The Canon 60D – or “Sweet, a fold-out LCD”

August 26th, 2010

It’s been rumored for a while, and now it’s here: the Canon 60D.  No real surprises: it’s a midrange DSLR that fits right in between the Rebel and the 7D. Nothing too interesting for 5Dii/7D/1Div shooters, but for someone previously looking at a T2i it seems like a great camera. For a few hundred dollars more than the Rebel, you get an articulating LCD and a handful of ‘pro’ features.

Canon 60D

For all that I’ve written about VDSLRs, and as intently as I follow the market segment, I still don’t own one, despite having said that I could buy first the 7D and then the T2i. I won’t say anything so brash this time around, but I should say this: in the past few months I’ve come to realise how completely dependent I am on articulating viewfinders and LCD screens: I find them to be essential tools that enable me to shoot what and how I do. That realisation has lead me to take another long hard look at the GH1 (particularly after the firmware hack). With the 60D, there’s now another fold-out LCD option on the table.

Of course, there will no doubt be plenty of other options before long. The GH2 is supposedly due out this fall, the overall VDSLR segment is beginning to mature (even Nikon’s finally gotten around to 1080p ;) ), and large-sensor prosumer video cameras from Panasonic, Sony and Red (apparently…), which are what we all ultimately want,  are looming on the horizon. I think it’s pretty safe to say that the 60D won’t be the most interesting thing we see this year.

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Some preliminary adventures in canoe and kayak mounts

August 26th, 2010

For a while now I’ve thought it would be cool to mount my HMC150 onto a canoe or kayak – doing so would open up all kinds of possibilities for shots in expedition documentary work and nature cinematography.  Over the past few weeks I’ve been experimenting with developing a mount for this purpose, using material that I have lying around the house.

The first thing I tried was to create a mount that could clamp across the front of a canoe. The design I ended up going with was a simple wooden frame attached to a larger plank of wood with a 3-inch hole cut into its centre. I disassembled my Pegasus Carbon Slider system and bolted the links to the central plank,  which held the 100mm bowl from the PCS in place above the 3-inch hole. After that it was just a matter of clamping the frame to the gunwales of the canoe with C-clamps, and placing a tripod head in the 100mm bowl. Big, heavy, and ugly… but it was solid!

Canoe camera mount

Libec H38 head mounted across the bow of a canoe

Of course, in a boat,  the sturdiest support system can still give shaky results, as the craft itself bobs around in the water. A trial run with the canoe mount determined that this was definitely the case here:  the design of my canoe results in particularly low primary stability, meaning that while it’s resistant to capsizing altogether, the craft rocks noticeably from side to side. When the paddlers shift their weight around to stroke, the boat (and the camera secured to it) rocks, resulting in unstable footage. The motion seemed okay for expedition-documentary-type work where the camera’s pointed backwards filming the people in the boat at wide angles, but shooting wildlife or scenery at longer focal lengths was a no-go.  When the canoe was coasting (with no one paddling), rocking was definitely reduced, and footage was more stable, but still not solid. The water was fairly calm during the test, too – conditions that were any choppier would have been a deal-breaker.

Camera on canoe mount on water

Trying out the mount on the Rideau River outside Smiths Falls

Ok, so if a canoe isn’t stable enough, how about a kayak? With the craft’s lower profile the camera can be mounted closer to the water, theoretically reducing the amplitude of the rocking motion. To see if this held up in practice I built a support frame onto the front of a kayak, and screwed the frame from the canoe mount onto it. Again, far from elegant – but for a proof-of-concept project it worked well enough. In the future I’ll probably experiment with using a suction cup system to mount the camera directly to the plastic hull.

Now it's a kayak mount!

The results were encouraging. The smaller size of the craft made it more sensitive to shifts in my body, but once I held myself still, stable footage was also easier to achieve. Gliding through the water on a calm morning resulted in some very stable shots, as well as many that could no doubt be easily stabilized with a bit of motion tracking in post. The kayak’s improved maneuverability over a canoe was also better suited for shooting, making it easier to line up shots and get closer to the shore.

Kayak mount with H38 head

So, for this type of work at least, it looks like a kayak is going to be the boat of choice. In addition to a lower profile suction mount for the camera, I’m also thinking about adapting some sort of fold-out stabilization wings (sort of like a collapsible catamaran?) to further reduce rocking while I’m shooting. But that’s probably a project for next summer… How the heck is it late August already??

