NAB 2009 final day !

Final day of exhibits today in Las Vegas. I’ve finally got a hold of some news from the much anticipated Trapcode Particular V2 from Red Giant. Here’s a PDF document explaining the plugin’s new features. You can also check out this episode of FXGuide TV, which includes an interview with the people from The Foundry, but most importantly, an in-depth demo of Particular V2.

Speaking of The Foundry, they gave a preview of Nuke 6.0, their popular compositing software.

Finally, here’s a funny parody video to conclude things ! Sony, no hard feelings, but this is just hilarious !

NAB stuff part 2

Still no news from Apple, I’m starting to worry !

But, lots of things going on today. JVC, which is far from my favorite brand, announced 2 new products that’ll probably be worth a try (when I win the lottery). First, they’ve introduced the KY-F4000, which is a 4K, 60p camcorder. Here is the press release. It seems like a competitor to the already established line of ultra high defintion camcorders from RED, but at a MUCH higher price. We’re talking 200 000$ MSRP.
Also, on a more affordable note, they announced a consumer HD cam, the GY-HM100 listed at around 4000$. It features full 1080p at 24 and 30 fps, and also provides full 60 progressive frames per second at 720p resolution. All of this is recorded up to 35 mbps, which is higher than the AVCHD cameras from Panasonic. Read this article for more info.

Finally, I’ve found a website with interviews on various products, including the new 35mm adapter from Cinemek, the G35. Take a look at FreshDV.tv.

Stay tuned for more updates tomorrow as NAB comes to an end !

Where to begin…?? NAB 2009 part 1

Many new products have been released in the first two days of NAB. Here are some hot releases:

Hardware
Panasonic announced new camcorders and new P2 cards, E-Series. They are less expensive, and have a higher transfer rate than the previous generations. Here’s their webpage with full recaps of their press conferences. Their new camcorder, the HMC40, is a smaller version of the HMC150, which delivers the same frame rates (including 720p60). They also launched their 3DHD products, which will include 3D, full 1080p camcorders, TVs, Blu-Ray players and more. Up to now, 3D dissapointed many, including myself, so it’ll be interesting to see how Panasonic can deliver this new dimension. Finally, Panasonic announced that they will be the official provider of P2 technology for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Sony announced 3 new camcorders, supporting their most popular formats. Take a look at their press kit.

Mac users will be happy to learn that NVIDIA released the Quadro FX 4800 for the Mac Pro. With 1.5 GB of memory, maybe After Effects will start taking true advantage of OpenGL. We’ll see…

I-Movix announced it’s new version of the SprintCam, the V3 HD, which is a 1000 frame-per-second camcorder, recording at 1080p. This sets a new standard for slow-motion shots.

Software
I’m still waiting for news about Final Cut Studio 3…
In the meanwhile, I’ve heard that the Red Giant booth is drawing a lot of attention, with some new plugins, including the much anticipated Particular v2. Here’s Stu Maschwitz comment on Twitter about this new Trapcode plugin: “By far the coolest thing I’ve seen at #NAB09 is Peder’s demo of Particular 2 at the Red Giant Software booth. He’s doing it again tomorrow.”

Autodesk, which is probably one software away from owning the entire software industry, announced new versions of Smoke, Flint and Lustre. Here’s an article about these 3 new products.

That’s about it for now. Look back tomorrow for more updates !

It’s that time of the year again: NAB 2009 !

As anyone working in the media domain, I’m truly excited to hear about everything new that will be launched in Las Vegas this year, during the NAB Show (National Association of Broadcasters). The trade show will go on until April 23rd. Conferences have already started, but the exhibits (what I want to hear about !) are starting on Monday.
I’ll be updating often during those 3 days, because I’m on the look out for a couple of products. I’m a new owner of Panasonic’s HMC-150, and the workflow with Final Cut Pro pretty much sucks right now. Apple is rumored to launch Final Cut Studio 3, with AVCHD support and Blu-Ray authoring, which would make my life much better !
Anyway, check often for updates. You can follow NAB updates realtime on Twitter !