Canon Reveals Their Next Pro Video Cam

[Cranky]

Right. I made a mistake. Even if the A1 resolved as many as 800 lines, when deinterlaced to 60p it would produce only 400 lines, less than 540 and nowhere near 800 like the HMC40 does.

 

[Robert M Wright]

Actually, you can get better than 400 lines, deinterlacing 1080i60 out of the A1 to 1080p60, and then downscaling to 720p60, but it's not the dang near pristine 700 lines you get straight out of the camera with an HMC40. YADIF deinterlacing along with Lanczos resizing, with AviSynth, can work pretty good really.

 

[Nektonic]

Barry said it is a reboot of the A1. Nothing wrong with that. It is great hardware and great MPEG-2 codec. I will appreciate AVCHD, but if Canon provides an option of "tapeless HDV" (in MPEG transport stream) or XDCAM EX, it will be even more attractive to some. With my 4-core machine I can edit HDV like it was DV, but with AVCHD it is more struggle.

I hope this is more than merely a copy and paste the old A1 and add AVC-HD. I think I speak for most of us out there in saying that I need better low light. Sure the A1 was good in low light for its time, and it is still decent, but low light improvements are always a major major thing that needs to improve from each camera generation to the next one.

I highly doubt that Canon will just reuse the A1's imaging chips. Also, they've already changed the LCD setup, so it seems that this is going to be different in some fundamental ways.

Also, no one offers DV anymore. If Canon offered DV it would stand out and again can be attractive to many.

I think the solution that makes the most sense would be for Canon to include easily editable HD and SD modes that can be recorded to the SD cards. Then they can ditch the tape drive.

 

[Cranky]

I think the solution that makes the most sense would be for Canon to include easily editable HD and SD modes that can be recorded to the SD cards. Then they can ditch the tape drive.

DV can be recorded to file-based media perfectly fine. It is not bound to tape. HDV is not bound to tape either.

 

[Captain Pierce]

In a relatively short time, it might be difficult to find a new camcorder that does shoot to tape.

That's a very good point. Mini-DV seems to be all but dead on the consumer side (been trying to find one for a friend), and I would have to think that nobody's going to come out with new pro models shooting to tape... so the DVX, HVX200, XH-A1, and XL-H1 are probably it. Once they're discontinued--nothin'.

I don't know how attractive an AVCHD version of the A1s would really be at this point. The imaging block in Canon's pro HDV cams was excellent for when it came out, and still not bad even in 2010, but it is getting dated. That imaging block struggles in low light, compared to newer offerings from the other majors, and higher resolution imaging blocks are now starting to become a bit more desirable, with AVCHD compression than with HDV compression. HDV simply can't really record much more detail than the Canon HDV pro camcorders' imaging blocks can deliver, but AVCHD can. Take a look at the highly detailed images coming out of an HMC40, and imaging blocks that deliver around 700 lines start looking a little bit anemic.

Well, first off, I'm not a pixel counter or anything like that; but when I say "an AVCHD version of the A1s," I don't mean just an A1s with the tape deck chopped off and a couple of card slots welded on. Maybe I should have said "an AVCHD evolution of the A1s," in the same way I consider the A1 to be an HD evolution of the GL2. Canon can (and I think probably will) do what they need to do to take full advantage of AVCHD; I'm looking for something that isn't the Cadillac of the line (as the XL1/2/H1 were and are) but still has what I need to do my job (which the A1s does and the GL2 almost does). Actually, for me, as long as they keep that 20X zoom, that excuses a lot of other flaws...

 

[hawaj]

I think that Canon likes Red and their raw RedCode concept and would like to do create something similary outstanding.

 

[Allan Black]

Hope this new Canon doesn't follow the same story as the famous Panasonic GS400. For 2005 everyone figured the new 400 would have great new features. There were hundreds of threads about it.

But the GS500 was a major disappointment .. Panasonic kept the pix quality but dumped most of the 400s features. Their answer was .. they wanted to get it under $US1000 to get more sales.

That said, I like the way the new audio controls can be thumb operated from the rear. Gain up is clockwise .. gain down anticlockwise thanks Canon.

Cheers.

 

[Robert M Wright]

...I think the solution that makes the most sense would be for Canon to include easily editable HD and SD modes that can be recorded to the SD cards. Then they can ditch the tape drive.

Whether or not this new cam records SD, you can pretty much bank on Canon "ditching" the tape drive.

Personally, I'm all for killing of SD as soon as possible!

 

[Cranky]

Mini-DV seems to be all but dead on the consumer side (been trying to find one for a friend)

Try Walmart. Bad for shooting, but will work as a deck. Walmart sells VHS-C cams too.

I consider the A1 to be an HD evolution of the GL2.

If this is true, then it is similar to Evolving MkI Rabbit into MkV R32, only in case of VW it took 5 generations, not just one, and it also offers the base Golf as well as the GTi for those who do not want or have money for the R32. Canon does not offer anything in between of the HV40 and the A1. The GL2 was similar to the DVC30. Canon went upscale, while Panasonic keeps this niche filled with the HMC40. It is interesting to compare lineups from Canon, Panasonic and Sony. With the HMC40 Panasonic has just enough models to cover pretty much the whole spectrum, it does not need as many as Sony.

Personally, I'm all for killing of SD as soon as possible!

One of the reasons why HD advances in Europe slower than in the US is that widescreen 25p looks very nice, especially when compared to pixelated HD Lite from American satellite TV providers. I bet that its users had much fewer reasons to upgrade If the DVX had a native widescreen chip. BTW, widescreen 625p50 is officially considered HD in Australia.