While we legally can’t tell you some surprises yet, we can spill to you what we’re excited to hear about at the International CES 2012. 4K and 3D are two great examples. 3D for what innovations show up this year since the general public has had substantial time to test out the video medium.

Then there’s the big buzz about 4K, which company will be first to really capture the general consumer, seems like the real catch here. One of the two sides of this technology is the camera, and because Canon’s announcement about such technology came more than two months prior to the International CES 2012 – the competition is on. The other part of 4K is the display, and manufacturers are hard at work improving these super-high resolution screens, our question is how low will we see a price drop and ultimately – will consumers adopt it?

Notable innovations in technology that we already have on our radar include flexible displays and alternative computer controls. While the projected time frame on these is beyond consumers of 2012, the International CES 2012 is a prime place for advancements to show up.

Take a glance at the Consumer Electronics Association coverage of CES 2011 and you’ll notice, there’s a lot of people there. Our team is certain to make contact with some of the biggest names in video production, as well as learn something new about each other. For some of us it’ll be a brand new experience and hopefully we’ll carry some of you (our audience) and your excitement with us. We’ll be determining some awards for this specific event, so products that steal the spotlight may be recognized by us. Look to this blog for updates and our hints at the biggest news for video producers.

As much as the city would love to make such exclusive information stay in Las Vegas forever, but our trip won’t mean much to you unless we bring some stories back.

Slite is a concept that seems like a great combination of technology that is already available – mobile editing and digital imaging. The specific model only shows still image editing, but video editing can’t be too far behind. The tools available sure look professional, and add mid range audio editing capability and there is some serious work to be done with this one device!

Important to this design is a separate innovation, extendable displays. Increasing the edit space for mobile video editing is one of the first things people are skeptical about, and rightly so, there’s a reason most professionals go for dual screen monitoring. The Slite takes this  idea and gives it a great shot, by sliding the screen down, extending beyond the original height by an inch or two. The extra workspace should allow for you to view other clips and tools. The workspace can also shift when you turn the camera to a new orientation for a larger view, who knows, this may be necessary for a timeline.

This screen is really what will set it apart from other cameras, with the ability to display on the front as well as the back of the camera. Many phones included a convex mirror to aid the self portraits with cell phones, but this is almost too much. If nothing else, over the shoulder shots will be a breeze.

So many of the tools we’ve come to expect, white balance, exposure, zoom and crop should make an easy transition to the big time of editing video on a mobile device. Expect a lot of menus, since the external buttons are minimal. Even if only basic edits are available, it will mean a lot since you’ll be able to edit a good take immediately after it is shot. Then, when you reach your editing work station, instead of ingesting raw footage, you’ll be transferring your rough edit.

In a series of huge announcements, one of video’s biggest powerhouses, Canon, announced new camcorders with specs that are so good, you might just be tempted to take out a second mortgage to get one.

Canon announced their new products in stylish Hollywood event. They showcased their new C300 cinema-style camcorder, brand new cinema lenses, and a mysterious DSLR-style concept camera that shoots in 4K. The C300 was the story of the night since it marked Canon’s first foray into the cinema market. It has an 8.3 megapixel sensor that delivers a full 2 megapixels of information  for each color channel  meaning that color reproduction should be very accurate, much like the 3 CCD sensors of cameras in the past. The C300 will also include Canon’s newest DIGIC DV III image processor meaning that it will be able to handle those simultaneous feeds of color information accurately and quickly. In addition, it will record in Canon’s MXF format which means you’ll be getting a 4:2:2 MPEG-2 codec at 50 Mbps. Staying true to form, they’ve included two slots for CF cards in the camera so that you can record on both cards simultaneously or relay-record.

The C300 has a Super 35mm sensor, making it smaller than the recently announced EOS-1DX, but bigger than the sensor found in the 7 and 60D. A bit odd considering that sensor size is a big selling point for cinematographers since it typically means less noise in the image and gives the camera the ability to achieve a shallower depth of field. Even so, there are plenty of other great features on this camera that any pro will love. To begin, the camera is modular. That means that you can take almost everything off of the unit until it becomes more or less a camera ‘brain” housing just the sensor and processor. As such, it has an shoe mounted attachment that includes a 4 inch 1.23 megapixel monitor that can swivel 135 degrees horizontally and 270 degrees vertically and 2 XLR inputs with 48 volts of phantom power. The monitor also includes a waveform monitor to quickly see the overall brightness of a scene, an RGB Parade display for color saturation, a vectorscope, and an Edge Monitor Focus Assist for getting your image sharp. The camcorder records audio in an uncompressed 16-bit PCM format at 48 kHz giving you great control in post over how your captured audio sounds.

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When camera technology is still relatively fresh, nobody really expects manufacturers to put out a solid product in one of their first releases. That’s why Fujifilm’s newly announced W3 3D HD camera is a particularly pleasant surprise. With its 10 megapixel and 1/2.3 inch sensor, its 720p 3D video capabilities, and glasses-free LCD screen, Fujifilm has managed to set the bar higher than anyone thought it would be this early in the 3D game.

