Panasonic HPX250 review

The BBC used to publish a list of approved cameras for HD production. It meant that users could buy a camera knowing it would be approved for use on anything they shoot for the BBC (and now pretty much any European public broadcaster as the list has been adopted by the European Broadcasting Union). It has certainly reduced levels of fear, uncertainty and doubt when faced with a major equipment investment and helped sales, especially of cameras at the budget end.

Before the list moved to the EBU, the last addition was the Panasonic AG-HPX250, which is retailing around £3,600 plus VAT. It is a direct rival to the Canon XF300 and XF305 (£4,400 and £5,040 +VAT respectively), and the lowest cost camera on the list. Its form factor makes it particularly suitable for observational documentaries. We have done a side-by-side comparison of the HPX250 and XF305 on our Canon XF Notebook site.

Panasonic AG-HPX250 Camera 

The HPX250 has three 1/3-inch, MOS sensors at full-HD 1920x1080 (2.2 megapixels). The HPX250 is 50Hz/60Hz switchable so you have a choice of 25p, 50i, 30p, 60i and 24p. It records AVC-Intra, DVCPRO HD, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO25 and, should you need it, DV on to P2 cards. This means it can record up to 10-bit 4:2:2 and 100Mbps. And if that is not enough, you have an HD-SDI output for even higher quality recording to a separate field recorder.

The camera’s form factor is nothing new compared to the typical camcorder of the last six years, with a viewfinder (EVF) at the rear and pop-out LCD screen on the side. The handle on the top houses most of the audio controls and the two XLR audio sockets. This camera neatly fits into the Panasonic range. If you are a HVX200 owner looking to upgrade or add to your kit, the HPX250 would feel familiar and be an easy transition.

It weighs 2.5kg (5.5lbs), a little lighter than the 2.7kg Canon XF305, but neither are shoulder mounted, which will mean the usual aching arms and shoulders on prolonged shoots.

Lens check

Most manufacturers have ditched the separate iris control on a little fiddly dial (as seen on Sony's Z1). Iris is where it should be – on the barrel of the lens behind the zoom and focus. The iris has a good positive feel to it and opens to F1.6, but as you zoom in it will ramp down to F3.2 at full telephoto.

Focus, Zoom and Iris control 

The camera has a good 22x optical zoom from 3.9mm-86mm, which is equivalent to a 28-616mm lens on a 35mm DSLR. There is also a 2x, 5x and 10x digital zoom.

The focus ring, however, was a bit of a disappointment, coming in a non-stop infinity ring mode only. I would have expected Panasonic to copy Sony (EX1) and Canon (XF300/305) and offer the option of a focus ring with hard end stops for a more repeatable focus pull. But, what is there is fine with no lag or stickiness.

If I have to be picky, one problem is that Peaking only comes in white. I always prefer to use a red peaking as it makes focusing so much more obvious and a lot easier.



That said, to help with focusing you do get the usual Push Auto button, which switches the camera from manual to auto focus while you press it down. Plus, there is a Focus Assist button that magnifies the centre of the screen to help you check your focus. This feature shouldn’t be confused with the MF ASSIST mode available in the menus, which increases the sensitivity of the focus ring for fine tuning your focus. If all that wasn’t enough, there is also the focus bar that indicates how sharp the image is – the longer the bar the more in focus you are. Nudge the focus ring too far and the bar starts to shorten as you go out of focus.

Gain control

Gain comes in the usual low, medium and high setting from 0dB to 18dB in 3dB increments. If you are in the dark with no possibility to use lights there are super gain options of 24 and 30dB.There is no negative gain, which seems to be pretty standard on most rival cameras, and there is no way to limit the auto gain, which is a bit disappointing.

Shutter framed

The shutter control design and implementation is a bit worrying. The shutter / F.rate dial is used to change the shutter speed and frame rate – this seems very dangerous. As you turn the dial it goes from shutter to synchro scan then Frame rate – and finally lock. Being lockable is useful to prevent accidentally changing anything, but the lock also activates after 12 seconds of inaction. This made changing things annoying and fiddly – hesitate too long and you have to unlock again.

Shutter and Frame rate on the same control 

But, I really do think it is a bad idea to have both shutter and frame rate on the same control - these two things need to be kept separate. If you weren’t paying attention or a beginner mixed up their shutter speeds with their frame rates – it could all end in tears.

There are, however, a wide range of frame rates to choose from, useful for off-speed (slow motion or fast motion) effects.

Frame rates

50Hz mode	59.97Hz Mode
1080p 1/2/4/6/9/12/15/18/20/21/ 22/23/24/25 frames per second 720p 1/2/4/6/9/12/15/18/20/21/ 22/23/24/25/26/27/28/30/ 32/34/37/42/45/48/50 fps	1080p 1/2/4/6/9/12/15/18/20/21/ 22/24/25/26/27/28/30 frames per second 720p 1/2/4/6/9/12/15/18/20/21/ 22/24/25/26/27/28/30/ 32/34/36/40/44/48/54/60 fps

ND filters

The HPX250 has the now almost standard three ND filters, coming in at 1/4ND, 1/16ND, and 1/64ND, controlled by a rotary dial (as pictured below).




Exposure

The HPX250 comes with two sets of zebras that can be set from 50% to 109% in 1% increments, which is nice. You can see Zebra1 and Zebra2 at the same time, just Zebra1 on its own, or you can choose the ‘spot’ option and see the level between Zebra1 and Zebra2. I’m not sure if I’d use the spot function but some may find it handy.

