A second demo station at NHK featured another aspect of their revolutionary technologies: video capture at 10,000 frames per second. The demo video was dramatic, displaying a water balloon in the process of a needle-induced burst. The video was replayed in slow motion, with so much detail that the audience, (us), could see the thin rubber of the balloon peeling back while the ball of water remained intact, hanging in mid-air suspension for a seeming eternity, then denigrating into thousands of droplets scattering to earth.
The camera can record with frame rates of up to 1 million frames per second.

The same company has also developed the worlds first 22.2 multichannel sound system to go along with their ultra high definition technology. Unbelievable. Their “screening room” was set up with three vertical layers of loudspeakers, 9 channels on the top layer, 10 channels in the middle layer, 2 LFE channels, and 3 channels on the bottom layer. Just pray your teenage son or daughter doesn’t come home with one of these babies.

The company sees initial non-mainstream potential in such arenas as medical use, security and monitoring, and I would think defense (I’m sure DoD has their “eye” on this – no pun intended). Offerings also include hard disk recorders, optical transmission systems with DWDM (Dense Wavelength Divison Multiplexing) technology for distribution, a codec system based on MPEG-2 for program distribution using IP networks, and an experimental satellite transmission system using 21 Ghz bandwidth, and format converters to the 2160-scanning line format and HDTV.

Who knows, in another 10 years this might be the de facto in homes across America. Until then, if you’re in Osaka, visit their Ultra High Definition Theater and experience this amazing technology for yourself. (www.nhk.or.jp )

Owners of the RED ONE will be happy to know that RED will allow you to trade in your camera for for a full $17,500 credit towards the EPIC when it ships in 2009, Pricing is said to be about $30,000.

It features a 4.8″ LCD, 8x RED zoom lens, HDMI, HD-SDI, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 connections. The camera is also compatible with many of the RED ONE accesories. You can even control the camera via a WiFi Connection.

Price should be under $3,000 and be available early 2009.

Like many other Panasonic cameras the AG-HMC150 is equiped with a 13x Leica Dicomar zoom lense with optiacal image stabilization.

The camera has 4 quality modes – PH (average 21 Mbps/Max 24 Mbps), HA (approx.17 Mbp), HG (approx. 13 Mbps) and HE (approx. 6 Mbps).

Using a 32GB SD or SDHC card will net you 12 hours of 1440×1080 HD recording in HE mode and three hours of full pixel 1920×1080 video in PH mode, I wonder if the battery will also last 12 hours…

The MSRP is set to $4,500 and will be available this Fall.

The HDVF-EL100 is an 11 inch display and is Sony’s first non-consumer application of an OLED panel. Consumer OLED displays were introduced in January, and continue to generate strong demand.

“High-definition acquisition requires extremely precise focusing, allowing the operator to accurately see contrast and color levels when framing a shot,” said Rob Willox, director of Sony Electronics’ content creation group. “This new viewfinder is a perfect example of our unique ability to leverage the innovation and expertise from one part of our company and apply it in another area to meet customers’ needs.

The display has a resolution of 960 x 540, and it also delivers a wide viewing angle, a wide color gamut and extremely fast response time. Designed for use by professional camera operators, the display features a “stand-back” option allows operators to remain at a distance without losing viewing quality.

The OLED display does not use a backlight like traditional LED displays, creating very deep blacks and a contrast ratio of more then 1,000,000:1.

The FS-5 is designed to be used with many popular HDV and DV cameras. However, it features a 50% weight reduction and a 60% reduction in size compared to the FS-4. It also features a new low-power and fan-less design providing a 3 hour record time, using one removable Li-Ion battery pack.

Other major changes include a newly designed user interface and a 320 x 240 color LCD, but like the previous models you can not play back video.

Focus also replaced the computer firewire port with a USB 2.0 port allowing the use of a network dongle (WiFi or Wired) to allow laptop users to gain access to the device via wireless connection.

The 100GB FS-5 has a MSRP of $2,195 and is expected to ship summer 2008.

If you are at NAB come to Booth SL2605 to see the FS-5 in person.