...and closer...
 

Panasonic just announced a new compact variable frame-rate HD camera. It's not in the prosumer realm yet but it's sure getting closer.

From Videography.com:

http://www.videography.com/brief/mainv/0,7220,33248,00.html

I wonder if this is the new Foveon(?) chip I've been hearing about. Really don't know anything about it... you can expect it to take some time to work its way into the marketplace, probably.

The press release can be found @
http://www.foveon.com/press_X3_business.html

Technical info, diagrams and other pictures
are at another site:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0202/02021102foveonx3tech.asp

Enjoy!

ResellerRatings.com Is Gone
 

I guess it's a sign of the times for dot.coms but sometime within the past 2 weeks this site has closed down. Too bad. They were a good resource. Now I guess we'll just have to rely on each other.

ResellerRatings.com is back
 

Maybe under new sponsorship? Maybe someone won the lottery? Whatever. The site's back in business.

A message I received yesterday via email
 

"My name is Scott Wainner and I am the founder of ResellerRatings.com as
well as TechIMO.com. I have announced today that I have purchased
ResellerRatings.com from its previous owner, internet.com!

ResellerRatings.com has long been known as the top resource on the
Internet to get customer opinions of online computer hardware retailers
and to give a voice to online buyers. The site was recently named Best
Retailer Ratings site in the November 2001 issue of Yahoo!ô Internet
Life magazine, above Gomez.comô and Bizrate.comô.

The site has been COMPLETELY redesigned. It is now database driven and
has many, many more features than the old site - plus, we think the design
looks really cool."

Good news. A most valuable online buyer's resource. Thanks,

Well, as Mark Twain had said:
"reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
Glad to see Scott rang in.

X3 Looks Impressive. But is it practical?
 

After looking at the X3, I do not know if its tremendously better than conventional systems.

Despite claims it is not a mosaic system, it still is. The difference is, that it does not need to mix RGB pixels to obtain an image. That is an advantage. Whether this is film like performance out of CCD array, is another question.

While the pictures they provide are interesting, I cannot tell if they are equivalent hardware. Are they comparing similarly priced single CCDs?

However, I would like to see how well the system performs against a 3 CCD system. 3 chippers offer roughly the same features as the X3 albeit with substantially more optics. The question here may be whether the X3 can beat mature 3 chipper technology.

Nathan Gifford

Yes, the Foveon technology looks very interesting. Like you, nathan, I wonder if it will represent a true advancement over ccd technology. It should be fun to watch the development.

The atual site for this product is at:

http://www.foveon.net/

Interesting Developments at Sony
 

Although this place centers around the XL1/s I know that some folks are involved in the professional / broadcast world. So I thought you might find this tidbit interesting.

During a session with Sony representatives today I learned that they are planning to introduce a hard-disk capture module for several of their cameras at the upcoming NAB show (the DSR370, DSR570 and probably several other models). Basically, this will be a module that connects to the back of the cameras (where the battery normally sits) into which a 40Gb hard disk can be mounted. Footage can then be captured directly to the disk which would later be removed and mounted to a (new) deck which would enable you to edit/download the footage. The disk module will communicate with the camera with "iLink" (Sony-speak for FireWire). It sounded as if the 1500 series of decks might be augmented or modified to facilitate this new twist.

I really don't know any more details but it's clear that Sony is trying to take proactive advantage of the shrinking costs of massive hard disks and their use with NLE's.

Pretty interesting! I'm sure it would look a lot cleaner than a Firestore and associated FW drive hung off the back of an XL-1!

Sony is actually taking a cue from JVC on this one. For the past two years at NAB, the "special secret room" at the JVC booth has been showing off a custom version of the DV500 that has this exact configuration... a hard drive mounted on the back of the camera for direct-to-disk recording. They had told me it would be out "within months" and then I never heard about it again... until now. Another DV500 they were showing had a drive mounted in place of the tape transport chassis itself. Now with Sony exploring this area as well, I think we're not far from the day when we'll all be completely tapeless.

Thanks Ken -- more stuff to explore at NAB if I can actually get to the Sony booth...

That's interesting, Chris. From Sony's perspective the stakes involved in an increasingly tapeless recording environment, or a diminishing secondary role for tape, might actually be high. I would imagine that blank tape sales represents a profitable business that requires little or no real engineering and R&D expense.

Has anyoneheard of...
 

I was sort of tossing this issue around with the head of the video dept. here at the camp and we were wondering if there was any possibility of a real time cd burning capability( eventually leading to a realtime dvd) for those of us that need to keep footage around. but at the same time dont have infinite hard drive space.

Personally i have no idea if ther is a realtime cdburner out yet. If so i would imagine that it would cost a pretty penny.

Off the wall? probably.

Lemme know!

Dennis