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Parking Lot

August 9th, 2010

If you follow me on Twitter or Vimeo, you probably already know that I put up a short video a little while back called ‘Parking Lot’. It’s a collection of some clips that I shot (guess where? ;) ) back in June while I was in Toronto for ProFusion 2010. At the show I had a chance to meet Preston Kanak, a DP and filmmaker based out of Regina (although he sure travels a lot!).  We had hoped to work together to shoot a short for his 3 Minute Shorts project, but his plans changed at the last minute and we weren’t able to get together.

When I let Preston know about Parking Lot, he was kind enough to feature it on the 3MS+ website – you can see it here. Thanks Preston!

And here’s the video:

See it at vimeo.com/13686333

It was shot at golden hour in the evening, so the gear I used was what I had carried with me through the day – just my HMC150 and a Gorillapod. Post was my usual process: CineForm transcode, Premiere Pro offline, After Effects online. The soundtrack is by Moby, from the awesome mobygratis.com – basically, Moby has a bunch of tracks online that artists can apply to use in their projects. For non-commercial works, the licensing is free. Very cool.

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Pegasus Carbon System Impressions

July 26th, 2010

I’m back from a day breaking in my new Cinevate Pegasus Carbon System, and as promised in my last post, here’s what I found:

  1. It’s smooooth. I had been worried about shaking and vibration being amplified as a result of the system’s high centre of gravity (camera on top of a tripod head on top of the 100mm bowl on top of the rails). I had noticed this happening when I first set the system up after receiving it, and it did happen while I was out shooting, but it’s the result of my shaky hands, not the design of the system. By changing how I position my hands  and where I place my body weight when sliding the camera I can significantly reduce the effect, and I expect to develop a steadier hand over time as well…

  2. It’s adaptable. I had the rails tilted on all kinds of weird angles to fit the anything-but-flat topography of the rocky creek bed where I was shooting, and could still manage to level the tripod head every time I tried (with a combination of adjusting the bowl and the slider links). As long as all four of the stubby metal legs were firmly touching the ground the entire assembly was rock solid, regardless of the angle the track itself was on. I had brought my old tripod and my Gorillapod to use to support the slider and gain more height, but I ended up not using them much – it was simpler to set up the slider without them, and the lower-to-the-ground shots looked better, too. When I did try using them as supports, I found that the Gorillapod tended to vibrate and didn’t handle the weight of the system very well, so I don’t think I’ll be using it for that purpose very often. But the ability to do it is cool nonetheless, and I can definitely see using the system mounted on two tripods in the future.
  3. It’s the right length. At times I did want to span longer distances, but longer rods wouldn’t be practical for carrying. One meter was more than enough length for most situations, and I don’t think I would want any less. Sure, it’s not Tom Guilmette’s skateboard dolly, but it doesn’t weigh as much either, which brings me to…

  4. It’s light! I was really, really happy about this. I was able to pack up the slider system, tripod head, camera, my old tripod, the Manfrotto 535 feet (which I didn’t use), and assorted smaller pieces of gear into an incredibly lightweight, small and completely portable package. The single-trip hike in to the shoot location was effortless. Once on location and set up, I could grab the slider (with the camera mounted) and hop across the creek on dry rocks, or work through thorny brush with the gear held above my head. My mobility didn’t feel hindered at all.

All-in-all: I’m totally satisfied with my purchase. The ability to easily pull off tracking shots in a backcountry setting will be a huge boon to the production value of the nature footage that I shoot, and it should certainly help in my city jobs, too. As I improve my skills with this new tool I expect that the quality of footage I can achieve will increase as well: that being said, I’m pretty pleased with the results I was able to obtain on my first try!

I do want to put together a quick compilation of a few clips from the day,  but I’m a little behind on some other editing right now… If I can get caught up I’ll cut something and put it online. Look for the rest of the footage in another project down the road, and probably in my stock footage offerings as well.

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Summer gear…

July 23rd, 2010

With the rapidly advancing state of technology these days, I’ve decided to focus my gear acquisitions over the next little while on “low-tech” pieces of kit that won’t be rendered obsolete tomorrow and that will serve me well for a long time to come. I’ve been able to get my hands on some new tools in the past couple of weeks that I’ve been happy to incorporate into my shooting.

