Final Cut Pro 7 and Snow Leopard

Its been just over a month since Apple launched an upgrade to Final Cut Pro. The new Apple Final Cut Studio. Interestingly this not being called Final Cut Studio 3, but just the new Final Cut Studio. Final Cut Pro 6 has become Final Cut Pro 7.

Color, Cinema Tools, DVD Studio Pro, Motion and SoundTrack Pro have all been upgraded with many new features. Plenty of sites have reviewed new features in this upgrade. I plan on doing a review of features for PAL and especially film workflow as soon as I get my copy.

Then, a few days ago, Apple launched their new operating system Snow Leopard - MacOSX 10.6.

Should FCP 6 users do these upgrades? And upgrade to Snow Leopard and FCP 7?

Both or just one?

If you have FCP 6 running on a G5, or PowerBook, or G4-based iMac or MacMini. Any machine that is not an Intel Mac. You cannot run FCP 7 or Snow Leopard. Leopard and FCP 6 is the end of the road for these systems. Its a great time to buy a new Mac.

If you have an Intel Mac you can consider doing the FCP 7 upgrade. You could do a clean install of Snow Leopard first, then install FCP 7. Before you clean up, make sure you back up everything. And have your FCS2 or FCP 6 serial number handy. I you've lost it then you're out of luck. You need to buy the whole FCP 7 again.

If you use Kona cards, then you need to wait till they update their drivers. Blackmagic cards have updated drivers though.

If you don't want to risk Snow Leopard just yet, just do the FCP 7 install over FCP 6. Incidentally, even if you buy FCP 7 as an upgrade, the disks work as clean install as well. You just need your FCP 6 serial number handy. Its a good isea to write the FCP 6 number on the FCP 7 disks for the future.

And, bear in mind that FCP 7 does not include LiveType which has been dropped. So it may be a good idea to install that first from the FCP 6 disks, if you need LiveType badly. If you've never used LiveType, you may find some of its features in Motion now.

In general, how does one get Snow Leopard?

All new Macs will have Snow Leopard.

Most of us who use Leopard now, can buy Snow Leopard for under $ 30 so it should be about Rs 1500 in India. If you have Tiger, you have to buy the Mac Box Set which includes Snow Leopard and iLife and iWork - all for under $ 130 or about Rs 6500.

If you have a Mac bought after June 2009 you may qualify for an 'up-to-date program' which gets you Snow Leopard for under $ 10 about Rs 500.

Like in all OS upgrades, some applications will work with Snow Leopard and some will not.

Apple lists Snow Leopard incompatible software at their support site. If you use any of these for your business, you should not upgrade to Snow Leopard.

The good folks at Macintouch have compiled a list of Snow Leopard compatible software at their site.

If you are considering getting a new Mac, and if you have an app that shows up as incompatible with Leopard, you need to consider waiting till it becomes compatible or get an alternative to that app.

A bit of trivia on MacOSX

The operating just before Snow Leopard was Leopard or MacOSX 10.5.

Before that were

Tiger or MacOSX 10.4,

Panther or MacOSX 10.3

Jaguar - MacOSX 10.2.

As far as I remember, MacOSX 10.0 and 10.1 had no feline names, though I believe 10.1 was code-named Puma.

For those who have no idea what MacOSX is, go to the What is MacOSX page at Apple.

Software buying - doing the right thing

For about the past few years I've not had reason to use serial seeker, or serial box or sites/software like that. Or cracks to software, and 'patches'. Sometimes I've just not used software I could not afford.

When I like a software, or if I need it, I just buy it. No, I'm not showing off how rich I am, its just about doing the right thing. And I end up spending less than US$ 100 in a year. That's Rs 5000, that's all. I know even well-to-do Indian film producers and directors, who drive in BMWs, Land Rovers, Prosches and Audis. These guys use serial seeker but give sound bytes to TV channels on how piracy affects the film industry. Yeah, right.

A lot of small software are available at huge discounts at MacUpdate from where I get a regular newsletter. if I like something, often times I just wait till it gets cheaper. And there are lots of free software where one doesn't have to pay, but one can donate if its useful. I donate as well.

Software I've bought or donated for are...

Neooffice, Pixelmator, Transmit, ffMpegX, Too much too soon, Clipfinder, Parallels Desktop, NetBarrierX, DVDRemasterPro, Paperless, Multiplex, MoneyWell, RipIt, Posterino, BetterZip, Circus Ponies NoteBook, Jets'n'Guns Gold, CuteClips, Voila, MapDesign and others I can't even remember.

