Sanyo’s VPC-HD2000A boldly goes where no consumer camcorder has ever gone before: 1080/59.94p

At the dawn of affordable professional HD video camcorders, JVC first offered recording only to 720p, Sony first offered only 1080i recording, and Panasonic offered recording to either of the above (even though its original sensors had a native resolution of 960x540, so any HD recording was interpolated). Nowadays, many of the latest offerings from the pro divisions of JVC, Panasonic, and Sony embrace the option of recording 720p, 1080i, or 1080p in a single camera. However, because the maximum framerate available with 1080p in these affordable professional HD video camcorders has been limited to 29.97p, those producers who favor progressive production have faced a tradeoff: either favor spatial resolution (1920x1080 at a maximum of 29.97p, for ultra sharpness and less smoothness) or favor temporal resolution (1280x720 at a maximum of 59.94p, for ultra smoothness and less HD sharpness). Many of our readers have already read that debate in my When 25p beats 24p article. For many, the idea of actually recording 1920x1080 and ±60 progressive frames per second has required a camera like Sony’s F23 camera, whose official price is US$150,000 without a lens or other accessories, and has been amply covered by Art Adams and Adam Wilt here in ProVideo Coalition magazine. (The RED ONE camera also offers 59.94p at 3K windowed mode for US$17,500 plus lens and accessories, although many RED ONE shooters prefer to shoot 4K to retain a familiar focal length, where they don’t get 59.94p.) Now Sanyo has changed that with a few of its consumer HD camcorders, of which the most interesting is the US$599.95 VPC-HD2000A.

Sony launches NXCAM tapeless camera family

For the past few days, I’ve been evaluating a prototype of Sony’s first NXCAM camera family member. This first NXCAM model has a striking resemblance to a Sony Z5, which is an HDV tape-based camcorder with optional chip recording. Unlike the Z5 chip recording (which limits its HD recording with the exact same specs as the ones that the camera offers on HDV tape), this first NXCAM goes way beyond that, with much more flexibility in recording options, as you will learn in this article. You will see how this NXCAM model offers recording on two different types of solid state devices, offers selectable geo metadata recording with its built-in GPS, and even full compatibility with 10-bit 4:2:2 external recording with a device like AJA’s KiPro. You’ll also see other firsts in AVCHD camcorders, including timecode i/o and HD-SDI. Keep in mind that this is a first look at a prototype of Sony’s initial NXCAM offering.

Connect your pro XLR microphone to your iPhone

Starting with software version 3.0 of the iPhone, Apple includes an audio recorder application called VoiceMemo. Many people who have used it have been quite impressed with the quality it offers. There have been other audio recording applications for the iPhone, but nothing is more tempting than using one that’s already there, especially one with an attractive icon and slick graphical interface. Given its simplicity and high-quality, Apple’s VoiceMemo covers almost any purpose. However, no matter how well it sounds with the iPhone’s internal microphone, for a professional journalist, image is also very important. That’s why I searched for a special cable that allows connecting a professional XLR microphone into an iPhone.

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