We mentioned the Codex Digital HD/2K/4K field recorder system after it was announced at last year’s CineGear Expo. Well it now seems the system will be shipping in June 2008, and has already been in use on a variety of high-end production sets (including the Wachowski brother’s Speed Racer). At NAB 2008 Codex showed the unit in action. Due to time-constraints, FreshDV wasn’t able to get over to the Codex booth to get a look at the system first-hand…but here are some juicy details on the technology.

The Codex Portable is a disk recorder “about the size of a toaster” that is capable of capturing 1080p, 2K, 4K, etc in up to 4:4:4 in a variant of JPEG2000 compression that is “visually indistinguishable” from uncompressed and “comparable” to HDCAM-SR. When you add the Codex Transfer Station, you have the option to output content from the swappable diskpacks in DPX, MXF, DnxHD, QuickTime, AVI, JPEG, BMP, and BWF file formats. In addition to wired networking interfaces, there’s also the capability to snag H.264 proxies via wifi for on-set previews and a quick edit-as-you-go workflow. Very useful.

The Portable has extensive support for all the typical HD cameras like the F23, Viper, and others, and can accept the raw data modes of the ARRI D-20, D-21, and DALSA Origin (and I imagine the Evolution as well, if it ever comes out). When Red enables the 4K data mode on the Red One, it will also be able to accept that data. Recordings are captured to dual hot-swappable, shock-mounted RAID or Solid-State DiskPacks that can hold up to three hours at high quality (high bit-rate JPEG2000 variant).

The Codex Portable is designed to be ruggedized and weather-resistant, weighs under 10lbs, and can be powered by standard camera batteries. It includes a touchscreen to directly access takes for full-frame playback, and can be remote-controlled via it’s (secure) wifi interface. War-Filming anyone? :-) Production units are expected to ship in June of this year, and pricing is as follows: $44,500 (USD), £22,500 (GBP), €33,000 Euros. You can find more information at codexdigital.com

As I mentioned earlier, the Codex workflow has already been used on the set of Speed Racer. Here’s a quick summary:

Codex and Sohonet became the hub of the entire workflow, providing all functions of the film-lab, tape-transfer and courier services on this $100m-plus, FX-intensive production. There were between three and five camera units operating simultaneously at times, using Sony F23 cameras. Codex recorded the uncompressed output in parallel with a recording to HDCAM-SR tape for archive purposes. The camera, engineering and Codex package for on-set and post production was designed and integrated by digital cinematography specialist PACE at its Burbank facility. Both PACE and Codex provided on-location support. On Speed Racer, Codex systems delivered immediate playback and review, plus the feeds for on-set compositing, and also converted the footage to the different formats required by the production. These included full and half-resolution DPX frames used for effects, QuickTime viewing copies, and Avid MXF proxies. The DPX files were sent by Sohonet to the in-studio FX unit, and to the Los Angeles VFX house. Avid MXF files, generated by the Codex, were immediately available for editing with
no time-consuming import / digitising. This enabled the screening of full-quality editorials of
the previous day’s work – every day during the 12-week shoot.

Adam Wilt has a few snapshots and notes on the Codex offerings at NAB. Check them out at PVC.