If you own a P2 based camera  or other device then this is a must read. Panasonic is releasing their E-Series (Economy Series) P2 cards and while they are designed to work with all P2 devices, many will require a firmware upgrade to work perfectly. Without the upgrade the devices may have problems recording clips over multiple cards (Spanned Clips). Also a “REC Warning Error” may occur when recording in variable frame rates at 720/24PN/25PN/30PN. UPDATE: This is only a problem at 12p or 15p on the AG-HVX200/AG-HVX200A, AG-HPX170 and AG-HPX500 models.  This error may also occur when shooting DV or DVCPRO (not DVCPRO HD) in Loop, Interval, or even Normal record modes. So these updates are a must if you’d like to use the E-Series cards. An upgrade is NOT needed for the following cameras:  VariCam 3700, VariCam 2700, AJ-HPX3000, AJ-SPX800, AJ-SPC700 and AJ-SPD850.

Panasonic has posted a chart here, which shows which cameras need the update and when the firmware will be available for free download. That same site – The Panasonic AV Support Desk – will be the best place to visit when you’re ready to upgrade your camera.  For more information read this PDF document – Compatibility Note for E-Series P2 Cards – which Panasonic has issued.

There is a bug that pops up from time to time preventing Final Cut from recognizing Phantom cine files even when the GlueTools Phantom Toolkit is properly installed. There is a fix detailed on the GlueTools forum, but it requires familiarity with the Unix command line. To simplify the application of the fix, I’ve created an Applescript that automates this command – just download the program, and drag the cine files you need to fix onto the icon.

Note that this program only works in Leopard. Also, it currently will not look into a folder that you drop onto it — you’ll need to go into the folder and select the cine files (you can use command-A) and drag and drop them.

Get the file here: fix_cines.app

ARRI decided to really go for broke with their new WLCS; it has performance options beyond that of their competition, yet they’ve dropped the price point below them. This is ARRI showing that they really want to play in this arena, and they really deliver.

…continue reading ARRI’s New Wireless Lens Control System

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The PDW-F800 camera adds some exciting new features to the Sony XDCAM lineup. If you’ve followed my PDW-700 video series, then you’re already pretty familiar with the PDW-F800, but in this video I show some of the new features that set this camera apart from the rest.

DVCPRO HD vs. AVC-Intra

In my last entry, I discussed the 3-way trade off between quality, size and complexity in codecs. Panasonic’s move from DVCPRO HD to AVC-Intra in their latest generation of P2 cameras provides an excellent example of a trade off between quality and complexity, as both codecs record at the same bit rate of 100mb/sec (at 30fps). How much better is AVC-Intra? To start off with, it preserves a lot more image information than DVCPRO HD. It records full raster (1920×1080, when recording 1080p) 4:2:2 at 10 bits per channel compared to 1280×1080 4:2:2 at 8 bits per channel, which means it’s starting out with almost double the data. Here’s a comparison of a frame of each (the same difference frames we looked at last time).

…continue reading Image Evaluation Series: Compression (Pt. 2)

Transcend just started delivering their 32GB Class 6 SDHC cards, and of course our first question was: Will it work with the EX1 and EX3 cameras? For those of you that don’t know, the EX1 and EX3 will accept some ExpressCard 34 to SDHC adapters and allow you to record directly to high-speed (class 6) SDHC cards. This is very popular because of the reduced cost compared to SxS cards. The first adapter that was known to work well was the Kensington 7-in-1 Media reader, but stock soon fell short and Kensington stopped producing them. Recently an Australian company (E-Films) started producing an adapter called the MxR ExpressCard/34 Reader, which was guaranteed to work for this application and fit nicely in both EX1 and EX3 cameras. Now Hoodman has taken over the US reselling of that product, which they are now calling a SxSxSDHC adapter. These adapters have proven to work well and many of our clients have them. However, not all SDHC cards work with the adapter in the EX1/3. I’ve successfully tested both the 16 GB SanDisk Extreme III Class 6 cards and the 16GB Transcend Class 6 SDHC cards, and those are the cards we recommend to our clients. So of course I was looking forward to testing the 32GB version as well. Well finally the good news. The Transcend 32 GB card has tested out the same as the 16GB version. I was able to write at 1080p 24/30/60i with no problem. At 720P I was able to write at up to 41fps, which is about the same as the 16GB version. I’m looking forward to testing the SanDisk version and Hoodman’s RAW SDHC card, which promises to handle even higher frames per second in 720p.

Matt Livingston, one our sales team members here in New York, had a hand in one of the new Zacuto products released at this year’s NAB. Matt works with many clients that use the Letus 35mm lens adapter systems. These are great systems, but one of the complaints that he often heard from clients was the inability to lock focus on the camera after setting it for the Letus. When setting up the Letus on a camera (without the use of a relay lens) you have to focus the camera’s lens to ground glass of the Letus. After setting the focus on the camera’s lens, operators need only adjust the 35mm lens to get proper focus. So the big problem comes in when the camera’s focus is accidentally bumped, sometimes without the operator even knowing it. Matt got this question a couple times and tried to build a solution with some existing Zacuto parts. This proved to be difficult, and every solution made it hard to adjust the focus at all. So Matt called up Zacuto’s Steve Weiss and asked for his opinion. Well Steve and the Zacuto team found a solution and designed the Z-Stop. The Z-Stop is a small carbon fiber piece that attaches to rods of the Letus support system. It is designed to be strong but pliable, so that it can hold the lens in place and still be bent back for adjustment. Check out a quick video of the Z-Stop over at the Zacuto site, and make sure to add the Z-Stop to your Letus system. Good job Zacuto and thanks to Matt for his help in making it happen. It may be called the Z-Stop, but we’ll always call it the ZLivingston.