Official: Convergent Design Gemini 4:4:4

[Paul Cronin]

Hi Dan,

Just when I thought I would not have to buy new gear this year you come out with a recorder that fits with wish list. I will stay posted for when they hit the market.

You and the team continue to stay on step with technology and offer products that help the shooters make money. Nice work.

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Paul,

Thanks for the kind words.

We are getting a very positive reaction to our Gemini 4:4;4.

We have been very busy for months. The positive reaction makes it all worthwhile.

[Steve Kalle]

Codex must be sweating bullets now.

[Emmanuel Plakiotis]

Dear Dan,
I understand why you didn't include HDMI IN in such a high end product, but for those who would like to use it with cameras that only cater HDMI, do you have an adaptor or any kind of solution for them?

[Steve Kalle]

Originally Posted by Emmanuel Plakiotis

Dear Dan,
I understand why you didn't include HDMI IN in such a high end product, but for those who would like to use it with cameras that only cater HDMI, do you have an adaptor or any kind of solution for them?

There are several HDMI to HD-SDI converters available with the best being from Aja and BlackMagic Design. These tend to cost $400-500.

PS Something Dan said before is that there are no 10bit HDMI outputs on any camera. This is something most people don't realize.

[Lance Librandi]

Hey Dan I am very impressed well done guys.

[Dan Keaton]

Originally Posted by Steve Kalle

Great work guys! I have a few questions for you:

1) What camera outputs 2048x1080?

2) Have you tested it with an Alexa? If so, how does the Alexa's 2880x1620 get recorded?

3) Will you be selling additional offload docking stations? Or will standard external Sata docking stations work as well?

4) Will the DPX feature be added by the time the Gemini is released? How would the audio then be recorded, ie WAV, BWF?

5) With the MOV wrapper, does it work natively in After Effects?

6) Will you release a MOV to DPX converter? I ask because I find image sequences to be smoother and easier to scrub.

7) Will it have the ability to record 2 1080/30p 422 cameras at the same time, NOT Stereo 3D but like a multi-camera shoot.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

Dear Steve,

I was exhausted by the end of the day yesterday and very busy this morning.

I am sorry for my delay in responding.

1. For one, the Iconix camera. There may be others.

2. No, not yet. We do not have an Alexa in our lab.
We intend to work closely with ARRI.

3. Yes, additional transfer stations will be available at very modest cost.
Our SSD's are 1.8", thus there are not a lot of 1.8" docking stations at this time.

4. I do not expect DPX to be in our initial firmware release, but it may.
We want to supply DPX, it is very important to us
but we do not want to delay the release of our recorder.
We are planning a Quicktime to DPX converter which will create ".WAV" audio files.
We may consider "BWF" which are very similar.

5. I do not know yet. But full uncompressed in a Quicktime Wrapper is widely supported.

6. Yes.

7. With the 3D Upgade, most likely.

We need to be a little further along before we make promises for some of your questions.

Our unit is doing very well, but we are still hard at work.

I will refine my answers over time.

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Lance,

Thank you very much.

[David Issko]

Dear Mike, Dan and EVERYONE at CD,

You are the Apple of the video production profession - as opposed to post production.
I say this with the highest respect and in terms of innovation. In fact you are better with respect to pricing & many other aspects Apple (as good as they are - some will debate that) still lack in.

Congratulations on your upcoming product. Can't wait to see what else you are bringing to market over the next few years.

Cheers

[Dan Keaton]

Dear David,

Wow!

It is certainly nice for you to say that.

You made my day!

[Melvin Feliciano]

Is the 800 X 480 screen resolution of the Gemini good enough for critical focus and monitoring?

Cinedeck Extreme is 1024x600

SmallHD DP6 is 1280x800 (no touch-screen but good monitoring solution)

Red Pro LCDs are 1024x600

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Melvin,

The necessary resolution for critical focusing depends on many factors.

For each size of LCD, their is an appropriate resolution.

When watching an LCD close up, such as on a 5" diagonal LCD, 800 x 480 is considered very good resolution.

For larger monitor, say 5.6" or higher, higher resolution is more appropriate.

It will be best to allow others to decide if we offer high-enough resolution.

But, please remember that we have a 1 to 1 resolution option, with the ability for one to move around the area which is magnified.

It should be fine for critical focusing.

[Mike Schell]

Here's a couple of quick photos of the Gemini mounted on the side of the AF100. We're still waiting for our F3 to arrive, but this will give you a good idea of the size of Gemini. It's just a little larger than a typical 5.0" LCD monitor.

[Jim Bridges]

Thanks for the photos Mike, it's great to see how small the Gemini is.
Keep up the innovative work!!!

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Friends,

The price of memory chips that go into Solid State Drives and other devices have been very volatile lately.

As such, we were reluctant to release the prices of the 256 GB and 512 GB 1.8" SSD's that we will offer for the Gemini 4:4:4. We were going to wait until NAB for the price announcement.

However, many have asked for the prices for planning purposes.

We will be offering industry standard 1.8" SSD's, but they will be very high performance models.

We will be purchasing these in large quantities, then thoroughly testing them at both regular and elevated temperatures.

Our price for 256 GB SSD will be $749 and 512 GB will be $1,349.

These SSD's have a minimum sustained write speed of 260 Megabytes per second (MBps) which is far faster than CompactFlash cards which generally top out at around 90 MBps (SanDisk Extreme Pro).

For comparison, 256 GB of 64 GB SanDisk Extreme Pro currently cost $2,079.96 versus our price for a 256 GB SSD at $749.

For 512 GB, the comparison is $4,159.92 versus $1,349.

In both cases we are comparing the initial purchase price for highly reusable media.

These prices are subject to change due to market conditions beyond our control.