just was asked this. while recording on a Sony EX1 to SxS as the same time as nanoflash - that's not going to suddenly send 4:1:0 out of the SDI port - that stays uncompressed, right?

Dear Ed,

The HD-SDI port is always uncompressed. It will always be 4:2:2.

And in 8 bit, not 10 bit.

Cheers

Dear Friends,

The HD-SDI out of a Sony EX1/EX3 is always 4:2:2 10-bit.

The nanoFlash is an 8-bit recorder, as it uses MPEG-2, an 8-bit codec. With 8-bit, one gets approximately 16 million colors.

But before you dismiss it out of hand, since it is 8-bit, one should carefully examine the actual picture quality.

The images out of a nanoFlash are of very high quality, and have low noise.

The low noise part is very important. A 10-bit recorder, with higher noise, is far less desirable than an 8-bit recorder with low noise.

Another factor is the quality of the compression. Previous, typically lower bit-rate, or less sophisticated codecs, could show image problems. Many attributed this to the codec being 8-bit, where the actual problem was the low bit rate or the compression scheme itself.

To the best of my knowledge, it is very difficult to find an example of color banding with the nanoFlash.

The actual proof is in the images, which speak for themselves.

Sorry, I meant to say that the nano will record in 8 bit.

Dear David,

No problem, I was just trying to be clear.