New Jersey Final Cut User Group Meeting

July 28, 2009
Panasonic Corp Offices, Secaucus, NJ

Last evening, I brought Lil'Buster (the HMC40) home to Panasonic Corporate offices for meeting of the NJ Final Cut Pro User Group.
We had around 30 people in the audience. I had presented to this group a number of months ago, to introduce Ole Bestsy (the HMC150) and the concept of AVCCAM products. Last nite, was Lil' Buster's coming out party. Besides an incredible price, the crowd reacted to a number of the camera's key features; 10.6 megapixel still images, pre-record, time lapse recording, dynamic range stretch and the very light weight of the camera.
Also, the fact that Apple has now announced new support in Final Cut Pro for AVCCAM editing (including proxies) certainly had the crowd buzzing. I haven't yet got the new FCP but when I do, I will post reactions here.
More to come,
The Road Warrior

AVCCAM in New Zealand

This is me and "Steiny" at Doubtful Sound in the Fiordalnds on the South Island of New Zealand. It is cold, it is winter there. Pix taken by my son, Michael, the ace computer programer.
Steiny was the first professional AVCCAM Panasonic camcorder, unfortunately no longer available. I call it Steiny because it is about the size of a can of Steinlager, a New Zealand beer.
Ok, I could have called it Foster, but that would be wrong, as I am in New Zealand, not Australia at this moment and a Foster's can is way to big! You know, those Aussies!

If you have been wondering what happened to AVCCAM on the road, I went on holiday.
Sorry, you should try it, good for what bugs you. Nothing bugged me for 2 weeks.

Ok, Milford Sound gets all the tourists, but Doubtful....whoa. We saw dolphins and a part of the world that is incredible. Makes you feel wonderful to be alive.
Steiny is actually a forerunner to the hot new Panasonic HMC40 camera. Steiny only shoots 1080/60i and still pix, the new HMC40 (Lil' Buster, the HDV and MPEG 2 Buster, for those of you who follow this blog) shoots all flavors of HD (1080i, 1080p, 720p) and great 10.6 megapix stills. Not in the same league.
Sadly, Lil' Buster had to go home to Panasonic (couldn't get time off) while I was on holiday, to get it's pix taken for the brochure. Hey, some of us work, some play. So, Steiny got to go down under. And it fit in my shooter's vest pocket.

Speaking of play. I will soon post videos from Steiny in NZ and OZ.
Needless to say AVCCAM on the road, went to new heights down under.
Yes, I will post some from OZ at some point.
Currently back on the road, reunited with Lil' Buster and in CA.
More to come,
The Road Warrior

Lil' Buster goes home, briefly

June 19, 2009
Orlando, FL




Infocomm came to a successful end this afternoon, as did my brief friendship with Lil' Buster (The HDV and MPEG-2 Buster) HMC40 camcorder. He was a huge hit, BTW.
But, now he has to go home to Panasonic in NJ, for some cute model shots and advertising posing.
The good thing is that means you will be seeing him everywhere. The bad thing, is I will have to wait a couple of weeks to get him back. It is sort of like joint custody. I can't wait to take him on the road with me. And of course, I will report on our continuing relationship, here on the blog, as we slay HDV and MPEG-2 and establish AVCCAM as the dominant HD affordable solution.

It was a great week. Thanks to all at Panasonic for letting me work with the first HMC40 to come to the US.
Take good care of Lil' Buster and I look forward to his return.

More to Come
The Road Warrior

Cool Features on HMC40

June 18, 2009
Orlando, FL


Lil' Buster (the HDV and MPEG-2 Buster), my trusty HMC40 camera is making a big splash here in sunny Florida at Infocomm. This picture shows Steve Golub, National Product Manager for the AVCCAM product line, next to Lil'Buster. Doesn't he look proud?
I mean Steve. He should be for it is a great camera at a great price.
How much you say? Well, Steve says, the list price will be under $3K! Wow.

I have been shooting with the HMC40 and I am very impressed. The first thing you notice is how light weight it is. Only 2.2 lbs! You could shoot all day and not get cramps in your arms.
The second thing is the image quality. It is stunning.

