Pro video blog…Produced by Philip Johnston DoP/Editor

IBC in Amsterdam is a great experience, it’s not all about broadcasters though their are a lot of stands dedicated to broadcast work like satellite trucks etc. If you want to see the latest in video technology and you can’t get to NAB then IBC is the place to go.

This is a very tactile show allowing you to see and feel the products one of the better stands being Panasonic, where you got to play with all the new products and view the output onto a Hi Rez monitor.

Looking at people’s badges they were either DPs or companies like the BBC looking at the new AG-AF101 FilmLike camcorder. This was for me the prize camera of the show, we all got to play with one and at a price of £4000 it’s going to fall off the shelves.

I spoke to Jan Crittenden Livingston (Panasonic USA) who told me Panasonic were very exited by all the buzz following the AF101’s announcement, she went on to tell me that it took the popularity of DSLR to show Panasonic the way forward as far as FilmLike camcorders were concerned but there will still be a place for video camcorders and a growing popularity for 3D filming.

I had only met Jan on the internet as she is a keen follower of “CreativeCow” a fantastic resource for anyone who films in both video, film and DSLR.

Jan was as nice as I had imagined and such a switched on lady to everything “Panasonic” I must thank Jan for allowing me to both film and interview her at such a busy event.

Sony on the other hand was just as busy and almost took up a hall by themselves, it was funny to see a Japanese Panasonic chap looking over the new Sony MC2000, lifting it up examining the workmanship, I get the feeling they are equally admiring of each others work and that to me is what video is all about, one big happy family.

Sony were to announce various new products from the PMW-500 to the ECM-CG50BP short shotgun mic. Sony were very helpful and I met Bill Drummond (Product Marketing Manager-Content Creation) who phoned various people for me to interview and told me about the yet un named FilmLike camcorder. It was indeed a working engineering model and pictures from the camcorder were being played on a Hi-Rez Full HD broadcast monitor beside the camcorder. Bill told me that this FilmLike camcorder was virtually noiseless and I can concur with Bills comments it was remarkably grain free. I asked Bill for a price and he told me that announcement was for early next year. Bill knows Panasonic have a head start in the FilmLike field and that their camcorder is £4000 so we can only wait for that important announcement, my bet is about £6000.

One bit of advice for Sony next year is please do not have sexy product lying on white IKEA shelf’s pointing at nothing, DPs, camera men and women like to play with kit and this set up was far from user friendly, plus loose wires look shoddy.

To quantify this Sony were very helpful and listened to me when I told them about their problems I was having with their web site and unlike Panasonic presented me with experts to interview not a press spokesman. This came about when I wanted someone to go over the new Panasonic 3100 and the chap told me he was not allowed to speak on camera it must be someone from their Press Office, needless to say I decided to by pass that camcorder…how stupid.

author

Having been working in the video business since 1988 I have amassed a great amount of knowledge of both the kit and production values over the last 30 years.

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