Archive for January, 2010

Sony is expanding its line of solid state camcorders with the new models HXR-NX5 to broaden the shooting capabilities for professionals. This is Sony’s is first professional camcorder that implements the AVCHD format, the HXR-NX5U.

The professional HXR-NX5U is part of Sony’s NXCAM family of video products for professionals. It features Sony’s Exmor™ CMOS sensor with ClearVid™ array, to deliver full high-definition resolution and low light sensitivity with low noise. The camcorder will record AVCHD up to 24Mbps, delivering 1920×1080 high definition images with both interlace and progressive modes along with native 1080/24P, 720/60p and MPEG-2 standard definition recording. The NX5U camcorder will also include both HD-SDI and HDMI™ outputs, as well as two-channel linear PCM audio capabilities.  Other unique features for the professional NX5U camcorder include  the ability to record in DV or  DVCAM for  720/60P standard definition recording, SMPTE Time Code I/O and an upgrade option for 60i/50i switchable.

Advanced Video Codec High Definition (AVCHD) technology was jointly developed by Sony and Panasonic and has been widely adopted in consumer camcorders.

According to Sony, AVCHD is a highly efficient long-GOP codec based on MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Long-GOP image compression, a member of the MPEG family of codecs. This approach is consistent with Sony’s current line-up of MPEG professional camcorders, including the HDV™, XDCAM® HD optical and XDCAM EX™ series.

The new NXCAM model also shares the 20x optical zoom G lens used in Sony’s HVR-Z5U professional camcorder. The camcorder uses two types of consumer media along with an optional HXR-FMU128 128GB Flash Memory Unit for more than 11 hours of recording time at 24 Mbps. The HXR-FMU128 unit can be easily removed and simply powered through a computer’s USB connection, to make file downloading or editing easier and faster. Besides the Memory Stick PRO Duo™ media, users are also able to record HD content on class 4 or higher SDHC cards.

For High-end Prosumers

With the HXR-NX5U camcorders, professionals videographers can achieve a deep cinematic look with film-like movie quality and advanced color settings.

The model uses three 1/3″ Exmor™ CMOS Sensors with Exmor derived technology to improve the color reproduction of video recordings and capture sharp, detailed images even in less than perfect lighting situations. Noise reduction is accomplished via the unique column-parallel analog-to-digital conversion technique and grid arrangement of the photo diodes, which are designed to provide high sensitivity, deep resolution, high-speed reading, and a wider dynamic range. The Exmor technologies combine to allow the new camcorders to perform significantly better in low-light environments with sensitivity of 1.5 lux.

The EIP processor is able to rapidly process the vast amounts of pixel data read from the three 1/3” Exmor CMOS Sensors, and record beautiful HD and colorful video. The Exmor CMOS Sensors were developed using some of the most advanced technologies in the semiconductor industry. They handle video data in 1920 x 1080p and 4:2:2 color space for high-quality signal processing before recording it to the dual Memory Stick PRO Duo media. Together, the EIP and Exmor CMOS Sensors imaging system the  HXR-NX5U camcorder to provide extremely high image quality with smooth gradation and detailed image reproduction.

The new camcorder uses Sony’s 3.2” (16:9) (measured diagonally) Xtra Fine LCD™ screen (921K) and Xtra Fine LCD electronic viewfinder (0.45-inch, 1,227,000 dots) for high-resolution and high-contrast images with remarkable color reproduction.

Equipped with a refined level of optical performance, HXR-NX5U has a 29.5mm Wide-Angle to 590mm Telephoto G-Lens, extra-low dispersion glass and 20x optical zoom. The fixed lens is optimized to perfectly complement the cameras’ advanced image sensor and image-processing technology.

Optical SteadyShot™ image stabilization with Active Mode improves on existing Optical SteadyShot image stabilization by allowing the camera lens to shift over a greater range of motion allowing the camera to compensate for greater degrees of camera shake and deliver a stunning level of image smoothness.

To recap: with the Sony Exmor sensor and a 20x G Lens along with the use of both MS PRO Duo cards and SDHC this is definitely a camcorder to be reckoned with.

Reviews by: Fred Meek – ShotOnHD.com

For more info go to: ZVS-media.com

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I saw this and had a big surge of “And THAT, M-Fers, is why I got into HD for Indies in the first place!!!! An F900 can SUCK IT!” What we have here are two skimboarders (OK OK I cheated in the headline sub – skimboarders is long/complex/weaker than surfer) with a cheapie GoPro camera….on a broomstick. What happens when you hold up a lightweight, waterproof, wide angle lensed camera on a pole looking back at you while you do sports? Fun stuff! Video after the jump.

See more here:
WOW! Here’s why to go cheap/fast/light!

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GoogleVoice has recently improved its functionality on the iPhone by upgrading its optimized iPhone website, both esthetically and operationally. In light of the misinformation published by some other tech journalists, I must clarify that GoogleVoice has been working fine on the iPhone for many months, at least with three of its features. I have been using GoogleVoice on my iPhone since July 2009 to place inexpensive outgoing international calls, which has been my main reason for using it. Since that date, GoogleVoice has also worked for incoming calls to the iPhone, although I don’t regularly use that feature for now. Even though I don’t regularly use the incoming call feature —or GoogleVoice’s other features so far— I do cover all of them in this article, in addition to explaining specifically how GoogleVoice has improved when placing outgoing international calls from the iPhone as a result of this recent update. I’ll also cover how I expect the GoogleVoice service to grow even further in the coming months.

Here is the original post:
GoogleVoice improves its functionality on the iPhone

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