No one in his or her right mind should buy a standard-definition-only camera anymore

As of NAB 2008, we’ve reached the milestone at which cameras can now be considered high-definition without having to belabor the point. HD acquisition is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessary cost of doing business.
Due to the comparative costs, no one in their right mind should buy a standard-definition-only camera. What’s important is what you plan to do with the camera you choose. Size, feature set, and recording system are what matters most. Then you figure out how to pay for it. On the show floor, the options for recording video, both large and small, continue to be optical disc, solid-state, hard drive, magnetic media disc, and, yes, videotape.

For the independent owner-operator and production companies that need to work with different clients that require different final masters, format flexibility is key. That’s why the new proliferation of cameras capable of 1080p/60 acquisition appears to be most attractive. From the high-resolution image, one could extract the 1080i and 720p HD formats and 480i/p SD formats and get excellent results. It’s been said that even 1080i looks better when acquired with native 1080p imagers. However, cost is an issue here.

On the show floor at NAB this year, there were lots of new models to support Panasonic’s solid-state P2 recording system and Sony’s XDCAM optical disc format. Panasonic showed a new P2 VariCam (actually two versions, one with 1-megapixel sensors that capture in both 1080 and 720; and another with 2.2-megapixel CCDs that shoots in 1080) while Sony showed XDCAM HD at 50 Mbps 4:2:2 processing.

Panasonic also unveiled its new AG-HPX170 solid-state P2 HD handheld camcorder in a lightweight 4.2-pound body. Like its HPX200 predecessor, the two-slot HPX170 is a 1080p (also 1080i and 720p) camcorder with 1/3-inch 16:9 3-CCDs, 14-bit A/D conversion and 19-bit processing. There’s a standard 13X Leica Dicomar zoom lens with a 28mm wide-angle setting. The camera also provides auto or manual focus and iris.

Not to be outdone, Sony announced its new PMW-EX3 camcorder, offering 1920 x 1080 image resolution, interchangeable lenses, and genlock and time code in/out for multi-camera operation.

[Interestingly, Sony also showed the PHU-60K professional hard-disk unit, which includes a 3-D G sensor and memory buffer to protect data when the unit is dropped. When the G sensor detects that the unit is being dropped, the head of the drive is immediately parked to protect the data. The content is temporarily stored in the buffer memory and then restored in the HDD when it is operating again.]

Panasonic’s cameras uses the AVC-Intra (50 and 100 Mbps) and DVCPRO HD codecs while Sony continues to support MPEG-2 and soon MPEG-4. Panasonic announced a 64 GB P2 (PCMCIA) card coming later this year, while Sony unveiled a prototype 32 GB version of the SxS PRO solid-state memory card (PCI Express).

Red Digital Cinema showed a new prototype compact single-sensor camera called Scarlet that will acquire images at 3K resolution and cost about $3,000 (if and when it’s delivered by the end of the year, as stated). Its slowly emerging Red One camera-4K resolution for $16,000-was also shown in a form factor that is very different from its original prototype look. Those who have the camera seem genuinely satisfied with the results they’re getting. Those whose orders have yet to be filled continue to be frustrated.

Iconix Video exhibited a Studio2K point-of-view (POV) camera, the next generation of its HD-RH1F camera. The question remains: how do they get all of that functionality into such a small box? The complete system includes a 1.32″ x 1.50″ x 1.92″ POV camera head weighing 2.5 oz.; a 3.5 lb. controller unit measuring 8.4″ x 1.8″ x 12″; power supply, and 3, 6 and 10 meter cables. The compact 2K camera is designed for unique uses like stereoscopic 3-D.

The Studio2K camera supports a variety of 2K digital cinema formats, including 2048 x 1080p and 2048 x 1080PsF at rates of 23.98fps, 24fps, 25fps, 29.97fps and 30fps. Output of 2K data is available via the camera’s dual-link HD-SDI ports at 4:4:4 RGB. Like the HD-RH1F, it also outputs HD resolutions of 720p, 1080i and 1080p at rates of 24fps, 25fps, 30fps, 50fps and 60fps as well as NTSC and PAL.

Ikegami showed its GigaFlash (GF) camera and proprietary GFPak storage cartridges. The Flash memory-based GFCam system was developed in cooperation with Toshiba and includes the GFCam HDS-V10 tapeless camcorder, the GFStation GFS-V10 studio deck, and GFPak high-capacity Flash media. The GFPak comes in 16, 32 and 64 GB versions and features a convenient “memory paper” meter on the side to show how much capacity is left on the cartridge. The GFPaks also include a USB connection for direct connection to laptop for editing image monitoring.

The GFCam HD ENG system offers an open-codec HD/SD architecture that leverages proxy video and metadata to support file-based HD workflow efficiencies.

The company also exhibited its new HDK-77EX HD studio camera-featuring 2/3-inch CCD chips and Ikegami’s proprietary Chip C4 advanced digital signal processing technology-and the CMOS-equipped HDK-79EC camera for field and studio use.

The HDK-79EC offers three 2/3-inch 2.5 megapixel 1920 x 1080 CMOS imaging sensors that are switchable between native interlace and progressive readout modes. The camera supports the 1080/60i, 1080/24p, and 720/60p formats and can include both formats at 50Hz, high-speed dual-link 1080/60p, and (for super slow motion), 720/120i.

Thomson Grass Valley announced two new storage options for its REV PRO removable media cartridges, which store data recorded with the Infinity camcorder.

REV PRO XP offers dual-stream capability on a 40 GB disk, letting a user record and playback simultaneous 75 Mbps HD streams. This new disk features more capacity than the previous generation REV PRO disk and more headroom.

It also offers more than 50 minutes of HD recording at 75 Mbps and more than 40 minutes at 100 Mbps (using JPEG 2000 compression) and the ability to offload data from the disk at extremely high speed (DV25-encoded material can be transferred at more than six times real time). This allows users to perform sophisticated editing direct from the REV PRO disk.

REV PRO ER focuses on providing extended capacity. It allows documentary shooters and others who require longer record times to store more than 70 minutes of HD material at 100 Mbps or 90 minutes at 75 Mbps-or more than four hours of SD capacity-on a single 65 GB disk. It also supports dual-stream capability, with the ability to facilitate two 50 Mbps streams simultaneously.

The REV PRO XP 40 GB (gold) disk costs $70 while the REV PRO ER 70 GB (blue) disk costs $80. Both will be available later this year. The existing standard 35 GB (red) disk continues to be sold at various outlets for $70.