Not many of these costed me over $ 30. But have saved me tonnes of time which I gratefully pay for.

Software that's free and as useful as some paid stuff are...

Filezilla, Cyberduck, Gimpshop, Kompozer, Seashore, Silverkeeper, TubeTV, VLC

I don't have, on any of my 3 computers any of MS-Office, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Lightroom.

In their place I use Neooffice, Pages, Numbers, Pixelmator, Kompozer, iPhoto. Even FCP on all my machines is either bought or presented to me. Considering how much I've earned from editing, I found it appropriate to pay for FCP. And upgrades over the years. I've paid for all of that.

So if you need a serial or a crack, do please write to me and let me know what you're looking for. I'll give you a good alternative or a case for buying it.

DI is Digital film shooting, Digital Cinematography, Digital movies

Many debate that digital movie shooting has still not reached that point where it approaches or betters film. Digital movie cameras have been around for a few years now. But the acceptance of digital as means of shooting movies in a big way is still waiting to happen. 

This debate will go on, just like the debate happened with still photography some years ago. Eventually that debate receded and is now as good put to rest. Film for stills is almost past tense. 

A new argument in favour of movie shooting with digital cameras, just occurred to me. 

People shoot movies on film because it is 'filmic' - film captures reality with unmatched latitude, has predictable characteristics, truer colours, is easy to use, and is a known process. All valid considerations. 

But, while most films are still shot on film, not too many are finished on film. They go the Digital Intermediate (DI) way. Even in India, finishing digital for features is prevalent. Few films have their negatives cut. 

In DI, what happens is the the film is first scanned. Meaning, a light is shone through it and a CCD creates an image of the film. This CCD is just like the kind used in digital cameras - Phantom, Arri D-21, Viper, Genesis. So, in effect, the film is 'shot with a CCD'. And less people debate whether this CCD is filmic, has the latitude to capture the range of film, has accurate colours. 

So, if the CCDs in film scanners can be trusted to represent film in all its glory, and the film itself is a good representation of reality. Then, if such CCDs are fitted with a lens, then won't we have a movie camera that's digital, and as good as film? Examples of such CCDs are those used in still cameras. 

These same digital still cameras are accepted in place of film cameras for stills. So, I thought, can't one accept movies shot with digital still cameras to be as good as, and eventually better than those shot with film-based movie cameras? That's my argument. 

If you want to make a movie that looks as good as if shot on film, and want to shoot 'natural' with a minimum of (even none) lights, then consider DSLRs. Those that shoot HD video. I've listed and briefly described some models earlier. 

After shooting, editing will be as usual - digital. Don't worry, movie editing has been digital for over a decade, thank you. Mail me for a viable post solution. Links to earlier posts on DSLRs doing HD video.

Canon EOS 5D MkII

More still cameras shoot HD video

Red FCP-Color workflow

I got this tip from the Indie4k blog Its a simple workflow for editing Red camera shot material in FCP and grading-finishing in Apple Color. Or using Apple Color to make DPX or CIN files for finishing on other systems like Smoke/eQ etc 

For this you need the following... 

An Apple FCP 6 or FCP 7 vsystem with the entire Final Cut Studio installed. 

The system needs to be an Intel Mac - MacPro or iMac, or MacBook Pro. 

The latest version of Red software - Redrushes, RedAlert, RedCine All correctly installed. 

A free software called Clipfinder . 

A word on Clipfinder. Its made by a German scientist called Hans-Georg Daun and it free. But there's a PayPal button on his site. 

If the software works for you, I urge you to donate generously. Remember, this software can do what others do for no less than US$ 150, so donate accordingly. Link at end. 

You start by making Quicktimes of the Red files using RedRushes or Clipfinder itself. You can make Quicktimes of any resolution even 720p and set the resolution to Quarter. These settings can give you even real-time exports out of a new MacPro. 

These Quicktimes will carry timecode from the R3D. Provided you set it that way. You then edit them in FCP. Make an XML out of FCP. Run Clipfinder and point it to where the Red files are located. Clipfinder makes a new XML now referring to the R3D files. 

Actually referring to the _H files which are 2048x1152. You then send this sequence to Color In Color you can grade to your heart's content Then come back to FCP for further editing etc. Or from Color you export to DPX or CIN Set handles as you wish. 

Take the DPX to Resolve eQ, smoke/Flame Lustre etc.

Some things to look out for...