There is also a useful Y get function that you can assign to an assignable button. It will show the brightness at the centre of the screen – making the camera a useful spot meter.

New cameras now have a waveform monitor and vectorscope. I like to use my waveform to check on black and white crushing and the vectorscope can be handy when doing a white balance – to confirm you’ve done it right.

The camera does have a Full Auto Mode – or panic mode as I like to call it. In this mode the camera switches Focus, Iris, gain and white balance to Auto, but not Shutter and audio. This is different from Sony and Canon where the Auto Mode controls Iris, gain, shutter and white balance.

Full Auto or Manual 

If you are a wedding videographer or do red carpet events, you’re used to flash guns going off around you. Unfortunately, if you are recording video those flashes can cause problems. This is called Flash Banding and you’ll see the brightness at the top of the screen won’t match that at the bottom. The HPX250 does have a very interesting feature called Flash Band Compensation or FBC. This compensates for and minimises the banding when a flash photo is taken in the camera’s vicinity.

White Balance

The HPX250 has the usual preset white balances set to 3200K and 5600K – they have made it easy to toggle between them by pressing the AWB button. You also get the standard A and B manual white balance memories. However, the B memory can be assigned to do an Auto white balance or if you prefer you can assign auto to one of the user buttons.

The camera also has the option to do a black balance by holding down the AWB button for two seconds. I suspect a few operators will do this by accident – but it certainly won’t hurt to do an extra one every now and then.

Audio

There are no big surprises with the audio: two XLR sockets, which can be independently switched to line or mic input with switchable phantom power (+48v). It will do the usual 48KHz at 16 bits – but it is nice to see four channels are available, even if only to use as a back up.

Two XLR sockets on the HPX250 

Line and Mic level selection - with 48v Phantom power

Audio input/output selection 

Often the audio volume indicator is a bit small at the bottom on the screen – but you can assign MAG A.LVL to a user button and magnify the meters on the LCD screen – which is a nice touch.

Audio levels - loud and clear 

On the Menu

Moving around the menu is simple with the joystick like Operation lever on the side of the camera. Menus across all the manufacturers are fairly similarly laid out these days – which makes finding your way around pretty easy.

Easy joystick operation to navigate the menu 

Recording media

Two P2 card slots 

The HPX250 has two P2 card slots. P2 isn’t the cheapest recording media, but it is very reliable and unlike Compact Flash has “write protect” to stop you accidentally deleting your media.

However, you need to factor the cost of P2 into the purchase price. A 32GB P2 card is around £375 inc VAT while a 64GB card could set you back £550 inc VAT, although there are good deals if you buy a couple of 32GB P2 cards with the camera.

In comparison a 32GB Compact Flash card for Canon's XF305 would be about £95 inc VAT.

Recording times for HD 1080i, 720p

Recording Format	Recording time on 32GB card	Recording time on 64GB card
AVC-I 100 DVCPRO HD	32mins	64mins
AVC-I 50	64mins	128mins
Recording times are for HD 1080i and 720p

The camera works in relay recording mode – first recording onto one card and then on the next once the first is full. With hot swapping you could keep recording until your battery runs out.

The Pre-Rec option is one of my favourite features of tapeless recording. If you’re worried you’ll miss something then switch on the pre-rec and you will not only get the video after you’ve hit the record button but also the three seconds before too. Everyone will think you are psychic.

For those of you who want to do timelapse there is interval recording – plus one shot (frame recording) for animation.

The modes to be wary of are loop and one clip recording. In loop recording mode the empty space on card A is filled then it moves onto card B. When B is filled – the camera does not stop but goes back to card A again and overwrites what it  recorded earlier… then back to overwrite card B – ad infinitum. I can’t think of a use I would have for this. I suppose if you have no idea when an event will happen you could leave the camera in loop mode. But, you would have to ensure you had stopped loop recording once you’ve got what you want – otherwise the camera will head back and overwrite it.

I have had a few trainees who don’t like the fact their video is split into individual clips each time they start and stop recording. So, I guess the ‘one clip recording’ option is for them. In this mode the camera compiles all your video into a single clip.

This feature worries me a lot and I won’t be recommending it to my trainees. Imagine if you do 20 shots in the normal way and one is corrupt. That has happened to me. It is annoying, but at least I still have 19 healthy clips. I assume that if I used the one clip recording option, I would have had one large corrupted file. No, this just sounds like a bad idea.

As well as P2, the camera also uses SD/SDHC cards for recording and loading scene and user files and uploading metadata. This is handy if you have more than one camera and want to swap and synchronise settings. Or maybe your colleagues have sticky fingers and like to change camera settings – this way you can save your settings and load them each time you shoot.

Scene files

If you prefer to tweak the look of your images before the edit, then Panasonic offers six scene files. F1 is for normal everyday shooting; F2 for shooting under fluorescent lighting; F3 for increasing the range of resolution, colour and contrast; F4 increases the contrast in dark areas (increasing black stretch); F5 gives a film look with contrast tweaked; while F6 gives a film look with dynamic range tweaked.

Scene File options 

I must admit I prefer to do very little in the camera to change the look of my pictures. I think if possible you should do that sort of thing in post.

Time code

One advantage of the HPX250 is the inclusion of Timecode in/out connectors for synching timecode across cameras. If you regularly work with more than one camera and have to synch them up later in the edit – synching with time code speeds up the process.

