[Press Release]

Sony has added new dimensions to its product line – literally – with the unveiling of its first 3D single-body camcorders for professional applications, for the first time in Asia. The new models include the PMW-TD300 shoulder-mount model, and the previously announced HXR-NX3D1P NXCAM compact camcorder.

PMW-TD300

The PMW-TD300 features a dual ½-inch Exmor 3 CMOS sensor design with full HD 1920×1080 pixel resolution. The camcorder is based on the XDCAM EX recording platform, allowing users to take advantage of a proven solid-state workflow for maximum flexibility.

Left and right eye signals are simultaneously recorded onto separate SxS cards (4 SxS card slots in total, 2 slots for each view). Its shoulder-mount design provides stability in “run and gun” shooting environments, allowing professional shooters to worry less about ergonomics and concentrate more on getting the right shot.

An inter-axial distance of 45mm delivers a wide range of shooting zones to capture quality 3D images, especially for near-side shooting with a 1.2m minimum convergence distance. A newly developed dual-lens system allows for full synchronisation with high accuracy in focusing, zooming and iris adjustment.

The camera is switchable between 2D and 3D modes. The 2D view is recorded onto a single card, with 2D redundancy achieved through parallel recording onto L/R cards.

HXR-NX3D1P

The ‘ready-to-go’ HXR-NX3D1P’s functions have been designed to offer a new level of mobility, workflow convenience and ease of use, while delivering professional quality output. Double Sony G Lenses and double Exmor R CMOS sensors deliver professional quality 3D shooting, while 1920×1080 full HD left and right images enable realistic HD recording.

It allows for simple adjustments to the left-right disparity to film 3D with the dial on the body and previewing the 3D effect on its glasses-free LCD.

Double full HD recordings are encoded in H.264 MVC (Multi-Views Coding) then packed in a single file. When the file is imported to compatible editing software such as Sony Vegas Pro 10.0d, it can be treated as L and R synchronised images without having to import them twice. Additionally, the included Content Management Utility 2.1 software lets users split the single 3D file into L and R video stream files which can be edited in AVCHD compatible 3D editing software.

The 3D glasses-free 3.5-inch Xtra fine LCD monitor (1229K 2562×480) makes 3D picture control easier, eliminating the need for a shutter or polarised glasses to view the 3D effect. The camcorder also features a 96GB of internal flash memory, which offers up to approximately 7.5 hours of 3D recording (compatible memory sticks and SD cards can also be used).

The HXR-NX3D1P supports a range of recording formats: 60i / 50i / 24p for 3D and 60p, 50p, 60i, 50i, 25p, 24p for 2D then 60i, 50i for SD resolution. The camcorder’s G Lenses allow a 10x long zoom ratio in 3D for more shooting flexibility.

Finally, the HXR-NX3D1P NXCAM Professional 3D Compact Camcorder has been created with the viewing experience in mind. SteadyShot Active Mode 3-way camera shake stabilising technology smoothes up/down, left/right and rolling movement and ensures minimal shake, even during hand-held shooting, to maintain a comfortable viewing experience.

The PMW-TD300 and HXR-NX3D1P will be available in Asia Pacific from December 2011 and July 2011 respectively.

The new models will be showcased at BroadcastAsia 2011, taking place from June 21 – 24, 2011 at Suntec Singapore. These new cameras along with Sony’s full range of broadcast and content production solutions can be found at the Sony booth #4B4-01, Level 4.

See the original post here: http://www.hardwarezone.com/tech-news/view/186358

[by Craig Johnston, TV Technology]

Though TV Technology’s younger readers may not remember those days, there was a time when cars didn’t have windows that used electric motors to roll up and down, or electronic door locks. But the luxury car makers developed both features for their priciest models, and it wasn’t too many years later that electronic windows and door locks showed up in pretty much all cars coming off the assembly line.

That same paradigm has been followed by many members of the television production equipment family. Camera lenses are a great example of this, because lens makers today are being challenged to develop lenses with new, higher performance specifications, to meet the needs of digital cinematography. And while the first models of these more high performance lenses will of course bear a hefty price tag, those of us with more modest budgets will, in a few years time, find some of those advanced features creeping into the everyday lenses we all use.

4K CAMERAS

Any video image is no better than the weakest point in the acquisition signal path, from the front of the lens all the way through to display to the audience. And as other parts of that signal chain improve, the lenses have to keep up. Such is the challenge presented by the new 4K cameras that have recently been introduced.

(There’s an ongoing argument as to what a 4K camera really is, which is beyond the scope of this article. For the purposes of this explanation, 4K cameras basically represent a doubling of the resolution of prior digital cinematography cameras.)

A doubling of resolution is a good thing, especially when the images are to be viewed on a 50-foot theater screen. But inviting such critical viewing also highlights lens errors that lower resolutions on smaller displays may have hidden.

Chromatic aberration is one such problem that has come more to the forefront with the new higher resolution video cameras. Chromatic {color} aberration (error), in simple terms, occurs because of the unequal refraction of light rays of different wavelength, which is the property that yields a rainbow of color from a prism. 

To the viewer’s eye, chromatic aberration is seen as a bleeding of one color or another along an edge of detail in a scene. Lens designers go to great lengths to correct for this, so that all colors that make up a particular piece of detail in the viewed image converge at the same point on the sensor. In working to achieve such correction, lens makers may find they have to add additional glass elements into the lens. Adding glass elements is not without its costs, however, both financially and in transmission of light.

As light passes through a lens, every time it enters or leaves a glass element, some light is lost to refraction. While the amount lost to a single element may seem small, the cumulative effect of passing through a dozen or more elements can severely rob the light from an image. A way of mitigating such light loss has been found in applying coatings to the lens elements, and lens makers continue their research into more exotic coatings to pass ever more light through a lens.

Those of us using everyday lenses will benefit at least twice from the research lens makers have done here on chromatic aberration: soon our lenses will come with less chromatic aberration, and the use of the new coatings will provide us with faster lenses, making our camcorders more sensitive to light.

3D PRODUCTION

The new 4K cameras aren’t the only area of motion picture production that are upping the ante for lens makers. 3D production brings a whole new level of problems.

3D production requires a pair of cameras with lenses to be used at the same time to provide a left-eye and right-eye view of a scene. Those lenses must be exactly matched in a number of critical ways. When zooming, for example, the speed of each zoom must be exactly the same, and at any point during the zoom they must be at exactly the same focal length. The lenses must also be identically in focus at the same point.

Another lens error that, if minor, might go unnoticed in 2D production, is optical centering. To understand the concept of the optical center, think of a camera and lens aimed a dot at the very center of the image. As the lens is zoomed, a perfectly optical-center adjusted lens would keep that dot exactly in the center of the image. If not, the camera operator would need to pan and/or tilt the camera to keep the dot, or scene, centered.

Imagine the two camera-mounted lenses rigged as a stereoscopic pair, with let’s say the left-eyed a perfectly optical-centered lens. However, right-eyed lens has optical-centering problems through the zoom range. Since the stereo effect depends on offsets of left-eye and right-eye views of the scene, these mismatched lenses could yield a bizarre and unrealistic 3D scene as the lenses zoomed.

The corrections that lens makers have come up with to deal with these problems for 3D production will also begin to find their way into their wider lens product line. The result will be more perfect lenses for everybody.

So as those of us who may never make a feature film read about the newest lenses and other bleeding edge equipment for Hollywood production, we can do knowing that many of the capabilities of that new equipment will eventually end up in our hands.

See the original post here: http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/121968