Camera industry in the 21st-digital-century... vs smartphone market's advent

What did I say about a head-mount?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152883142416027&set=o.157756937606832&type=1
photo.php

Guaranteed to make all the girls swoon over you at the next party! :)

- Greg
 
Related to cameras, albeit not directly, Computex 2015 is now taking place in Taipei. There are usual developments of everything being smaller and faster (and cooler too) - faster video cards, faster memory, faster connectivity - and apparently a plethora of 21:9 gaming monitors. Many of them are curved even at 34" diagonally but should be pretty useful for editing 2.4/1 wide screen footage.
 
I look at it like a new Maybach --- awesome in every respect and priced accordingly.
 
A 1/9 inch sensor from Omnivision.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: OVTI), a leading developer of advanced digital imaging solutions, today announced the OV9734, the company's smallest 720p high-definition (HD) sensor for consumer applications. Built on OmniVision's PureCel™ technology, the OV9734 CameraChip™ delivers premium quality images and video, while consuming significantly less power than previous generation image sensors, making it an attractive camera solution for slim notebooks, tablets, handsets and other mobile devices that require thin bezels....


The 1/9-inch OV9734 CameraChip™ sensor can capture 720p HD video at 30 frames per second (FPS) or VGA resolution at 45 FPS, meeting the premium video quality specifications for popular video conferencing platforms...

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...n-notebooks-and-mobile-devices-300093247.html
 
My crystal ball has been recharged and so I'll chime in --

I mostly agree but ... there might/could be a modular setup, that turns a cell phone into a DSLR (we see it with Joe's photos) and a DSLR into a handheld a la GH4/A7s + Q7/Shogun but in a more of a piggyback/ergonomic design...

Well ... getting close to modular DSLR with this - (thanks to Robert Hardy at NoFilmSchool for spotting it)

 
Closer, but still too big.

The DSLR and handicam body styles are very delicate, unlike a shoulder rig. Add an extra couple of pounds and few extra inches to a shoulder rig, and you can barely tell the difference. Do the same to a DSLR or Handicam, and the ergonomics fall apart.

An ENG cam the size and shape of a DSLR is possible:
- a 10-bit 4:2:2 codec like on the Blackmagic Pocket
- a flip-out screen like the GH4, though preferably 4" and high res, and with all the monitoring tools built in that normally come with external monitors (histogram, focus peaking, etc.)
- a small-as-possible phantom XLR adapter, like the Sony XLR-K2M
- some kind of small external battery rigged out the back, like the Sony L series, because there just ain't enough room inside a DSLR for a long-lasting battery

dslr-eng.jpg


But by then you're basically almost to the handicam body style. I think something like this, from roxics, is my ideal.

roxicam.gif

Basically smaller is always better. So the cell phone would win. But this little handicam is as small you can get and still be big enough for: (1) the human hand, (2) XLRs, and (3) a decent battery life under today's battery technology. Any company that can make a DSLR can make this. And we have only begged for something like this for like forever. JVC's LS-300 has come closest so far, but it's still a little too big for my taste, and they somehow sacrificed even DSLR quality.

Blackmagic could make it. Even with just their S16 sensor from the Pocket, it would sell like hotcakes.

P.S. And there still should be shoulder rigs, onemanband-videomaker.
 
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Closer, but still too big...
I concur but, as a small vendor, they are not capable of making a "digital back" type of an addition. DSLR's innate shape and features stand in the way of the third body making a suitable one. It'd have to come from a manufacturer or via a third party working with a manufacturer.

Oh and to the camera industry in the 21st Century. Here's some high end news.

'Star Wars: Rogue One' to Be Filmed With Arri's 6K Large-Format Camera

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/star-wars-rogue-one-be-801322
 
:grin: Most of the "free to air" tv in Australia is still Digital SD. :grin:

I don't know about "pay tv", i don't bother.
The US is still using an MPEG2 standard for the Over The Air broadcast. Usually, what was originally supposed to be a 1080p signal is split into 1080i/720p and two-to-four 480p sub-channels. The upgrade to HEVC would theoretically quadruple the number of the available Full HD channels (or their equivalent) from 10 to about 40. Should QHD (2560x1440) rather than 4K become an OTA standard, that number would be around 25.

