As far as the quality of the footage itself, you’ll have to spend significantly more money to get any kind of noticeable improvement. And by significantly more money I mean a camera like the Panasonic HPX2000. That package will set you back well over $20,000 and will gain you a 2/3” chip for a higher quality front end but you still have to add the optional AVC-Intra card to get the same CODEC as the HPX300. And believe me, the improvements from the CODEC are tangible. Compared to Panasonic’s earlier HD CODEC, DVCPro HD, AVC-Intra uses the same 100Mb data rate but uses the much newer H.264 compression scheme. H.264 provides roughly twice the efficiency of legacy CODECs like DVCPro HD which means you’ll get a better quality recording at even smaller file sizes. In the real world that means you can roughly double your record times at the same quality that you’ve been getting or double your quality at the same record times! Now, it’s important to understand that part of that increased quality comes by the way of an improved color depth. AVC-Intra produces a 10bit color depth. compared to an 8bit color depth from almost everything else out there. That combined with a 4:2:2 color space means smoother gradients between colors and even easier chroma-keying when shooting against a green screen. Do you do any color adjustments or stylizing to your videos? Have you ever opened the application Color that comes with Final Cut Studio? If so, this is the camera for you.

Catalyst Video from Amber Reid on Vimeo.

The GY-HM100U is a Compact Handheld camcorder with performance and features found only in larger and more expensive models. It’s designed to be easy to use, making it ideal for news reporters and producers. Seasoned shooters will find that its small size lets them work in environments where larger cameras would be impractical—all while producing recordings on par with broadcast cameras.

The FowlerInc Interview podcasts are back upon iTunes. Click here to check out the videos, more coming next week. Be sure to subscribe!

Videos include:
Success Stories: part 1
HS-400a Product Review
JVC NAB Interview
Christie NAB Interview
Panasonic NAB Interview
Roland NAB Interview

Bringing broadcast quality high definition to the masses, Panasonic’s new AG-HMC150 blends user friendly features and professional capabilities together in an affordable, moderately sized new camera. Because the AG-HMC150 records in the new AVCHD format, several hours of high definition video can fit onto a small and inexpensive Secure Digital card. Recording formats range from standard definition to 720p to 1080i to give you a wide range of creative options for the final look of your video production. Because the camera has two XLR audio inputs you can use professional microphones for capturing your interview audio or even a direct feed from your front of house audio mixer if using the camera in an auditorium. What this means for you is that you can now capture great sounding audio to go along with your high definition video and give your finished projects the look and sound they deserve.

The competition between flat panel manufacturers has become fierce over the last few years. It seems that the market has been flooded by consumer level, low cost, low quality, displays to the extent that it becomes difficult to sort through the quagmire and find units that will work in a church or ministry application.

The industry leader for plasma flat panel displays is undoubtedly Panasonic. Everything about their professional units is tailor made for the demanding, high intensity kind of usage that is common is the house of worship market. With their 100,000 hour service life and 2 year on-site warranty for parts and labor, these units are the industry standard for reliability and durability. Also providing a custom plug-in architecture for interchangeable input flexibility, the Panasonic 11 series plasmas give your church the ability to expand and grow with their display system.

The biggest reason to choose plasma displays is the picture quality and the Panasonic units certainly don’t disappoint in this regard. Many manufacturers regard resolution as the end all be all of image quality, but in truth it is only one part of the whole “picture.” Just as important as resolution is how a display responds to fast motion video. Other technologies may lose up to 50-70% of their clarity and perceived resolution because of latency (delay) in the response time of the display. Panasonic professional plasmas will maintain a much higher perceived resolution because of the ultra fast 1/600th of a second response time of each individual pixel. Add to this the high contrast ratio and incredible level of black detail, and you have a series of flat panel displays that are ready to give your church the highest image quality possible.

Neil Wittering from Christie reviews the HD+30K projector, the LW600 projector, the CP2000-M DLP cinema projector and Vista’s video processing systems.