The tripod saga…

For a while I’ve been looking at upgrading my tripod setup to replace my rather flimsy and broken Wal-Mart model. When Manfrotto announced their new 504HD head at NAB, I thought it might be the one for me: feature packed, affordable, it used a 75mm ball mount, and perhaps most importantly, it would be readily available in Canada! I planned to order it with the Manfrotto 535 carbon fibre legs. Manfrotto and Sachtler (which is way out of my price range) are the only two major brands of support gear that I can find at camera retailers up here, which really limits the gear selection process.  I was able to get some hands-on time with a 504HD/535 combo at ProFusion last month, and was suitably impressed to place a pre-order.

But… when I got back home I started having second thoughts about the 504HD head. It was big… and heavy. For the outdoors shooting that I do, it would probably be too big and heavy. I looked at 75mm bowl heads on B&H (in the US) and found that many were a kilogram or more lighter. (I should mention that while at ProFusion I asked Philip Bloom what he thought of the 504HD… he told me then that was fairly big and that there were smaller options. Smart man… ;) )

So… I ended up importing the Manfrotto 535 legs with a Libec H38 head from the States. It ended being less expensive (the legs were almost half the price of the same product here in Canada!), it arrived quickly, and there weren’t any crazy brokerage charges, which I had been worried about. I was charged about $50 in duty, which I’m going to appeal, as professional video equipment and accessories are classified as duty-free. I also had to pay GST/PST (I guess it’s HST now ;) ) as well, which is only fair. All-in-all, way less painful then I had imagined! And I have a real tripod combo now too.

Libec H38 head with Manfrotto 535 carbon fibre legs

I tried it out last weekend at my favorite provincial park and it worked really well – easy to sling in and out of a canoe, the legs can go high (close to 2 metres) and low (not much taller than my Gorillapod)… and that leveling ball? How did I ever shoot all-terrain without it? The Libec head is nice and smooth and, while it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of the 504HD (variable drag, balance adjustments, etc), it got the job done just fine.

But wait, there’s more!

When I arrived home from shooting at Charleston Lake, I was happy to find that I had another package waiting for me… My Cinevate Pegasus Carbon System slider. Like with the tripod system, a major consideration in selecting a slider was size and weight – the PCS can pack up very compactly, doesn’t weigh much, and can still achieve very smooth motion. I’ve tried some interesting setups with it and plan on giving it a real test this weekend at another nearby provincial park.

The Cinevate Pegasus Carbon system supported by a tripod and a Gorillapod - the camera's on the abovementioned Libec H38 head.

I can’t say much more about it yet as I haven’t had much of a chance to use it, but I’ll be sure to post again after this weekend with the results of the testing. I have a few more camping/shooting trips scheduled, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this new gear holds up in an outdoor adventure-type setting.

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Gearing up for ProFusion 2010

June 15th, 2010

I’ll be heading down to Toronto this weekend for ProFusion,  a pro video tradeshow put on by Vistek. It promises to be a fun couple of days, meeting people and checking out cool gear.

ProFusion Video Expo 2010

What I’m most excited for is the chance to hear from Rodney Charters, ASC, CSC, and Philip Bloom. It was a brilliant move on Vistek’s part to get guys like these involved in the show – they’re the reason I’m going!

Rodney Charters is an accomplished DP who’s very well spoken and has some tremendous insight that he happily shares – if you haven’t listened to his interviews on the Crossing the 180 and 16×9 Cinema podcasts, I’d urge you to go have a listen. And on top of that he’s a CSC member… how cool is that?

Philip Bloom… well, does he really need an introduction? He’s the most well known VDSLR shooter in the world, and was also arguably the most well known 35mm adapter user before that. I’ll be attending seminars from each of these cinematography “giants” on Friday.

Preston Kanak and I are hoping to meet up on Friday night to do some shooting for his 3 Minute Shorts series, and then on Saturday I’ll be hitting the show floor and having some fun checking out gear! I particularly want to check out Manfrotto’s new 504HD head and LS Light’s LED panels (think budget-brand LitePanels). If only Cinevate was going to be there… I’d love to get some hands-on time with their Pegasus Carbon linear tracking system.

If you’ll be at the show and want to meet up, let me know – send me a message on Twitter, Vimeo, or plain old email. It would be great to see you!

