The camera sports the usual audio and video connectors with a welcome addition of a HD-SDI input so the camera can act as a stand alone HD recorder. This is quite a useful feature in a HD camcorder.
The BNC connectors are cleverly recessed and covered with rubber flaps. There is an internal slot for a radio microphone. An integrated zoom rocker on the handle is a welcome addition and like the flip out screen something borrowed from prosumer cameras.
Menu and VRT control is via a small ‘coolie hat’ button or via touch screen display that doubles as a monitor. It would be handy too for the user to programme the user interface on the touch screen monitor. I found the play rewind icons too small and there is no visible change when selected.
I do miss ‘real’ buttons for VTR control where tactile response is relied upon rather than visual identification. I’m told that the touch screen can be removed and replaced in minutes in case of damage. Taking spare screen may be a good idea for those working in the wild or war zones.
The camera has a good range of camera processing controls that were easy to understand and find using the touch screen or the viewfinder.
A wireless remote camera control is promised, the LCP 400 which enables control of the camera whilst shooting including audio levels. Metadata can be entered and recorded on the fly and the LCP can transfer data to suitably equipped newsrooms via cell phone. A single motorised filter wheel is deemed good enough for a lot of work, but lack of colour correction filter wheel puts more pressure on internal gain or post manipulation to correct colour. Since CMOS is not the most noise free of sensors (GV will disagree with me ) I think any EFP version of the camera should have a second filter wheel with colour correction filters to maintain an even balance between colour channels.
The optical block exhibits the familiar vertical colour fringing of many 2/3 inch cameras (but has been greatly reduced with the 1500 and F23 Sony cameras)
Sensitivity of the CMOS sensors at f8 2000 lux is less than other cameras and is to be expected in the quest of keeping noise levels down.
At its launch there was particular concern over the reliability of data recorded on a hard drive when the camera was in motion. Grass Valley have all but solved this issue with a very powerful buffer that stores images until the drive has recovered from vibration or shock.
A clever on-screen bar indicates remaining capacity of the buffer. We took the Infinity for a spin in a helicopter and in the back of a vehicle. In both situations the camera was stabilised with gyros but occasionally a severe bump would make the bar light up, but within a few seconds the drive had recovered and the images were being recorded direct to drive.
In fact one would have to rapidly tap the camera with some force for about 45 seconds for the buffer to become full. I can’t image a situation where a camera would be subjected to such vibration. The buffer is a wow! feature that is also included in the DVR.
One must be careful not pull a battery off the camera without first switching off because they’re may be a few seconds of recording that need to be downloaded to the drive from the buffer. As with all of the hard disk cameras one should treat it like a computer in this respect.
Evaluation of JPEG 2000 recording will appear in a later issue as more editing software becomes available. However playback quality of recorded images via HD-SDI had no visible additional artefacts when compared with the same image recorded via HD-SDI to a Kona card and FCP.
Whilst the Infinity scores highly in being at the forefront of development in many aspects it is left behind by it’s size. By today’s standards it feels and looks a little overweight.
This is also true of the DMR, Digital Media Recorder, the companion player/editor. We had a prototype available for evaluation.
Three years ago the design was very slick, but now it looks and feels too big and given that it will be transported by air as excess baggage although not too heavy perhaps could be half the size because there is no tape drive to accommodate.
It does sport AES inputs and outputs has integrated mains supply as well as 12 Volt input and like the camera USB, firewire and Ethernet connections. It has a touch screen similar to the camera as well as buttons and a jog controller. After such a wait I was expecting the camera and the player to be more fully featured. Cloning between units, transferring data between compact flash and hard drive and more frame rates are promised. These days if there is an IT connection one assumes that if connected to a computer the drive will appear on the desktop. This is yet to be enabled.
As the end user has such a wide choice of non tape based options from competitors, I hope GV don’t delay too long in enabling all the bells and whistles to make the most of their excellent work thus far.
Thanks to Mitcorp for the lend of The Infinity Camcorder who were under great pressure not to
