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NOVEMBER NEWS
VISIONARY PRODUCT
Yes, it's a Sony, though the new CCD-SC5 8mm
camcorder has just a hint of Sharp and Fuji about it. This new upright machine,
unveiled a few weeks ago in Berlin, echos the Sharp View Cam with its 3-inch
LCD colour screen, mounted on the back panel, and the vertical layout of the
Fuji FS1. The screen can be used for on-the-spot replay, and for monitoring
recordings, though unlike the View Cam the SC5 also has an optical viewfinder,
next to the lens. Facilities include a two-position zoom, with portrait or
landscape setting, audio playback through a built-in louspeaker, fully
automatic exposure and white balance controls, and it's powered by a
lithium-ion rechargable battery. The SC5 is one of an inceasing number of new
machines using the latest quarter-inch CCD image sensors, for the record this
has 290k pixels (effective) and a low light sensitivity of around 5-lux. The
colour screen has a 75.8k pixel display
which can be viewed in direct light though there's a a fold-out sun visor to
prevent the picture being washed out by glare. The PAL version of the SC5 is
due out next Spring and the price has yet to be decided though we wouldn't be
at all surprised to see it selling for between £900 to £1,000.
'THE DECK WITH NO NAME'
That's one of the nicknames Sony have given
their latest Hi8 VCR, shown to Video Camera recently in protytype form. The
extraordinary specification has led to some insiders referring to it as 'The Dogs...', for reasons that we cannot go
into in a family publication, suffice it to say they're very proud of their
equipment... The outline specification does indeed look rather impressive, and
in addition to all the usual stuff, Hi8 recording, stereo FM and PCM sound,
noise-free trick frame, etc, it will also have full-spec RCTC read and write
facilities, a timebase corrector and on-board assembly editing, controlling a
LANC (Control L) equipped camcorder. No launch date and no price as yet but
we're told it could be with us during the first quarter of 94, and we'd guess
you wouldn't see much change out of fifteen hundred to two thousand pounds.
A TRIO OF TRAVELLERS
Three new TR-series camcorders are winging
their way to the UK as we speak. The first to arrive, later this month in fact,
will be the CCD-TR606, their first Video 8 machine to have a Steady Shot
optical image stabiliser, first seen on the 805 Hi8 machine last year. Priced
at around £1,100 it has a 10x zoom lens, stereo sound, 4-mode program AE system
and low-light sensitivity of just 2-lux. Next month we're expecting the TR323
and TR202, which will sell for £850 and £700 respectively. The 323 is a
mid-range stereo palmcorder with switchable wide-angle lens, 10x zoom and
four-mode program AE. The 202 is a fuss-free snapshooter, this time with 3-mode
program AE, 10x zoom and mono sound. Look out for full test reports in the
coming months.
PANASONIC PALMIST
We're relieved to see Panasonic are getting
back into their stride with their latest
S-VHS-C palmcorder, the NV-S85B. This well-specified top-ender will be
selling for £1200 and should be of considerable interest to serious video
movie-makers, though discerning newcomers should have no difficulty using it.
The headline features are:
* 10x optical, 20x electronic zoom
* stereo hi-fi sound
* 3-mode program AE (sports, portrait,
low-light)
* VITC read and write
* digital image stabiliser
* digital effects (mix, wipe, strobe,
snapshot, gain-up)
* audio dub
* edit terminal
* auto power save
A couple of those features are quite new and
deserve some explantation. The VITC read facility sounds interesting, though we
haven't figured out a use for it yet. What this means is the machine can read
back the time-code recorded on the tape, and display it in the viewfinder, or
superimpose it on the video output, along with a few other items of invisibly
recorded data, including time, date, zoom magnification, manual/auto iris,
shutter speed, iris setting and white balance.
Auto power save is definitely worth having;
this shuts down power-hungry systems, when the machine's not in use, saving
around 1 watt of energy. It uses a tiny infra-red sensor mounted on the
underside of the viewfinder, to detect when the machine is being held in the
shooting position; when it senses the machine moving away from the users head,
it switches off things like the autofocus motor and the viewfinder.