Time code in/out and Genlock 

OK so when did you last use User Bits? I’m starting to wonder why manufacturers still include them as I don’t know anyone that uses them. But, at least Panasonic has found a good use for them – to record your frame rate choices. But if your NLE doesn’t import that information – then it is rather academic.

Who will buy

If you need 100Mbps in a small, relatively inexpensive camera. This is definitely worth a look.

I was training at a production company last week and they were shooting on a Sony EX3 and a NanoFlash because the broadcaster had stipulated recording at 100Mbps. Now the EX3 is a good camera (if a little old) and the NanoFlash does a good job – but for observational documentaries that was a lot of weight to be carrying around. The XF300/305 was no use – as they record at 50Mbps. In that case, the Panasonic HPX250 seems a no brainer. Not too heavy and no external recorder to worry about - although some broadcasters won't accept its 1/3-inch sensors as HD.

The Flash Band Compensation is a fantastic feature for wedding videographers or anyone covering red carpet events with lots of flash photography. 

The genlock and timecode in/out features are a boon for anyone thinking of working multicam either on location on in a studio through a vision mixer (its main rival, the Canon XF300 doesn't have them, you have to spend extra on an XF305).

The Panasonic HPX250 is an interesting camera and certainly worth shortlisting if your budget is less than £5,000.

[[UPDATE: Panasonic has released 18 new, free, downloadable scene styles for the HPX250]]

By Christina Fox

-------------------------- In response to comments  - some setting is currently preventing us from adding a comment below - so we're adding this comment here:

OnThePulse said it doesn't do 1080p, but according to Panasonic (in the HPX250 manual), the variable frame rates it does in 1080p are: 12, 15, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25fps in 50Hz mode, and 12, 15, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 30fps in 60Hz mode.

Jonathan, thank you for your kind remarks. We agree about the price of P2, but given the cost of the camera, it can still make financial sense if you get a bundle deal and manage you media very carefully.

Atomos Ninja Review

The Ninja, by Hong Kong/Australian company Atomos, is one of a growing group of on-camera recorders. These devices enable you to bypass the camera’s compression and record at a higher bitrate on those cameras that have non-compressed HDMI outputs (in the Ninja's case) or HD-SDI. [UPDATE: Atomos now has HD-SDI to HDMI and HDMI to HD-SDI Connect convertors that make it easy to add HD-SDI inputs to Ninja] [UPDATE 2: The Ninja 2 has been launched - better display, HDMI output, compatible with new AtomOS 3.0 firmware]

After a couple of delays due to software problems, the Ninja is now shipping and will be joined eventually by the Samurai, which will record using HD-SDI and have a larger, higher-resolution screen.

The Ninja comes in a handy hard carry case. The kit includes two hot-swappable hard drive caddies, two batteries with a dual charger and a docking station for the drive with FireWire 800, USB 2.0 and 3.0 and eSata connections.

PROBLEM 1 

All of these field recorders have three problems they are trying to solve.

First of all: image quality. For example the new Canon XF305 records 50Mbps 4:2:2 while Sony's EX1 and EX3 record 35Mbps 4:2:0 onto their solid-state memory cards. But, they are more than capable of exporting pictures of higher quality via their HD-SDI and/or HDMI sockets (the EX3 doesn't have HDMI, but the newer EX1R does). Field recorders allow you to tap into those higher quality images.

The Ninja records 10-bit ProRes HQ at 220Mbps, ProRes 422 at 150Mbps or ProRes LT at 100Mbps in hardware, and Apple has checked that it is "bit-for-bit accurate" (and gave its approval) according to Atomos CEO, Jeromy Young.

Most DSLR cameras record in H.264, a great codec for a video project ready for upload to the web, but not much fun to edit with. A separate recorder using a more edit friendly codec should make your editor happy and mean less time hanging around waiting for video to render or be transcoded.

PROBLEM 2

Storage capacity. A 32Gb Compact Flash card will hold around 40mins of video at 50Mbps. Most professional cameras can hold two cards, but if you need to shoot a lot of video you will have to keep swapping cards throughout the day. Plus, you typically only have one copy, which can be worrying, especially if you are new to tapeless recording.

With the Ninja you record to a 2.5-inch 9.5mm-high laptop-sized hard drive – disk or solid state. These are not included in the kit but they are readily available. A 500GB drive will give you around five hours of recording time in ProResHQ, 7.5 hours in ProRes422 and 11 hours in ProResLT. Now you can shoot all day and/or have two copies, just in case.

Atomos recommend fast (7200rpm) hard disks rather than 5400rpm ones. If the disk is knocked during recording you may see the Skippy icon – a kangaroo in a yellow diamond – to let you know there is a problem.

If your shoot involves a fair bit of rough and tumble, you should consider buying the more expensive solid-state drives (SSD). At the moment Atomos only recommends Intel SSDs, but new drives come out all the time so it is a good idea to check its checked and approved list.

The drives fit inside the supplied master caddy for protection. If you buy extra drives you way want to buy an extra pack of five caddies for around £25.

screen grab showing 3.99Gb files

During my test of the Ninja I plugged it into a Canon XF105. With its infrared function I wanted to leave it recording the wildlife in my garden all night. With a large battery on the camera and two large batteries on the Ninja, I managed to record for up to ten continuous hours. When I looked at the drive the video had been chopped into 4GB sized files (around 4min 35sec in ProRes 422).

