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Just thinking out loud here. With very small compact recorders such as the nanoflash becoming readily available it begs the question as to whether camcorders are still the way forward? Have we gone full circle and are we heading back to having separate cameras with a separate recorders. There is a lot to be said for separates as you can upgrade just he camera or just the recorder, or you can use different cameras for different applications. Certainly there is a place for the ease of use of a camcorder but at the same time I can now see a market for small high quality HD cameras that can be docked with devices such as the NanoFlash.

So here is part 2 of my NanoFlash review as promised. This time I am going to talk about the picture quality and what recording at a higher bit rate offers. I have been using my NanoFlash with both a PDW-700 XDCAM HD camcorder (recording 50Mb/s 4:2:2) and an XDCAM EX1 recording at 35Mb/s 4:2:0. I have recorded from both at 100Mb/s long GoP and from the EX1 at 50Mb/s. I did a brief test with the I frame codec, but have not really gone into any great depths with that because I think the Long GoP (essentially XDCAM but at higher bit rate) is for this type of device the ideal type of codec offering stunning picture quality with reasonable sized files.

So, what do I think. Well the biggest surprise was the fact that I could see the difference between the 4:2:2 50Mb/s from the PDW-700 and the 100Mb/s from the NanoFlash on a 42″ 1920×1080 monitor, before I did anything to the material. The NanoFlash pictures were just a teeny tiny bit “cleaner” with less jitter on pans across areas of high detail. Now I will say that these were shots I chose as I knew they would stress the codec, lots of very fine detail and a medium-slow pan. It’s not a big difference, but there is certainly less mosquito noise in the 100Mb/s pictures. The difference between the EX 35 Mb/s footage and the 100 Mb/s footage is greater still, which was no surprise really, but again it’s not a massive difference, it still amazes me just how good an EX1 or EX3 looks, even at 35Mb/s.

So on to some further tests. Now I will state here that I would be perfectly happy to see my XDCAM EX, 35Mb/s footage being broadcast, and indeed I have supplied many hours of stock footage from my EX’s for broadcast and everyone has been perfectly happy with the quality. BUT the BBC in particular are keen to get all footage shot at, at least 50Mb/s which is one of the main reasons for my NanoFlash purchase. The argument being not so much that there is a big difference at the first generation, but that 50Mb/s and above holds up better in post production and after transmission. So for my tests I decided to take a pair of clips, 35Mb/s from the EX1 and 100Mb/s from the Nanoflash and then do a heavy grade (gamma correction plus color correction) and then render that out to Apple ProResHQ. The frame grab below shows the whole scene, which was a slow pan across some Arizona scrub land with lots of very fine detail including bushes, cactus and gravel with a blue sky that gradually darkens slightly from left to right.

graded XDCAM EX frame grab

When playing the graded and rendered clips back I could see quite a bit more mosquito noise in the 35Mb/s EX clip than the NanoFlash clip, although again I would say that given the rather extreme grade the EX footage still look pretty good. looking more closely at the sky I could see a very noticable difference between the two clips. the 100 Mb/s NanoFlash footage was much cleaner and exhibited less blocking as can be see in these two pixel for pixel grabs from the top right of the full size video frames.

Frame grab from XDCAM EX 35Mb/s clip

Frame Grab from NanoFlash 100Mb/s clip

So clearly there are some clear advantages to using 100Mb/s for projects that are going to require grading or other post production work. Next I took a look at some of the more detailed parts of the image. The extra color bandwidth of the nanoFlash’s 4:2:2 over the EX1′s 4:2:0 was apparent with areas of fine color detail looking less muddy and overall the NanoFlash images appeared sharper. I believe this is down to the reduction in mosquito noise at 100Mb/s as opposed to any actual change in the resolution of the recorded images.

Frame grab from 35Mb/s graded EX footage.

Frame grab from 100Mb/s graded NanoFlash footage.

Conclusions:

Well while there is a small difference in the first generation footage from the EX and the NanoFlash, it is not huge and unless you view the material on a large screen it will not be very apparent. For simpler projects, news and many many applications the raw EX footage will be just fine and I will often shoot that way. However the footage from the NanoFlash is cleaner, has a little better color resolution  and is more robust. So for projects that will be graded or go through challenging post production stages as well as chroma key work the NanoFlash will make a big difference. Considering the low cost of both the NanoFlash and it’s readily available compact flash media it really does make a lot of sense to have one in your production kit. I will be using mine with both my EX cameras and my PDW-700. Given that the PDW-700 at 50Mb/s is already regarded as the superior of HDCAM, then the 700 with a NanoFlash is edging towards the realms of HDCAM SR. I now own the tools to produce HD images at a quality level that I never dreamt I would be able to afford myself. Even the EX1 and NanoFlash looks stunning. Well done Convergent Design, I’m sure this product is a winner.

Here’s a little trick you can do with an XDCAM EX camcorder (or any timelapse capable camcorder) and a NanoFlash.

Well I have given my new NanoFlash a good workout over the past few days shooting in the heat of the Arizona desert and shooting monsoon thunderstorms. There are a few things I need to sort out to really get the most out of it, in particular mounting it on the camera, but despite that I have to say I am extremely impressed.
In this short review I’m going to concentrate on the Nano’s usability. I will write a separate post with more details on the image quality later in the week. It’s pretty obvious that recording at higher bit rates with improved color space will give better pictures, but there are a few extra functions that really make the NanoFlash a “must have” box.
On un-packing it’s unimpressive. Just a simple, small black box with a few good quality connectors on the bottom, a couple of slots for the Compact Flash cards, a very large LCD display and a few control buttons. On powering it up there is a delay of a few seconds as the unit checks the compact flash cards. You are then presented with a very simple menu that allows you to set up the way the unit works, changing things such as the codec, bit rate, record control, power saving mode and a few other item. I didn’t need to refer to the manual to get the unit up and running, it really is very straight forward to use.

