Reprinted from a Panasonic press release

Initially previewed at NAB for $3,199, Panasonic’s professional AG-HMC40 AVCCAM handheld camcorder will begin to ship in August at a significantly lower price, widening its appeal to a much larger customer base, the company announced today. Panasonic also announced that shipments of the new HMC40 camcorder will come initially (from August 2009 through March 2010) bundled with free EDIUS Neo 2 video editing software (Retail Value: $199).

Compact and lightweight at 2.16-pounds, the HMC40 is a versatile HD camcorder with high-quality AVCHD recordings, high-resolution still photo capture, and professional audio capabilities for a wide range of applications and markets including schools, government agencies, event videographers, web designers and more.

The HMC40 will be available at the end of August, with the free Edius Neo 2 non-linear editing software package (for Windows PC only), at a suggested list price of $2,295.

Once again traveling the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center, at NAB we made a bee line for the camcorder manufacturers to see what was available in the low end of the broadcast range.

JVC was showing off it’s new ProHD solid state GY HM-100 and GY HM-700 camcorders, that record to SDHC cards in native Quicktime format. Both models record in almost every flavor of HD video, 1080i, 1080p, 720p at various NTSC and PAL compatible frame rates. The codec used is 35Mbps MPEG-2

JVC promised to get us a review unit of the hand held GY-HM 100 as soon as they’re off the assembly lines in a few weeks. The GY HM-100 is available within a few weeks at a price point of $3,995, and the HM-700 is on sale now for $7,995.

Panansonic announced a hand-held pro model, the HMC 40. This new small format camcorder also records to SDHC cards, but belongs to the AVCCAM line, meaning it records in AVCHD. The camcorder comes with 3, 1/4 inch CMOS sensors, with a maximum bit rate of 24Mbps.

The HMC 40 will be released in August with a suggested price of $3,195. We’re also keen to take a look at it here in the offices, as we really liked their HMC-150 in the same AVCCAM family.

Canon was there showing off some new broadcast lenses, but no updates to their camcorder line were there, unless you include the Canon 5D mark II DSLR, which they showed tricked out in their booth alongside their camcorders.

There were a lot of accessories for this DLSR, including follow focus systems, rails, viewfinders and various audio attachments. There’s no doubt that the DSLR as video camera is here to stay as a category. We’ve got our Canon on 5D mark II on the test bench now.

Sony didn’t have much in the way of new announcements this year, but one thing that did catch our eye, was the HXRMC1, POV camera. It’s essentially an AVCHD camcorder with the lens detached and conntected to the camcorder by a 9 foot cable. There’s all sorts of uses as a second camera with such versatility.

The camera shoots 1080i AVCHD to Memory Stick, and includes a 10x zoom lens, and weighs only 1lb. 1oz, making it possible to stick anywhere. Uses include work as a helmet-cam, or mounted on a boom pole for some extreme POV shots.

Well, another NAB show came and went, and every-one’s favorite video magazine was there to take stock of the industry and report on new and exciting equipment coming your way this year.

One of the first things I noticed was that 3d production was everywhere this year. It seemed that whichever booth you were in, there were people huddled around LCD panels with funny glasses on (Quick stock tip: find the name of the company that makes those polarized glasses).

I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed by 3d. Unlike HD video, (which also had it’s coming out party at NAB) I can’t feel the same sense of excitement and possibility for 3d. It still seemed very gimmiky and made it hard to suspend your disbelief, in addition to causing eye strain. However time will improve the technology hopefully. As it stands it seemed to me that instead of true 3d, you had a series of 2D planes in a 3d space. I’m not sure if the convergence was tuned right, but in almost all instances you simply had a foreground plane, a medium plane, and a background plane, instead of a smooth gradation of depth from foreground to background.

Panasonic, Sony, and JVC were all showing off 3D displays, and work is going on to develop a 3d standard for the home, in addition to your local cinema.

NAB, the National Association of Broadcasters, puts on a fantastic trade show in Las Vegas every year in April. Unlike CES (the Consumer’s Electronics Show), which showcases all things electronic from mobile phones and car stereos to cameras and robots, the NAB show has only broadcast gear, stuff we’d use in our video producing world.

Two of our Videomaker associates drew the long straws and went to the show this year and they will be filing reports as they can. The show is at the Las Vegas Convention Center, a bi-level three-building center, and is the biggest convention center in the United States, and attendees will be putting a lot of miles on their sneakers.
To find out some news about the products, events, parties and speakers at this year’s show, check out this official NAB show website.

And stay tuned here, for reports from our crew at the show.

It looks like a pro broadcast camera, it feels like a pro broadcast camera, but it clocks in at $10,700, which is just the extreme end of the Videomaker market, so there you go. We indy video producers have reached new heights, and the high-end cameras have met us half-way by bringing affordable pro cameras to our market.

At a pre-NAB press junket in New York, our press associate, Paul Pierog, got to sit down with a few folks from Panasonic and look over some gear that Panasonic will be showing off in Las Vegas at the annual National Association of Broadcasters convention in April. Among the toys were a P2 Rapid Writer transfer tool for P2 workflow and some HD broadcast monitors, along with this AG-HPX300 P2 camcorder.

The 10-bit 4:2:2 camera has a 17x HD Fujinon lens and such features as waveform and vectorscope, hot-swapping of the two cards, and the output can be set for down conversion or cross-conversion with letterbox, 4:3 crop or squeeze.

If you can’t convince your partner, spouse, or bank to pop for the 10-grand, check out the AG-HPx300’s little brother, the Panasonic AG-HPX170, which will only set you back $5695. To find out more about the 170, here’s a sneak peak at the review in the upcoming May issue of Videomaker magazine. To find out more about the 300, read this press release below. Read the rest of this entry »

Videomaker was the first to hear about it at NAB: Boris, one of the first software effects companies, has a new released Version 5 of its popular effects plugin that works with Adobe After Effects CS3 and will be compatible as an FXPlug  for Apple Pro applications and Avid.

This new version will allow some cross-platform collaboration, allowing Final Cut editors to share their saved personal preset effects with Avid or Adobe editors.

Boris also announced Boris Blue 2.5, update to its 3D program that can now be applied directly within
Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects timelines.

Go to their website for more: http://www.borisfx.com/