Recently John Galt, Head of Advanced Digital Imaging at Panavision, and Larry Thorpe, National Marketing Manager at Canon Broadcast & Communications Division, opened a discussion on common misunderstandings in Digital Camera Specifications. Panavision has kindly granted FreshDV permission to present the seven-part in-depth video series here.

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 1: What’s in a Pixel?

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 2: Keeping Harry Happy

Recently John Galt, Head of Advanced Digital Imaging at Panavision, and Larry Thorpe, National Marketing Manager at Canon Broadcast & Communications Division, opened a discussion on common misunderstandings in Digital Camera Specifications. Panavision has kindly granted FreshDV permission to present the seven-part in-depth video series here.

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 2: Keeping Harry Happy
The Nyquist Theorem, linking optical and digital sampling, The implications of Fill factor and optical low pass filtering, The Nyquist boundaries of of motion pictures, and Limiting resolution.

Continue watching FreshDV’s presentation of this informative series here or at FreshTV. You can also download H.264 720p and 1080p versions of this Part 2 presentation from Panavision.

Recently John Galt, Head of Advanced Digital Imaging at Panavision, and Larry Thorpe, National Marketing Manager at Canon Broadcast & Communications Division, opened a discussion on common misunderstandings in Digital Camera Specifications. Panavision has kindly granted FreshDV permission to present the seven-part in-depth video series here.

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications Part 1: What’s in a Pixel?
A short history of CCD/CMOS development, Sub-sampling and Super-sampling, HD lens and camera design strategies, Photosites - the tradeoff between resolution, dynamic range, and noise, Digital output signals from cameras, UHDTV, 2K and 4K cameras, and DCI Standards for 2K and 4K.

Continue watching FreshDV’s presentation of this informative series here or at FreshTV. You can also download H.264 720p and 1080p versions of this Part 1 presentation from Panavision.

Early last week Avid announced their new VideoRAID ST and SR solutions that enable editors to continue working full speed ahead even while a RAID drive is being rebuilt.

“…Avid VideoRAID solutions help customers keep up with the fast pace of digital content creation by maintaining full performance and data protection, while rebuilding the drives in the background. Customers will also be able to take advantage of real-time playback of up to two streams of uncompressed HD on as few as eight Avid VideoRAID drives. Additionally, Avid is offering all new VideoRAID ST and SR customers a three-year warranty on drive mechanisms and enclosures and will provide advanced exchange of replacement parts to customers at no additional cost.”

The VideoRAID ST includes a 5-drive tower while VideoRAID SR is a 16-drive rack mount configuration. Capacities are 2.5TB to 16TB per system. Here’s a quick glance at the featureset:

* Real-time parity RAID
* Full performance during drive rebuild (albeit without “full content protection”)
* 2.5TB to 16TB capacity
* SR model includes load-sharing, redundant power supplies
* Field-replaceable controllers, drives, and power supplies

MSRP starts at $4795 USD for 2.5 TB. Expect these new VideoRAID offerings to begin shipping in Q2 2008. More info at www.avid.com/videoraidST

Last year Dalsa announced the Evolution, a smaller and less unwieldy update to their Origin 4K digital cinema camera. The Evolution is to be 23lbs instead of the Origin’s hefty 34lb body and large shell. The projected shipping timeframe has passed, and to date the camera has not been available for use. However it appears now that they are getting close and we may see Evolution cameras at CineGear ‘08 and possibly in the field this June. Dalsa’s Rob Hummel dished with DCP recently on the delays and how they took the time to re-think the camera based on feedback from beta testing. You can read the article here.

American Cinematographer on the 4K digital restoration of The Godfather. A very interesting read.

(via Making the Movie)

Wedding shooter Daniel Boswell of DVArtistry has always been on the bleeding edge of innovation…he was one of the early adopters of HD camcorders and has built his business on the Same Day Edit highlight. Daniel was also one of the first to embrace the XDCAM PMW-EX1, and he’s written an EventDV article on the solid-state workflow as it relates to wedding and event videographers.

“As someone who does Same-Day Edits at almost every wedding, the day is usually segmented into 20-30 minute blocks of time, so this works perfectly with the 8GB card workflow. For example, at most weddings my assistant and I will each shoot about 10-20 minutes of prep. We meet up before ceremony and I dump both of our cards at that time and back them up.

Out here in Southern California, almost all of our non-Catholic ceremonies are about 20 minutes long, which means they can be easily covered with one 8GB card in HQ mode. Again, this makes importing ceremony footage for SDE and back-up very easy. Likewise, the cocktail hour and grand march/first dance can also usually be fit on one 8GB card. This is all I need for my SDEs, so once I have all of the footage from these 8GB cards, I have my second shooter switch to the 16GB card for the bulk of the reception while I edit for the SDE.”

