Finally it’s here just in time for NAB 2009 the all new Sony EX-7 here are a few specs from Sonys pre NAB press release…

The PMW-EX7 camcorder is equipped with three 1/2-inch CCDs – using newly developed “Power HAD™ FX” progressive CCD technology with 1920 x 1080 effective pixels. Breathtaking HD images can be captured by these high-resolution CCDs and the 14-bit A/D conversion and advanced digital signal processing incorporated into the PMW-EX-7.

The PMW-EX7 comes with 4 SxS slots (Please note. This camera will not take MxR or MxM cards) and records from 50Mb/s 4:2:2 through to DVCAM.

The superb picture quality of the PMW-EX7 will increase the appeal for applications such as documentary, European TV drama and mainstream entertainment programmes that require a high quality look. File-based acquisition, with thumbnail and proxy operation is also ideal for fast-turnaround news and live applications where speed of production is a critical requirement.

The suggested price will be around £8700

NEWS JUST IN…

A new deck the PDW-U75D will have 4 slots and a disc insert allowing you to archive from SxS onto 50Gb discs.  Recording onto Dual Layer discs (50GB) is a feature of a range of new Sony products, including the PDW-F335 XDCAM HD camcorders and full range of XDCAM EX camcorders. (Picture & price coming soon).

PLEASE NOTE…April fools day falls in the UK every 1st of April…one day only !

As Philip Bloom said “The irony is it’s what we all want !!” So if Sony are listening we have supported the hybrid look but a camcorder similar to the Panasonic 301 with 1/2″ Power HAD CCD etc. etc. will make you a fortune.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

You’ve made an investment in Sony XDCAM HD quality. Now enjoy its full potential while you edit, then output and record to SDI or analog formats without rendering. Matrox MXO and MXO2 are the only portable I/O devices on the market that let you monitor and output your XDCAM and XDCAM HD timelines at full frame rate and full frame size from Final Cut Pro without first transcoding to an intermediate format such as ProRes or DVCPRO. You save time on every project and enjoy a more fluid workflow on your MacBook Pro or Mac Pro.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

Digital Juice Fonts, Collection Two takes off right where we left off in the first collection with ten completely new font families and over 500 new DJ Fonts.

Collection Two has more than 60 new textures and each Font Family has more layers to customize than ever before. That means more options, more looks, and more fun.

Each DJ Font Family in this collection is the result of hundreds of hours of painstaking detail work by our illustrators. This effort, in tandem with the endless hours put in by our programming team has provided you with a product more customizable, more powerful, more useful, and more fun than any product we’ve ever released.

Collection Two in the DJ Fonts product line contains 10 unique DJ Font Families, over 400 ready-to-use DJ Standard Fonts, over 60 Font Textures, and an unlimited stream of future font customizations through our My DJ Font and Community DJ Font features.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

SmartSound was awarded a patent for the only known technology that automates the editing of virtually any type of music, both newly composed and prerecorded songs. This combination allows SmartSound to provide a one-of-a-kind music solution that puts the ultimate music creativity into the hands of every Final Cut Pro editor. 

With thousands of music tracks currently available, dozens of new releases every month and a world of millions of potential songs, the SmartSound Music library has everything you need to get the job done today and well into the future. 

Since the music supply is virtually endless, SmartSound is able to bring a steady flow of interesting new music from talented composers and musicians around the world.    www.smartsound.com

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

The LED 1000 from PrompterPeople uses 1000 ultra bright, 5600K LED’s and has an equivalent output of 1000 watts of incandescent light yet draws just 100 watts. The 5600K daylight balanced LEDs offer full spectrum, beautifully soft light.

LED lights offer significantly further “throw” than a comparable fluorescent light. This is because each of the 1000 LED lights has a 30 degree beam angle lens that directs light forward. This beam angle creates a beam pattern that is useful from 1 – 15 feet.