PROBLEM 3 

Power management: Having 11 hours of recording time is no use if the batteries can’t keep up. The Ninja has a dual battery system, using common Sony DV batteries. The two NP-F570 batteries in the kit offer around 4.5 hours of power. But, these are hot swappable, so when one depletes, it will switch to the second, and the first can be replaced. So, if you intend doing a long continuous shoot you shouldn’t have any problems. I have some spare Sony NP-F970 batteries, which still had plenty of juice to spare after being on for ten hours.

Ninja dual battery system

At the moment the Ninja only shows battery voltage remaining – not time remaining. This will be upgraded in a forthcoming firmware upgrade.

Battery info screen

GETTING ATTACHED 

The Ninja with both batteries and drive weighs in at 700g. It has standard 1/4-inch mounts on the top and base of the unit. You may want to buy a variety of 1/4-inch screw-to-cold shoe connectors – especially if they have a ball and socket joint to easily position the Ninja on the camera. I used a small articulating arm to mount the Ninja to my Canon XF305. Which allows you to position the unit exactly where you want it.

An articulating arm to help position the Ninja

You’ll also need an HDMI cable to connect the Ninja to the camera (it's not included in the package). There really is no need to spend a huge amount on expensive gold cables. If the digits go in and come out of the cable you’re fine. That said cheap cables may be OK round the back of the TV, but, might not survive the rough and tumble of being on the road. If the cable falls out during recording you will get the Skippy icon warning. If you are of a nervous disposition you might want to splash out on a locking HDMI cable.

The Ninja comes with a touch sensitive screen/monitor – so it could be used by a director as a video assist or perhaps by the sound recordist to check for a boom in shot.

DSLR users may find the Ninja monitor helpful when doing very low angle shots – when a typical DSLR screen is almost impossible to see unless you lie down on the ground. 

Ninja with Canon EOS7D

The Hague CamFrame

The monitor is there just for a confidence check that you are getting an image and composition is OK. It is not something I would use to help me with focus. But, if they add peaking in a future firmware upgrade DSLR users will find it more useful.

At the moment playback on the monitor is very blocky and stutters. But, Atomos already has that on its to-do list in a future firmware upgrade.

USER INTERFACE

The Ninja interface is easy to master. So, if you don’t like reading manuals you’ll be OK. That said the manual is well written, with plenty of photos to guide you through the set up process.

Ninja Main screen

All the controls are via the touch screen monitor. When you switch on, four round buttons appear on screen - REC (record), PLAY, MON (monitor) and MENU.

Along the top of the screen the Ninja indicates whether there is No Input and once you plug into your camera what resolution and frame/field rate it is receiving.

Next to that it tells you which ProRes codec is chosen for recording. To change it just tap on the screen and it will cycle through the options. In the top righthand side of the screen you can see which battery is being used. If you tap on this you can find out how much battery voltage each battery has left.

In the bottom righthand side of the screen you get an indication of recording time. Tap on this and you’ll get information on the make and model of the drive, its size and an option to format it. Formating will prepare the disk for recording the first time it is used – but it will also delete everything on the disk too.

Drive info screen

I tested the Ninja with several cameras. Using it with the Canon XF305 and XF105 was very simple. Both cameras have a cold shoe mount and a 1/4-inch screw mount – so you can use either way to mount the Ninja. The shortest HDMI cable I had was 2m – which was too long, half that length would have been fine.

We also tried it with our small Panasonic TM700 1080 50p (or 60p US) camcorder, which normally records at up to 28Mbps AVCHD. This non-standard AVCHD format isn't easily editable by Final Cut Pro, so being able to capture it in ProRes should make it much more practical. However, it doesn't seem that the Ninja can capture 50p, instead recording it at 50i (although the pictures are an improvement).

DSLR 

Atomos will have to disappoint Canon HD DSLR users who were hoping to be able to record perfect uncompressed video via their HDMI ports. The video should still be uncompressed (so long as you don't also record in camera at the same time on some models), but it won't be perfect, as it seems that Canon has helpfully included a white square or a red (recording) dot on a corner of the output, which will be noticeable if you try to use it as full HD.

Canon EOS 7D HDMI output with red dot in the corner of the picture

Atomos has asked Canon about this, but it seems that the spoiler may be deliberate to maintain the distinction within Canon between the photographic and video divisions. 

Canon EOS 7D HDMI output with white "zoom tool" box in the corner of the picture

Atomos hadn't detected it when they tested a Canon 7D initially as they shot some footage in a studio with a white background. It was only during beta testing that users spotted it, and further testing revealed the white square on the 7D and the red spot on other models.

Panasonic TM700 HDMI output with 'helpful' info on screen.

However, some DSLRs apparently have HDMI output that is pristine (the Sony Alpha models and Panasonic's GH2 have been reported as working, although we don't have them so can't check). The Ninja also works perfectly with any video cameras they've tested it with, such as the Panasonic AF101 and Sony's F3.

WELL CONNECTED

It has LANC input/output for control (as well as the 4.3-inch touch screen). For audio, it has a mini-jack stereo input, or can record up to six channels of digital audio via HDMI (if the camera supports it), and a headphone jack.

Ninja connections - HDMI, LANC and audio

Atomos are committed to upgrading the firmware on a regular basis. So, features will be improved and added in the coming months.

Menu screen

If you press on the Ninja's menu button and then the Ninja Info button you can check which firmware version is currently running on your unit. The Ninja we recieved for review was on version 1.02. On the firmware download page they were up to version 1.04 so I thought I'd have a go.The first thing to do is download the zip file from the download page.