For wedding videographers that have been apprehensive about migrating to HD and/or solid-state, this article may help dispel some of the confusion and hesitation. Speaking personally, Daniel has a good workflow in place and this solution seems to fit his needs perfectly. Perhaps it will fit yours as well.

For more info on the Sony XDCAM EX1, check out our repository of EX1 links and resources. And as always, purchasing the XDCAM EX1 via our B&H linkage helps to support FreshDV at no additional cost to you.

One of the announcements we weren’t able to personally cover at NAB was the Cam~Wave HD from IDX. Cam~Wave is a wireless system capable of transmitting a variety of uncompressed HD flavors up to 150 feet (up to 1080/30p). It piggybacks on cameras like the JVC HD250U and is powered by IDX batteries of course. The entire system, including transmitter and receiver, retails for around $6000. More details from the press release:

* Uncompressed wireless system for both HD-SDI and SD-SDI video.
* Multiple formats of video with two channels of embedded audio.
* Latency less than 1ms.
* Transmission range up to 100 feet (30m) through walls and up to 150 feet (50m) in line-of-sight conditions. Use in actual production may vary.
* Conservative 11w power consumption.
* Ships with an IDX V-mount, allowing a direct attachment to an IDX battery for rear mounting on a camera. It can also powered directly by DC.
* Sleek and lightweight: weighing just 1.7 pounds, and no visible antenna.
* Wireless transmission via MIMO/OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), operating between the 5.1-5.8 GHz frequencies. No special license is required.
* Selection of four manual or auto-select frequencies with 256-bit encryption.

Norman Hollyn has an excellent summary of a recent Hollywood Reporter article on indie film distribution. The article is a roundtable with industry players David Ansen, Kirk D’Amico, Cassian Elwes, Mark Gill, and Avi Lerner.

Norman Hollyn:
“…the three things that caught my eye, have to do with distribution realities and how they impact production choices. The first was from Lerner, who was commenting on how the international film market is getting more selective in what they will buy from indie filmmakers.”

Says Lerner:
“What we have done, like most of the big independents, is we moved our target from the straight-to-DVD movie to more theatrical films. Today, with the exception of “event” movies, we are doing the same movies as the studios, just with less money.”

Mark Gill goes on to talk about the niche for indie film budgets under the “kill zone” between $50 and $100 million…studios claim a return of just 1% from films in that range, contrasting sharply with the 35% return on $100 million+ budgets. You can read the original article and Norman’s further analysis here.

fxguide has launched a new podcast series focusing on Red Digital Cinema called Red Centre. Episode #4 is an interview with Red guru Graeme Nattress. Looks like a great resource, well worth checking out.

(Via Final Cut User)

 Cinevate Pre-Production Ballare Dolly Review [6:25m]: Download

We recently had the opportunity to check out Cinevate’s Ballare dolly solution. The Ballare is almost entirely constructed of aluminum, and as such is quite rigid. It breaks down into a relatively small size for transport, and weighs around 45 lbs. It can run on schedule 40 PVC pipe, or any other 1″ or 1 1/4″ track. This was a pre-production model, and it is my understanding that since our test Cinevate has integrated a few of our suggestions into the production model, like a more robust pushbar design. For a detailed look at the dolly system, download the attached video or watch online at FreshTV.

Via Reduser comes this note on new features for Kona card users:

“…AJA Video is adding RED-specific video outputs for some of the unique frame sizes that the REDALERT and REDCINE software applications can produce. This additional support for RED will be included in the version 6.0 software driver for the award-winning KONA 3 video card. The version 6.0 software update will be a free upgrade for KONA 3 users, and will be available for download in late May of 2008.”

The following frame sizes will be offered as video playback options within the
Apple Final Cut Pro>A/V Devices tab in Version 6.0 of the AJA KONA driver software:
2K
* 2048×1152 - outputs the image to 2048×1556
* 2048×1024 - outputs the image to 2048×1080
Note: These 2K frame sizes can be output to either a 2K DCI spec projector or to a 1920×1080 HD video monitor using the AJA KONA 3 real-time 2K crop feature.

1920×1080
* 1536×864 - outputs the image to 1920×1080
* 1536×768 - outputs the image to 1920×1080
* 1024×576 - outputs the image to 1920×1080
* 1024×512 - outputs the image to 1920×1080
This real-time image output automatically centers the picture and fills the rest of the frame with black.

More info at aja.com.