Ikegami releases GF CAM tapeless camcorder.

I saw the new Ikegami camcorder last week and well - It threw me slightly

Why?

Well, I remember seeing the Ikegami ‘camcutter’ while working as a news cameraman at London Tonight about 10 years ago (we had it to test) and while there’s no doubt that Ikegami have consistently produced camcorders that deliver outstanding images - it’s the recording formats that never seem to have quite caught on?

The CamCutter recorded on to an unweildy hard drive array that you shot your footage on and then loaded into your edit suite. If you were Ok with the idea of carrying several brick like storage drives around then fine.

Ikegami HDS-V10

Fast forward 10 years and they launch the Ikegami GF Series. The Camera is the GF Cam - Tapeless camera HDS-V10. This records on to the GF PAK - Flash Memory Pack. And if you need something that looks like a deck then enter the GF Station - Flash Memory Recorder GFS-V10.

The GF Cam (HDS-V10)thankfully is weighted well and overall the camcorder feels well balanced. However you have to specify if you want the 720p version or the 1080 version. One camera will not do both.

It uses 3 x AIT CCD sensors at full 1920×1080 2.2m pixels resolution on the 1080 camera and 3 x IT CCD sennsors at 1280×720 so around 1 million pixel resolution

Target power consumption is 40w for camera and 5w for viewfinder so at 45w combined this is going to be heavy on the juice.

At 1080 the camera can record 59.94i/50i with an extra option for 23.98p, 25p, 29.97. 50hz/60hz switchable is also an option

The 720p model will record 720 59.94p/50p, and there’s an option for 23.98p, 25p & 29.97

The good news is that the camera is rated at F11/200lx so should be pretty good in low light but will wait to do a proper test once We get our hands on one.

The camera records in both SD & HD using MPEG-SD and MPEG-HD. In SD the options are I-frame 30mb/s, I-frame 40mb/s and I-frame 50mb/s. While in HD mode you can shoot Long GOP 50mb/s or I-frame 100mb/s

There’s a 30 second cache function that will allow you to change PAK’s and continue recording. The buffer memory always loop records 30 seconds and so when you press record that ‘cached’ footage is dumped on to the GF PAK

The Solid state GF PAK

You record on to solid state flash drives (the GF PAK) that look a bit like a large DVCAM tape box. So no moving parts but the largest capacity is currently 32GB. (The drive fits is what looks like a tape box and it’s size will make it harder to lose than a P2 card or an SxS card)

What’s more the drive has a USB 2.0 socket so you can plug the drive straight into your laptop and edit from the drive without the need to transfer - a neat function

Edit direct from the drive via USB 2.0

To give you an idea of recording capacity a 32GB GF PAK will store 100min of MPEG SD @30mb/s, 60mins of MPEG HD @50mb/s (Long GOP) or 30mins of MPEG HD (I-frame)@100mb/s

So what are the likely applications for this camera?

Well my first thoughts are news, solid state media with recording capacities and format options listed above will allow news stations looking for a format change to buy into a system that does both SD/HD, Long GOP and I-frame recording on flash memory on something that resembles a tape (at least in shape and size) something reporters may favour. The GF PAK’s are rugged and so if you drop them they’ll survive

But there’s no reason why this couldn’t be used in other types of production and being solid state the media should prove robust in harsh environments , shock, vibration, rain & sand. The bit rates and HD/SD options are broad ranging and if you don’t need 1080 & 720p then you build your camera accordingly (you only invest in what you use most) although it’s worth mentioning that not all the recording formats are yet supported by the NLE manufacturers

Ikegami make nice camera’s so there’s no reason to expect this to be anything but excellent. However in the file based world Workflow, and interoperability are big deal breakers. It’s early days for this system. I worry that the market place is just getting their head around P2 and XDCAM and now there’s the GF Series.

Another late addition to an already crowded marketplace? or a visionary product offering the end user even more choice and flexibility? I’ll leave you to decide.

- Den