Well, here we are on Wednesday Morning, and I am not yet WOW’d by this year’s NAB show. It is not that there are no new products, innovative ideas or upgraded standards, there just seem to be few that make me go running to my cronies to say, “Dude you gotta hit the XYZ booth and see the new FossWidget9000!”

That being said, here are a few highlights that do warrant some mention.

Canon, has a “handy” little HD camcorder that fits in the palm of the hand, and creates some pretty awesome pictures considering its price at just over 1k. It has a full frame CMOS chip, variable shooting capabilities, “instant auto-focus”, and HDMI output.  The HV20 is certainly worth a peek, as a”Stealth Cam” or for any shooting environment where a little camera that grabs great shots is needed. High-end home users will love this, as more and more people migrate to HD flat panel displays for home use.

The Infinity camcorder continues to gain momentum as Thomson Grass Valley refines its design and adds new features. Most notably would be that it is a lot lighter, and generates far less heat than as demonstated at last year’s show. Well, maybe it generates a lot of heat still, but it has a vastly improved cooling system, which amounts to the case not getting hot on a shooter’s shoulder anymore. The Infinity also now sports a pair of Compact Flash card ports next to the Revdrive port. A simple addition that adds great flexibility for in the field shooting situations.

Tiffen / Steadicam is showing new models of their famous stabilizers this year, and in the same vein, Glidecam has a new full featured Stabilizer Arm that will upgrade existing economy based “Smooth Shooter” operator’s kits, or it can be purchased with a full, new setup.

As mentioned in one of the other Blogs here, LED bulbs seem to have taken over. Everywhere I look, in the support and grip arenas on the show floor, I see large bright panels and ring type light arrays to mount on or around a camera. Prices seem reasonable, and brands are numerous.

Sony is showing the new 2/3rd inch block, XD-Cam camcorder of course, and many people are cramming into the booth to see it first hand. Sony is also showing a beta version of a high end, critical use LCD production monitor. The 23 inch display is marketed to replace the industry standard BVM, Trinitron studio monitors for critical viewing.

Other interesting items to come I am sure… stay tuned.

Will Holloway