Burnin' Up Miami

Thursday August 20, 2009
Miami, Fl

Lil' Buster (The Panasonic HMC40) camcorder got introduced to the sun and fun of Miami this week. Reactions from dealers and shooters were all positive. They believe that Panasonic has a new "Big" star. With it's low price, light weight, time lapse, prerecord and the fact that it also shoots 10.6 megapixel stills, it is appealing to all types of folks. And it records on MPEG 4 instead of the old MPEG 2.

Naturally, the question of workflow pops up. It is amazing how many misconceptions are still out there. People believe that AVCHD footage is impossible to edit. Not true. I have edited on Final Cut, Final Cut Express, iMovie, Adobe Premier, Sony Vegas, Pinnacle, ULead, Avid and Edius.
In fact, when Lil' Buster ships later this month, Panasonic is bundling a free copy of Edius Neo 2 which edits native AVCHD.

I have written a white paper on the Edius workflow which appears on www.panasonic.com/avccam. In additon, there are quite a few workflow papers on this site. Check them out.




Next week Lil' Buster and me will be in San Diego.
More to come,
The Road Warrior

Lil' Buster Boffo in Hollywood

August 13, 2009
Hollywood, CA

Tonight, Lil Buster (the Panasonic HMC40 camcorder) rocked Tinsel Town!
We had standing room only for a 2 hour love-fest at Birns and Sawyer in the heart of Hollywood. The enthralled crowd included not only production folks, but also educators, corporate videographers and web designers. And they loved Lil' Buster.
Why?
1. Price - under 2K (street price)
2. Light weight - just 2.2 pounds
3. Hi-def video and 10.6 megapixel still pix
4. Great low light performance
5. Scalable bandwidth (from 6 to 24 megabits per second). Great for web.
6. Pre-record. You will never miss a shot.
7. Time lapse record
...and the list goes on and on.
Great interest in using the HMC40 as a "B" camera on productions that are using the bigger brother HMC150 as an "A" camera.
Birns and Sawyer were so pleased with crowd of "new" customers that we have been invited back for a Christmas holiday presentation.
Hey, we can then wow 'em with the new HMR10 recorder/player and POVCAM. But that is another story.
More to come
The Road Warrior

Lil' Buster In The Rain

Aug. 3, 2009
New Orleans, LA

As fortune would have it, Lil' Buster (the Panasonic HMC40 AVCHD camcorder) and I found ourselves in New Orleans. Great opportunity to shoot some amazing HD footage, I thought.
Well yes and no. It rained. I mean New Orleans style buckets of rain. So, this picture shows my rather ingenious rain hood for the camera. It is a one gallon zip lock bag. Naturally, I couldn't shoot with the camera in the bag, but it did keep Lil' Buster dry. I wish I had a zip lock bag for me. I got soaked three times walking around the French Quarter.
However, during the brief spells of sunshine, I marveled again at the versatility of this great camera. You can imagine how hot and humid New Orleans got once the rain stopped and I pulled Lil' Buster out of the baggie. Well, since there are no moving parts, I didn't have to worry about head clogs, and could start shooting immediately. No dew sensor came on and told me to wait. Ah, you gotta love solid state recording.



Haven't had a chance to edit the footage yet, but I am looking forward to it.

This week, I am on the road again. Tomorrow night at the GA Professional Videographers Meeting. For information please see: http://app.talkfusion.com/fusion2/view.asp?NDU3Mjgx_2814712
Wed, I fly out to LA for an event at EVS. For further info, please see: http://www.evsonline.com/contact_us/index.shtml
On Thurs, I will be making a presentation at Birns & Sawyer that is entitled: Shoot Cheap - Load Fast - Think Panasonic
When: Thursday, August 13th
Where: Birns & Sawyer Camera Division
6381 De Longpre, LA 90028
RSVP: info@birnsandsawyer.com

If you are in Atlanta or LA, please stop by.

More to come,
The Road Warrior

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