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A Month in Microstock – Part 2

June 9th, 2010

This is a continuation from my post last week on my experiences getting started in the microstock footage industry. In my last post I wrote about getting accepted as a contributor at various microstock sites: today I’ll be focusing on the workflow I’ve developed to date for reviewing, encoding, tagging and uploading my clips.

Okay, so I’m all set to start contributing clips to a handful of microstock sites – what next? The first step in the process involves sifting through my footage and finding the shots that I think could sell. I use Bridge, the media manager included in Adobe Creative Suite, to review clips and label the ones that I want to put online for sale. Annoyingly, the native AVCHD files that are output from my HMC150 don’t play back in Bridge, so I either transcode the clips to CineForm beforehand or else use Panasonic’s AVCCAM viewer software to review clips, then switch over to Bridge to label the ones I want to upload. Once I’ve gone through all of the clips, I apply a filter to show only the clips I’ve decided to sell. Then I select the clips and drag-and-drop them into the Project panel in After Effects, which automatically imports the files into the currently open AE project.

Once I have the files in After Effects, I make each clip into its own composition. Then I trim each clip in its comp as necessary, and add it to the Render Queue. Once all of the clips have been trimmed, they’re output as Photo-JPEG .mov files, which are accepted at pretty much all microstock sites. Photo-JPEG isn’t really the greatest codec in terms of space efficiency… but I suppose it’s easily decoded by the majority of operating systems and editing suites.

When the PJPEG clips have been rendered out from AE, I open up Bridge again and start the tagging process. An increasing number of microstock sites are supporting embedded metadata (ie the clip name, description and keywords) in .mov files, which allows you to upload clips and have that information set automatically (eliminating the need to copy/paste clip info into every site you upload to). This is quite useful and was one of the factors that influenced which resellers I chose to start out with. In Bridge you can edit metadata fields by right-clicking on a compatible video clip and selecting “File Info”.

After I’ve assigned metadata to all of the clips, I upload them to my different reseller sites (Pond5, MediaStock, Revostock, and iStock) via FTP. I’ve been using FileZilla as an FTP client: it works fairly well, although sites like Pond5 (and now MediaStock) that automatically remove the file from their FTP site once the upload completes can sometimes confuse the program and cause it to re-upload the same file repeatedly. I’m still looking at other FTP client options that might not have this issue.

The last step in the process is tagging the clips at the various reseller sites. As I’ve mentioned before, embedded metadata can make this process much faster. Pond5 definitely has the best system for this that I’ve seen, automatically importing the clip’s name, description, and keywords. You can also create templates that automatically fill in other fields when applied (date, location, camera, categories, etc). When both of these tools (metadata import and templates) are used together and on all of your clips at once, it’s possible to tag dozens of files simultaneously, completing the process with just a few clicks.

MediaStock supports clip templates, and metadata import is supposedly coming soon; Revostock has a mass import tool that involves uploading a spreadsheet with all of your footage information in one file (helpful, but metadata import would be a lot nicer); and iStock… is a real pain to upload to. First off, you need to put each uploaded clip in its own (specifically named) folder on the iStock FTP server before they’re brought into the tagging system – and then once they’re in, there’s no way, at least that I’ve found, to tag multiple clips at once, and there’s certainly no metadata support. Add to that the low commission, slow review time (I have yet to have any of my submitted clips reviewed), supposed higher rejection rate, and the fact that you can only upload 15 video files a week, and suddenly selling footage at iStock really doesn’t seem that appealing. However, iStock is definitely the largest microstock site out there, and most established sellers report that despite the very low (20%) commission, the increased volume of sales from the site results in it being  one of their more profitable resellers.

As of this moment I have 64 clips online at Pond5, 31 at RevoStock, 9 at MediaStock (I’m holding off on adding more until that site rolls out its metadata import tool), and none at iStock. Those numbers definitely reflect the simplicity/complexity of each site’s import and tagging process…

I should also mention that there are services (such as iSyndica) that will manage and distribute your stock footage/photos/audio to all of your resellers, for an annual fee. Using this sort of service means that you only need to upload your files once (to the distribution service). If you’re like me and don’t have a super-fast internet connection, that’s a huge time saver. I’m holding off on signing up with this kind of service until I have a better idea about the kind of revenue my microstock sales can generate. If I do sign on, I’ll certainly post on here about my experiences.

Speaking of revenue, how were my May sales? Well, nonexistent. As in none… I’m not too concerned though – I don’t have that many clips online. With time I’ll be able to build my portfolio and (hopefully, at least!) start seeing some profit.

