Notes On Video

The purchase of the Panasonic AG-HMC70U has meant the purchase of one more expensive item: a new camera bag. Turns out that the bag I have which is quite a bit bigger than the Sony HDR-FX1 I usually schlep around, isn’t big enough to hold the Panasonic. And – all things considered – it’s a big bag! So I had to get an even bigger one. A trip to a local camera store revealed a wealth of bag possibilities; though it turned out most of them were camera bags. I could pull out the dividers on some of the larger ones, but it seemed like you’re paying a lot for that padding. Even for the few straight video camera bags, it was obvious there was no cheap solution. I ended up focused (pun?) on a range of bags made by Kata. I hadn’t heard of them before; turns out they are owned by Bogen. They have a website that let’s you find bags based on cameras , and their selector recommended the: CCC-10-A ( about $240 street) for the AG-HMC70U. Interestingly, I managed to try the CC-195 at the store (abou...

Norwegian Broadcasting's technology site, NRKBeta , got their hands on some video clips from the Canon 5D Mark II and are very positive about what they see. Look better than HDV (25 mbit/s MPEG2) vs the 5DMkII 40 m/bit H.264 Canon says IS-Lense image stabilization is active. You can shoot stills during video, but there will be a break in the video. Meanwhile, on the Rob Galbraith site , it notes that clip length is actually half an hour, or a 4GB movie, but the amount of footage you can cram into 4GB depends on the subject matter. In testing this translated to 12 minutes. Other details: You can capture at 1920 x 1280 or 640 x 480. Canon is moving from Motion JPEG to MPEG4 on all it’s PowerShots. The stereo-in is a 3.5mm jack. Levels are adjusted automatically (no manual override) and there is wind noise suppression applied automatically (and cannot be adjusted or turned off.) White Balance can be set before recording, or Auto WB will adjust during recording. Shutter speed is set au...

While it's supposed to be out in November, there are already reports of high demand for this camera, which may mean you won't get one until the new year if you wait too long to order. Worse yet, it might take a while for the price to go any lower than the list $2,699.99. Meanwhile, the SlashGear site has some links to video shot using the camera . I really like those fish-eye shots.

Only a couple of weeks after Nikon announced the D-90, with it's ability to capture 720p movie clips, along comes Canon with their 5D Mark II a 21MP camera offering 1080p 1,920 x 1,080 video capture at 30fps (with a maximum clip length of 12 minutes.) The clips are QuickTime files, H.264; 38.6 Mbits/sec. Wow! The camera also has a mic input, while the D-90 only had a small built-in microphone (no word on whether it's stereo or mono.) EDIT: reportedly the audio is 16-bit PCM at 44KHz and stereo is supported with external mics. I'm intrigued by this camera because a) it's a Canon mount, b) the video capture could be interesting and sometimes useful, and c) it has a full frame sensor. It's list price is $2,600; more than the D-90, (which is not full frame) but less than the original 5D list price (which is now selling for about $2,400.) If I hadn't just bought the Panasonic, I'd jump out and get one of these; and yeah, I know it isn't practical as a prima...