IEBA Review: Datavideo DN-60 Solid State CF Card Recorder

When it comes to camcorders, most everything is moving to flash media.

There are, however, an incredible amount of HDV and other tape-based HD camcorders out there, still working hard and producing great images. How do you get these camcorders up to speed with the new flash-media workflow? With an external recorder.

Thus far, the need for external devices to record HD footage has primarily been served by Focus Enhancements’ FireStore line. However, there has been growth in the segment recently and Datavideo has entered the fray with a unique design and price point under $500. Does the Datavideo DN-60 Solid State CF Card Recorder give the more expensive recorders a run for their money? Let’s find out.

vDSLRs are not smaller & lighter, nor cheaper.

When I started in the video biz, I had a 3-chip Sony M7 cabled to a separate VO8800 3/4 SP deck with 20-minute tapes and two batteries. It produced very pretty images. Today I carry a phone that shoots HD. My phone is smaller and lighter than the camcorders I started with.

But I am so very tired of vDSLR (HDSLR, EVIL, whatever) fanatics touting that one of the greatest features of the format is that they are so “run & gun” so “small & light” and yet offer so much capability. You mean like full HD output on a big screen, built in stereo audio, XLR inputs, audio metering, waveform, headphone outputs, multiple HD video outputs, on-shoulder balance, easy to toggle and adjust manual settings for focus, zoom, iris, shutter, gain and white balance while shooting? Able to shoot for hours at a time for live events? You know, those features, aside from “it looks pretty” that professionals need all the time?

Well, it turns out that the smaller & lighter vDSLRs can indeed offer many of those features, by throwing away the notion of smaller & lighter. So I wish people would stop touting it as a “you get smaller & lighter AND you get real pro camcorder features.”

When geeks disagree about Arri’s Alexa

Over at the Pro Video Coalition, there are several great writers I read with enthusiasm. One of these is Art Adams whose technical geekery exceeds my own (in a good way). His recent articles on the Arri Alexa and how different ISOs affect the number of stops above middle gray has sparked what I would consider an intense debate between Art and myself in the comments of his articles because, well, I just don’t get it.

You Tube Rents Videos – Mine Included!

YouTube recently added rentals to their streaming portfolio, and with a catalogue of outdoor adventure videos that were basically sitting dormant here, I decided to bring the entire video series into the new Millennium- including direct sales on Amazon, streaming on Amazon Unbox, rentals on YouTube and availability on Netflix’ portfolio.

I’m in the finishing the Amazon process with my first video there, and was just notified that two of my videos were approved for rental on YouTube.

Dell UltraSharp U3011 a 30-inch IPS monitor for critical color grading.

There’s a great article on the Pro Video Coalition about doing critical color grading using the latest generation of “in plane switching” IPS LCD monitors which offer the widest gamut of color and accuracy yet achieved on LCD monitors.

I bring this up because Dell has just announced a 30″ IPS monitor that may well be the de-facto choice for color grading do to its sheer size (as far as computer monitors go) and high resolution for a great price.

You see, whereas “broadcast” monitors cost a hefty premium, say $3000 and up for critical color work, these “consumer” monitors brandish price tags around $1000 and can be calibrated to work for critical color post.

Sony accepts orders for NEX-VG10: the large sensor camcorder gets REAL!

Sony is clearly sprinting to the large sensor HD camcorder finish line!

Looks like the race is over. Sony and Panasonic announced large sensor camcorders back at NAB but now Sony is showing off the goods. They are taking pre-orders starting today.

The goods Sony is offering look real good! As with many of the last consumer/prosumer models, you can expect the VG10 to come out in a prosumer model, with XLR inputs, and probably more video settings than the consumer model offers. But probably no different lenses.

The Alpha lenses from the digital still lineup are already designed to resolve far, far beyond the 2 Megapixels of 1080i60 HD video. So you probably won’t see different lenses than will be available in the consumer lineup, but it does open the door to the entire Minolta Maxxum line of SLR lenses, which are the basis for the Sony’s Alpha.

Decent Video Gets Cheaper & Cheaper. Here’s a $25 SD demo.

Some fellow video friends of mine has been sharing some surprisingly good video from a Coby camera that they purchased for around $25 as an impulse by at a drugstore checkout. They’ve attached this camera to their motorcycle and aside from the glaring CMOS “jellocam” the image and sound quality is surprisingly good.

Wanna make some noise? There’s an app for that: Linear Time Code.

JumpStart LTC generates a Longitudinal Time Code audio signal. It provides a convenient interface for setting dedicated timecode devices (deneke, sound devices, zaxcom, etc).

Many of these devices, as robust as they are, often have no way to manually set the time – and if they do, it usually involves pesky dip switches or something similar. Some start at Hour 0 each time they are powered up with no way to resume a previous timecode. But now there’s a solution for that too!

OLED Screens will Replace LCD for Production Monitors. Here’s why.

I remember reading about OLED screens in some tiny nook of the web, a research arm of Kodak working with Cambridge University if I recall correctly, and they showed this little 3″ screen which was the total fruit of their labors at the time. It used a tenth the power of LCD, it needed no backlight, it was as thin as a dime, and it was viewable in sunlight. I really looked forward to seeing these screens used in production.

Well, Kodak sold off their OLED research to LG in the end of 1999, but that hasn’t stopped the rest of the electronics world from licensing technology and starting to build new, exciting products, Sony’s PVM-740 is set to replace all those crappy (even if expensive) LCD location monitors and I’ll tell you why.

10 Minutes to air is NOT time for Fundamental Change.

An 8 am crew call for a Noon live webcast makes total sense in the total production scheme of events. There’s a lot to set up, review, practice, re-adjust, and more that those 4 hours literally just fly by. I was recently tapped by Magic Video, Inc. To oversee and direct a live webcast for a corporation announcing a name change and philosophy reorganization to their key personnel. The announcement to the public and shareholders will come later.

Crew were all on hand early, making sure all the technical aspects of the production were up to speed and ready for that “red light” of live production. The talent, meaning the two CEOs of the company, didn’t arrive till 20 minutes before air, they had rewritten the script and, instead of bullet points, they said they wanted to read it verbatim. All those changes with 15 minutes to go? Time to scramble…