As the economy rolls and dips along yet another unruly path, bargain deals can feel like potent shock absorbers, especially when you desperately need a new piece of gear. An on-camera sungun for around $300 and an interactive pen display for under $1,000 sound pretty tempting, don’t they?
Unfortunately, budget isn’t always best. Digital illustrator Mike de la Flor had high hopes, as we did, for the inexpensive Cintiq 12WX display tablet he reviews on page 14, until he discovered that it couldn’t quite live up to the demands of the detailed scientific and medical animation he does every day. This is a case where form completely hobbles function and Wacom’s innovative technology is buried beneath a too-small perimeter. Mike understands the technology’s potential, however, so the experience didn’t stop him from investing in Wacom’s larger Cintiq 20WSX pen display for his studio. Look for his review of that new model in an upcoming issue.
The same may be true of Litepanels’ new Micro sungun, a miniaturized version of the much-loved LED lights Litepanels first introduced in 2004. Quality cameras are now smaller than ever, but in an on-camera light, how small can you go before production values are compromised? Bruce Johnson has an answer on page 10.
A cutting-edge piece of equipment, hard as it is to admit, is usually innovation worth paying for. Pro video display monitors, especially reference monitors, are good examples. If you need one, you’re going to pay dearly for technology that melds the ubiquitous 16:9, flat-screen form factor with high-resolution color fidelity (for more on that, see David English’s report on page 21).
Then there is innovation worth dreaming about. Any discussion of displays raises, for me, the inevitable question: When will we finally move beyond the mouse, and even Wacom’s elegant pen displays, and be able to manipulate the screen freely with both hands while we create?
I’m pinning my hopes on Jefferson Han, who first wowed SIGGRAPH 2006 attendees with his multi-input touchscreen and who gave a repeat performance this year at NAB. Han’s research began at the NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and is now the basis for his spin-off company, Perceptive Pixel. The CIA got first dibs on the technology, but that’s top secret stuff. You can see Han’s pioneering handiwork in more obvious places, like the iPhone, where a two-fingered pinch shrinks or widens image windows. It’s gone global in the Magic Wall on CNN, where political reporter John King nightly perfects his two-finger swipe to highlight a U.S. map in a quilted pattern of color-coded wins and losses after the polls close and votes roll in. Perceptive Pixel made the Magic Wall to order for CNN; another is on its way shortly to the studio.
Just think of the intuitive and highly collaborative node-based editing or animation you and an entire team could do with one of Jeff Han’s multi-touch walls. Autodesk Labs, the company’s R&D arm, is already experimenting with one, and I suspect we’ll be hearing about other high-profile clients using it in this way as we get nearer to SIGGRAPH. A single multi-touch wall from Perceptive Pixel is not cheap. But if it’s within reach for you financially, it could be as close to creative heaven as you’re likely to get.