Then go to the instruction page and follow the instructions precisely.

The two important things to remember are to format the drive, using the Ninja, before you start and attach fresh batteries to the Ninja so that you don't lose power during the upgrade.

Once the drive was formatted I placed it in the master caddy and copied the firmware file over, which took a few seconds.

copy the firmware file to the formatted drive

Then I placed the drive in the Ninja and switched it on. There were coloured bands flashing at the top and bottom of the screen for about and minute (to prove it was doing something) and then it switched itself off.

coloured bands flash during the upgrade

Version 1.04 successfully upgraded

When I switched back on and checked the firmware was the new version 1.04. All very simple and exactly as outlined on the Atomos website.

EXPORT TO TIMELINE

Once you’ve finished recording, you place the drive in the master caddy into the docking station, which can be powered via the mains or by the FireWire connection.

Ninja Docking station

Firewire and USB 2.0 and 3.0 on docking station

If time is short you can edit straight off the drive. In fact if a whole shoot fits on one drive it could be the editing drive and archive all in one…at least in the short term.

But, us nervous types will be backing up all that data. This is all very simple just connect the Ninja drive and drag and drop the ProRes files onto the drive you usually edit from and away you go.

ATOMOS NINJA - PROS:

• Good value: It costs €795, £695 or $995
• Well built and should be robust, especially with solid-state drive
• ProRes is wonderful to edit (not just for Final Cut Pro users, as other non-linear editors can use it too, even on Windows with a plug-in) – you can even plug in and edit from the drive
• Higher quality video, which might not be easily evident when you just compare the two side by side, but will be once you do anything to the video, especially for something like colour correction, where having the 10-bit 4:2:2 images will allow you do much more subtle colour grading
• Small – it makes the AJA Ki Pro Mini look like the Ki Pro Maxi
• Easy to use interface

ATOMOS NINJA - CONS:

• Uses HDMI, which isn't usually a locking connection
• No HDMI pass through (so you can't plug it in to a better monitor)
• No HD-SDI connection (which is coming in the Samurai)
• Low-resolution monitor (480x270 – compared to 5-inch and 800x400 on the Samurai)
• Limited playback capability – although this will be improved in future, it's a much lower frame rate than normal (not helped by the low resolution)
• No XLR audio inputs (unlike some of its, admittedly more expensive competitors)

IN CONCLUSION 

The Ninja is a well built and easy to use device. It has evolved since we first saw it at IBC2010 and Atomos has obviously listened to feedback from potential customers. If you have a Pro camera with HD-SDI you may want to wait for the Samurai. But if your camera has HDMI output this is a cost effective way to back up your video on the fly at a higher quality than your removable flash media.

If you are a DSLR owner you need to check whether your camera will work with the Ninja… or hope Canon relents and issues a firmware upgrade to remove unnecessary on-screen icons.

So, is it worth buying? Certainly, if you have something like a Panasonic AF100/AF101 (although it will only output 8-bit video), any of the Sony 35Mbps XDCAM EX range (including the PWM-F3), or the little Panasonic HCK10 point-of-view camera, all of which have been approved for HD use by the BBC, but only when they are recording to an external recorder at 50Mbps or above. It is currently the least expensive such recorder on the market, and it works well – although there are still some things to iron out.

In the medium term: There will soon be a lot more recorders for you to choose from. The newly announced Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Shuttle (see our review of the Shuttle) will only cost $345 and will record uncompressed video. If you want the best for less, this is it – however, big caveat: uncompressed images are huge. If you are recording for any length of time, you'll need lots of big, expensive, SSDs. It is a great option for certain types of work where you want the maximum quality and don't need long recording times, but if you want a compressed system, to save space and allow you to edit the pictures as quickly as possible, ProRes is a great choice.

Being able to do real-time ProRes compression in the recorder is where a lot of the extra cost of the Ninja goes. The real choice for many then will be between the Ninja and the Samurai (which could ship sometime over the Summer or maybe in the early Autumn). At £929, €1,095 or $1,495, the Samurai is still very good value (about 50% less than the admittedly excellent AJA Ki Pro Mini, with its XLR inputs, both SDI and HDMI, and Compact Flash card recording).

If you have an HDMI camera, you should certainly shortlist the Ninja. If your camera only has SDI, then the Samurai would be your value choice. If you need to do both, then look to: AJA; Fast Forward Video's $2,495/£1,695 sideKick HD recorder/monitor which also records ProRes to SSDs; or the upcoming sub-$3,000 Sound Devices PIX 240 recorder, which can also record using the Avid DNxHD video format (there will also be a PIX 220 that is HDMI only and expected to be under $2,000). And if you want even higher quality recording, then the more expensive Gemini 4:4:4 (under $6,000) from Convergent Designs will be the one to watch. However, except for the Ninja, the Ki Pro Mini, and Convergent Designs' industry-standard 8-bit nanoFlash, none of those are shipping yet.

[UPDATE: Other reviews are creeping out. Here's one by LA filmmaker, James Boyd.]

[[UPDATE: Atomos has introduced new Samurai Blade with a sharper monitor and upgraded operating system (AtomOS5) – it has also cut the price of both the Samurai and Ninja-2]]

By Christina Fox

AF101 wins BBC HD approval

Panasonic has had three of its cameras approved by the BBC for HD use, although all of them have features that are not what the broadcaster would normally consider desirable for HD production.