One of the really neat functions is the pre-record buffer. This is a memory that records around 4 seconds of footage. When enabled, when you press record, the 4 seconds prior to when you pressed the button is recorded. This was great for shooting lightning! Wait for the lightning bolt, then quickly press record. Using this saved me a tone of wasted footage as each clip I recorded has a lightning bolt and is only as long as it needs to be. This will also be great for sporting events and interviews where the interviewee has a tendency to start before you’ve said action!

One trick I was able to do with the Nano was to record timelapse with the XDCAM EX1 camcorder of a developing thunderstorm, recording onto the cameras SxS cards and then use the NanoFlash with pre-record to capture any lightning bolts. Normally this would require 2 cameras!
The unit can be set to go into record whenever it see’s the camera’s timecode running. This worked flawlessly and meant that I could just stick the NanoFlash on the back of the camera and just let it get on with the job, no need for separate remotes or two lots of record buttons to press. If you turn on the NanoFlash’s low power mode when you turn off the camera and the HDSDi feed disappears the NanoFlash put’s itself it to a very low power standby mode, so there is no need to turn it on and off separately during the course of a typical days shooting. It wakes itself up as soon as it detects the return of a HDSDi signal.
One small point is that to manually make the unit record you press the record button, to stop you press the stop button. When your using a camcorder you get used to pressing the same button to stop and start recording. It’s a very minor point but confused me for a moment.
The NanoFlash LCD gives you an indication of how much space you have left on your cards with a percentage bar graph, there are further level displays for audio levels and it tells you the mode you are recording in. The display is large and very clear.
I have not played with the external audio or remote functions so I cant comment on those. What I will say is that the NanoFlash has exceeded my expectations in every respect. The design is simple and functional, nothing fancy here, but it just works so well, it feels very solid and I am confident it will survive the rough treatment my equipment gets on my expeditions to film some of the worlds most extreme weather. I shall be using it to improve the quality of the footage from my XDCAM EX’s, which is very good anyway. I will also be using it with my HXR-MC1P minicams which currently only use AVCHD, the NanoFlash should really improve the quality of these.

So in summary.. stunning value for money, amazing quality and simple but clever functionality make the NanoFlash a must have box that will probably outlast all my cameras giving many years of usefulness.

Part 2 with pictures and quality assessments will follow later in the week.

Well today was a bit of a let down. I did get some more lightning footage, but it wasn’t really anything to write home about. The Monsoon this year has been a bit of a Non-Soon.
What I did set up though was the EX1 shooting timelapse with the NanoFlash on the back. That way if there were any good lightning bolts I could hit the record button on the nanoflash to capture the previous 4 seconds (thanks to the pre-record memory) in real time while the EX continues to do timelapse. Very neat, perhaps in the future I’ll only need to take one camera instead of 2. I did some codec stress test shots today at 35, 50 and 100Mb/s. When I get home I’ll post the results. Bags all packed now ready for the long flight home tomorrow.

Well today looks like being the best day of my trip. I’m expecting storms to kick off by late morning and then continue well into the night. I expect it will be a late finish then bags packed straight to the airport for my flight home Monday morning.

A few sample clips from today:

Today was a much better day. The Monsoon came out to play. To start off the day was frustrating to see the least. It seemed that every time I drove up to a storm it would produce lots of lightning right up until I stopped the car to film at which point the lightning would stop. Ended up driving round in giant circles totaling some 350 miles. I didn’t get much more than a few cloud shots, but then at sunset a very pretty storm decided to play ball and produce some very strong cloud to ground lightning bolts while the sun illuminated the clouds with an orange glow. What a beautiful sight. I put the NanoFlash to good use capturing the scene in full 4:2:2 at 100Mb/s and it looks wonderful. I’ll post a few clips later on.

Tomorrow should be another good day. Possibly better than today as tonight we have clear skies which means it will be hot tomorrow.

Well the storms came and the storms went! But along with the storms came lots of wind and lots of rain. I know.. that’s generally what happens with a storm, but normally monsoon storms stay isolated and you can stay out of the rain to get good lightning shots. Well not today. It just seemed that no matter which way I pointed the camera I got a lens full of rain. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow. Anyway today was a good shake down for all the gear. The NanoFlash is so simple to use it’s great. One small thing I found is that if you use the cache record function on the PDW-700 the timecode runs continuously no matter which mode you have it in. As a result you can’t use timecode to control the NanoFlash if your using cache record. Oh well, the record button is big enough! Will post more tomorrow, hopefully the storms won’t be quite so wet!

Landed in Tucson last night with lightning striking the ground to the south. The forecast for the next few days is pretty wild. There should be lots of opportunities for some great lightning shots. When I got to my hotel my Convergent Design NanoFlash was waiting for me. This little box will be great for this shoot as it has a pre record function that records the 4 seconds or so prior to pressing the record button. By using that I will be able to set the camera up facing the storm and as soon as I see a lightning bolt I can press record and instead of filling up the cards with hours of junk all I’ll have is short clips each containing a lightning bolt! I have a PDW-700 and an EX1 with me and I’ll be using the NanoFlash with both. I’m looking forward to seeing lightning at 100Mb/s. Lightning is quite challenging for any codec due to it’s very short transient nature. The XDCAM codecs have always done a good job, but Im expecting something special from the NanoFlash.

The plan for today is to head out to the west of Tucson this afternoon, maybe to Kitt Peak to catch the storms as soon as they get going. I’ll post later and get some frame grabs or clips online as soon as I can.