If you’re looking to get in to the microstock footage market, I hope this has been helpful. I’m obviously new to this, but if you do have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll try to get you an answer. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some footage to upload…

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A Month in Microstock – Part 1

June 3rd, 2010

At the beginning of May I got in to something that I had been considering doing  for a while – selling microstock footage online.  Microstock differs from traditional stock footage in that it focuses on selling lower-priced clips in larger volumes – and as such microstock sites are less ‘exclusive’ in that they take content from a broader range of contributors. Ultimately I would love to shoot for a more exclusive, high end library – but everyone has to start somewhere, right? I see microstock mainly as an opportunity to monetize what I’m doing strictly for enjoyment right now – shooting nature and outdoor scenes.

Microstock sites sort of work as ‘agents’ for you and your footage. You create your content and upload it to a site, and it’s added that site’s library of materials. The site then goes and markets its library, bringing in buyers who (hopefully) end up buying your clips. If they do, you earn a portion of the sale value, and the site keeps a portion for themselves. The site handles all of the legal and financial details of licensing your footage to the buyer - you’re just given a report on your sales and a monthly deposit into your PayPal account.

The process for getting your footage available for sale online begins with applying to various sites to become a contributor. The general conception in the microstock industry is that the more sites you sell at, the better. Fairly simple logic: more sites means a bigger audience, which means more sales. I chose to apply to four sites to start with –  and I’ll no doubt start contributing to more as time goes by.

The first website I applied to was the industry giant iStockphoto. I had to take an online ‘test’ to show that I understood the site’s policies regarding model/property releases, quality standards, etc. After that I was asked to upload three low-res sample clips which were reviewed to assess my abilities and technique. Once I had passed the test and the clips had been processed, I was accepted into their contributor program and could begin uploading content to be potentially accepted (as with all microstock sites, each clip that you upload needs to be individually reviewed and accepted as well). From my signing up to being accepted as a contributor took 2 days.

After iStock, I signed up at Pond5. Unlike iStock, Pond5 doesn’t require you to ‘audition’ by submitting sample clips, so you can go straight to uploading your footage. Because of that I had a set of 10 clips uploaded to the site, tagged, and submitted for review by the end of my first day there.

The next site I signed on with was RevoStock – another relatively big site in the industry. Like iStock, Revo requires you to take a test and submit 3 preview-quality sample clips for evaluation to determine whether or not your work is up to par: what’s slightly annoying is that they require your evaluation clips at a different resolution than iStock does, so I had to go back and and encode my clips again in After Effects. Not a big deal, but it would be nice if there was a standard for that sort of thing.

The last site I applied to was MediaStock. Like Pond5, contributors aren’t evaluated before they can begin submitting clips for review. It’s a relatively new site and as such the staff are very open to suggestions and eager to please the contributors. Clips are reviewed relatively quickly and you earn a 60% commission on all sales. Combined with referrals, you can earn up to a whopping 75% commission on a clip: to put that into perspective, many sites give a 50% commission – and iStock gives you a meager 20%. MediaStock’s responsiveness to feedback and big commissions means that they’re shaping up to be my preferred footage reseller – and the fact that they’re Canadian doesn’t hurt either!

I’ll stop there for now – next week I’ll write about my experiences selecting, uploading and tagging my footage, and touch on my outlook for the future and my next steps in the microstock field, so stay tuned. Until then, happy shooting!

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This is Live: some experiences in broadcast television

May 27th, 2010

In January I had the opportunity to begin volunteering at Kingston’s local cable station, TVCogeco. The station covers local sports (OHL hockey, university athletics, etc), produces programming with a local focus, and televises city council meetings, among other things. With the exception of a handful of producers, the station’s crew and talent all volunteer their time to make the programming happen.

A setup in the TV studio

Volunteers can choose their own schedules and time commitments – when I’m in school I usually get out two or three times a month to help, on weekends or when I don’t have classes. I’ve had the opportunity to work on most of the different types of productions that the station puts together, a lot of  them live-to-air or live-to-tape, and before I say anything else, let me say this: live TV isn’t for the faint of heart! You need to be on top of what you’re doing – if you zone out or mess up,  your mistake is potentially seen by everyone watching at home.

