Canon Reveals Their Next Pro Video Cam

[Jonathan Shaw]

I have actually just seen an article that states the BBC will accept EX1 footage as HD, criteria has changed due to the increasing costs in excess baggage etc. Stipulations are that it has to come from a cam with minimum :- 1/2" chips and capture on a nano flash or equiv at 100 mbps.

And at present the EX1 is the only cam at this price point that fulfills that, and probably 90% of people who shoot with the EX1 will never put forward footage for broadcast it sure is a big draw card.

[Brian Drysdale]

I know of a HD production for Nat. Geographic being shot with a EX3 fitted with a Nanoflash. The BBC's spec allows 1/2" sensors, the EX1 codec was just a tad low, the Nanoflash is a way round this.

The BBC mostly commissions programmes or buys in programmes from other major broadcasters (Series like "The Wire") or co-productions with these broadcasters. Spec programmes are unlikely to get taken up unless there's something unique and compelling about about them.

The BBC has a lot of budget pressures at present, so for the average general program they'll be trying to reduce costs. Although one suggestion would be to cut out some of the huge BBC administrative tail.

[Steve Phillipps]

Quote "While we're spec'ing out the new A1 prime, can we add mechanical focus and zoom instead of pure servo controls?"

Roger, I'd vote against that. Putting in mechanical focus rather than servos is very expensive and would drive up the cost of the lens - at the moment the low price of kit lenses like those with the EX3 and PMW350 is a big draw, about £1500 vs £8000.
The servo focus seems to work pretty well too, certainly 100% useable - and I'm very fussy!
Steve

[Chris Hurd]

There is *some* kind of change involved, as the lens barrel on the new camera
sports some kind of windowed gauge, similar to the type found on a still photo
lens barrel... and on a semi-related note, I've updated the article:

http://www.dvinfo.net/news/canon-ado...ing-codec.html

[Peter Moretti]

From Chris' update:

"Formats are not always tied to specific media; for instance, it’s possible to record an HDV data stream to a Compact Flash memory card. If the card slots are indeed SDHC, then I would say it’s most likely that the format is AVCHD… but if the card slots are something else, such as Compact Flash or (not as likely) Express Media, then the recording format could very easily be something other than AVCHD."


All I can say is that if Canon tries recording 24F HDV to a CF card, I'm going to kill a kitten*.







* I love kittens and would never hurt one, but...

[Chris Hurd]

I don't think it'll be HDV.

Frame mode (24F and 30F) might actually carry over to the new camera, but that's a good thing since it's identical to native progressive scan (for all practical purposes, it is the same thing as native progressive scan).

[Peter Moretti]

I don't care how they get the progressive image, only how they record them. 24F looks great even though it's tecnnically not progessively originated.

But 24F is a RPITA for Avid users b/c there is something funky about the timecode. Other NLE users report having none to serious problems as well.

[David Chilson]

I find the window on the lens very curious, on a still lens it has feet/meters but I can't think of the last time I used it to verify focus. In the old days there were different f-stops to show what was in focus, but I doubt they would be on there.

On a video camera I can't think of anyone that wouldn't use the viewfinder/LCD to check focus over those so close together little numbers and pretty much anything you want can be shown right on the LCD.

Things that make you go hmmm...

[Sean Seah]

folks, I can confirm it IS NOT going to be AVCHD.... =)

[Vincent Oliver]

Here is the UK press release - Enjoy and speculate

Not from Admin: Thanks for posting this, Vincent -- I have changed it to the worldwide press release, linked from DV Info Net:

http://www.dvinfo.net/news/canon-ado...ing-codec.html

[Perrone Ford]

Looks like Peter is going to have to upgrade to MC 4.0.5... :) AMA is the future Peter!

[Paulo Teixeira]

With those specs, all that time waiting will be worth it. I just wish it had a 720 60p mode.

[Alister Chapman]

Exciting news to say the least. Canon make good video cameras. The assumption is that this is going into the handycam that they have been showing mock-ups of, but could this be a different, possibly bigger camera?? There is no mention of form factor or sensors etc which is a little odd. You would think they would be saying things like first time in a small camcorder, also they talk about file based but not solid state, could they have licensed the optical disc technology from Sony? I doubt this very much, I expect it will be the small EX style camera that we have all seen mock-ups of, but interesting what isn't revealed in the press release.

[Vincent Oliver]

Wait until after the 8th and maybe all will be revealed ;-)

[Brian Drysdale]

A 1/2" sensor with HD 4:2:2 that met the minimum HD broadcasters specs would be of interest to the people currently out shooting broadcast SD on the current HDV cameras.