The most notable camera approved is the AG-AF101 large sensor camera, although it can only be used with an external recorder, as the internal AVCHD (24Mbps) codec doesn't survive the rigours of the broadcast transmission chain, particularly when dealing with demanding material, as it can exhibit artefacts. [UPDATE: The new AF101A can record up to 28Mbps internally - still not good enough - and output 10-bit 4:2:2 via HD-SDI to an external recorder]

The AF101 has already been used for HD production by broadcasters, including the UK's Channel 4, and for many commercials. It was used by the award-winning producer/director Fiona Lloyd-Davies, of Studio 9 Films, to shoot a documentary in the Congo for Al-Jazeera Europe, where it recorded to a Convergent Design nanoFlash external Compact Flash recorder at 50Mbps, the minimum bitrate that the BBC also insists on. [See story: AF101's first broadcast production]

"The 101 has been a big hit for Panasonic right across the world. Its picture quality, and particularly its control over depth of field, are excellent for a camera at this price point. It is a leap up from a DSLR with its professional controls, ergonomic handling and broadcast interfaces. To be on the approved BBC HD list is a real feather in its cap," commented Allan Leonhardsen, of Panasonic distributor Holdan.

DoP Paul Lucas, who recently completed a number of TV and commercial shoots using the AF101, believes that "the AF-101 represents a serious step forward for cameras in its class. For those who've been shooting professional video on DSLRs, this is unquestionably the way forward. For mid to higher budget shoots - promos, drama, commercials, there's no reason not to use a 101 next to more expensive cameras, and spend money on glass instead."

The AF101 can be used with a wide range of lenses, from Zeiss Compact Primes, to Canon and Nikon stills lenses via an adaptor.

Panasonic's HPX371 has also been approved for HD broadcast use. It records on P2 cards using the H.264 MPEG4-based AVC-Intra format, and is the most affordable shoulder-mount camera, offering the flexibility of interchangeable lenses, on the BBC HD list (it costs about €8,000 with a 17x HD Fujinon lens). It uses three 1/3-inch CMOS sensors, although the BBC previously stated that sensors should be at least 1/2-inch chips – however, it had already moved away from this requirement by approving Canon's XF300/XF305 1/3-inch cameras late last year.

The AG-HCK10 point of view camera and its AVCHD recorder/controller the AG-HMR10 is also BBC approved, although the miniature camera must also be used with an external 50Mbps+ recorder (the HMR10 has SDI and HDMI outputs). The camera has a 12x optical zoom lens, Optical Image Stabilizer, and a 1/4.1-inch progressive 3MOS sensor. The package costs about €3,500 and is approved for such applications as in-car use or wildlife photography.

Sony too

The cameras are joined on the newly updated list by several Sony cameras, including the new PMW-F3 (along with Sony's EX1R, EX3, PMW-320 and PMW-350, it gains official approval only with a 50Mbps+ external recorder), and the Sony PMW-500 (50Mbps 4:2:2 SxS camera - pictured above), which has apparently been bought in large numbers by BBC News.

The full BBC HD list

Studio Cameras
• Sony HDC1500

• Sony HDC1550 

• Sony HDC1400 

• Sony HDC1450 

• Sony HSC300 

• Sony HXC100 

• Grass Valley LDK8000 Elite Worldcam 

• Grass Valley LDK8000 Elite Standard 

• Grass Valley LDK4000 Elite 1080i

HD Handheld
• Canon XF305 

• Canon XF300 

• Sony PMW-EX1R - with external recorder using a bitrate of 50Mbps or above 

• Sony PMW-EX3 - with external recorder using a bitrate of 50Mbps or above

HD Shoulder Mount
• Panasonic HDX900 

• Panasonic HPX371 

• Panasonic HPX3000 

• Panasonic HPX3100 

• Panasonic HPX3700 

• Sony PMW320 - with an external recorder using a bitrate of 50Mbps or above 

• Sony PMW350 - with an external recorder using a bitrate of 50Mbps or above 

• Sony PMW500
• Sony PDW, 700 & F800 

• Sony HDW F900R & 900 

• Sony HDW 790, 750 & 730

HD Specialist
• Panasonic HPX2700 HDC27F & H 

• Panasonic AF101 - with an external recorder using a bitrate of 50Mbps or above 

• Sony CineAlta F35 

• Sony SRW 9000 

• Sony PMW F3 - with an external recorder using a bitrate of 50Mbps or above 

• Arri D21 

• Arri Alexa 

• Panavision Genesis 

• Thompson Viper
• Red

Mini Cameras
• Iconix HD-RH1 

• Panasonic HCK10/HMR10 - with an external recorder using a bitrate of 50Mbps or above
• Toshiba IK-HR1S
• Toshiba IK-HD1

It also adds that "cameras should be chosen in consultation with the DoP and post production facility."

It may also accept other cameras, possibly under special circumstances or newly-released cameras it hasn't listed as approved, but if you shoot for the BBC it's always best to ask them first.

www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/production/delivery/hd-production-delivery.shtml

Related post: What makes an HD camera? 

By David Fox

AF101's first broadcast production

A production for Al Jazeera's Witness strand is believed to be the first to use Panasonic's AG-AF101 large-sensor camera for broadcast work.

It is being used for a documentary set in the Great Lakes region of Africa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, about how women raped and abused during the conflict are rebuilding their lives.

The production required a robust, agile camera that could capture the beauty of the environment, and the AF101 was chosen because of its light weight, large sensor size and solid-state storage, according to Fiona Lloyd-Davies of Studio 9 Films (pictured on location in the Congo).