Personally I’m very much a laid back, slow-and-steady kind of shooter who’s happiest when I’m out in the middle of nowhere shooting rocks. Normally I’ll set up a shot just right, and then shoot it, getting multiple takes when I can – then I take the footage home to sculpt and refine it in post. Needless to say, live TV isn’t like that – everything needs to be in its place and ready for when the show goes live, and once you’re on the air, there’s no turning back. Nothing stops: you need to get things right the first time, and catch everything as it happens.

A shoulder-mounted camera rinkside before a Frontenacs / 67s game.

That all being said, there’s a definite satisfaction that comes when the credits roll and you can breathe easy again. You know that the people at home saw what they did because of you. And honing your ability to get the right shots fast is a great exercise in working more efficiently and ultimately improving your cinematography skills overall.

As far as the technical details go, the station captures and broadcasts in SD with Hitachi broadcast cameras recording to DVCPRO tape decks. They’re slowly getting ready for an eventual jump to HD, but it’s still a ways off. Programs that aren’t cut live are edited in Final Cut Pro on one of two Mac Pro workstations hooked up to tape decks.

The remote setup at the K-Rock Centre for the annual Easter Seals telethon. I worked the camera on the left.

So what do I do when I’m on a crew? A bit of everything. The volunteers will often switch up jobs, to get some experience in different aspects of the production. I’ve done graphics at basketball games, worked an audio mixing board, floor directed, and worked cameras. I try to work cameras the most often, as that’s obviously my main interest.

I’ve only been helping at the station for a short time, but I’ve really enjoyed it so far. Although I personally prefer to work in the slower-paced, more deliberate environment of non-live productions, helping to put together a live show a few times a month is a fun and refreshing change of pace for me, and a great way to learn more about how things work on the broadcast side of things.

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Panasonic AF100 – This is big

April 11th, 2010

See this?

Panasonic AG-AF100

Bam. Didn't see that one coming...

Apparently that’s what prosumer video cameras with DSLR sensors in them are going to look like. It’s obviously still in the early stages of  development, but it’s coming: Panasonic’s releasing a ‘real’ video camera with a Micro 4/3 imaging sensor, like the one found in their GH1 VDSLR. Looks like they win the first-to-market race – I certainly wouldn’t have called it, but there it is. Whoah. Ladies and gentlemen: the Panasonic AG-AF100.

Not much news on it as far as specs, but it’s going to be an AVCCAM camera and hence record AVCHD to SDHC cards, like the HMC150, as well as SDXC cards (unlike the HMC150).  A lot of people seem to be worried about codec’s low bitrate (21Mbps average, 24Mbps max), but speaking as someone who shoots with an AVCCAM camera regularily, trust me – Panasonic’s encoding scheme is solid. Barry Green’s already put it up against XDCAM EX and found it to be superior.  That says a lot – there’s all kinds of broadcast work done with Sony EX1/3s. The GH1’s codec got a lot of flak, but this time things should be different. This is a real video camera!

Not only is it a real video camera, but it’s obviously targeting higher end work. Not only does it have two SD cards slots, which is a first for the line, but it supports HD-SDI out ( on top of the usual HDMI). With HD-SDI, this thing can output true uncompressed HD video captured with a 4/3″ sensor. VDSLRs don’t do that. Nothing else that even comes close to falling into this camera’s market segment does that. This will turn the heads of higher end users who would otherwise see the AVCCAM line as falling well beneath their needs. On top of that, name your lenses and it looks like you can mount them: Canon, Zeiss, Nikon, PL mount lenses, whatever. That’s a major selling point right there.

Apparently it also features “dramatically reduced video aliasing” – always a good thing… Of course we’ll have to wait for real footage to see what “dramatically reduced” really means. Aliasing issues are one of the biggest faults of current VDSLR footage – but this isn’t a DSLR.

The big unknown is still the price – this thing is the first (and so far the only one) of its kind, and people should be willing to pay for that… at the same time, it still needs to compete with DSLRs (even though it should bring so much more to the table than a still camera). I’m guessing that it’ll retail around the same price point as the HPX170?

Of course everything about this is still very theoretical – I mean the thing’s still a CAD mockup [Edit: Never mind! Real photos here] – but this should be a big deal. Think about it: the GH1’s sensor in the HPX170’s body, with the HMC150’s space-efficient recording format and cost-effective media. I for one am stoked. :) Now we begin the long wait for footage…

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