As expected, the camera has 2 lenses recording images on 2 sensors simultaneously, making 3D images and video possible. The unexpected part however is how Fujifilm managed to use those lenses for 2D photography. When in 2D mode, the W3 can use both lenses to take different shots simultaneously. The cool part is that this will allow photographers to shoot both close-up and wide angle versions of a photo or to shoot two images with different iris values, allowing photographers to capture HDR images. As for the video side of the camera, the FinePix W3 has stereo sound recording, a 1280×720 pixel resolution, shoots at 24 frames per second on an SD card, is NTSC and PAL switchable, has an HDMI out for 3D capable TVs and best of all, has a 3D lenticular display allowing you to view your images and video in 3D without wearing an awkward pair of glasses. Of all the features, the lenticular lens is a real breakthrough for 3D cameras. With this technology, videographers will not have to keep taking their glasses on and off in order to switch between monitoring their footage and looking at their controls. If all 3D camera and camcorder companies started offering their products with glasses-free displays, it would no doubt be a huge leap forward in getting these products off the shelves.

With that said, Fujifilm’s camera does have a few faults that are worth mentioning. First, lenticular displays are still not completely fool-proof. If you try to play back your captured footage while looking at the screen from the side, the illusion of 3D will quickly break down. Also, the camera only records in the partially defunct 1280×720 resolution which will not look as good on a full 3D HD display. These issues aside, Fujifilm has definitely set the bar high on what customers will expect from 3D camcorders and cameras in the future. If companies can improve on what Fujifilm has started, we may yet see 3D become a mainstay in both the theaters and at home.

Every once in a blue moon, a technology announcement goes from the usual to the revolutionary. When recording moving pictures became possible on magnetic video tape, it revolutionized where producers could film, allowed them to view their footage right away, and most of all saved filmmakers a great deal of money. The problem was that it also changed the look and “feel” of film that many audiences and producers had grown to love. Instead, video had low resolution, bad color reproduction, recorded at 30 fps instead of 24, and worst of all, virtually no depth of field. This gave video a completely different look and unfortunately a distinct ring of low quality to most audiences when they viewed it. Since that time however, much progress has been made toward achieving that “film look” again. Over time color space improved in video, 24P shooting modes were introduced, and picture resolution increased. Even with all of these improvements, filmmakers realized that there was still one vital thing missing in the pursuit to achieve the look of film: interchangeable lenses.

With Sony’s announcement of their tiny AVCHD high-definition camcorder with an interchangeable lens system, the revolution of interchangeable lenses has begun. It finally appears that camera manufacturers are taking interchangeable lenses seriously. While some might say it’s silly to manufacture a camera that’s smaller than its lens, I think that its results speak for itself. All one has to do is look at the beautiful depth of field in the footage that a camera with interchangeable lenses can produce, and it’s hard not to be sold on the idea. With a shallow depth of field, even small camcorders can draw your viewer’s attention to the area of the screen that is in focus – eliminating distractions in the background. This is the reason why interchangeable lenses are so revolutionary. In fact, I would go so far as to say that even cell phone cameras, which can now shoot in 720P, would be better off with an option for a small interchangeable lens system. Just imagine how much money it would save, and the artistic possibilities you could have if you were able to shoot footage on a cell phone that was similar in quality to footage shot on film. It would truly be a revolution.

With that being said, I can admittedly see one thing that could spell doom for the interchangeable lens revolution: compatibility. It would be great if camera and lens manufacturers could agree on making a standard for lens mounts on all cameras. I know this is wishful thinking here as companies make a lot of money off the different mounts they sell, but quite honestly, I think these manufacturers should be competing on lens quality and not compatibility. Plus, without a standard, many people would be forced into buying lenses and cameras from just one manufacturer which could put them in a real bind when newer and better equipment comes out from an entirely different manufacturer that does not have a compatible lens mount. Even with these problems though, the ability to shoot on both consumer and prosumer cameras with interchangeable lenses will no doubt have a huge impact on both amateur and professional cinematographers alike. With the ability to shoot with interchangeable lenses, camera manufacturers will have finally won the battle of making video look like film.

Big announcements continue to fly in from NAB! Here is the latest from Canon which should prove to be very noteworthy for Videomaker readers.

“The new Canon XF305 and XF300 professional tapeless HD camcordersemploy an MPEG-2 4:2:2 50Mbps codec – Canon XF Codec – for capturing and recording native 1920 x 1080 video onto affordable, universally available Compact Flash (CF) cards. The new Canon XF305 and XF300 Professional Camcorders feature hot-swappable dual card slots and support UDMA CF cards for maximum performance. Uniting video, audio and metadata into a single file, the Canon XF305 and XF300 use an MXF (Material eXchange Format) File Wrapper, a widely supported open-source format, to maximize compatibility with existing industry infrastructure and non-linear editing (NLE) systems.”

The cameras also include Canon 18x HD L-series lenses, “The Canon XF305 and XF300 Professional Camcorders include a Genuine Canon 18x HD L-series lens providing documentary filmmakers and news camera operators with the focal-range versatility required in the field. Each model includes three Canon developed and designed native 1920 x 1080 CMOS image sensors, and the new Canon XF Codec for extreme color detail required for accurate chroma-keying, color-grading and compositing for digital filmmaking Canon’s XF305 model features industry-standard HD-SDI output, genlock, and SMPTE time code (in/out) terminals for multi-camera or 3-D productions.”