Finally and not a day too soon I have my hands on the Canon XF100, build quality is very good in fact having a permanently attached handle does give me more confidence that my audio is not going to fail me some time in the future, more about that in my review.

Why the 100 and not the 105, having lived with the FS100 with HDMI you learn to live without SDI, I was not prepared to add a further £300 onto the price of a camcorder just to get one SDI, timecode and genlock socket that I would never use especially when the 100 and 105 are the same apart from those 3 connectors, I only wish all other manufacturers thought the same.

“The first thing that strikes you about the two cameras is the lens itself”…just a wee teaser for my review coming soon.

I have been looking for a new bag for my NX70s and came across the new Manfrotto Unica V shoulder bags. I had a choice of orange-red and white, I plumbed for one of each.

Manfrotto “The Unica V messenger is the perfect everyday companion for carrying your camera gear, laptop and personal gear. Gain quick access to your DSLR with lens attached, 17” Macbook (15.4” laptop) and personal effects in the upper compartment by using the top opening, LIMITED EDITION RED”

These bags are perfect for the Sony NX70 as they fit like a glove and still have plenty of space for battery charger, batteries, SDHC cards and a decent space underneath for a microphone and XLR cable.

Up till now we have had to put up with boring black or petrol green in the bag department and the great feature of these colourful bags is you won’t leave them behind on a job or lose them in a dark corner of a room.

This bag allows my NX70s to be self contained with everything in the one place…well recommended.

PS. Jessops have them on promotion at £50 this month.

When I heard of the HyperDeck Shuttle (HDS) at the price point of £263 it was a no brainer when I was asked to review one. To explain the HyperDeck Shuttle gives you the quality of uncompressed recording direct to common SSDs (Solid State Drive) in the smallest possible size! HyperDeck Shuttle bypasses your camera’s compression and records from SDI and HDMI direct into the highest quality uncompressed video.

Although the unit has a mini USB 2 socket you have to format your SSD drive in a SATA dock not supplied and it must be erased as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) if you don’t use a Mac you will have to buy software for the PC like MacDrive which will set you back $49.

On paper or should I say screen the Shuttle looks quite small but in reality it’s a lot bigger and as yet has nothing to mount it on a camera, though as you read on I think Black Magic have good reasons for this.

This in my opinion is a specialised piece of kit and it’s not a coincedence that “It feels like a VTR” …although it has a 1 hour built in battery this unit is more suited to studio work.

The data rate alone at 10Gb per minute is astounding and if I tell you my first shot lasted 40 seconds and that equated to 6 Gbs on my hard drive. The 240Gb Vortex SSD that came with the Shuttle (Optional) would only last for 24 minutes, one point is that due to the lack of a screen the HDS gives you no indication on how much space you have filled.

What about the results, there is no doubt that at 10bit uncompressed 4:2:2 you are getting every ounce from your Sony FS100 via it’s HDMI socket (8bit).

So just who is this relativly inexpensive SSD deck aimed at, well I have had a lot of soul searching as firstly with a 1 hour inbuilt battery you are not going to get far out in the field with the HDS, there is a 12V input on the side but it’s not the standard 4 pin canon power connector.

The second and strangest decision in my opinion was to put non standard SDI sockets on the shuttle, these are seemingly standard on computer boards but in my opinion this is not aimed at that marketplace and should have had BNC connectors. Black Magic tell me that they are now selling a lead which converts from the smaller SDI to a standard BNC SDI.

There is a “Display” button but no one could tell me what it was for as there is no display on the unit itself unless it’s for a future re designed unit. The other thing that is missing is the ability to start and stop the Shuttle from your camera, competitors units give you 422 or Lanc control.

If you are using the Sony FS100 you will need the up to date firmware which is 1.01 otherwise like my HDS it would not work till I updated the FW.

As far as who this unit is aimed at well firstly if you are doing green screen work this unit is right down your street, anything that needs 10bit uncompressed 4:2:2 fantastic picture quality and at a price that won’t break the bank but remember SSD drives are averaging about £1 per Gb and even at 600Gbs this only gives you one hour of footage.

My honest opinion is that the HyperDeck Shuttle is a great bit of kit as long as you can justify the need for uncompressed footage, one hour = 600Gb of space. A word of warning if you take this into Final Cut Pro under ProRes 422 you won’t see any difference in picture quality.

Q. Would I buy one…Certainly if I was doing green/blue screen work and my camera did not record 4:2:2 but I see the unit as a small recorder sat near by your camera so you can switch it on and off then transferring the footage is as simple as drag and drop , once again from the SATA dock (Not supplied).

