ikegami
Last week we had a meeting at our station to let everyone in the newsroom know that we are officially in the "digital media" business. And, today that message was totally reinforced as the photography staff participated in a full-scale demonstration of the Ikegami's DNG33W camera.
The camera acquires video onto a detachable hard drive (similar to the size of a laptop HDD), and then can import video right into an AVID or non-linear editor within seconds - you can edit right from the actual drive (conected via a USB port). Each hard drive has a capacity of a few hours, and there's even a cheaper, RAM pack cartridge [below] that can hold around an hour of video as well. I love that it has a clear cut-out window so you can see the compact-flash card inside.
A bunch of Hearst-A stations are upgrading this summer, so they're having some of the various station crews demo the gear before any big, million dollar decisions are made. Do we go with the Ikegami, or the Sony XDCAM? To me, it wasn't really much of a decision. I mean, we're still shooting on Beta. That's like asking a person who hasn't eaten for 3 weeks whether he preferred to have New York Strip steak, or filet minon - both are pretty tasty.
Last year I checked out the XD at NAB, and the P2 at my last station. But at this point, I love the Ikegami (aka "Ikky" or "Ike") best-of-all, but I'm a computer dork. The person that needed to be convinced was our top photographer (and Asst. Chief), John Hendon. He's a blu-ray-blooded Sony man, through and through.
But by the end of the day, the Ikky won his heart. It even passed his taking-pictures-of-boring-flowers test [above]. The gang of us that tested the camera thought it was awesome, and we all agreed that the future can't come soon enough.
The camera acquires video onto a detachable hard drive (similar to the size of a laptop HDD), and then can import video right into an AVID or non-linear editor within seconds - you can edit right from the actual drive (conected via a USB port). Each hard drive has a capacity of a few hours, and there's even a cheaper, RAM pack cartridge [below] that can hold around an hour of video as well. I love that it has a clear cut-out window so you can see the compact-flash card inside.
A bunch of Hearst-A stations are upgrading this summer, so they're having some of the various station crews demo the gear before any big, million dollar decisions are made. Do we go with the Ikegami, or the Sony XDCAM? To me, it wasn't really much of a decision. I mean, we're still shooting on Beta. That's like asking a person who hasn't eaten for 3 weeks whether he preferred to have New York Strip steak, or filet minon - both are pretty tasty.
Last year I checked out the XD at NAB, and the P2 at my last station. But at this point, I love the Ikegami (aka "Ikky" or "Ike") best-of-all, but I'm a computer dork. The person that needed to be convinced was our top photographer (and Asst. Chief), John Hendon. He's a blu-ray-blooded Sony man, through and through.
But by the end of the day, the Ikky won his heart. It even passed his taking-pictures-of-boring-flowers test [above]. The gang of us that tested the camera thought it was awesome, and we all agreed that the future can't come soon enough.
9 Comments:
Why is there KNXV logos on the cams? Yay for HA station WTAE will upgrade! Hopefully new music and graphics will follow...
HUZAH!
Seems like a great product. Currently I'm doing Dancing With The Stars Series 2, and again it's on DVCam and then gets ingested for logging and editing. Think how much time they'd save if it was nonlinear, and I like the hard-drive idea because Discs and cards still have transfer time issues.
To quote Rodd (or Todd?) Flanders, "Go with it!"
we're looking at going p2 in the next 2 years, but no camera takes prettier pix than an ike.
I think the ABC station's logo is on the camera because there isn't really any other TV stations in the USA using it - it's mainly used by Mexico stations and the military.
I think it was their way of trying to subtly say, "Look! This station uses the camera...so should you."
Well, I can tell you Cincy's trying hard to get the Ike, so if Hendon likes it, there might be hope yet!
If it passed Hendon's taking-pictures-of-boring-flowers test.. Then it's all good, and the product is guaranteed to win an Emmy, Murrow and NPPA Region 6 POY.
That guy has skills that are golden. Good luck with "Ike".. I'm quite pleased with P2 and it's performance.
I like that your Assistant Chief looks like Ed Jr.
seeing Hendon down on his knees playing with flowers makes me smile. :)
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