SONY HXR-MC50E

Wide Angle G-Lens
Experience Sony’s latest lens technology with the professional-quality G Lens. Engineered for superior optical performance, Sony G lenses deliver brilliant, accurate colour reproduction and sharp, amazingly detailed images. In addition, the 29.8mm lens offers a very wide angle of view. The six bladed iris offers superb shallow depth of field videography.

10x Optical / 120x Digital Zoom
10x optical zoom helps to bring the action close up from far away. In addition, Digital Zoom Interpolation means that digital zooming (up to 120x) is clearer, with less distortion than previous types of digital zoom.

Optical SteadyShot Image Stabilisation with Active Mode
SteadyShot image stabilisation with Active Mode represents the next step forward in Sony image stabilisation technology. Active Mode improves on existing SteadyShot image stabilisation by allowing the camera to compensate for greater degrees of camera shake and deliver a stunning level of image smoothness.

1/2.88″ Back-Illuminated “Exmor R” CMOS Sensor
Experience low-light sensitivity with improved image clarity and drastically reduced grain with the back-illuminated “Exmor R” sensor. “Exmor R” technology captures footage with high resolution and high sensitivity, while the advanced Sony BIONZ Image Processor improves camera response time and screens out noise to help ensure that the signal from each pixel is as pure as possible.

BIONZ Image Processor
The BIONZ Image Processor works in conjunction with the Exmor CMOS sensor with ClearVid array for pristine imaging. The BIONZ Image Processor provides Data Noise Reduction, Fast Image processing, and Data compression. In addition, the BIONZ Image Processor enables Sony’s Dynamic Range Optimiser for both video and still image capture. The higher processing speed also allows Dual Recording to capture still images while recording video footage.

Dynamic Range Optimiser
The D-Range (Dynamic Range) Optimiser function adjusts the exposure and contrast of an image to counter the effects of high-contrast shooting condition, allowing better picture reproduction. The D-Range Optimiser suppresses “blackout” in dark areas such as shadows and “whiteout” in bright areas such as skies. As a result, the footage appears more natural.

1920 x 1080 Full High Definition AVCHD Recording
1920 x 1080i FULL HD resolution gives your production exceptional high definition quality

64GB Internal Flash Memory
The built-in 64GB embedded flash memory can record and store up to 6 hours of high definition video footage (HD FX mode at 24Mbps), or up to 48 hours of standard definition footage (SD HQ mode).

Media Card Slot
The camcorder accepts a wide range of removeable media including: Memory Stick Duo / Memory Stick PRO Duo / Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo media and SD/SDHC media (optional)

3.5″ Wide Xtra Fine TruBlack LCD Plus Viewfinder
TruBlack technology brings remarkably higher contrast and brightness to the camcorder’s 3.5″ Wide Xtra Fine TruBlack LCD display, delivering more natural, realistic colours and easier viewing in bright conditions by reducing glare. An adjustable 0.27″ colour viewfinder (201k) allows you to capture video and frame your shots with the LCD closed.

Assignable Dial
Get the most out of your camcorder with enhanced manual controls. The assignable dial allows for control of focus, exposure, white balance, iris, and shutter speed. Adjusting the iris lets you control depth of field, while shutter speed allows for control motion blur. There are a total of 6 settings available: Focus, Exposure, AE Shift, WB Shift, Iris control, and Shutter speed control.

Geotagging with Built-In GPS Receiver and NAVTEQ Maps
A built-in GPS receiver gives you the ability to view your current location on the LCD map display, as well as “tag” your shooting locations with GPS metadata. This metadata can be viewed using the Map Index function on the camcorder or once downloaded to your PC using the supplied PMB (Picture Motion Browser) software. Additionally, the receiver automatically adjusts your camcorder’s clock to the proper time zone.

Dedicated Shotgun Microphone and Headphone Inputs
The HXR-MC50E offers a supplied professional shotgun microphone and mount which coupled with the headphone input allows acquisition and monitoring of location sound. (Headphones not supplied)

Golf Shot
Building on the slow-motion capture capabilities of Smooth Slow Record on models such as the HVR-Z5E and Z7E, Golf Shot captures a few seconds of motion as a sequence of up to 22 still images, which can be viewed/printed individually or as a composite “sequence shot” image, great for analysing the nuances of a golf swing, tennis serve, and other fast action for sports science teaching and sports tutoring applications.

2x Faster Quick AF
With the improved autofocus (AF) system, Quick AF, the focusing speed is twice as fast compared to other Sony compact camcorders. Whether in bright daylight or in a dimly lit environment, Quick AF ensures fast, accurate, and consistent focus lock, enabling users to shoot in a wide range of scenes without missing any important moments. When shooting night scenes, conventional AF might struggle to focus, but thanks to the much improved AF algorithm in Quick AF, you can get that all important shot.

