New Silicon Imaging SI-1920HDVR Digital Cinema Camera

[Wayne Morellini]

Originally Posted by Jason Rodriguez

Hi Wayne,

If you have ideas on alternate configurations you want, send them in to Steve (he's still point on this stuff), or email us at hd@siliconimaging.com

Thanks Jason, poor Steve already has a email from me ;)

A cheaper basic 720p version at under $5K, would be good. The existing camera really competes in the over $20K, and down to 10K sectors, while there is nothing for the under $10K fro doco Eng and basic film, to compete with prosumer equipment. Using either Ibis, or the newer cheap Altasens 720p sensor.

I have also found good component options for my pixel shifted 720p camera concept, which could be done for less than $1K, but this should be viewed as a grade below the 720p one I just suggested. It is much more than just pixel shifted, it uses alternative technologies I have come up with, including an alternative to 3 chip prisms.

Anyway my apologies for the rambling, not feeling well today.


Thanks

Wayne.

[Heath McKnight]

I saw this at studentfilmmaker.com. Very interesting and it seems to be a bit too Windows/Adobe friendly. One chip can go two ways:

The Genesis' one 35mm imaging chip is amazing (WHAT ABOUT BRIAN on ABC looked great).

But other one chip cameras (HD10/HD1 from JVC), no so much.

heath

[Keith Wakeham]

Was their any pictures of the camera released? Probably have to wait until monday.

I'm really curious how big this camera processing section is and if altasens ever implemented global shutting in their 3570 model vs the rolling shutter of their 3562 models. No spec sheets from altasens on the 3570 yet but they do state they reduced sensor noise, thats always good.

[Heath McKnight]

At their site, they say pix next week at NAB.

heath

[Steve Nordhauser]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Ainslie. Yes we are a real company making real cameras. This was kept quiet since we were trying to avoid the pre-pre-preannouncement marketing hype. I will have to say this camera came from the my interactions with this group. We started doing our own software for the SI-1920HD when I couldn't find a solid taker to do it for us. After some testing we realized that although uncompressed was an ideal goal, the workflow for 1080p is very difficult. I met Cineform on this board too. If you haven't already, check out the new Cineform RAW (tm) workflow. It helps make our camera a real Indie tool.

Speaking of Indie tools, you can probably guess that some thought went into the pricing. We could have asked more based on the current market but brought the price low enough that many Indies and schools will be able to afford the camera. That was also why we partnered with Adobe for Premiere. It makes this an affordable tool for creative people.

Well, enough pseudo-hype. I wanted this group to know the story a bit since they formed the roots of this camera.
-Steve

Originally Posted by Ainslie Davies

Apart from the fact that they are an established company and the fact that the sensor - SI-1920HD - has been out for industrial and specialist uses for a while, I don't doubt this camera for a minute. Look at the powerful partners; Adobe and Cineform and the fact that David Newman (of Cineform) confirmed it today. Oh, did I mention the footage?

Between this and Red, I think that the Top 3 will have something of a problem on their hands.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Pics next week . . . and yes, the cam is real:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=...ch&sa=N&tab=wn

:)

BTW, feedback is always welcome, so if anyone has ideas, bump them over to steve at hd@siliconimaging.com - your input is what makes the tools better.

Thanks,

Jason
Silicon Imaging

[Dan Euritt]

lets see, 4 hours of footage on a 160 gb hdd... "Expose, Shoot and Produce impressive 16:9 progressive scan footage at 1080/24p, 1080/25p, 1080/30P and 720P up to 72fps"

that is very interesting!

[Serge Victorovich]

Nice.This camera based on clever ideas of Drake Team.
http://dvinfo.net/conf/showpost.php?...postcount=2071
Drake 8bit 4:4:4 RAW from CMOS through FPGA straight to HDD.
SI-1920HDVR 10bit 4:2:2 Cineform RAW through FPGA straight to HDD.
What another differences?
Elphel camera have same concept, but have onboard 8bit 4:2:0 low quality
jpeg or theora codec and cost only $800.
High cost of Altasens CMOS imager, R&D and Cineform codec with RAW2AVI convertor = and as result $20K price for consumer?

Kinetta, Drake, Andromeda, SI-1920HDVR, RED...
Who is next with affordable price for cmos+fpga?
We'll waiting for gift from our friends from China? ;-)

[Marco Leavitt]

Silicon Imaging was nice enough to cooperate with a newspaper I work for, and a picture of CEO Ari Presler with a computer drawing of the camera appeared on the front page of our newspaper this morning. (Silicon Imaging is a local company.) Since they weren't planning to release pictures nationally until Monday, I don't want to say too much, but I can tell you it is very cool looking. In fact, it reminds me quite a lot of a certain classic 16mm film camera that continues to have a cult following. Beyond that, I probably shouldn't say.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Marco Leavitt

a certain classic 16mm film camera that continues to have a cult following.

I can think of a couple that have a cult following... the Canon Scoopic, the Cinema Products CP-16.

[Marco Leavitt]

Sorry to be so cryptic. :) It definitely looks more like a film camera than any camcorder I've ever seen. I want one now more than ever.

[Wayne Morellini]

Tip, add up the price of the extras over Elphel. it is very cheap! Possible to do 720p cheaper again, but quality lower and nobody was interested.

What from China?

[Heath McKnight]

What's the newspaper's web site?

heath

[Marco Leavitt]

It's albany.bizjournals.com.

The story (with photo) won't post until Monday. Actually, if anyone's up late Sunday they might get a peak at one minute after midnight, eastern standard time.

[Heath McKnight]

I'm gonna be up that late, so I'll hit www.albany.bizjournals.com that night!

heath