The game these days, obviously, centers around the internet with most broadband providers making ~ 30 Mbps download - and thus 4K streaming - fairly affordable. Here and there, you might even see 1 Gbps trials.
 
The US is still using an MPEG2 standard for the Over The Air broadcast. Usually, what was originally supposed to be a 1080p signal is split into 1080i/720p and two-to-four 480p sub-channels. The upgrade to HEVC would theoretically quadruple the number of the available Full HD channels (or their equivalent) from 10 to about 40. Should QHD (2560x1440) rather than 4K become an OTA standard, that number would be around 25.

The game these days, obviously, centers around the internet with most broadband providers making ~ 30 Mbps download - and thus 4K streaming - fairly affordable. Here and there, you might even see 1 Gbps trials.

I've never even heard of QHD. I had to look it up. It's basically quad 720p for those that don't want to look it up. I would think the next transmission standard would be UHD(3840x2160P)(and all subsequent resolutions based on multiples of 1920x1080P like UHD is), or what a lot of people mistakenly call 4K(I'm probably arguing semantics at this point since all the trade groups refer to UHD as 4K and I doubt many consumers would know the difference if you asked them).
 
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I've never even heard of QHD. I had to look it up. It's basically quad 720p for those that don't want to look it up...
Sony referred to UHD as QFHD in their A7R MKII presentation. It made me look twice.

As to what's next for the US, HEVC and 4K/UHD is probably the aim but 2.5K/QHD will leave a lot of room for the sub-channels. From the technological POV, there are more advanced codecs in the works (something like Daala), which may come to fruition before FCC and Congress decide to do something about it.
 
If I understand correctly that you guys are talking about over the air broadcast TV digital signals updating their encoding from MPEG2 to HEVC for real, I would say to not expect any changes to happen for at least another 20-30 years at a minimum.
I think the Congress wants more frequencies for the wireless and will move on this by early next decade.

When the whole transition from analog to digital happened, most people didn't even know what YouTube was. In 2008, a horribly pixelated 240p video clip - limited to 10 minutes in duration and not a second more! - was still the norm. 360p was a rarity and 480p was nearly nonexistent. Nowadays, Comcast is threatening to have 18 million of its customers with a symmetrical (!!!) 1 Gbps service by the end of 2015.
 
Interesting, I was writing this whole thing about all the reasons why they wouldn't consider an upgrade to the broadcast system for another generation, but it seems like they're actually already doing trials with ATSC 3.0, which apparently is going to be based on HEVC/H.265 and be capable of UHD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Television_Systems_Committee_standards#ATSC_3.0

I don't see how they're going to ask tens of millions of people to upgrade their TVs or receivers again anytime soon, but let's see what happens! Perhaps it will be a deal where only UHD signals will use the new encoding tech, so only UHD TVs will be equipped with it and consequently existing HDTVs and receivers would be unaffected? Then when UHD penetration reaches some tipping point they can maybe start talking about doing away with old SDTV and HDTV signals?
 
... I don't see how they're going to ask tens of millions of people to upgrade their TVs or receivers again anytime soon, but let's see what happens! Perhaps it will be a deal where only UHD signals will use the new encoding tech, so only UHD TVs will be equipped with it and consequently existing HDTVs and receivers would be unaffected? Then when UHD penetration reaches some tipping point they can maybe start talking about doing away with old SDTV and HDTV signals?
My hunch is that the Congress will wait a few more years before conducting hearings with all the big manufacturers and "consumer unions" involved. One reason is HEVC vs. whatever else might pop up. The other is 8K.

And then you have to take the economic conditions into the account and what not. In other words, my crystal ball is barely 240p itself.

As to smartphones, here's another step toward a consolidated/hybrid/piggyback design. From DxO, here's ONE.

http://photorumors.com/2015/06/17/t...hat-will-be-announced-tomorrow/#ixzz3dKofK6DV
 
I just had a related conversation with one of my producers last night... we're both broadcast TV refugees. All the talk of over the air broadcast needs to take into account the fact that the over the air broadcasters are all hurting to one degree or another. Viewership is down as folks have plenty of other options. All of which is to say, given how relatively recent the conversions to both digital and HD was for broadcast, don't expect any major conversions for quite a few years, as it will put a bit of a strain on the budgets of your local broadcasters for very little return on investment for them.
 
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