LED lights are ideal for location work because they are virtually shockproof and offer the brightest light in the smallest form factor. In addition, this new version operates on 12v DC or with the included AC adapter. This allows the LED 1000 to run for hours on inexpensive battery belts, Anton Bauer brick batteries or even from a cigarette lighter output. Their power efficient design draws just 100 watts so there is never a concern with blowing a circuit breaker. LEDs give off virtually no heat so they are ideal for use in small confined areas where hot lights would quickly heat up the room. Price £699 plus vat.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

Professional camcorders going up by 10-15% by the 1st of April 2009 (No it’s not an April fool)

This will be the second price hike in the space of 3 months, UK consumers being hit worst due to the falling pound. It’s a joke …we are in a recession yet camera manufacturers seem to think we can stand a further price increase. When I bought my EX-3 at the tail end of last year it cost £6600 today you can pick up the same camera for a whopping £7118 thats over £500 which is £100 per month increase and it’s due to go up again !

I have a pet rant and that is the price of P2 cards, they are holding back camera sales… but even worse is the fact that they have gone up in price by £600 since last summer..I despair. Now this seems to stem from the pound v dollar v yen …look at the car trade sales down by 60% manufacturers have stopped making certain cars for the next 6-12 months.

It’s only logical that if you keep passing on these price increases that we will stop buying camcorders and Sony, Panasonic, JVC and the rest of the team will come to a halt.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

RED DIGITAL CINEMA

If you are fed up with the video look and want to turn your hand to filming a true cinema look then Red Digital Cinema is the place for you. In the early ’90s, Oakley founder Jim Jannard was searching for an architect like no other, a like mind with the vision to create structures that would match the unconventional and innovative spirit of Oakley.

Oakley brought the unthinkable to sun wear and goggles…if you want the best, you pay a dear price for it and it worked, he built up an empire designing the best eye-ware  in the world and a few years ago decided to get into making video film cameras with a difference…modular, add what you need and chip sets to set the heather alight. 

Nothing but nothing can touch the design, passion for detail and delivery from design to end product than Jim Jannard and his team.

I myself am not into the film look but for all the money people spend on trying to get a cinema feel… the main thing being depth of field, they should look no further than RED. The new baby of them all is Scarlet this 2/3″ Myrserium-X chipset camera with 8x fixed zoom will set you back £2846 now that even surprised me, that’s no dearer than your average Sony semi pro camcorder and you get a 2/3″ chipset and a camera that looks straight out of Dr Who. The example shown bottom right is a Scarlet configuration of some kind but I have a feeling it wont be £2846 worth. The dearest Scarlet I can find is £7500 this comes with a 35mm Full Frame Mysterium Monstro chipset now this is for “brain” only you also need to add a lens which could set you back £3-10K depending on the spec. Knowing the Red team you will no doubt be able get a Nikon or Canon adapter.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

Just posted 5 hours ago is the 1st UK review of the JVC HM700 by Philip Bloom. 

This twelve minute review goes over the camcorders ergonomics, the SDHC card, take note it must be class 6 and some footage shot with the camera. Phil has been a cameraman for 20 years and his passion is making video cameras look like film with various attachments to the cameras front end.

Using a Nikon prime lens you can achieve some sexy depth of field shots not usually seen on a video camcorder. Give his site a look you will see the link at the right hand side of the screen.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

Panasonic P2 cards are nothing other than 4 SD cards side by side plus a raid controller chip…!  So if you take four 16G SD (64G) class 6 cards at £31 each = £124 then add PCB, raid chip etc, £40 plus the P2 casing and tooling £60 you are looking at a total of £224 top’s add 100% profit you are looking at £448 .

So where do we get 64G P2 cards for £1708 !!!

In my early days I was part of a design team producing double sided printed circuit boards for the audio broadcast industry so I have a good inside knowledge of what PCBs & components cost.

The link below to Panasonic’s P2 explanation and make up…

https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/sales_o/p2/p2card/index.html

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

During filming last year (2008) for Type 2 Diabetes, I noted a few bloomers, during the edit I parked each take 2 on a separate sequence within Final Cut and edited 4m 24s of bloomers. As it happened it was dropped in the final edit because we wanted to have the final production on a single layer disc, so for your enjoyment, sit back and enjoy the fluffs.  

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions