While news channels, regional channels, and rental companies were the major buyers, educational institutions were also aggressive in buying.

In 2010, the professional camera market witnessed a slow growth. The economic slowdown left an ineradicable mark on the broadcast equipment industry. Channels assessed the procurement budgets more carefully, were more conservative in their spending, and Doordarshan too had marginal buying (about 32 cameras were procured). The industry sales figures in 2010 may be pegged at 250 units of studio SD cameras and 80 numbers of HD cameras. Small sensitive cameras were also being used as studio cameras in selected channels, with estimated sales in 2010 being 400 units. While news channels, regional channels, and rental companies were the major buyers, educational institutions were also aggressive in buying. The grey market continued to co-exist. Brands that dominated the market were Sony, Ikegami, Panasonic, and Hitachi. Other brands with presence are Thomson and Canon.

The premium channels are moving toward HD transmission. There has not been any major purchase by the channels for the last two years; inherent demand for the equipment is certainly there; however, it has to be translated into buying. The future camera industry will revolve around new technologies, tapeless acquisition, and stereo 3D production. Cost, optical characteristics, and green impact of the production will be the major factors that affect the buying decision of the customers.

The Bangladesh market continues to be promising, with various new channels being launched recently, and each channel requiring about 20-25 cameras. A major trend which is here to stay is the preference for rental equipment. The recent Commonwealth Games had major outsourcing of cameras and lens, both creating an exciting and widespread market for rental equipment in India.

Many of the broadcast cameras and professional video camera purchases have been for remote applications such as ENG/EFP, sports, and other field operations. Shoulder mounted cameras are making way for hand-held cameras and portability is of utmost importance. Cameras are more streamlined and offer a much better bang for the buck. There is some interest in robotic cameras as well.

ENG/EFP applications are popular, and cameras that support are commanding a 65 percent market share of broadcast and pro video facilities in each of the following end-user vertical markets: broadcast television stations, cable television stations, video and film post-production, video production, film production and multimedia facilities, corporate and institutional video facilities.

Less is more and going tapeless without cumbersome ancillary devices is commanding the attention of all six vertical markets. Some manufacturers are still making videotape-based recorders and camcorders, but clearly it is not a growing field. Even post houses that traditionally have delivered videotape masters to networks are increasingly being asked to use file-based alternatives. As memory card and hard drive capacities have increased, direct-to-edit, file-based recorders have really started to take off.

When defining the trend in new cameras, it would boil down to larger-format sensors. There will be a number of new cameras in 2011 sporting a sensor that is roughly equivalent to the exposure area of Super 35 mm (3-perf) motion picture film. (The 5D is still the current sensor to beat, with a so-called full-frame size that uses an image area comparable to 35 mm still film.) These cameras have become popular because of the shallow depth of field their larger sensors are able to deliver.

In the last two years, many videographers have experimented with HDSLRs. The experience has left them longing for a video-production-friendly form factor, without losing the optical advantages of the 5D or 7D cameras. In future, Sony and Panasonic will fulfill this desire with the rollout of the PMW-F3 and AG-AF100.

Sony's PMW-F3 can be viewed as the next level in the popular EX line, but with a super 35 mm sensor and a PL lens mount. The camera may be purchased without lens or with a PL lens kit. It records to SxS media using the same EfX codec as the PMW-EX1 and EX3. An uncompressed HD signal can be recorded externally over SDI. During 2011, Sony also plans to release an NXCAM sibling of this camera.

Panasonic's entry into this market is the AG-AF100 camcorder, based on the Micro Four Thirds still camera format used by Olympus. The general design of the AF100 body is similar to the popular AG-HVX200 and HPX170 cameras, but with an interchangeable lens design. Onboard recording is done to SD cards using the AVCCAM (AVC HD) codec, but also augmented by uncompressed SDI outputs.

The biggest feature these new cameras share, aside from tapeless acquisition, is the ability to use a wide variety of prime lenses, including various motion pictures and even still photography lenses. The PL mount has become the most popular for easy interchange, but the news is that demand for prime lenses has gone through the roof. Fortunately, a number of high-quality glass manufacturers have stepped into the plate to bring the cost down.

Experts have compared the specifics of these two new cameras and worry that they might destroy the DSLR market. After all, both are priced close to what a production-ready DSLR/sound recorder may go for.

High Definition is Here to Stay

2010 was the year of HD camcorders. Add-on features were offered in the entire price spectrum. Tapeless and interchangeable lens are no longer considered exclusive. A wide variety of options and features allow creating high-quality video projects to capture sporting activities, news programs, and events; and are even used for business purposes. The HD camcorders are clicking themselves to growth, and vendors are innovating on design, functionality, technology, and even tweaking prices to attract buyers.

The launch of highly feature-rich camcorders at competitive prices for all segments is likely to set a stage for future growth, not just in the cinematography segment, but also in broadcast television. The ENG and field production sector continues to experience an increasing influx of a large spectrum of tapeless products in HD. While some regions are already ahead of the curve, having adopted HD camera systems, several broadcasters are gearing up to upgrade to digital and HD acquisition products over the next three to four years.

Nowadays, professionals have access to a highly evolved digital workflow of products (including ingest, processing, and export) that is compatible with new format cameras. The credit goes to the availability of supporting technologies; the demand for professional digital cameras does not stop with just HD tapeless recording abilities. Digital technology is lowering the barriers for entry and increasing competition. Successful professional photographers in the future will have more automated workflows from capture to publishing - establishing a strong web presence, and diversifying their offerings to include more post-capture products and services.

Lenses

3D is the broadcast trend of the moment. Good lenses have unique advantages for 3D as production requires two lenses, however rigged. And it is vital that the two lenses must be almost 100 percent synchronized. Focus and Iris movement must be adjusted in such a manner that the two lenses can work simultaneously. Thus, the lens must have two features: highly accurate servo systems based on rotary encoders for zoom, iris and focus, and also a function to adjust the end position.

The major players for lens in India are Fujifilm and Canon.

Canon is a pioneer in the development of digital drive units for its portable lenses. Its control systems for 3D lens-camera-pairs capitalizes on the precision of these digital drive units, allowing one zoom controller and one focus controller simultaneously to operate both lenses. This ergonomic digital drive unit incorporates Canon-developed, ultracompact rotary encoders capable of 0.1 µm position detection. These enable camera operators to program digitally precise and repeatable settings into their lenses, for speed, focus and iris, as well as zoom positions.

In addition, 3D Adjustment Lens Software makes stereoscopic tracking (lens zoom and focus) even more precise, and allows differential offsets to be made - through the digital drive unit's display - to compensate for minor zoom and focus tracking differences between any two lens pairs.

HD lens has been a new entrant this year, albeit they are too expensive for regular channels. The rental lens market is becoming very popular, particularly with foreign videographers visiting India. Since their requirement is 4 to 5 lenses, transporting is not financially viable.

Fujinon lens shine in a variety of image contexts such as sports broadcasts including the Olympics and program production. With the advanced performance and quality of high-powered zoom lenses and hi-vision lenses with high image quality, the company holds approximately half of the market share in television lenses for broadcasting.

The Formats

Format: P2

P2 (Professional Plug-In) is a type of memory card geared toward ENG (electronic news-gathering) applications. It records DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO-HD, or AVC-Intra streams, and stores them in a MXF wrapper format that is compatible with most professional NLEs. Most codecs use Long GOP compression, which makes files smaller by grouping frames together and discarding any data that is duplicated. The various codecs recorded on P2 use intra-frame compression, in which each frame of footage is compressed individually. Intra-frame files are easier for the computer to decompress and process, meaning one can transcode and transfer them more easily. It is Indian filmmakers and ENG crews' most favorite one - reuters use P2 cameras at over 100 of their sites worldwide.

Format: HDV

A 720p version was originally developed by JVC, but Sony has developed a 1080i version supported by Canon. Though they were originally tape-based, the latest HDV cameras record simultaneously in tape and 300x CompactFlash cards at 1080i resolution. They use MPEG-2 compression (and a slight horizontal crop to 1440?ó1080) to squeeze high resolution images onto MiniDV tape without degrading the image.. HDV cameras deliver high quality images at an accessible price, and most NLEs will support HDV footage natively. It is an entry level HD format, and is used widely by independent videographers, freelance journalists, and small production companies. Some broadcasters also accept a small percentage of HDV content.

Format: Pro HD

ProHD is the tapeless evolution of HDV 720p. Like their HDV counterparts, ProHD cameras use MPEG-2 compression to record to solid state media such as SD and SDHC cards. ProHD cameras can record QuickTime (MOV) files, so the footage will work with the Final Cut workflow, and be fairly easy to move between devices - one does not need to convert or rewrap files before editing. Like XDCAM EX, it can also shoot in .mp4 (although these files need wrapping before they work in Final Cut), but unlike XDCAM EX, it does not need expensive SxS cards. The speedy post-production workflow and compact form factor have made these cameras popular.

Format: AVC

AVC is a video compression standard developed by the Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG). It was designed to be applicable to many areas of digital video.

There are two primary AVC formats. The first, AVCHD, was developed by Sony and Panasonic, and uses H.264 encoding to provide very small but high quality files for their consumer and prosumer solid-state HD camera ranges. There are two brands of AVCHD known as AVCCAM (Panasonic) and NXCAM (Sony) that are used in their professional cameras. The other, AVCINTRA, is an I-Frame codec developed by Panasonic for the broadcast market. It has three classes known as Intra50 (50 Mbit), Intra100 (100 Mbit), and Ultra (Up to 200 Mbit, with support for 3D). The long shooting time makes AVCHD great for users who prioritize efficiency and compatibility - for education, events, IPTV AVCINTRA is used by most broadcasters and production companies for the 50 Mb-200 Mb quality range. Shooting on this format will guarantee the technical qualification for broadcast.

Format: NXCAM

NXCAM is Sony's more professional variant of AVCHD. It compresses footage far more efficiently and gives a more professional picture quality. NXCAM shares AVCHD's compatibility: it is supported by NLEs including Sony Vegas, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and EDIUS. One can record in a card and a drive at the same time, giving an instant backup copy of work. It also increases recording time to an impressive 11 hours at 24 Mbps. That 11-hour recording time has made NXCAM a big hit with corporate and event videographers. But it offers both fully automated and fully manual control, which makes it perfect for educational settings.

Format: XDCAM EX

Sony initially developed the XDCAM codec for its SD-only shoulder mount cameras. But has developed multiple HD-capable versions and also license their EX codecs to JVC later. XDCAM EX uses an MPEG-2 compression system and records full HD at 35 Mbps onto SxS express cards. Developed by Sony and SanDisk specifically for tapeless filming, SxS cards are capable of data transfer rates of up to 800 Mbps. It is supported natively in Premiere Pro and in Media Composer via Avid Media Access. XDCAM EX delivers consistently high quality footage at different resolutions and frame rates to shoot in slow or fast motion. There is space for two SxS cards of up to 32 GB in the PMW-EX3 up to 200 minutes of HD shooting time and they are hot swappable. It has the added advantage of fitting seamlessly into the XDCAM nonlinear workflow.

Format: XF

XF cameras hit shelves in July 2010. Currently, there are two formats, the XF300 and the XF305, with the XF100 being introduced in January 2011. The XF format uses MPEG-2 compressio n, shoots at full 1920x1080 resolution and, most impressively, can record 4:2:2 footage at 50 Mbps. It records high-resolution 4:2:2 footage at 50 Mbps, which gives superior image quality, and is compatible with the industry standard. MXF file type uses Compact Flash cards, which are relatively inexpensive. Freelance camera operators, broadcast professionals, filmmakers, electronic news gatherers, and creative industry professionals looking for an affordable, forward thinking solution will appreciate the potent combination of outstanding image quality, connectivity options, user customization, straightforward workflow, and wide-ranging editing compatibility.

The year 2010 was better than 2009 and hopes are high for 2011. The market in 2011 revolved around newer models and technologies bringing more choice and better functionality to the market. 3D is the buzzword; however, it remains to be seen how far the audience has taken the 3D revolution into its fold.

This article is based on research conducted by Broadcast & Cablesat in January, 2011