LIKES :

1. The price…at £263 this is a must for anyone producing HI-End video productions, mainly in a studio e.g.. Green/Blue screen work.

2. The picture quality is the best I have seen and I thought my Sony FS100 was fantastic till I saw the uncompressed pictures from the HD Shuttle.

3. The first manufacturer to give us both HDMI (full size) and SDI (non standard) though a cable is now avaliable from Black Magic Design.

4. Using off the shelf SSD drives gives you a choice rather than a dedicated unit.

5. Build quality, the buttons feel very positive, the unit is simple in design.

DISLIKES :

1. No LCD screen, not being able to tell how much drive space you have used is very limiting.

2. The non standard SDI sockets

3. Not being able to format the SSD drive via the HD Shuttle is a pain.

4. One hour internal battery is very limiting though there is a 12v input that a 3rd party manufacturer could utilise.

5. Does not accept 1080 50p output from a Sony FS100 or a Sony NX70.

January…saw some ugly picture of the new Canon XF305 as I said…

“This is rumoured to be the 2010 1/3″ solid state AVCHD camcorder by Canon Pro Video, the Sony NX5 is very similar in spec and looks to the new Canon and sadly for Canon the Sony is already available ! This is a major disappointment for everyone who thought Canon was building a film like large 35mm sensor camcorder to compete with RED, personally I think Canon have lost the plot after 17 months with no new model to bring out a hand held solid state camcorder that there is little to no market for. The camcorder above (LEFT) looks like the bad marriage of a domestic camera (back) rammed into a XH-A1 20x fluorite lens (front). If this is Canon’s solid state offering for 2010 don’t bother leaving the factory.”

As it turned out the Canon XF305 was a far nicer looking camcorder than has first been depicted and produced fantastic 4:2:2, 50Mbs pictures it’s a bit like Sony’s NXCAM cine-like camcorder due out mid 2011…the mock up looks positively ugly.

February…enter the Sony NX5

“I did not know what to expect with this camcorder but after Mondays shoot looking at the pictures side by side with the 350 I am still reeling from shock at the fantastic pictures this camcorder produces compared to the 350. In other words and I can’t quite believe I am writing this but there is little to choose between the two cameras. Don’t get me wrong the 350 produces stunning pictures but so does the NX5…I am not sure if Sony have put a spell on this camcorder but apart from lower light situations this AVCHD codec is stunning.”

March…The HDSLR Storm is Brewing

“If you want my opinion, then it has to be that the Canon’s are close, but still a mile away. The aliasing issue is a biggie. Sort it out and the skew, jello and overheating can be worked around, but if you have to worry about simply having a piece of wood in focus and whether it’s going to exhibit rainbows of colour or whether cobble stones will twitter and change colour (At 00.35 and this is from Canon) then it will limit what you can do. Are HDSLRs suitable for professional use…not YET in my opinion, the BBC, SKY, National Geographic channel etc will not accept footage from them…that’s got to ring alarm bells if you are hoping to use them professionally.”

April…Remember that Volcanic Ash

“As a cameraman I need my eyes to be A1 for obvious reasons but I do think there may be some milage in an upsurge of irritated eyes being down to fine volcanic ash. I would be interested to hear from any other UK or European cameramen/women with similar findings. I now wear a set of clear lens BLOC glasses when I am outside to prevent pollen/ash entering my eyes.”

April…Also noted for the new Sony PVM-740 OLED field monitor

“Thanks to the nature of the OLED display panel and Sony’s Super Top Emission technology, the PVM-740 offers outstanding high-contrast images – for example, the deep black of a night scene can be accurately displayed and the black portion of an image is not raised even in a low-illumination edit suite. As the black color is deep, peak brightness becomes higher and can brilliantly express sparkling town lights and stars in the night sky.”

May…Was a short bloging month but for all the wrong  reasons

“Sorry for lack of content recently but I have a trapped nerve in my right shoulder which is affecting my hand making computer work very painful so if you don’t mind I will need to give it a rest for a week or two…”

June…The Video companies fight back with announcements of the Panasonic AF101 and the Sony F3

“Only at NAB this year did the worst offenders open their tightly shut lids to reveal two film like camcorders in development, Panasonic and Sony. This was a first for both Japanese companies revealing products in advance of the statutory preliminary data sheet. Panasonic have revealed further details only last week and a proper picture of the up and coming AF100 camcorder.”

So there you go the first half of 2010 and what a roller coaster year it has been with some serious still unresolved issues with the DSLR to the announcement of the cine-like shallow depth of field camcorders from RED, Sony and Panasonic.