By Staff, September 13, 2005
At IBC 2005, Grass Valley unveiled its new "Infinity Series" line of camcorders, VTR-like recorders/players and digital media drives that will feature internal Iomega REV PRO removable disk and Compact Flash solid state storage, plus the ability to connect to a variety of external recording media via USB 2.0 and FireWire ports.
For SD, the Infinity line will offer DV25 and MPEG-2, and both MPEG-2 (I-frame and long GOP) and JPEG2000 for HD recording. It will be configured as a professional-grade, multi-format 2/3", three-imager SD/HD camcorder
. Also, this camcorder will sell for around $20,000, without the lens.
Meanwhile, the ability to add external storage of virtually all kinds-portable hard disks, memory sticks; even USB keys-puts an end to the Best Buy/Radio Shack conundrum described above.
No longer will videographers be stranded when they run out of professional-grade media: With an Infinity camcorder, they can run into the nearest consumer electronics store, grab some standard Iomega REV or Compact Flash cards, and go.
Of course there's a tradeoff with the consumer media: While standard REV disks will allow both SD and HD recording, you'll lose some enhanced REV PRO features such as multi-segment caching and consumer Compact Flash won't offer the level of data storage capacity and data rates provided by professional media-HD video will quickly fill up a consumer-grade 512 MB Flash card-but when you're a videographer caught in a bind, being able to use consumer media will be a godsend. It sure beats going back to the studio empty-handed.
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