New cameras from Sony and Grass Valley topped the news out of the first day of IBC press conferences, held yesterday before the official start of the show. Sony unveiled its latest pro HDV camera, the HVR-V1E, which it showed outfitted with a new hard-disk recorder that sits on the top of the handle and records about four and half hours of HDV footage. The coolest thing about the new HVR-DR60 recorder, in my opinion, is it takes the same batteries that work with the PD-170 and the rest of the Sony HDV camera line. Sony's intended this camera to mix and match with its others in a typical small studio or field crew setup, and interchangeable batteries make the hard disk recorder much more appealing, as do the its timecode preset feature and two XLR external mic inputs. The camera itself, which boasts a familiar Carl Zeiss lens and is the first three-CMOS handheld on the market, is trying to make a play for the indie shooters who haven't yet learned to love interlace and must shoot with progressive. The HVR-V1E will give them a 25p option, as well as let them switch between HDV, DV and DVCAM recording and playback.
Sony says the CMOS chips translate into a more portable, lightweight camera and give shooters lower noise and a wider dynamic range in their captured footage. The chips have also got a new high-speed scanning technology that lets users access a welcome slow-mo feature in the camera, something found in Panasonic's HVX200 and Sony's XDCAM line. The CMOS sensor system captures progressive scan images natively at full HDV resolution.
Sorry, but I've only got EU pricing at the moment: 4,600 euros for the camera, and 1,700 euros for the hard drive recorder. Stuart Reed, Sony's product marketing manager of Sony Europe, told me that Sony Europe is taking preorders now but doesn't expect to ship the first cameras until November. Stay tuned for more pricing and release details in the U.S. following the official American unveiling in New York on September 19. That version will likely be called the HVR-V1U (read "U" for U.S. and "E"" for European).
On the higher end, Grass Valley announced the LDK 8000, a new 14-bit camera with A/D sampling that supports all current HD formats. Support for future 1080/50p or 60p is already built in and features a very bright, clean and sharp picture that puts it slightly above its cousin, the LDK 6000, now used widely in broadcast. The camera will ship later this year.
Shared Servers and Editing
Omneon had editing formats to talk about. The current version of the Omneon Spectrum Media Server System now supports Avid DNxHD (through Avid's DNxchange codec) and later this fall will support XDCAM HD, QuickTime 7 and DV/MPEG-2 back-to-back playout. The last feature is great for those working with intermixed DV and MPEG-2 content who want frame-accurate switching from footage mixed in the same timeline. In other shared editing workgroup news, EditShare has just announced its EditShare Field system, which will take shared editing on the road. The first of its kind, particularly for Avid editors, the system features 2 TB of RAID 5 storage, the usual cross-platform support EditShare users have grown accustomed to, and a very sturdy case and an option to rack-mount it if you've got a truck or van on the scene as well.
