Canon XLH1 does uncompressed 1080i 4:2:2 over HD-SDI
 

It's official....here are some of the fine points.

* Uncompressed 1080/60i 4:2:2 HD-SDI output at 1.485 Gbps

* Multi-format external HD recording to HDCAM, DVCPRO HD, etc.

* Genlock input and TimeCode input /output

* 20x HD L/SR OIS lens (5.4mm-108mm, f/1.6-f/3.5, 72mm fil.)

* 3 x 1.67mp CCDs (native 16:9 shape), 1440 x 1080 effective

* Digic DV II processor supporting 30fps & 24fps (25 fps in Europe)

See the rest of the specs on Canon's new camera at this link.


http://www.dvinfo.net/canonxlh1/watchdog.php


regards,

=gb=

For field use, what kind of converter would we need assuming that it needs to go out via HD SDI to a harddrive. Does anyone make a field friendly converter...Miranda? Any units that do both conversion and harddrive?

Very interesting stuff.

KW

I dunno about field converters, but with the need for a component to SDI converter gone, you can record to a computer with the base Blackmagic HD card... not too shabby an investment for studio work. (Of course there's other considerations if you're keeping uncompressed...)

Also, you can run right out to a DVCPRO HD or HDCAM(SR) deck with no problems now, right?

I suspect it will be pretty difficult to make use of the SDI output to hard drive to a portable solution. 1.4 Gbps is ~170 MBps, which is quite a bit higher than most hard disk solutions record. In the short term there will be very limited applications for this particular function.

It is a feature a lot of people were asking for though.

-Steve

And do you get the 24F option out SDI?

Couple the HD-SDI output with the Genlock input.. and you know.. you've jsut got yourself a HD studio camera!! ...then run that remote control SW you can get and you even get CCU (ok, prize for the first person to make a hardware CCU for the software!)

- Mikko

Quick somebody tell the boys at Rosendahl to make an HD-SDI option port on the Bonsai Drive http://bonsaidrive.com/bonsai.html

I think it already does as an option, maybe?

"supports SDI option
TC inserter with additional clip number display"

Interesting indeed.

Kevin

Yes, all frame rates, HD and SD out of the SDI terminal BNC connector.

is that SDI output 8 bit, 10 bit or 12 bit?

I actually don't think the camera costs that much for what I will be doing assuming the 24f thing works great.

Up until now I was going to be getting a whole new setup in January. I was planning on getting a HD100 along with a Decklink HD card and Multibridge for VFX work.

$6000.00 for HD100
$3000.00 for Decklink and Multibridge.

This comes to the same $9000 price tag as the XH1. The downside would have been analog noise. Now for the same price I can just add the $500 Decklink HD card and have full digital quality from the CCD block hopefully in true 10bits. Clearly the other advantage is 1080p compared to 720p.

Thats odd SDI audio is missing from the SDI port on the camera. That will make it a little bit harder to run to a HDCAM or DVCPROHD deck.

I'll have to ask about that... see the "need questions" thread... will put this on my list.

No audio from the XL H1 through SDI, but if you're doing double-system sound anyway, then it's not much of an issue. If you were going to take audio from the camera, then yes, this is a bit of an annoyance.

Isn't SDI for HD a different standard? vis http://www.frontierpost.co.uk/2005/wisdom/Glossary.pdf

I suspect the Bonsai drive will need to be adapted for HD. I hope I'm wrong.

They are taking no prisoners. They've already published the CCD block size and pixel count. Panasonic could learn a LOT from Canon on how to realease info about a new product!

Agreed.

Canon in September: Here's a product announcement, with a working model, full specifications, demo footage (coming tomorrowish?), and it will be available in November.

Panasonic in January: Here are some miscellaneous specs to prevent you from buying something else, and uh... it's coming... uh... fourth quarter...ish?

What's cute is that the price point for this new machine is similar to a fully loaded HVX. I honestly wonder how many people who set budget asside for an HVX machine would consider switching.

-Steve