Sony’s XDCAM-EX & HD1000u & more!

YES, there it is. Sony’s XDCAM-EX in full motion-picture regalia- yours truly at the helm.
I just got back from Sony’s XDCAM-EX event at Sony Pictures Studio in New York City, Manhattan to be precise, and let me tell you, it was worth the drive into the city- something I try to avoid if at all possible.

At the event there were dozens of press from around the world. We were treated to Sony Pictures’ plush screening room, complete with surround sound and 4k digital cinema projection for the introduction of the EX as well as Sony’s new overarching marketing strategy under the new HDNA (HD in their DNA) branding.

After the polished show, which included a Spanish language section for the international press, I had some significant hands-on with both the XDCAM-EX, now the PMW-EX1 camcorder. Lots of photos. Sony also had the HVR-HD1000u camcorder there so I took the opportunity to pour all over that camcorder and take lots of photos.

Here’s a quick, late night report… Read More…

September 18th, 2007 Posted by IEBA | Business, Gear, Video | 7 comments |

JVC’s webcast camcorder? Almost!

JVC recently showed (in Italy) a spiffy little camcorder, the GR-DA20, but hasn’t announced any US release dates or prices that I could find. This little Mini DV wonder sports what appears to be a 2.5″ LCD on the back that slides up or down to assist viewing from above or below the camcorder. Quite an innovation for a camcorder since the “sliding” screens have heretofore been pretty much been limited to cell phones (and the video cameras in cell phones, well, suck.)

Clearly a consumer camcorder- with just a few buttons and a joystick to control your navigation through what I am sure are a myriad of menus on this MiniDV maestro, this means that you won’t be adjusting focus and iris on the fly while leaving your audio with manual gain and on-screen metering. Ha. Don’t even think about it.

But the 36x optical lens, and the sheer design of this camcorder actually does take a few design cues from professional “box” camcorders. There’s no screen that swings out to the side. No, it all maintains a singular, purposeful design. There’s no wondering how one opens the screen. You point it at the subject and there’s your screen looking at you.

So what makes this almost a webcast camcorder? Read More…

September 16th, 2007 Posted by IEBA | Gear, Video | no comments |

Premiere Pro CS3 for Intel Macintosh

As a longtime Mac-based Premiere editor, I switched to Final Cut Pro 1 only because Premiere 5— the latest version when FCP debuted— was a lethargic editor with a new and unwelcome user interface. If I had to learn a new program from scratch, I figured I’d give Final Cut Pro a try, and I’ve never looked back.

Now, with the Intel-only Mac version of Premiere Pro CS3, we can be assured that there’s no legacy Mac code holding this version of Premiere back; it’s a ported-to-Mac version of the software that was redesigned from the ground up as Premiere Pro after Adobe abandoned the Mac platform. Also, Adobe has seen fit to offer FCP users a keyboard preset so they can make the transition to Premiere Pro a little easier by keeping keyboard commands and hot keys the same.

There’s a five page review in the September issue of EventDV. I’ve noticed that the camcorder articles here get a lot of clicks, but once you shoot the footage with your new camcorder, you have to edit it somewhere. Premiere Pro proved itself to be a good tool. Now, I’m not allowed to reprint my review here, (contracts) but there’s no subscription required to go and read it over at EventDV.net. You can also subscribe to the magazine and get more photos than appear online. Odd, but true.

September 14th, 2007 Posted by IEBA | Apple, Video | no comments |

Handy tower of links!

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On the right-hand side of this page, a little ways down;
Under the info about IEBA Communications, LLC,
I’ve added a host of links to useful tools.

These are not ads. There’s no money
or remuneration changing hands.

But I often need these links.
You might like them too.

You have any?

Enjoy.

September 13th, 2007 Posted by IEBA | Apple, Business, Video | no comments |

Sony’s new HDV at IBC.

There’s some new video out on the net showcasing Sony’s latest HDV camcorders. As much as I look forward to testing Sony’s XDCAM EX (which is technically misnamed because it doesn’t use the same media as XDCAM) next week, I am a strong proponent of HDV because of the the many advantages of tape.

For those who need high-speed turnaround, there are many hard drive recorders that can be connected to an HDV camcorder and record the HDV stream right to hard drive for nearly immediate access after you stop recording. Forcing a camcorder to be flash-media only still seems quite a bit limiting to me. Are those who need very long recording supposed to stand there and swap cards all day? Or are they then supposed to connect a deck to the SDI output, defeating the purpose of getting such an “advanced” camcorder in the first place.

So tape still has good reason to exist, even as hard drive capacities increase and flash media starts to take over the smallest hard drive capacities (currently 4g, 8g and 16g in use, with 32g and 64g waiting for moore’s law to make them become anywhere near affordable), small 1″ and 2.5″ hard drives continue to out-pace flash media in both space and price. At IBC, Sony showed off their latest tape-based HDV iterations and both removable lens camcorders look very promising… Read More…