The XML that Clipfinder makes after re-linking to _H files, creates a sequence in FCP that has the same name as the original sequence. So quickly rename it to avoid confusion. DPX files out of Color work fine in Shake, Resolve and iQ/eQ. But some versions of smoke/flame/lustre can't open them. For these systems better to use Cineon. 

Color does only a half-res De-Bayer so if your needs are 4k and or full-res De-Bayer film then this workflow may not be for you. This is for FCP ver 6 and Color 1.0.5 or older. FCP 7 and Color 1.5 and later does De-bayer in full res, even 4k Red to 4k DPX.

If the Red files are on a FAT32 or other non-Mac drive, Clipfinder may not work for making a new XML. Copy files to a MacOSX HFS drive and it will work fine. 

How about editing on Avid? Can we have more details on FCP XML or Color settings? Can you do this for us? Or, we tried and ran into serious problems. Or even, our Red workflow was a disaster, we eventually rendered out Red files to Digibeta, captured them and worked like a normal video. Red camera has been a nightmare for us. etc etc. 

Hey, nothing's easy. and nothing's free. Press that yellow 'Donate' button on the right and I'm brimming with answers and help. Especially if you're in Mumbai, India. 

The origin of this tip is the Indie4k blog archive. An excellent resource for simple common-sense answers to India film-making problems. the original link is here. 

I am grateful to those bloggers and give them full credit for this excellent idea. I've only amplified it a bit. 

Clipfinder can be found here.

And you can mail me any time with the link below. 

Or at

neil (at like e-mail at) sadwelkar (dot like full-stop) com 

LaCie hard disks - the worst data backup device

In a post house with hundreds of clients walking in and out every day - editing, finishing, DI, VFX CGI - hard disks are as common as tapes. And clients bring their media and take delivery on hard disks as a matter of course. 

But by far the commonest drive that comes to us is LaCie. So by the law of averages, LaCie is the drive that fails the most as far as I've observed. And amongst Lacies the commonest and most catastrophic failures are in their RAIDs - 2-drive RAIDs.

LaCie Big Disk Extreme+ very bad choice for data backup
 

LaCie Big disk Extreme+ This is the latest one that has failed on me. It came with a client who needed a DVD from an HD Quicktime for her entire feature. We encoded off the drive and it worked without complaint for 14 hours. Air-conditioning was good so no temperature problems. Yet, a day later, the drive failed to mount. Checked and swapped cables, power supplies. Still no luck. Disk Utility and Disk Warrior don't see a drive. 

Apple System Profiler sees a Big disk Extreme + on Firewire but no drive. When I start up, I hear just one click-n-whirr. Where a two-drive LaCie (I have another working one) normally emits two click-n-whirr sounds. So I guess one of the two drives is history. And since all LaCie two drive drives are RAID 0 so is the data. 

The sad thing is that client had, along with Quicktimes of her feature, ProTools sessions for her entire two hour long feature. And she was on a tight budget. Very very sad. I haven't even bothered informing LaCie support. They have a no-reply policy for India in force, as far as I have encountered. 

I even have two LaCie Biggest F800 which have failed. First the Firewire 800 ports failed in both. One in the warranty period. Filling out support forms as well as sending mails to LaCie got no responses. Even the dealer put his hands up and said he could do nothing about it. So I resigned myself to running it off USB 2.0.

LaCie Biggest F800 - abysmal security at very high price.
 

Recently one of the drives in this Biggest F800 failed. The LCD display on the drive said "Disk 1 fail". It was RAID 5 so I thought no problem, data was safe. I proceeded to copy out all the data to another drive. No luck. Some of the data couldn't be read. 

I thought I could replace the failed drive with a new one. It was IDE 250 Gb, so I had some of those. After replacing the drive, the RAID was supposed to be rebuilt. That's what the documentation (and the dealer) said. But surprise. Now it said the replaced drive was fine and some other drive had failed. "Disk 2 fail". So now I had no data. 

Replaced the drive back with the old one. And now, all was fine. Still I thought I should copy it all to another. And then. Back to "Disk 1 fail". 

Bottom line. If you have data on your system's drive and want to back it up to an external drive. the absolute LAST choice should be a LaCie. And definitely not a LaCie two-drive RAID. Even a LaCie RAID 5 is not a good idea. It costs the Earth and more, and it offers no real protection against drive failure. 

My choice is a Western Digital single drive. And if you're paranoid, get a Seagate FreeAgent as well. Have both of the same capacity. And make them both single-drive drives. NO RAIDs. 

