white range of the tonal scale. Why should video be a land of information depravation? I want to know if a black dress is at 10 IRE or 20 IRE and a monitor or LCD display is not to be trusted, especially in bright sunlight, but the spot meter provides accurate information upon which to base exposure decisions.