I recently had an opportunity to look first hand at the new HD Camera from Thomson
Grass Valley.
It has a number of impressive features. It supports recording in 720p 1080i, 1080p30 as well as 108050 and 108060. It records to small hard removable hard drive that, unlike Panasonic's P2 cards that cost $800-$1000, is expected to be priced comparably to tape stock. Meaning you could treat each drive as camera master without having to dump the media to a separate hard drive and recycling the drive. One interesting feature is called "dual Skin Contour" which as I understand it,automatically recognizes skin tones and softens them to make your "talent look its best". (I wonder how well it would work on
David Caruso)
The camera itself is more like a portable computer with the ability to upgrade and expand the cameras abilities as they are developed. As of yet it's Codec, based on JPEG2000 is not supported directly in Avid or Final Cut Pro, you have to trans code before ingesting (or transferring). It is supported natively by
Edius Pro By Canopus.
One clever feature is a small speaker located in the side of the camera body that lines up with the operators ear so you do not need headphones to monitor the audio.
Overall I thought it was designed well although it is very heavy, built like a tank it seem very durable as field camera as well as a studio camera. I didn't get an opportunity to shoot with it yet but, I may have an opportunity soon.
