Panasonic’s push into 3D just took another step forward. Recently, they made several announcements about their 3D product lineup including details on their 3D camera (AG-3DA), a new 3D production monitor (BT-3DL2550) and a new 3D mixer (AG-HMX100). Panasonic is moving to bring 3D to a broad community of filmmakers and these new tools certainly show their commitment. We can’t wait to see all of these new products at NAB 2010. Learn more about these new devices after the break.

…continue reading Panasonic 3D Update

With all the various HDSLRs appearing on the market, keeping their features straight can be a bit of a challenge. Abel’s Andy Shipsides has put together a handy chart comparing five of these cameras side-by-side. He compares the Canon 5D Mark II, 1D Mark IV, the 7D, the new Rebel T2i, and the Panasonic Lumix GH1. His chart is available to view or download in the Resources section of abelcine.com.

Why change the mount on the camera when you can change the mount on the lens? Zeiss will soon ship a version of their Compact Primes in Canon EF mount for EOS cameras such as the Canon 5D Mark II. The Zeiss Compact Primes are designed to cover the full 24mm x 36mm image area of the stills format, and these new lenses will come with the facility to swap out the mount to PL (and who knows, maybe something else in the future?). This makes the Compact Primes the “Everything Lens Set” for use on all popular cameras. These lenses are inexpensive and lightweight, yet built to professional cine standards with integrated gearing and large scales. Stills format lenses often have weak mechanics, nearly-useless focus scales, servo drives with “infinity spin” focus dials, image shift and breathing in the focus, and axial-expansion that hampers use of accessories such as matteboxes & follow focuses. All of these issues are removed with the new Zeiss Compact Prime Series II lenses. Above is a photo of a prototype at the Zeiss factory and the lenses will debut at NAB in April (come visit our booth #C8740).

We recently rolled out an upgrade to our website, www.abelcine.com, that includes many new features, including the ability to process international orders. Now, for the first time, our international customers can purchase items directly through the website using fast and secure Google Checkout.

Many of the features we included in this update came directly from client feedback and are designed to improve your shopping experience. To learn more about all the recent upgrades, click here.

Many of you may remember the Panasonic AJ-PCS060G, the P2 reader with a built in 60 GB hard drive. It was a great device at the time, but the 60GB hard drive doesn’t do much for customers with 32GB & 64GB P2 cards. So Panasonic has come up with a new device for downloading P2 cards in the field. The AG-MSU10 or P2 Media Storage Unit. The MSU10 has two slots, one is a P2 card slot and the other accepts a hard drive enclosure from Panasonic (the AG-MBX10). The enclosure has USB and eSATA connections on it and can be filled with any 2.5″ SATA drive, including solid state drives. The P2 Media Storage Unit features a 3.2” LCD screen that displays a P2 thumbnail screen and supports master-quality 10 bit AVC-Intra (100/50) and DVCPRO HD, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO and DV recording formats. With a single touch, AVC-Intra 100 or DVCPRO HD content can be transferred from a P2 card to the solid-state drive at four times real-time (faster at lower data rates). The MSU10 is battery-operated. We are looking forward to seeing the device, which will sell for under $2500. The hard disk is not included, but can be easily be purchased at any retail store. See the full press release here. 

A couple months ago, I wrote about Panasonic’s mention of a single card reader to come. Well the official announcement is finally here. It’s called the AJ-PCD2, and it will sell for less than $350. So many of our P2 clients have been asking for this type of product for years, and we are happy to see it here. The PCD2 comes with two USB 2.0 cables, which power the device (2 USB connections equals twice the power) and connects it to a PC or Mac. This makes it a very portable device for field use, which is exactly what we’ve been asking for. The device will be fully compatible with PC & Mac and will be available in April. Read the full press release here.

Right on the heels of the Ki Pro update, Nexto has also released their own 1.10 firmware for the Video Storage Pro (NVS2500). This update is has several improvements including:

• Added preview support for MXF files Convergent Design’s nanoFlash. (Previously only MOV files were supported for preview)
• 2x faster M-Copy & SYNC speeds (approx. 30MB/s) for faster USB hard drive syncing and copying
• 2x faster CF & SD/MS copy speed (approx 30MB/s)
• 5x faster full verify speed for SxS (approx. 80MB/s)
• Added Copy & Verify function. Automatic full verify after copy.
• Export the backup folder in internal HDD to CF/SD/MS.
• Added Delete for memory cards including SxS and P2.
• Added preview for external devices such as P2/SxS/CF/SD/MS and external USB hard drive
• Display file name during the ‘Clip View’ mode
• Added support for SxS-1(indication on life time expire)
• Preliminary support for AVC-Intra50
• Support for ‘avi’ file for the Sony PMW-350

This is great news for any NVS2500 owner. Make sure to update your device. The firmware update can be found here - NVS2500 1.10 Firmware