In Broadcast - March 2012 - 40

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 6 - MARCH 2012

InFOCUS
Developments In Video Cameras And Camcorders
By David Kirk
David Kirk

Among the latest in camera technology are miniaturised camcorders that can literally take ﬂight and large sensor cameras that break the 4K barrier…
The six-part Earthﬂight series made by John Downer Productions and recently transmitted on BBC Television provides an excellent illustration of just how far the miniaturisation of high-deﬁnition camcorders has come. A lot of the Earthﬂight aerial sequences were close-ups taken from microlight aircraft but by far the most impressive were made by training real live birds to carry an ultra-lightweight camcorder...and to return the kit to the production team at the end of the trip. An interesting progression from the battery-powered radio-controlled helicopters demonstrated by several exhibitors in recent years. Some of these devices are comparable with a small domestic refrigerator in terms of size and energy consumption, with a ﬂying time of only ﬁve or six minutes. At NAB 2011, a very low-cost coaxial-rotor model was oﬀered as an aerial platform for a matchboxsized Go-Pro Hero HD camcorder. My own experience of choppers this size is that they ﬂy well inside an exhibition hall but struggle to ﬂy upwind against anything more than a very light breeze. Duration per charge is again limited to about ﬁve minutes though from a correspondingly smaller battery. The products that follow are not exactly bird-portable but do reﬂect the compact size, high speciﬁcation and ever-improving aﬀordability of modern video cameras and recording devices. A key factor in this technology in the continuing advance in solidstate storage media, in terms of price, speed and capacity.

Q-Ball With PTZ pre-sets

Higher Resolutions

In terms of standards, the industry is at a sprouting point rather than a turning point. All new equipment short of consumer webcams is 1920 x 1080 capable and NAB is likely to see growing pressure for an upward migration to 4x 2K and ultimately 8x 4K production standards, initially for digital cinema and eventually for

downloadable ﬁlecasting even if not live-to-air broadcast. When and how fast the 3D branch will sprout with depend primarily on the relative cost of 2D and passive-ﬁltered 3D displays. ARRI has announced a new recording feature for its ALEXA camera range, oﬀering in-camera support for Avid’s open standard DNxHD codec. ALEXA cameras record ARRIRAW uncompressed 3K images. Including native support for Avid DNxHD eliminates a transcoding step for the dailies generated by the Avid editing system and creates a more streamlined editorial workﬂow with seamless conformance back to the archived ARRIRAW digital negative. Avid DNxHD codec data rates of up to 145 megabit per second (bit depth 8-bit) and 220 megabits per second (bit depth 10-bit) are supported in the initial release. Avid’s highest quality version of the codec, Avid DNxHD 444, will record at 440 megabits per second at 10 bit depth and will be provided as an upgrade for all adopting customers during the Q1 2012.
JVC’s 4K handheld camcorder

Camera Corps has introduced a presettable version of its Q-Ball remote camera head in response to demand from clients who want to be able to store and rapidly recall pan, tilt, zoom and focus data. Fully compatible with Camera Corps’ PTZF switcher and joystick control unit, Q-Ball Pre-Set can store up to 18 system conﬁgurations, enabling an operator to switch the head quickly from one setting to another. The stored parameters are held in non-volatile RAM within the head and therefore retained even after a system is powered down between sessions. Like the established Q-Ball, Q-Ball Pre-Set is an ultracompact remotely-controlled camera with integral 10-times zoom optical lens and smoothaccelerating pan/tilt motors. Housed in a robust and fullyweatherproof 115 mm diameter aluminium sphere, Q-Ball is fully compatible with all existing Camera Corps robotic control systems and CCU panels. Q-Ball and Q-Ball PreSet are part of a complete system which includes the CC-3D Universal RCP and the Optical Fibre Link. Canon’s new EOS C300, only slightly larger than a standard digital single-lens reﬂex camera, has a 4x 2K Super 35 millimetre CMOS sensor allowing video recording at 50 megabits per second in 4:2:2 MPEG-2 MXF ﬁle format on to dual Compact Flash memory cards. A
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