I had a chance to go check out the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas this week, and it was interesting to say the least.
I must say that the booths there were some of the largest, most expensive I have seen. Sony's booth must have been about a 1/2 acre in size to the point I had to ask where to find stuff!
BUT...the Europeans still know how to do trade show booths better, with beer, wine and fresh cold cut sandwiches and quality bread better than my fellow countrymen..hint, hint!
The NAB show theme seemed to be all about 3D, with ultra-high speed video cameras coming in a distant 2nd. They are all way too large at the moment, but I can imagine ultra high speed cameras filming feeding frogfish, pistol shrimp, mantis shrimp, etc, but the videocameras are too power hungry and large at the moment for casual underwater work. Now if they can just add that feature to a HDVideo DSLR we'd have a real winner.
Every imaginable solution, and some unimaginable were present at NAB, from hardware to software.
It was interesting to see how the broadcast pros do it with computer generated graphics imposing a background on the actor who is really sitting in front of a green screen.
I have seen IMAX resolution (5K) 3D underwater work, and I must be the only one who is not impressed with the 3D aspect of it. The work I saw had amazing critters, but I could just not quite make out the surface detail of the animal whereas even in comparatively lowly 1080i HDV I can see surface detail far better. The 3D effect in my opinion is a gimmick, but time will tell.
With airline weight restrictions getting worse by the minute, Digital SLR cameras that do HD video were also well represented along with tons of accessories.
Dykortech had their really nice Advanta-Jib, which really folds up to a small form factor for shipping/airline baggage, yet has a hydraulic pan feature. These jibs and cranes are great for smooth flying camera shots to give your video that Hollywood look of professionalism.
The GoPro booth was pretty crowded. They make this really small HD video camera and housing line that looks more like a small consumer digital camera than a video camera. The footage shot with it is pretty good considering how simplistic and compact the camera and housing it comes with is.
I think when a 2nd underwater cameraman is not available, handing one of these to a dive buddy or guide for B roll stuff is a perfect solution.
DSC Labs had their new underwater white balance/ focus slate made of laminated plastic with an edge guard to it.
One particular vendor had a large shark tank seen in he below photos. It had horn sharks which do not grow too large, but worse, they had a black tipped reef shark in it too. These animals need a MUCH larger area to freely roam, and this was just ashamed.
Several new offerings that will be of interest to underwater videographers was seen at the Sony booth.
One was the NX5 cam introduced 4 months ago, which shoots in full HD at 1920 x1080p and employs dual card slots, the other one is a totally new offering also at 1920x1080 with a single CMOS chip, in a REALLY compact form factor also employing digital cards. The smaller camera had a removable rubber boot that covered the hot shoe.
We know Amphibico plans on an electronic housing for both.
All throughout the show it seems that tape based video camera storage has gone the way of the dinosaur, and there was even a third party vendor who made adapters so Sony videocameras using expensive Sony memory sticks can now use inexpensive aftermarket standard memory cards.
I have seen some really good underwater footage shot with single CMOS chip Sony's, so both cameras may be a winner, especially the smaller one.
As always to finish up properly I visited the Flamingo buffet at the Flamingo Hotel. Lunch is up to $31, and now they don't have piles of Opilio (snow)crab legs, they have one tray behind the meat carving section. The Orleans Hotel had a better buffet half the price.