Intelligent Auto (10 iAuto modes)
Intelligent Auto mode goes a step beyond traditional auto modes by analysing your shot and then automatically selecting the appropriate settings from ten distinct scene modes: Portrait Mode, Smile Shutter, Backlight Control, Scenery, Night Scenery Mode, High Sensitivity Mode, Macro Mode, Baby Mode, Tripod, and Low Light Mode ideal for corporate or video diary applications where non-camera operators are shooting.

Film Roll Index
Film Roll Index helps you easily find desired clips. When using this feature, the camcorder previews the beginning of clips and can create clip indexes set at specified display intervals (3, 6, or 12 seconds and 1 or 5 minutes)

Direct Copy to External HDD without a PC
Store your content in a whole new way with the ability to copy content from your camcorder directly to an external hard disk drive (optional), all without a pc or mac. Your camcorder can also access content stored on the external hard drive for playback on an HDMI monitor or consumer TV, allowing you to use the camcorder’s handy playback features, great for viewing full HD rushes.

Smooth Slow Record
The Smooth Slow Record mode increases the frame rate from 50 frames per second (fps) to 200 fps, allowing you to capture 3 seconds of fast motion and play the video back in 12 seconds. This is a great tool for analysing a golf swing or a natural history applications.

12MP Digital Still Capture
12 megapixel still image capture lets you take stunning, high resolution digital photos while the Dual record capability lets you capture 8.3MP still images while shooting high definition video – so you can capture still images without having to switch recording modes.

Targeted at the video and film production communities, the AF101 delivers the shallow depth of field and wider field of view of a large imager, with the flexibility and cost advantages of use with a growing line of professional quality, industry standard micro 4/3-inch lenses, filters, and adapters. The full 1080 and 720 production camera offers superior video handling, native 1080/24p recording, variable frame rates, professional audio capabilities, and compatibility with SDHC and SDXC media.

The design of the AF101’s micro 4/3-inch sensor affords depth of field and field of view similar to that of 35mm movie cameras in a less expensive camera body. Equipped with an interchangeable lens mount, the AF101 can use an array of low-cost, widely-available still camera lenses as well as film-style lenses with fixed focal lengths and primes.

The AF101 incorporates a 4/3-inch, 16:9 MOS imager. The camcorder records 1080/60i, 50i, 30p, 25p and 24p (native) and 720/60p, 50p, 30p, 25p and 24p (native) in AVCHD’s highest-quality PH mode (maximum 24Mbps). Ready for global production standards, the camcorder is 60Hz and 50Hz switchable.

The AF101 maximises the potential of its high-resolution imager with built-in ND filtering and dramatically reduced video aliasing. Standard professional interfaces include HD-SDI out, HDMI, time code recording, built-in stereo microphone and USB 2.0. The AF101 features two XLR inputs with +48V Phantom Power capability, 48-kHz/16-bit two-channel digital audio recording and supports LPCM/Dolby-AC3.

This newest Panasonic AVCCAM camcorder is the first to enjoy the benefits of advanced SDXC media card compatibility in addition to existing SDHC card support. (SDXC is the newest SD memory card specification that supports memory capacities above 32GB up to 2TB). With two SD slots, the AF101 can record up to 12 hours on two 64GB SDXC cards in PH mode

HDW : Personally I think it could look a bit less like a 1970s cine camera but theres no doubt it will be 10x more practicable than ANY HDSLR on the planet today. At least Panasonic are making an effort but I do think it may be pipped at the post if we are not going to see it till late 2010.

With a high-resolution 3-megapixel imager, multiple AVCCAM recording formats, DV support, and enhanced professional functions, the HMC81 delivers the full benefits of AVCCAM for schools, event videographers, government facilities, web designers and corporate users who prefer to work with a shoulder-mount camera and need flexible connectivity and format support. The camera, utilising a professional 3-chip imager, can also take 10.6-megapixel still images and store them as standard JPEGs on the solid state card. AVCHD recordings and stills can be directly played back from the SD card on a wide range of low-cost players including Panasonic Blu-ray players, laptop PCs and game consoles.

The camcorder’s full HD resolution 3-megapixel 3MOS imager produces stunning 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720 AVCHD video with high sensitivity. Because the AVCHD format-based camcorder uses MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 high profile encoding – which provides a doubling of bandwidth efficiency and improved video performance over the older MPEG-2 compression based formats (e.g. HDV) – recordings look clean and crisp, even during fast motion, without image degradation or dropouts.

The HMC81 records video in all four professional AVCCAM HD recording modes, including the highest-quality PH mode (average 21 Mbps/Max 24Mbps), the HA mode (approx.17 Mbps), the HG mode (approx.13 Mbps) and the extended recording HE mode (approx. 6 Mbps).

At 60Hz, the camcorder supports the following HD formats in PH mode: 1080/60i, 1080/30p, 1080/24pN, 720/60p, 720/30p, 720/24pN; in HA, HG and HE modes, it records in 1080/60i. In standard definition DV, the camcorder records 480/60i, 480/30p, 480/24p.

The HMC81 records standard-definition DV directly onto SD cards in the AVI Type 2 file format and offers squeeze, letter box and side crop options.

