Canon XF300 on the way for review. Questions? Tests? [UPDATE] It’s here.

Canon says that the Canon XF300 Professional Camcorder is on it’s way to me for test & review. This camera features 50Mbps MPEG-2 4:2:2 recording to Compact Flash (CF) Cards. This high data rate should push aside all issue with compression, even though it does use the older MPEG-2 codec as opposed to the newer MPEG-4 / H.264 / AVCHD codec that a lot of newer camcorders and cameras use. The advantage to MPEG-2 is that, with a lot less compression, today’s even faster computer should handle it with ease, as opposed to the much more difficult time today’s systems have with AVCHD footage.

Mystery Alaska

Can single-chip camcorder models priced less than $1,000 and bearing the bold “Full HD” logo do the job of prosumer and professional camcorders costing many times that price?

In this article I’ll take two high-end consumer HD camcorders into the field—specifically, the wilds of the Alaskan bush—to see what I can do with these little devices.

You may be pleasantly surprised by what I find.

WIP: Alaska Video / Camcorder Review

It’s tough keeping a blog going when you are busy with projects and one of those projects takes you up one of the loneliest highways— the Dalton Highway, up to Prudhoe Bay / Deadhorse, Alaska, where the oil is pumped for the Alaska Pipeline.

I was re-shooting an episode of IEBA’s Alaska outdoor adventure series, Wilderness Adventures Off The Beaten Path and shooting it in HD. That’s full HD, not HDV.  But using two different high-end consumer camcorders and writing about it for Event DV magazine. 

In the Tech-STORE… CF Extreme IV!

We’re working on a comparison review of various Compact Flash technologies for video, now that consumer media can now be used for recording the HDV production standard format (AVCHD doesn’t count, yet).

Sandisk made a serious jump by pushing throughput from 20 MBps to 40MBps with their new Extreme IV cards. For anyone taking delivery of Sony’s new HDV camcorders, click over to the Tech-STORE – to our new MEDIA- page and snap up the latest version of wicked-fast media!

Sony Z7U shipping. Here’s the Manual.

Sony’s new HDV camcorders, promised for February, are indeed shipping and arriving in people’s hands. This is excellent news as these new camcorders elevate HDV and give us HDV-quality video on readily available and cheap compact flash cards.

One of the best ways to find out about every nook and cranny of these camcorders is to actually RTFM. Well, I’ve got that for you… plus a recap of all seven of the camcorder’s on-screen menus…. and more!

HDV Grows Up: Sony’s HVR-S270 and HVR-Z7

Sony recently unveiled its latest HDV camcorders to the world. This wasn’t just any ordinary product announcement; with the release of these new models, HDV arrived as a true professional video acquisition technology.

Just as MiniDV was a format that evolved into DVCAM and DVCPRO, and eventually DV itself became acceptable for broadcast, and even feature film production, HDV started as a “consumer” version of HD. But it has evolved dramatically in Sony’s latest models.

IEBA Presents: Sony Seminar: HVR-S270, HVR-Z7U

At the GV Expo 07, I had the opportunity to see the exciting new HDV camcorders. While there, I saw that Sony had a whole schedule of instructional presentations about many of there newest products.

Juan Martinez was the scheduled speaker for the HDV camcorders. His deep knowledge of the HVR-S270 and the HVR-Z7U, as well as the PMW-EX1 is clearly evident. He is able to compare and contrast numerous functions between all three of the camcorders with ease in response to audience questions.

The video I am presenting here…

Use HVR-S270U / HVR-Z7U compact flash with new laptops!

Happy Thanksgiving (to those who celebrate Turkey Day). In preparation for tomorrow… typically the biggest shopping day of the year… I wanted to offer a suggestion. Now, I know you can’t go get Sony’s newest HDV /Compact Flash camcorders , the HVR-S270 and the HVR-Z7U, just yet.

But if you end up getting a spiffy new laptop without PC (PCMCIA) Card slots, you’ll probably have the newer, smaller ExpressCard slots. To read compact flash cards in your new laptop, you’ll need one of these…

Sony PMW-EX1 answers revealed.

This post has moved:

http://techthoughts.org/2007/11/21/sony-pmw-ex1-answers-revealed/

New Compression Tool: Stomp

I’ve added a new link to my tower of links over to the right there. This one is for version 1.0 of Stomp, a compression utility by Shinywhitebox. It includes support for all QuickTime codecs, presets for all sorts of outputs (check out the video demo on their web site), manual control of all audio and video options, compression of multiple videos at once, video effects, and other features. Stomp is a Universal Binary priced at $29.95, is Universal, as well as Tiger and Leopard compatible.