Tag Archives: 1080i

Canon XL H1: Big in Japan

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Canon XL H1 - Big in JapanCanon HD flagship finally hits the stores in Japan.


As of yesterday, the XL H1 is available from several Japanese retailers. The price of the camera is 945,000 JPY which is just a bit short of 8,000 USD.

My previous Canon XL H1 price check was done via B&H Photo and Video site and put the camera at $8,999.

That’s three times (!) the price of Sony FX1 and is 50% more than what you’ll pay for a Panasonic HVX200.

Judgement day is near - I ache to see some actual footage from the XL H1 and I’m not the only one!

HD Cameras roundup

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There are at least two new cameras coming out in November, plus plenty more that should be coming out shortly. If you’re in video production, here’s the “most-wanted” list:

  • Canon XL H1: Canon flagship HDV camera, featuring interchangeable lenses – pegged at $8,999
  • JVC GY-HD100U: JVC’s 720p, HDV camera with an interchangeable Fujinon lens, and TRUE 24P. Price: $5,500
  • Panasonic HVX200: Highly anticipated as DVX100 big brother, supports DVCPRO HD (100Mbps), 4:2:2 color space, and hopefully TRUE 24p. Expected price – about $6,000 without the P2 cards.
  • ARRIFLEX D-20: This is by all means the King of the jungle with its 35mm CMOS sensor, support for 3-60FPS, HDCAM SR support, etc. Price: $100,000+

I’m keeping my ear close to the ground for what SONY has to offer as well. You gottta admit it’s tough to keep up with SONY. They’ve introduced not one, not two, but FOUR HDV cameras. In addition they have probably 5 more HD cams between $5,000 and $100,000.

In other words, SONY gets its own round up of HD cams :)

Coming soon: Panasonic HVX200

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If you’ve into HD video production and have been hanging at DVX forums, you’re probably sick of all the speculation about Panasonic new HD cam, the HVX200. Btw, I finally got the specs – check out this review of Panasonic HVX200.

Panasonic HVX200Back to the forum wars… Panasonic got sick too (I guess) as there are even formal protest issued from posters about the lack of information about the new camera. So they launched a new blog site: defperception.com.

A bit of background: the camera sports a new standard, DVCPRO HD, which is NOT compatible with HDV. So you’ll need not only a camera but also a deck and most probably an add-on for your favorite editing program (Avid, right!). Unlike HDV, DVCPRO HD is frame independent (i.e. no interframe compression) and it also supports a 4:2:2 color space. HDV is 25Mbps while DVCPRO HD’s stream is 100Mbps.

The camera records its signal to tiny P2 cards which only hold about 4-10 minutes of video (4GB and 8GB versions will be available). The plan is to add support for Firewire drives but Panasonic insists P2 cards are superior. If one shoots 10-second takes and money is no object, I guess they are right.

The small capacity of the P2 cards undermines one of the advantages of utilizing a video production’s flow: almost limitless running time. If you have to change something every 10 minutes, you’re straight back to a conventional film production. Someone always ends up carrying the reels around.

There’s probably a lot more info coming along so you might want to subscribe to the feed. I did.

SONY gets a lead in the space race!

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Sony HVR-Z1 goes in spaceIn a report from the International Space Station (ISS), NASA announced that space tourist Gregory Olsen filmed a TV commercial on the space station. He brought a Sony HVR-Z1J (the more professional version of the Sony HDR-FX1) on board so he could shoot a noodles commercial for a Japanese noodle company. Here’s the “transcript” from the ISS report:

“In a special demo/commercial called SCN (Space Cup Noodles) for Japanese industry, the “taxi” visitor heated two packs of noodles in the water heater, then ate the ball-shaped noodles before the backdrop of the Service Module (SM) starboard crew cabin window. The carefully scripted scenes were filmed by CDR Krikalev with the Japanese Sony HVR-Z1J high-definition camcorder, after a rehearsal of the script.”

As to video productions in space, I know which camera I’m taking with me next time a script calls for a space scene shot on location!

ARRI and Arriflex D-20

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ARRIFLEX D-20 Digital 35mm cameraARRI has finally debuted the ARRIFLEX D-20 camera. ARRI execs promise the camera will be available in November.


The new ARRI camera uses a single CMOS sensor the size of a 35mm negative frame. The 35mm frame means you can use the same lenses on the camera and get the same FOV and DOF as you would on a “regular” 35mm ARRI film camera.

In Video Mode, the data coming from the D-20 sensor is processed live in the camera. Color reconstruction is performed simultaneously as the 2880 x 1620 pixel grid is converted to 1920 x 1080 resolution. A sophisticated on-board color management system has been implemented to optimize the camera’s performance for different lighting situations including blue and green screen work. In Video Mode, the D-20 can supply a variety of standard HD video signals for different recording formats, including HDCAM SR, thus allowing the D-20 to integrate seamlessly into existing HD infrastructures.

This puts the new ARRI in same league as SONY’s CineAlta in terms of output (1920x108o HDCAM). In terms of renting this beast for your next video production, you’ll need to drive a hard bargain. The price tag is still unknown but if the CineAlta serves as base, the price will be in the $100,000+ range.