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KVBC Las Vegas discusses
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HD Tapeless ENG Camera, Editing, and Production System.
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2/3" HD Cameras |
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Affordable 2/3" HD Cameras Hit The Studio
Looking around the exhibit floor at NAB 2009 this year, it was clear that camera product managers are responding to today's challenges in order to stimulate sales. With more and more stations moving to high-definition news production, there's a clear opportunity to attract stations looking to build out their studio cost-effectively. It also showed that high-quality HD acquisition does not have to be prohibitive in price.
There were new 2/3-inch imager-sized HD cameras from Grass Valley (LDK 3000), Hitachi (Z-HD5000), Ikegami (HDK-77EC) and Sony (HSC-300) that cost far less than their existing product lines, but work on triax cabling systems that limit the distance that a signal can travel. These models also come with internal CMOS imagers instead of CCDs, feature less image capability. In general, less cost often means a technical compromise, but these cameras do have value for a lot of shooters looking to record in HD resolutions.
“This new generation of cameras offer value that we've never seen before in a studio/EFP camera,” said Bob Ott, vice president, optical/network products and marketing for Sony. “Like in real estate, it’s a real buyers’ market right now in the camera environment. For stations considering the move to HD acquisition for their news departments, this is the time to do it.”
Grass Valley
At NAB Grass Valley introduced its LDK 3000 camera series, the first LDK-family system camera application to use the in-house developed Xensium CMOS imagers – the same imagers first seen in the Infinity™ Digital Media Camcorder (DMC 1000).
While the Grass Valley LDK 8000 camera series remains the best choice for top-end HD production, the functionality of the new LDK 3000 camera (built on the same physical platform and to the same uncompromised standards) has been tailored to allow the price to be significantly lower.
The LDK 3000 camera uses three 2.4 million pixel CMOS imagers, which allow the camera to switch between shooting 1080i and 720p. A low-cost commercial option will add the ability to shoot film-style in 25p and 29.94p later. The LDK 3000 is also using the high performing HD Triax transmission system to allow cable runs up to 1200 meters.
As the LDK 3000 is physically compatible to the other Grass Valley HD cameras, it can utilize all existing accessories like the SuperXpander. The camera can be controlled from a standard Grass Valley OCP 400, by using Grass Valley’s unique Ethernet-based C2IP control network.
Hitachi
 Hitachi
Hitachi Kokusai Electric America unveiled a pre-production version of its new Hitachi Z-HD5000 portable, dockable HDTV studio and EFP camera, complete with 1080/59.94i or 1080/50i native scanning.
The Z-HD5000 is a two-piece dockable camera for various applications including studio, field, and mobile video production. The camera can be docked to an optical fiber, triax, or RF wireless adapter, or a P2 HD recorder for standalone recording.
The cost-effective camera is designed to appeal to existing Z Series customers who want to move up to HDTV without sacrificing quality and reliability or breaking the budget. It offers a compromise between the superior performance and functionality of high-priced HDTV cameras and the limited functionality of inexpensive, low-end HD camcorders. There’s also a choice of black/white or color viewfinder displays.
Offering comparable specs to the 2/3-inch progressive CCDs found in Hitachi’s high-end SK-HD1000 camera--including high light sensitivity coupled with low vertical smear—the Z-HD5000’s native 1080i CCD sensors produce 800 lines of resolution, F10@2000 Lux, and a HD Signal to Noise ratio level of 58db. However, while the SK-HD1000 has a motorized filter wheel, the Z-HD5000 has a manual filter wheel. Both cameras employ the same 14-bit A/D converters and accessories.
Ikegami
Ikegami’s new HDK-77EC is targeted at a wide array of applications, including professionals shooting for stadium/arena scoreboard, house of worship, education, and other production. It features 2.3-inch CMOS sensors that can capture images in both the 1080i/59.94 Hz and 720p/59.94Hz HD formats, lower power consumption, and reduced operating temperature, which prolongs life.
It also uses the TA-79HD HD-Triax Adaptor to send signals over existing triax infrastructures. The advanced CMOS sensors offer a wide dynamic range and in principle, no smear since electric charges are not shifted throughout the imager (which is the cause of vertical smear in CCDs). Instead each pixel of the CMOS sensor has it's own amplifier (which changes electric charges to voltage signals). So it performs signal amplification on a pixel basis.
The HDK-77EC is a docking-style camera that can be configured with a studio lens and 9-inch LCD viewfinder with the Ikegami SE-79D System Expander. It comes packaged with the new CCU-890T camera-control unit for triax connectivity. This modularity allows it to accommodate a variety of tape-based or solid-state formats.
Sony
Sony Electronics is now offering a new line of HD studio cameras that are less costly yet include many of the same features of its pristine-quality HDC Series studio cameras. The new HSC-300 and HXC-100 cameras both feature three 2/3-inch Power HAD FX CCDs (with 2.2 million pixels), and are switchable between 1080i and 720p @50/60 Hz resolutions.
Incorporating 14-bit A/D conversion processing, the cameras offer a range of automatic features designed to minimize the adjustments necessary during production, including auto iris with multi-zone weighting, auto skin tone detail, auto knee, electronic color correction, focus assist function and hyper gamma.
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