 | 2005: The era of HDV2! |
Lorin's email:
There's lots of fuzzy rumor surrounding the future, mostly buzz about the next tier beyond HDV: the professional-oriented HDV2. On this page you will find tidbits of rumor about what to expect at next year's NAB. | ||||
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Panny jumps into the fray: They're not on the HDV bandwagon, but they will support MPEG-2 HD in the form of a SD-card prosumer camcorder appearing in the fall of 2006 for around $3000. 3 CCD with XLR connectors, and with 24fps support. (Picture comes from a great camcorderinfo.com NAB press release article about the camera.) | |||
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Anticipated Specifications: Three sources have said that at NAB2004 Sony will have a private showing of a disc-based HDV system called XDCAM "HDV2". Few details are known at this point about this upcoming technology. It is likely to be introduced to the public at NAB 2005.
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Pro-HD on a budget: An undisclosed manufacturer is preparing a one-CCD camera designed to offer the most "bang" from a truly low-cost solution. The single 2/3" imager captures 1080 progressive at 1080/24p, 1080/30p, and 1080/60p(!) 100 Mbps firewire output, compressed with MPEG2 by utilizing 3 NTT processors. With this compression, quality can be similar to the CineAlta even though the bitrate is less than a quarter. Also, don't be scared off with it having just one CCD. Although light sensitivity is reduced with this approach, having a 2/3" chip compensates to a degree for this. As well, the Bayer filter used offers the best luma performance out of a 1-CCD solution. | |||
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3CCDs, still on a budget: The same manufacturer is also planning to offer a 3CCD model (also 2/3", but CMOS chips instead of CCDs to allow more versatility in scanning the imager.) For this model, output will be switchable between 1080i and 720p. Standard framerates, plus 24p will be supported. The same 100Mbps signal, and no media here, either. Expected to cost $15,000. | |||
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Canon's pro offering: Canon may announce another higher end Pro-HDV camera towards the end of 2004 or at NAB 2005 with these specs:
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Rumored Specifications: Sharp is rumored to have two 1080i offerings in the works, a single CCD 1080i unit appearing at the Summer CES this year, and a 3CCD unit at NAB2005. We look forward to what they come up with. Both of these are rumored to use compression technology and CCDs from Sony. The 3CCD model should be HDV2 and around $9000, probably making it the least expensive HDV2 model appearing next year. | |||
Other cameras to look for later in 2004 include:
- Blue laser HD camcorder from Hitachi
- 50 Mbps HD camcorder from Ikegami
- Consumer-oriented HD camcorder from Samsung
Beyond 2005
Still cameras with video
Around 2006 we may actually start to see 8 megapixel still cameras tack on 720p high definition video capability! Compression used with these cameras will likely not be as good as HDV, meaning that the recording time may not be very lengthy without the expense of a big hard drive. As well depth of field may need some work. Finally, audio will most likely be a total afterthought. Overall though this new trend could start to displace sales of video cameras, or really start to blur what is a video camera and what is a still camera.
Super HD
Even further into the future, we can expect Super HD with four times the resolution of today's best high definition cameras. This can approach the quality of what 35mm film can offer, but without the annoying grain. This 8 megapixel format is being independently researched by Panasonic, Olympus (another page with newer info, but has been translated from Japanese), Dalsa, Sony, and Arri. The goal with this format is digital cinema, medical imaging, and other immersive applications
The Arri and Dalsa work uses a Philips 1 CCD sensor solution having a full 35mm frame size.
Ultra HD
Beyond this, and far on the horizon, is a 32 megapixel project spearheaded by NHK in Japan. They are basically taking IMAX to the next level, but digitally, and calling this Ultra High Definition Video (UHDV). As of late last year, their acquisition system was using an array of 16 high-speed hard drive recorders, and able to capture 18 minutes of footage at a time. There's both a brief overview article, and a really in-depth article.