As image-quality requirements bump up against bandwidth-based reality,
it’s more clear now than ever that when you select a camera you’re
already starting to determine your optimal post-production process.
Working in cooperation with the codec experts at CineForm (they’re the
guys who first brought you HDV editing in Adobe Premiere Pro), Silicon
Imaging has a new camera that defines your entire workflow from the
moment you hit record. The camera itself uses a single 2/3-inch CMOS
chip with a 12-bit A/D converter and has four hours of recording (to a
hot-swappable 160 GB USB 2.0 notebook HDD) on board. What’s radically
different here is that it records files using a 10-bit wavelet-based
codec (running at 96 Mbps) from CineForm that maintains RAW Bayer data
all the way through the render process — the color matrix is handled as
metadata in the stream, so the codec won’t allow you to make any truly
destructive color-space changes as you work. The camera records 1080p
at 24, 25 and 30 fps, and 720p up to 72 fps. Lens options include
PL-mounts as well as F- and C-mounts, and the camera head can even be
detached and linked up to the rest of the system vie Gigabit Ethernet.
Maybe the best part? It’ll be less than $20,000. Look for it as early
as the third quarter.
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