"With no tape mechanism and no moving parts, the camera worked faultlessly in all conditions, delivering excellent results," said the award-winning producer/director. "This is a beautiful part of the world and I wanted a camera that could do it justice. Not only did the 101 bring out the vivid colours of the people and their environment, but its four thirds chip allowed me to adjust the depth of field to great effect."

She wanted to step up from the Sony Z1 or Z5 type of camera, but didn't want a larger camcorder, particularly as she is shooting by herself. She did have a fixer working with her, but he's not a camera assistant or sound recordist. "So I had to find something I could work with on my own," in a very difficult place to work.

It was also "very important to use a format that would be visually very strong and would give great pictures," she explained.

"Some people suggested using the Canon 5D, but as far as I understand it doesn't handle movement very well and doesn't have XLR [audio inputs] or handle sound very well."

As she was preparing to leave for Africa for the first part of her shoot, the London-based hire company she was using, VMI, received its first AF101. "They have been absolutely magnificent. They gave me a huge amount of technical assistance."

Working in the Congo there was no chance of getting something fixed if it went wrong, so it was important that everything was reliable (especially as she didn't have the budget for a second camera body, which she would have liked to be able to bring) – fortunately it was.

The main downside with the AF101 is that it doesn't record at 50Mbps in the camera (it records AVCHD at 24Mbps to two SD card slots, which doesn't meet Al Jazeera's technical requirements), so VMI added a Convergent Design nanoFlash rig to the camera, which can record MXF or QuickTime files to Compact Flash cards. Before she left, she did some tests with the AF101 for Al Jazeera, which they were happy with.

The nanoFlash was attached to the camera's HD-SDI connector, and the resulting 50Mbps broadcast-compliant files were downloaded daily onto two separate rugged drives.

She also recorded simultaneously to the SD cards, which gave the security of a high resolution back-up and ensured that the nanoFlash was in sync with the camera, being set up to record when the timecode changed on the HD-SDI output. When the camera recorded, Lloyd-Davies could be confident that the nanoFlash was recording.

Having an external recorder wasn't a perfect solution. "There were occasions where I started shooting and realised it wasn't connected and had to start again." It was also hard to tell how much time she had remaining on the cards when she was concentrating on operating the camera.

The nanoFlash was powered by the main Anton/Bauer camera battery pack rather than a separate power supply to ensure that she could not start shooting only to discover later that the nanoFlash had run out of power.

"This is a new camcorder with a third party recording device. With limited technical support available in Eastern Congo, we needed to know that it would be fool proof. VMI carried out full testing before we hired the unit and gave us an excellent grounding in operating the equipment and getting the workflow right," she said.

A further problem was having enough electricity to charge the batteries and download all the cards to disk each evening. She was staying at a priest's house that only had a small generator on for a few hours each night, luckily it was just about possible to view and back-up everything in that time. She also had to clean all the kit each night, as the conditions were so dusty.

She needed to remain mobile, so needed to limit the amount of equipment she took. She was also on a tiny budget, "which is why I'm self shooting and doing everything myself."

It is her first time working with solid state and she took two 500GB FireWire drives, backing up to both each night. She had wanted to take larger drives but they didn't arrive in time. The nanoFlash can record at much higher bit rates, but "if I had recorded on more than 50Mbps I would have run out of space." She is shooting a lot of footage, hoping to capture some great moments, and took five 32GB Compact Flash cards, for the nanoFlash, although the most she recorded to on one day was four.

Each card took about 25-35 minutes to back up. She also downloaded the video from the SD cards each evening too.

She used prime lenses, which meant she had to think more about what type of shot she wanted and why. However, "the quality of the prime lenses is fantastic," although she was very mindful of how critical the focus was, especially in such bright sunlight, where the LCD screen was hard to see.

Nevertheless, "it was a really nice camera to work with," she said. "The pictures looked great. I felt I was working with a much higher calibre camera than the Z1 or Z5."

She has also been shooting a project for the BBC in the Congo over the last 18 months, but not in HD.

"I'd love to use the camera again. I think it's a great camera and the quality is fantastic, but it depends on the broadcaster as well," she added.

Lloyd-Davies will be returning to the Congo for a second shoot in May, together with an AF101, to finish the film, and then edit it in June on Final Cut Pro.

Related post: AF101 wins BBC HD approval

By David Fox

Format choice: Going tapeless

Virtually every camera now available uses some form of tapeless recording. The few tape-based camcorders still being produced can record to some form of add-on memory or external recorder. However, with choice comes indecision... Moving to a new format or recording media means additional costs and trying to find a new workflow that's efficient and works for you and your clients.

To help put all of this in context, we've talked to camera users and owners about what tapeless systems they use, to find out the benefits and the disadvantages, and have put up a comprehensive (and rather lengthy) page on going tapeless.

Gemini twins record 4:4:4 and 3D

Convergent Design has announced a new uncompressed hard drive recorder/monitor. The Gemini 4:4:4 is a small, low power, lightweight unit that has two drive slots for 1.8-inch solid-state drives, allowing simultaneous backup recording or optional 3D.

The Gemini includes a 5-inch 800x480 24‐bit, 900:1 contrast LCD touch‐screen for monitoring and playback, with zoomable 1:1 pixel viewing, with user positioning via touch control, for fine focusing.

