If you’ve already seen it, you probably know the story. The HPX-170 is one of Panasonic’s new P2 offerings, shedding it’s MiniDV baggage while checking off wish list features HVX users have been compiling.
The 170 is a solid state system. This is huge for me. I’m so sick of tape it’s not even funny. The idea of stock piling hard drives is much more appealing than hoarding boxes of tapes. It’s also much more eco-friendly, right? Embracing a completely tapeless workflow feels like the best move to make right now. It’s really exciting to see Panasonic biting the bullet with a camera aimed at DVX and HVX users.
The camera is said to feature all kinds of neat bells and whistles including an LCD flip mode for people using 35mm adapters, several persistent focus assist modes, including a waveform monitor and vector-scope. The focus ring will also be swapable with the iris dial at the flip of a switch. So many great improvements. I can’t wait.
FreshDV has a great video interview with Jan Livingston of Panasonic about the HPX-170 and the HVX-200a. The rest of their NAB 2008 coverage is fantastic as well. Definitely check it out.
Panasonic’s own coverage of NAB is surprisingly good too. Their NAB page features short videos from vendors they’ve partnered with. Companies like RedRockMicro, VariZoom, Steadicam, Avid and so many more.
There’s an ongoing discussion over at DVX user.
Here are some more pictures of the camera.
Fresh DV has even more pictures and the official press release.
Today Apple announced that Final Cut Server is finally shipping. Final Cut Server was announced nearly a year ago, with a projected ship date sometime last fall. That didn’t happen, and it looks like the extra time may have been spent sprucing up the user interface.
It appears that Server carries with it some curiously distinct departures from the standard Leopard-style interface. The changes look fantastic and include updated scroll bars, drop-down menus, and button styling. Overall, the application is dark, similar to Color. It’s strange though that none of the other pro apps maintain this new look and feel.
If this is an indication that the rest of Final Cut Studio will be getting a visual upgrade this year around NAB (which is when that sort of thing might happen), bring it on. Final Cut Pro has one of the most dated interfaces of any Apple-produced app. It’s ancient. It’s annoying. And it’s ugly.
In addition, Final Cut Studio has a pretty disjointed interface when jumping between different applications. One of the selling points for Studio is that the applications work well with each other, and that round-tripping between most of the apps is a breeze. A unified interface or, at the very least, unified interface elements would really drive this home.
The features and solutions that Final Cut Server offers will surely be a boon for production houses looking for a new or better way to structure their post-production workflow. And while I doubt I’ll be using it anytime soon (since I typically work on small projects by my lonesome), I’m hoping it’s a herald of things to come.
Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid
If you’re not already familiar with B&H I suspect you soon will be. For many it’s considered the Mecca of the imaging community. Countless travelers make the journey north every year, just to stand among the superior camera technology.
I once heard that at if you’re lucky, and if you’re standing in just the right spot, you’ll experience a feeling akin to euphoria. This, of course, comes directly before you realize you just dropped $1200 on a 70mm lens, at which point you begin to justify the purchase (and the journey) by calling it an investment, a smart business move, or simply blame it on mind-control.
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I’m not an After Effects user, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love seeing what people can do with it. Video Copilot is one of my favorite After Effects centered sites for viewing the latest and greatest from some talented artists. They consistently deliver fantastic tutorials (that Motion people can benefit from too), and their lineup of plugins looks to be top-notch. If I were of the Adobe persuasion, I’d definitely give them a look-see.
Today Video Copilot is releasing their latest disc of plugin goodies, calling it Twitch. One of the best parts about these releases are the trailers that accompany them. My favorite is still Evolution, but this is probably a close second. You can check out their store for the full lineup.
The most publicized feature in Mac OS 10.5 Leopard can also be one of the most useful for your Final Cut Studio workfow. This, of course, is Time Machine.
My setup right now consists of two external hard drives. Both are 500GB FireWire 800 drives. One is for capture and all of the extra goodies that come with Final Cut Studio, and the other is for backup via Time Machine.
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