With its new Infinity Digital Media Camcorder, Thomson’s Grass Valley
has introduced what many thought was impossible: a multiformat,
tapeless camera that gives you a choice of compression formats,
standard- and high-definition image resolutions, screamingly fast bit
rates and multiple types of removable media- all at a price that won’t
break your budget. The camera and its companion Digital Media Player
support 1080i/50/60 and 720p/50/60 HD (at 75 and 100 Mbps) as well as
625i/50 and 525i/60 SD (25 or 50 Mbps) via 14-bit digital signal
processing. There’s no 24p capability, though you will be able to
encode video as DV25 (compatible with DVCAM and DVCPRO), MPEG-2 for SD
or HD, or JPEG 2000 (MPEG compression is another option). On board is a
color LCD monitor, SDI and HD-SDI video connectors for real-time
output, and Gigabit Ethernet and FireWire connectors. The camera
records to an Iomega REV PRO disk (around $60) and professional-grade
CompactFlash media, made by SanDisk. A single REV PRO disk, with 35 GB
of storage capacity, offers about 45 minutes of 1080i HD at 75 Mbps and
more than two hours in 25 Mbps HDV or DV. Grass Valley plans an early
2006 release. Camcorder, $20,000 (starting price); digital media
player, $10,000