Using just one 32GB SDHC memory card, a user can record three hours of full resolution 1920×1080 video and audio in PH mode, four hours at HA mode and 5.3 hours at HG mode. In the HE mode, the camera can record up to 12 hours of 1440 x 1080 HD content on a 32GB SDHC card. Up to 2 hours of DV content can be recorded on a single 32GB SDHC card.

For the first time in an AVCCAM shoulder-mount, the HMC81 includes such high-end professional features as a user-assignable manual focus ring functions (Focus/Iris/Zoom) for added control; time code/UB recording; time/date stamp; and two wired remote control terminals (for zoom, focus, iris, REC start/stop controls). The camcorder’s lens system captures super sharp images at up to 12X optical zoom and features a 40.8mm (35mm lens equivalent) wide-angle setting. It also offers users useful functions including Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS) for smooth stable shooting, Dynamic Range Stretch (DRS), which helps compensate for wide variations in lighting, and a Cine-Like Gamma mode that gives recordings a more film-like look.

The HMC81 comes standard with HDMI output (AVCHD only), USB 2.0 (mini B-type devices), composite output (BNC x 1), analog component (BNC x 3), IEEE 1394 output (DV only), and a built-in stereo microphone as well as a 3.5 mm external mic-in jack. The camcorder features two locking XLR inputs with switches for mic/line, and +48V Phantom Power capability.

The camera offers useful solid-state recording functions including pre-record, interval recording, shot marker and metadata capture. Additional features include waveform monitor display, focus assists such as focus bar display and enlarged display, auto focus with face detection, white balance, mode display, zebra display, colour bar, tally lamps, slow smooth zoom and soft landing, slow shutter and synchro-scan shutter functions, and three programmable user buttons. A wireless remote is also included.

HDW : Once again we get plastic-cam…Panasonic seem intent on bringing out these strange plastic, cheap looking camcorders and hopefully sell them under the name of “shoulder mount”.

The main difference between the 350 and the 320 are as follows…

PMW-350 = 2/3″ chipset 59dB S/N

PMW -320 = 1/2″ chipset 54dB S/N

Now thats got to give Panasonic a kick in the pants not only do Sony bring out the 2/3″ 350 but they also bring out the 320 1/2″ shoulder mount as well…not a sign of 1/3″ chips in sight !

Sadly it does not come close to EX-3 prices but if you really need that full shoulder mount kudos then two thousand pounds is a lot closer than finding £6K for the 350 and by all accounts its still a lot quieter than the EX-3.

HDTV EFP Lens HJ15ex8.5B KRSE-V SERIES

INTRODUCTION

As high-definition television production increases, the need for effective image stabilization grows, given that unintentional camera shake is made more noticeable by the HD format’s greater picture detail and width. Addressing this need, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, is proud to introduce the new HJ15ex8.5B KRSE-V portable HD zoom lens with a built-in Optical Image Stabilizer. Designed to maintain stable images even when the camera is subject to jolts and vibrations, the HJ15ex8.5B KRSE-V uses Canon’s unique Vari-Angle Prism image-stabilizer (VAP-IS) technology to achieve a high level of image stability all the way from telephoto to wide-angle settings.

Canon’s HJ15ex8.5B KRSE-V portable HD zoom lens is ideally suited for diverse and challenging outdoor shooting situations because it can stabilize a wide range of vibration frequencies. Examples range from the low-frequency vibrations encountered on a camera operator’s shoulder in a jostling crowd situation, to tripod-mounted operation on shaky platforms, to the higher-frequency vibration that cameras are subject to when operated inside TV news helicopters, motor vehicles, motorbikes, and boats. The lens provides four selectable stabilization modes to allow operators to optimize the degree of correction under diverse, and sometimes unique, shooting conditions.

About This Lens

Canon’s unique VAP-IS technology incorporates a novel optical group made up of two flat glass elements joined by sealed bellows containing a high-refractive-index liquid, selectively placed within the lens’ overall optical system. Physical perturbations to the lens, in the form of jolts or vibrations, flex the bellows proportional to the amplitude of these disturbances. The associated distortion of the liquid instantaneously alters the direction of the transmitted light rays in a manner designed to counter the incoming light-ray displacements created by these disturbances. The system has been optimized to introduce a high-degree of real-time compensation for image instabilities arising from all forms of lens-camera operational unsteadiness.

A major advantage of Canon’s unique VAP-IS system contained within the new HJ15ex8.5B KRSE-V portable HD zoom lens is that it totally relieves the camera operator of any concerns with respect to lens-camera stability, allowing full concentration on creative image framing, focusing, and capturing imagery of the subject being photographed. This is of particular importance, considering the extreme image detail and clarity associated with HD video acquisition.

HDW : This is part of an advertising campain that Canon are running with the introduction of their new OIS lens…”Image Stabilisation that won’t shake up your budget”…help ma bob as they say in these here parts at £26,349 it would not only shake up my budget it would put me on the street…it must be pretty good at this price.

Digital Production Buzz