2008 FAA rules on battery transport

Effective 1 January 2008, lithium-ion and lithium-metal batteries face new restrictions for carriage on a passenger aircraft.
• Lithium batteries may not be placed in checked baggage unless installed in/on the powered device (thus, no spares in checked luggage).
• Unlimited numbers of small Li-ion batteries may be carried on as spares, but only 2 spares above 8 grams Li content (about 100 watt-hour capacity) may be carried, the total amount not to exceed 25g (about 300 watt-hours).  It appears that these “two large batteries” are in addition to the multiple small batteries you can carry, but read http://safetravel.dot.gov/whats_new_batteries.html to be sure. 
• Lithium-metal batteries face even tougher restrictions: Li-metal batteries over 2g are not permitted at all, either attached to devices or carried as spares. Fortunately, the most common Li-metal batteries we deal with are the little button cells that maintain camera clocks and memories; these are OK.

PBS’ “The News Hour” goes HD

As I type this, “The News Hour” on PBS is in the middle of their first HD broadcast. Now there’s as much detail in the picture as there is in the stories!

PMW-EX1 Lens Fix

Carroll Lam over on DVInfo.net has posted a PDF memo dated 15 December 2007 (reproduced below) in which Sony lays out their plans for fixing EX1s with asymmetrical, corner-cropping vignetting. Basically, if your EX1 has the problem, Sony will fix your camera for free.

Sony’s Mac SxS driver doesn’t play well with the Duel Systems Adapter

Sony distributes an SxS card driver with the PMW-EX1 camcorder. If you install it on your MacBook Pro running 10.4, you won’t be able to read P2 cards using the Duel Systems Adapter. Fortunately, Sony’s uninstaller works well, so you can install the driver to work with the PMW-EX1’s SxS cards, then uninstall it to work with Panasonic P2 cards again.

P2 vs. SxS - an Unfair Comparison

One of the advantages Sony has been touting for SxS is a lower cost per bit than you’d get with Panasonic’s P2 cards. At B&H, as of 11 December 2007, a Sony 16GB SxS card is $899.95, while a Panasonic 16GB P2 card is only $899.00. You’ll save a whopping $0.95 by going with P2 over SxS. So much for SxS’s commodity pricing compared to P2’s premium pricing, eh?

Apple Pro Apps - Save Those Updaters!

A quick word of warning: if you see updates to Apple’s Pro Apps (Final Cut Studio, Aperture, and the like), download them and squirrel them away somewhere safe, even if you’re in the middle of a project and unwilling to update anything. Updaters vanish when new major versions come out.

PMW-EX1: Update on lens issues

When I looked at a prototype Sony PMW-EX1 camcorder I noted that the lens had some problems. Sony told me that the prototype had a lens element misaligned due to a bug in the firmware, so I didn’t make a big deal about it.

Since then, others have received production EX1s, and ‘Net discussion lists are filled with reports of lens problems, mostly off-center vignetting.  I sat down with Sony’s Juan Martinez at DV Expo last week in Los Angeles, and we had a chat about the issue.