Lil' Buster shoots at a variety of resolutions and frame rates. And all of the menu settings are accessed by touch screen from the viewfinder. PH Mode (at 24 megabits per second) at 1080/60i, 1080/24P, 1080/30p, 720/24p, 720/30p and 720/60p.

In addition, you can also shoot 1080/60i at lower bandwidths, 17, 13 and 6 megabits per second. The advantage of the 6 megabit per second is that the file size is small enough you can send it via ftp.


As I mentioned in an earlier post the HMC40 also shoots 10.6 megapixel stills.



And another way cool feature that I discovered yesterday while going thru the menus is that you can set interval recording from 1 frame every second to 1 frame very 2 minutes. This allows you to shoot those really cool time lapse sequences.

One thing I did notice while shooting outside in the bright sunlight is that it is sometimes hard to see the touch screen monitor. I mentioned this to Steve and he said that maybe an LCD hood would solve the problem.

Customers here at Infocomm have reacted very positively to Lil' Buster. I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

More to come,
The Road Warrior

Leavin' Las Vegas

June 14, 09
Crown Room










(This pix taken with an iPhone)
After making a great impression at National Press Photographer's Association Conference in Las Vegas, it was time to take Lil' Buster (the brand new HMC40 camera) home.
We are off to Infocomm in Orlando, next week.

In addition to taking stunning HD video, the HMC40 also shoots 10.6 megapixel stills. So, after some weird contortions in trying to take a still picture of myself, here are the results.









(This pix taken with HMC40)

More to Come
The Road Warrior

"Do I Have To Sleep In The Cupboard?"

June 12, 2009
Las Vegas, NV

Remember this quote from Chip in Beauty and the Beast, "Do I have to sleep in the cupboard?"
I thought of it this morning when I retrieved the new HMC40 camera from the hotel safe. Since it is the only HMC40 in the US, I naturally am paranoid about losing it. So, it slept in the safe.
Lil' Buster is the name I have given the HMC40, thanks to Tom, one of the followers on this blog. Tom said it is a true HDV Buster. So, Lil' Buster now joins Ole Betsy in my travels on AVCCAM On The Road.

Lil' Buster is having his coming out party here at the National Press Photographers Association meeting. Besides exhibiting, I am giving a presentation each day, "Getting Comfortable Shooting Stills and HD Video." The photojournalists seem to really like the light weight and picture quality from the HMC40. I have too busy to shoot much with the camera yet, but plan to do some shooting later today and tomorrow.


More To Come
The Road Warrior

Hey Las Vegas, say "Hello" to the new HMC40 camera!

June 10, 2009
Las Vegas, NV

Scary morning at the Indy airport. Seems a woman had something suspicious in her bag and TSA locked down all security screening. We stood there right by the screeners with our gear in the tubs and they wouldn't let us out, or anyone else in. This went on for about 15 minutes and then they moved us all to the screening lines as far away from the woman as we could get. Then they let us through, but she was still being held back. Wonder what she had in her bag? And I was sure hoping that she wasn't on my flight.

Anyway, no further excitement and here I am back in Las Vegas. It was only 2 months ago that I was here for NAB.
This time I am exhibiting and presenting at the National Press Photographer Association meeting; tomorrow, Friday and Saturday. Walk in registration is encouraged. See http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/workshops_and_seminars/convergence/2009/

And here is the big NEWS! Tomorrow, I will receive the first and only HMC40 camcorder in the US. This first production sample was shipped over from the Panasonic factory in Japan. As you can imagine, I am quite excited to get my hands on this camera.
We showed a prototype of this little jewel at NAB, but it wasn't fully operational. This new camera is, and I intend to do some shooting here in the desert and will post my opinions later. The HMC40 is a little brother to Ole Betsy (my trusty HMC150). I will have to think of a name for it. The reason it is a little brother, is that it weighs in at just 2.2 lbs. And, not only does it shoot stunning AVCCAM high definition, but also 10.6 megapixel stills. I am sure the photojournalists will love it.

Should be an incredible few days here in the desert.
More to come
The Road Warrior