And then use a backup software like Time Machine or Silverkeeper to backup to both. Should any one drive fail, get a new one and copy data over on it. Then send the failed drive to Seagate or Western Digital for replacement. 

Both of them have a great replacement policy. Even in India. My first choice is definitely Western Digital. Not that they haven't failed. But at least they are prompt with replacements. And both talk to you on support. Reply e-mails as well. The only good thing about LaCie is Silverkeeper.

The Power of One - in Democracy and Piracy

I Voted

India - the world's largest 'real' democracy went to the polls. And nearly a billion people would vote. I was one of them. While standing in the queue, I thought of the publicity in the run up to the elections. Leading persons from various walks of life told us how important voting was. The Times of India ran a special front page telling us about the power of one.

While I stood waiting my turn to vote, I thought about this 'power of one' idea. Its definitely important in democracy. It also applies to piracy. Movie piracy and software piracy. The power of one. Referring to anyone who shadily makes a copy of something he and she's not paid for. They knows its wrong, but do it nevertheless, just because 'everyone does it'. And because he or she won't get caught for it.

Its even more amusing when the film industry - actors, directors, producers - tell us about how bad piracy it. It is bad all right, but some of them do it too. With computer software, if not other people's movies.

The power of one, here too. "So what if I don't pay for MS-Office, I'm only one, Microsoft makes enough money right?" Can be easily rephrased as "So what if I download and watch Ghajini, I'm only one, the producer made 200 crores right?" So here too, 'one' makes a difference because everyone thinks they are 'one'. Just like in voting.

I just checked, Microsoft in India sells MS-Office for as less as Rs 3050. Look here. So all those film producers who moan and whine about piracy while running MS-Office on their laptops and office PCs can now show the power of one, by buying it. Rs 3050 is about what my family blows when we see a movie - just one movie - in a multiplex over the weekend.

For every one producer who uses one copy of MS-office without paying for it, my family watches one movie by downloading it, I think we'll be square. The power of one. Just like in a democracy.

Besides, I get to pay for movie tickets, and I get to pay for computer software, because I care about piracy. Some producers and actors on the other hand, get passes for movie premieres. So they watch movies for free and, (if they don't buy it), get computer software for free too. What are they cribbing about?

The Planetarium in a Science book

Many years ago I wrote an article for a magazine called Science Today. I don't think this publication exists any more. But Orient Blackswan has published a text book called

English for Students of Science
By Roy, & Sharma, P.L., (eds)

Link here...
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=E4vTvr43TngC

In this book, they've published the entire article.
pages 161-162

I have no copy of that article and have even forgotten I wrote it. But if anyone wants to know how the planetarium machine works, this is a quick explanation. I'm not sure I can make a copy and put it here.

And, my earlier post on 'Editing HDCamSR 24p in an Avid Media Composer Mojo' has been linked on another blog here.

Amazing how the 'word' travels.

Neil Sadwelkar

Wide-angle adapters for prosumer camcorders

One of the big problems with small HDV, DV and XDCamEx camcorders is that their stock lenses aren't wide enough. They let you go very close with tele, but in tight spaces, its hard to cover everything if you don't have room to back up from the subject.

Something like 35mm to 40mm is the widest many camcorders go down to.

For those who need wider lenses with little or no optical defects, Schneider a well known lens maker, makes wide-angle adapters for many prosumer camcorders

The Sony Z-7, S270, Canon HV20/HV30, XHA1 and many others.

Here's the link for the SonyS270/Z7

The S270 stock lens is 32 to 384 mm (35mm eqvt) with the .75x adapter it becomes 24-300 mm.
For 'only' US$ 1235.00. And you can zoom with the adapter attached.

Many other cameras are listed too check the dropdown.
There are adapters for the XH-A1 and HV30 as well.

A bit pricey, though.

Editing HDCamSR 24p in an Avid Media Composer Mojo

A colleague came up with an interesting situation. 

A client of ours is proposing to shoot a film on HDCamSR at 1080p24, meaning real 24 fps. The final output will be 35mm film also real 24fps. Being from a PAL country we see no utility on doing the 23.976 - 29.97 NTSC workflow. 

In fact, when I researched this on the 'net and specifically the Avid Community forum, I came up with mostly NTSC based workflows. Even the Avid MC manual doesn't have any explanation on this. Not surprising, editing system manuals seldom address the PAL 24-25 workflow. 

