HD For Indies

So Martijn Schroevers has done a great job of scouring the show floor for indie related stuff. So far, here are my current picks for Best of Show as far as indies are concerned:

So far, the most significant new stuff for indies at the show is (and this is my ranking):

1.) Panasonic's HVX-200

-the Do It All camera - 720p (24 or 60), 1080p24, 1080i30 for the NTSC version. Also does DV and DVCPRO 50.

If they added a bigger imaging chip, direct to disk recording (note - Focus Enhancements will be offering such a thing), and replaceable lenses, this would be the ultimate indie camera for under $15K. Of course, for that reason, that probably won't happen any time soon. DV to tape, and everything else to P2 cards or direct to disk via a FireStore device (FireWire cable goes to a portable dedicated hard drive, see other announcement from today).

FireWire, P2, DV tape, and USB 2.0 interfaces. I'll be curious to know if the P2 data can be read back over FireWire to a computer running an NLE or has to go through a P2 card reader - probably a reader. At NAB, the 5 card reader is something like $2K, expect that to come down or a cheaper alternative. The official solution is to get a couple/three P2 cards, load one or two up and dump'em to a portable hard drive device Panasonic will offer. The indie solution will be the FireStore device, hands down.

$6K for the basic camera with no cards, $10K for a camera and two 8GB cards, $2500ish or so for the hard drive reader which was something like 60 or 80 GB (sorry, no time to backtrack my notes right now). (And around $8K for camera and FireStore - the clear winner - $12K or $8K and you can shoot the same amount in a day?)

But I expect this to be THE indie camera next year. 24p, 16:9, high def, 4:2:2 codec, native codec editing in many NLE packages (including Final Cut Pro), so this will be clearly the best bang for the buck unless the JVC GY-HD100U exceeds expectations.

2.) Cine-one indi

It's a 35mm adaptor for the Sony HVR-Z1U camera (or other 1/3 inch chip cameras), allowing it to be adapted by choice to 35mm cine-, Minolta or Canon compatible lenses, $3000, shipping early next year.

Hopefully, they'll have a model for the HVX-200 soon as well. More on the indi here, and read the comments as someone has translated the German for me.

3.) AJA intros $1800 Kona LH board

...that does pretty much everything you'd realistically want - SD, HD, analog, digital, in, and out. This card will literally handle all of your input and output needs no matter what you're doing (OK, not HDCAM SR 4:4:4 RGB, but virtually no indies use that). The lack of upconversion to HD is the only extra goodie I see lacking. But for general purpose acquisition, editing, and output, this is THE card. Working on a doc and don't know what formats you'll be getting footage in? With a G5, Final Cut Pro, and the Kona LH, you can literally handle ANYTHING that comes in the door.

4.) BlackMagic cuts prices on DeckLink HD line

DeckLink HD Pro 4:2:2 now $995 from $1495, DeckLink HD Pro 4:4:4 now $1495 from $1995, etc. Also HDLink 2, PCIe products for PC, and driver updates with new up/downconversion capabilities.

5.) Sony's XDCAM HD

Not due until NAB (April) 2006, but will offer a new quality level between HDV (nice consumer) and HDCAM (high end professional), and maybe FCP will support it by then too. (Here's my summary of that tech.) 18, 25, or 35 megabit per second long GOP MPEG-2. If that doesn't mean anything to you, don't worry about it - basically, a higher bitrate HDV, with better timecode support, 4 channels of uncompressed audio, and tapeless to boot - it's on a disc in a cartridge, not a tape. Why #5? If it were shipping sooner, I'd be more excited. But it isn't, so I'm not.

Runner Up or Also Ran?

The JVC GY-HD100U is officially here - if it isn't shipping yet, expected to be in days, maybe a week or two. But it isn't on the list because, based on the limited reports I've been getting, nobody's super excited about this camera that's used it, or especially that has played with it side by side with the Sony HVR-Z1U. The Sony is less costly, higher resolution, but lacks interchangeable lenses and a true 24p mode (you can field blend 50i to get 25p then conform that to 24p - a lengthy workaround but a valid one). Things looked promising at NAB, but I haven't heard anybody rave about it since then. Martijn Schroevers, on the scene at IBC, described it as thus:

The picture looks quite video-ish and harsh. The footage I saw that was shot with the HD100 with the mini35 setup looked much better. But that was shot outside in bright daylight and not in an exhibition hall. Here they have that setup too and inside it looks underexposed. Maybe the difference with the Sony Z1 and the Panasonic HVX200 is the difference between 1080 and 720. The incredible detail of 1080 might give the film look...


Dark Horse Contenders

With Canon about to debut their new HDV cameras, they too could suddenly vault onto and up this list. However, if you look at the usual time tables between product announcement and release (for example, Sony's HDV camcorders and Panasonic's HVX-200), it is likely to take up to 9 months for the products to ship. Timeliness is part of relevance - the sooner it's out, the more it matters. But it is likely to be an HDV camera, and I'm more in favor of Panasonic's DVCPRO HD format, with more color resolution and ostensibly lighter compression (well...arguable), and the reputation of the DVX-100A to build on.

Thomson announced a new camcorder (2/3" CCDs, $20K, disk based recording) and recorder. I don't know what recording formats it uses, lens not included, or what varieties of HD it records to, or whether it records to SD as well, etc. This new format promises to allow shooting and recording to Iomega Rev Pro or compact flash media, then copy the files off via USB 2.0 or FireWire to whatever you wish. If the codec (compresor decompressor) used is supported natively by editing systems such as Avid, Apple, and Adobe, this should be a very significant camera for indie production.

More to follow as I get further reports from Martijn (or anyone else willing to contribute).

-mike