The thing that has excited most interest is the Panasonic AF101 (AF100). The more we find out the more it looks like curtains for DSLR shooting (although both Canon and Nikon are due to announce new cameras soon).
I'm doing a DSLR talk while I'm here but it is difficult not to keep saying: look guys just go over to the Panasonic stand and your problems will be solved.
- You won't need to buy an expensive monitor with peaking and Zebra - because the AF101 already has them.
- You won't have to buy an expensive Vari ND - because it has ND built in too.
- Stop the order for a Zoom H4n - this camera has built in XLRs with phantom power (line and mic level).
- Want to do timelapse? No need to buy an intervalometer - it has one already built in.
- It has pre-record - so you won't accidentally miss the start of the action.
You have to ask why would you struggle on shooting video on a stills camera when the AF101 has all the features we expect (and make life easier) on a video camera.
Recording choices
But something that might still be needed is a separate field recorder, because the most obvious weakness of the AF101 is its 24Mbps AVCHD recording codec. Certainly, the nanoFlash from Convergent Design is selling well. But there are some new rivals too. AJA is showing its new Ki Pro Mini, a cut down version of the successful Ki Pro launched last year, and it records straight to ProRes for any Apple Final Cut Pro users, as does the Ninja, from Atomos.
The Ninja has the huge advantage of only costing 795 Euros - it records to swappable 2.5-inch laptop drives (so you have to factor in the cost of those too), which can be hard disks or much more reliable solid state drives. Also swappable are its twin batteries, so you never need to lose power. It also has a small LCD touch screen for control and viewing rushes.
I shot some videos with most of these companies, and more, for the gadgets session, I'm doing - I'll eventually do a proper edit on them, adding in all the cutaways, but that's for after IBC.... In the meantime, here's a video from Atomos on the Ninja.
The Ninja has the huge advantage of only costing 795 Euros - it records to swappable 2.5-inch laptop drives (so you have to factor in the cost of those too), which can be hard disks or much more reliable solid state drives. Also swappable are its twin batteries, so you never need to lose power. It also has a small LCD touch screen for control and viewing rushes.
I shot some videos with most of these companies, and more, for the gadgets session, I'm doing - I'll eventually do a proper edit on them, adding in all the cutaways, but that's for after IBC.... In the meantime, here's a video from Atomos on the Ninja.
By Christina Fox
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