Other new features on the S85 are 'Digital
Crystal Clear' processing circuits in the camera section that improve colour
accuracy by treating each colour component seperately, and a new RGB white
balance sensor, which helps the machine to respond better to changes in the
lighting conditions. The S85 hits the shops this month and we hope to have a
review for you soon.
CANON BEAT THE JITTER
As we revealed last month Canon have finally
got around to using the optical image stabiliser system they developed jointly
with Sony. We can now report that it is being used on not one but two new
machines, the UC5 Hi, which we mentioned last month, and the E700, a
family-oriented compact machine that will sell for just under £1,000. These two
models will be joined by a third new machine, the UC40 Hi, essentially a UC5
without an optical stabiliser, it's priced at £1200, compared with £1400 for
the UC5.
The basic specification for the two UC
machines is as follows:
* 12x optical, 24x electronic zoom
* stereo hi-fi sound
* zoom microphone
* 5-mode program AE system
* widescreen recording mode
* 3-lux minimum sensitivity
The E700 is an easy to use compact with a 12x
zoom, pop-up video light, 3-mode program AE system (spotlight, sand and snow
and backlight), plus, of course, Canon's famous flexigrip and sportsfinder
features, it should be reaching the shops anytime now.
NEW HAMA PROCESSORS
German accessory manufacturer Hama have
announced a raft of new post-production products this Autumn, some of which
we've already previewed. One of the most interesting new arrivals is their
Trilock genlock. It's interesting for two reasons; firstly because it's
designed to work with PC, Amiga, Apple and Atari computers, a most impressive
feat considering the diversity of those products, and secondly, because it
costs only £350 or thereabouts, making it one of the cheapest PC genlocks
around. Trilock combines the output from the computer with composite or S-Video
signals, without the need for any additional software. There's four operating
modes, conversion, where the computer's output is converted to PAL; genlock
mode, where the PC output is mixed with incoming video; overlay, which
superimposes the PC graphics over the video image, and mix mode, where the two
signals can be cross-faded with one another. We'll be taking a closer look at
Trilock soon.
Hama's other new products are the Video Cut
202 and 212 editing controllers, and Special Effects Processors 152. First the
Video Cuts. The 202 is a combined one-shot controller, video fader and
3-channel audio mixer. It operates the transport controls of the source and
destination decks via Control L, 5-pin RMC or infra-red commmands. Video Cut
212 is a more advanced version of the 202, with improved VCR control and
editing facilities plus menu-assisted on-screen controls.
The 152 shares the same distinctive console
design as the Video Cuts. It's an advanced wipe generator with an almost
unlimited selection of patterns, mask and posterisation effects, in addition it
can produce fades, soft or hard, to and from background colours. The 152 can
also be remotely controlled by the Video Cut 204 or 220 and it has dual
outputs, for making simultaneous copies.
VIEW CAM UPDATE
Last month we promised you more details of
the two new View Cams, scheduled to join the VL-H400, launched this month. Both
machines have standard 8mm recording systems, the VL-E40 has a 4-inch screen, programmed AE system, 8x zoom and
image stabiliser, it will be selling for around £1100. The EC30 is the smallest
and cheapest (£900) of the three with a 3-inch display screen; it has the same
basic features as it's bigger brothers though it lacks the image stabiliser and
digital still recording facility.
TALKING OF PHILIPS...
Voice command has been the holy grail of
consumer electronics for as long as we care to remember, the trouble is the
human voice is as individual as fingerprints and it's asking a lot for a
machine to be able to understand and interpret the almost limitless variations
in speech patterns. However, clearly undaunted by this Philips are about to
introduce a remote control handset that they claim can learn the sound of up to
four different voices, in five different European languages. Once it has
learned the voice it will respond to commands like 'play', 'stop', 'pause',
'rewind' etc., and it can even be used to make unattended recordings, using its
own built in clock and timer. The RT-830 has a learning IR command system, so
it can be taught the IR codes for a variety of makes and models. It arrives in
the UK mid month and will be selling for just under £100, hopefully we'll have
one to try out in the next few weeks, so we'll let you know.
---end---
© R. Maybury 1993 1209
Voice command has been the holy grail of
consumer electroncis for as long as we can remember, the trouble is the human
voice, and the way we use it, has confounded
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