I've found that in the non-PAL post world, people mostly work in 23.976 fps. For shooting HD, telecine to tape whatever. No 24fps. Or in variants of 23.98 like 59.94. Incidentally, on FCP this would be easy. All our FCP systems have Blackmagic HD capable cards. And in FCP one can capture the HD as ProRes or DVCProHD and save space. 

Either way we would be capturing 24fps and editing true 24fps HD. We can then make out an EDL and recapture selects for conform and grading in our normal film grading systems - like Quantel iQ or Resolve. 

Even Autodesk Smoke or a Quantel eQ could be used for the recapture. We then export as DPX for further processing. All of this is at 24fps. Tried and tested. Works. But on an Avid there is a problem. 

All our Avids are Mojo SDI Avids that cannot capture HD. So we need to output from the HDCamSR VTR as SD PAL video. And an HDCamSR VTR, when outputting an HDCamSR tape as SD PAL video does so with a speed change. Meaning 24p HD plays out, not at 24fps, but at 25fps. 4% faster. 

Of course, Avid can capture 25fps PAL material in a film project and make it play at 24fps. But in this process of making it 25fps in the HD VTR and converting to 24fps in the Avid one loses the original HD timecode. So no EDLs, no recaptures. 

So I did some trials to find a fix. 

I've tried on a small test clip and sequence, so please do try it out and check if it works. Here it is. 

First set the HD VTR to do a burn-in TC (also called window burn or TC super). Make it show the original 24fps TC and the 'derived' 25fps TC. It looks like this.

 

 TCR is the 25fps 'derived' timecode that Avid will get when capturing, and 'ORG' is the original 24fps timecode. Next, open a film project in Avid Media Composer (this applies to MC MojoSDI ver 2.6 upwards). Capture the HD with deck control normally as you would. After capture set the bin headings like this. Basically you need to be able to see 'Start' and 'TC 24'. Initially, the TC24 column will be blank in the bin. Now open each clip from the bin to the source window and park at the first frame. In the bin enter the timecode you see in your rushes as 'ORG' in the 'TC 24' column. 

So now, you've 'assigned' a 24fps timecode to each captured clip. Avid will now track both the 'derived' 25fps timecode as well as the original 24fps timecode through your edits. Now you can edit normally. In the 'Film and 24p' settings you can set the edit play rate as 24fps so that the sequence clips will sync with audio if any was recorded separately on location. 

After the edit is complete, you can export the EDL using EDL manager. But with two small changes. In the EDL manager main window (not settings window), set the 'Source TC' to 24 and 'Record TC' to 24. Now open the seq you've edited and make an EDL. 

And save it. If your finishing system needs a reference cut, export the sequence as a Quicktime movie. Make sure the Quicktime movie is 24fps. Mind that Avid , when doing a fast export from a 24fps timeline, makes a movie as 23.98 fps. If you have an FCP system handy you can convert this movie to DV-PAL and then use CinemaTools to conform it to 24fps. Else just do a custom export from avid as DV-PAL at 24fps. 

Quantel iQ and the new Smoke and Resolve accept these as reference movies. This reference movie will match clips recaptured from the original HDCamSR tapes at 24fps using the EDL we just made. 

Please mind that I've tried this for a few clips and an EDL. You should test this thoroughly with your source material before committing to this workflow. And as I said before, if you have the option to work in an FCP system, none of this TC wrangling is necessary. 

Or, if you haven't got a Avid system yet and have to work in Avid, then get a MojoDX. This allows HD capture. And no TC wrangling. If this method has saved you some labour or made you some money, then consider pressing that yellow button in the margin that says 'Donate'.

More still cameras shoot HD video

Still cameras could shoot video clips for about as long as they've been around. They shot small sized very compressed videos. Maxing out at 640x480. But now there's a range of cameras that can shoot high quality HD video. Some can even be called 'broadcast-worthy'. Not to be confused with broadcast quality, though.

I went on a holiday some days ago with a bunch of colleagues who all had DSLRs. Really good cameras. Reminded me of times, some years ago when I too went everywhere with my film SLR. Eventually, I gave up on my SLR with its range of lenses, flash, motor-drive etc. I bought a really small Canon IXUS70 which is hitched to my belt in a small pouch. I now shoot stills and movies anywhere anytime.

These small point and shoot cameras also have a surprising amount of control over picture taking. Not in the same league as aperture or shutter priority of the DSLRs or bracketing or anything like that. But still, useful, if you know how.