It doesn't replace Convergent Design's existing nanoFlash (which records to CF cards and now has an installed base of over 3,500), but its use of higher-speed drives enables Gemini to record 10‐bit 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 video in the main HD, 2K or 3G formats, including 1080 24p and 1080p 50/60, with up to 16‐channels of embedded audio and timecode (four channel audio initially, which will be expanded in a firmware update).

The 1080p 50/60 data has to be striped across both drives, while 4:4:4 is only supported in 1080p 23.98/24/25/29.97 and 2048x1080p 23.98/24. The DPX file format will be supported in a firmware update.

"Uncompressed is a lot of data, typically in the range of 125 to 150 megabytes per second [1 to 1.2Gbps]. But, technology advancements now make full uncompressed workflow quite manageable and affordable," explained Convergent Design President, Mike Schell. "For example, using the new 10Gbps Thunderbolt technology from Apple/Intel, it is now very reasonable to edit uncompressed using a laptop. New $180, 3-Terabyte hard disk drives enable portable RAID arrays with 9-12TB of storage (sufficient for 18-24 hours of uncompressed 1080p24 4:2:2 10-bit)."

Having two removable solid‐state drives allows it to offer instant backups, to counter the risk of lost footage, or longer record times from recording on one drive after the other. It also opens up new workflow options. Gemini includes S‐Log and C-Log video support, with user programmable viewing look-up tables, which can be enabled selectively for either HD‐SDI output. This means that users could record native S‐Log to one SSD (for on‐line editing) and the same footage with burned‐in LUTs to the second SSD (for faster creation of offline proxies and/or H.264 video for mobile or web viewing).

An extra‐cost 3D stereographic option will also be available, enabling dual‐stream recording and playback in a single Gemini unit; creating what is claimed to be "the world’s smallest, lowest power, 3D recorder."

Gemini will record independent left/right channel files while providing full synchronized playback of two streams as well as side‐by‐side, 50/50 composite, or anaglyph combinations. "Gemini uniquely allows you to simultaneously view 3D video in multiple formats, such as side by side and 50/50 composite, which should be very helpful in 3D camera alignment," he added.

It is housed in a lightweight (450g), milled aluminium case, and is about the same size and weight as the popular SmallHD DP6 monitor, but includes recording, playback, image processing, dual HD/3G SDI I/Os, HDMI output and consumer level audio I/O; while consuming only eight to 15 Watts of power.

Planned future enhancements include reference image overlay (onion skinning), where users can capture still frames or create their own reference images (custom grid overlays, for example) to mix with live video, using an opacity slider. This will enable directors to check the current on‐set environment against a previous day’s production, assisting in camera setup and easily identifying anything out of place. Other features include: user-programmable over/under crank, time lapse, 3:2 and 2:2 pull-down removal, and on-screen tally.

Convergent plans to support all major NLE programs, including Avid, Final Cut Pro, Premiere, Vegas and Edius. Editors have the option to edit full uncompressed video (transfer time off the SSD to a fast hard drive is about 1/3 real time) or use any of the popular codecs (ProRes, DNxHD, Cineform, etc). For example, using a recent eight-core MacPro, the transfer from the SSD and software encode to ProRes, occurs in about half real time (60 minutes of video requires 30 minutes to transfer and encode – a simple transfer of the same footage would only be about 10 minutes faster).

"We found that oftentimes the workflow and editing system is not well defined at the beginning of a production, or the client may want the footage in a different codec or format. Gemini gives you the flexibility to deliver accordingly, at the best possible quality levels. So after two weeks of shooting, when the director brings word that you’re changing from PC to Mac (or vice versa), you’re ready to encode that pristine uncompressed footage into a new codec / format, while maintaining the highest possible quality," said Schell.

The requirement for greater throughput meant Convergent had to switch from Compact Flash to SSD. "Compact Flash is a great choice for most compressed recorders, but it simply lacks the required performance for uncompressed video. Compact Flash tops out at about 90MBps, while uncompressed video ranges from 100 to over 300MBps so, clearly, it’s impossible to record uncompressed video onto a single CF card. Additionally, CF card capacity maxes out at 128GB, while SSDs are now available up to 512GB," he explained.

The Gemini SSDs provide read/write speeds of 415/260MBps respectively. "For most video formats, a single SSD has a sufficient bandwidth; however, 1080p 50/60 formats generate over 300MBps, requiring us to strip the data across both drives. We do, however, combine the data into a single file during the offload of the SSDs to your Mac or PC." The drives have a 6Gbps SATA interface.


3D nano - Convergent Design from UrbanFox.TV on Vimeo.

Gemini won't replace the nanoFlash, which "will continue to find applications needing long record times (10 hours), and/or requiring a strictly compressed workflow. At $1 per minute [at 50Mbps] for the Compact Flash media, nanoFlash still offers the lowest media cost for broadcast quality video."

Most of the nanoFlash features, with the exception of pre-record buffer, should be enabled for Gemini when it ships. "That said, we anticipated many special requests, so Gemini was designed with five times the programmable logic compared to nanoFlash, giving us quite a bit of room to grow (feature-wise, that is)," added Schell.

The Gemini 4:4:4 Kit, which includes the recorder, 1.8-inch SSD to eSATA transfer station, AC power supply and cables, housed in a custom‐fitted hard plastic case, will cost $5,995. The 1.8-inch 256GB and 512GB SSD drive prices will be announced at NAB, where Convergent will demonstrate Gemini 4:4:4 on a Sony F3 and on a 3D mirror rig.

Related post: Convergent Design Odyssey7 + 7Q

By David Fox