Canon has announced a load of new cameras – The HF S10, HFS100, HF20, HF200, HV40 and a half dozen more.
The HV40 retains the HV* tradition of tape-based HDV, plus the ability to record to memory cards. The rest of the line is AVCHD to a variety of recording mediums, but adding the 24mbps AVCHD mode that’s all the rage these days.
A nice bump across the line, and they’ve still got the mic input, which makes them loads cooler than anyone else. (Are you listening, everyone else?)
Our MxR cards recent arrived, so I grabbed some snaps of them, in use with some Transcend 16gig SDHC cards.
On the left, we have a total of 48gigs. $200 total – $105 for the MxR adapters, $95 for the SDHC cards. On the right, we have one 16gig SxS card, which run about $750 right now.
Unless you need to overcrank, you’d be insane not to order some MxR adapters right away. Awesome.
Ubercaster, an all-in-one podcasting application, has been updated to 1.6, adding integrated support for Skype and a number of other nifty things.
I’ve played with Ubercaster a bit in the past, and although the learning curve is a bit steep if you want to really take advantage of it, for the Leo Laportes of the world I think it’s an amazing solution.
CNET has posted its review of the Creative Vado HD, another contender in the Flip MinoHD / Kodak Zi6 space. The big selling point of the Vado is that it adds HDMI output, unlike the rest which only offer component.
It seems like a solid contender, but it sure is ugly… it almost looks like a prototype unit or something. Anyways, take a look at the review for the full scoop.
Zacuto, a camera rental firm out of Chicago, recently did a camera comparison between a load of different cameras. Their video is available, along with some more information on the shoot. The video has a lot of discussion about the test – they’re definitely aiming towards digital cinema, rather than ENG or some other type of acquisition. It’s a relatively interesting conversation, well worth the 10 minutes.
Saw it on FreshDV.
A fellow named Ross Herewini posted on DVInfo today, announcing a line of SD card to ExpressCard adapters that are purpose built to fit in the EX1/EX3 cams. One of the downsides of the previous solutions was that you had to leave the cardslot door open, potentially exposing the camera to dirt, etc.
He’s not taking orders quite yet, but it looks like they’ll be about $50. Throw in a $31 16gig Transcend SDHD card. Pocket the $700 savings over SXS cards.
Only downside is that you can’t overcrank beyond about 40fps, but you can always keep an SXS card around for that.
We saw hints of it last year, when Apple and Avid pulled out of NAB, but now comes news MacWorld San Francisco looks to be dying a rapid death, and one can assume that many other big tech-industry trade shows aren’t far behind. So far, we know that Adobe and Belkin have pulled out of MWSF. They’re traditionally two of the biggest exhibitors. MWSF continues to extend their early registration times as well.
Obviously, we’re in a recession and the world is falling apart, but I’m guessing these are the sorts of things folks won’t reverse course on even when the economy gets better. As NAB approaches, it’ll be interesting to see who else pulls out. Fun!
I just found out about a new project from TechSmith (of Camtasia fame) called the Jing Project, which combines a free screencasting (and still-image capture) application with an online hosting service.
The screencasts are recorded directly to flash, and the interface, while not very HIG-y, is pretty simple. Capturing isn’t as smooth as Screenflow, but hey, it’s free. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.
Very slick!
If it’s one thing Germans love, it’s data. In that vein, Slashcam has launched an amazing online database of camera specs and reviews. Check it out at http://camcorder-test.slashcam.com, helpfully provided in English for those that don’t sprechen sie deutsch. Here’s hoping they can keep it up to date.
One of the downsides of the way Final Cut Studio handles many modern formats (wrapping from m2t/mxf/mp4 to quicktime) is that the files are difficult to play on Windows, even with Quicktime player. Because Apple hasn’t made things like its HDV component available for windows, you were out of luck.
Calibrated Software comes to the rescue with a set of decode-only codecs for OSX and Windows, which allow you to play back DVCProHD, XDCam (HD/EX), HDV and more. They’re very reasonably priced, and seem like a great solution for folks who need to share content from FCS with PC users, or even with other Mac users lacking the FCS quicktime components.