What is quite amazing is how good the video looks with small still cameras. So, while on this holiday, my colleagues came out with stunning pictures, I had videos. Of some things that simply couldn't be conveyed in a still. Like riding a battle tank, or shooting with a real machine gun. Or the incoherent babble of my friend's year old son.

Before this still camera, I shot video with my DV camcorder for some years. After my SLR days I tagged that DV camcorder wherever I went. But its bulky, shoots tape, and needs a camcorder to show people your videos. And the videos need editing (which is what I do for a living anyway). Somewhat cumbersome. Also, video camcorders shoot really abysmal quality stills so I still needed to tag along a still camera.

My next acquisition will definitely be a still camera with HD video shooting capability. Best of both worlds. But I'll forgo the Canon 5D MkII, or Nikon D90 class and go for one that is small.

I came accross, this list of still cameras that can do HD video...
http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/digital-cameras/hd-video_ratings.html

The Nikon D90 and Canon 5D MkII were the cameras that started this trend. But these are both expensive DSLRs. In the Rs 60,000 to 1.2 lakh range. Also, they are bulky, which for casual photography, is a no no. And both have interchangeable lenses. So you'll eventually end up with a collection of lenses which you'll always tag along.


Amongst small cameras, that do HD video there is the Canon SX 1 IS. This shoots 1080p video but at 30fps.

So, In India we'll need a creative way of converting 30fps to 24fps or 25fps. If I can get my hands on this camera, I could figure a preset in Apple Compressor to make a smooth conversion.

A good review of this camera is up at Cameralabs here...

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon_PowerShot_SX1_IS/

The SX1 IS is probably the only of the non-DSLRs to shoot 1080p video.

The rest of the small cameras mostly shoot 720p movies. All at 30fps. The Canon SX200 IS is one such. It shoots 720p video again at 30fps.

This camera has only an LCD for a viewfinder. No 'regular' viewfinder. I find that a problem sometimes. Too used to shooting with one eye peering through a small hole.

Canon has provided a the SX200 IS with a 12x zoom and the SX1 IS with a generous 20x zoom.

In 35mm terms, the SX200 is 28-336mm while the SX1IS is 28-560mm So both are very wide angle lenses that can zoom to very telephoto. In fact, in the SX1 IS you can digitally double this to 56-1120mm. Great for wildlife too. And it goes down to 0 cm (yes zero cm) in macro mode. So leaf patterns, small insects, serious close-ups, here we come.

For half the price of the SX200 but with a shorter zoom is the Samsung TL34HD. If you absolutely must have a still camera that also does HD video, then this is your pick. But the zoom is 3.6x in this camera.

Detailed reviews are linked on the page I've linked above. So read it and make your choice. I'm not partial to Canon, just that I've always had a Canon, so they caught my eye first.

The Panasonic FZ28 is also a capable camera, much lighter than the SX1 IS and according to one review, better at correcting colour fringes.

Detailed review, also at Cameralabs, here...
http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panasonic_Lumix_DMC_FZ28/



One thing that may come to the mind of fellow video shooters is this.

If video shooting is what one wants to do, can't one just get a HD camcorder? Camcorders do still too.

Not quite. Cost is one consideration. Even the most basic HD capable video camcorder is at least Rs 60,000.

Way over the cost of the basic still camera that does HD video. These still cameras start at Rs 10,000. Besides, still cameras that do HD video take great pictures too. So you need to take your pick between spending a large chunk of money on a video camera that shoots average stills or a fraction of that cost on a still camera that shoots gorgeous stills but average movies.

Added 16 March 2009

At the PMA 2009 show, Panasonic added a new camera the DMC-GH1. This is a micro four thirds camera with interchangeable lenses. What makes this camera special is the long zoom and HD movies at 1080p24. Yes 24fps. It saves movies as AVCHD at 17Mbps.

And in this camera, the auto focus works while you are shooting video. Yes. strange as it may seem as a feature, most still cameras that do HD video don't function like true video cameras in these respects.

I believe this camera's movie making capability will be stellar. Panasonic are the guys who gave the world great looking HD in the form of DVCProHD.



The camera will be available by June 2009 so maybe by then some specs might change.
Till, then, a review here...
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0903/09030316lumixgh1handson.asp






This year, HD video will definitely get into most homes which have a HD capable LCD TV. As movies shot on a HD capable still camera.

If you're looking at places to buy these in India check with. Simply safely and with home delivery, do check out
www.autsun.com