Nano flash recorder

[Sebastien Audinelle]

Does anyone knows the price of this? It seems like a good recorder.

 

http://www.convergent-design.com/

[Eric Fletcher S.O.C.]

Does anyone knows the price of this? It seems like a good recorder.

 

http://www.convergent-design.com/

 

 

$4400

[Sebastien Audinelle]

Does anyone knows the price of this? It seems like a good recorder.

 

http://www.convergent-design.com/

 

 

$4400

 

 

:( ouch!

[Charles Papert]

The pre-order price is shown as $3249. Also note that while it has HD-SDI input, the SD input is limited to SDI also, so it would need an outboard converter from composite.

[David Williams]

This was just posted in some other forums.

 

(Colorado Springs, CO, May 7, 2009) Convergent Design announced today a $2,995 MSRP price for the highly anticipated nanoFlash, which will ship in June, now with analog audio I/O. nanoFlash is the world’s smallest, lowest-power professional HD/SD recorder/player creating visually lossless Quicktime or MXF files stored on affordable Compact Flash media.

 

The diminutive (4.2x3.7x1.4” / 107x94x36 mm) nanoFlash easily mounts on any professional camera, adding less than 1 lb (400 grams) additional weight. The very low power consumption of less than 6 Watts assures long battery life, while the very wide power input range of 6.5 to 19.5V makes nanoFlash compatible with most power sources.

 

nanoFlash utilizes the very high quality XDCAM HD 422 CODEC (from Sony) at 50/100 Mbps (Long-GOP) or 100/140/160 Mbps (I-Frame-Only). Quicktime and/or MXF files can be played/edited in Avid, Final Cut Pro, Edius, Vegas and Premiere (restricted usage) without transcode or re-wrap. HD/SD-SDI and HDMI I/O ports support 1080p30/25/24, 1080i60/50 and 720p60/50 video formats. nanoFlash can also be used as an HD/SD-SDI to HDMI or HDMI to HD/SD-SDI converter.

 

nanoFlash records embedded audio over HD/SD-SDI or HDMI. Users can optionally input analog audio (stereo unbalanced line, stereo unbalanced mic or one balanced mic) via the 3.5 mm jack recently added. Audio monitoring is available via a headphone output. All audio is recorded at 24-bit, 48KHz sampling.

 

Two Compact Flash slots (32GB CF cards are US $75) provide 80 minutes of 100 Mbps record/playback time without touching the hot-swappable cards. Video can be played directly off the CF cards using a FW-800 reader (attached to your NLE) or transferred at 3X to 6X faster than real-time to your hard-drive.

 

Utilizing the same CODEC technology as Flash XDR, nanoFlash is capable of video quality compatible with D-Cinema movies and very high-end cameras, including Thomson Viper. nanoFlash can be used for a wide variety of applications, including tapeless recording, presentations, POV/field recorder, SDI switcher recorder, and video assist among others. The small size and lightweight makes nanoFlash ideal for skydivers, underwater video, 3-D, racing, jet planes, helicopters, medical and virtually anyplace high quality recording and/or playback of HD/SD video/audio is required.

 

The nanoFlash is scheduled to ship in June with a list price of $2,995.

 

This device was designed primarily to complement lower end HD cameras like the Sony EX series. Sony hobbled the native recording system so they don't encroach to far into their PDW-700/800 markets, but they left full single channel HD-SDI output. With a nano attached, and a good lens, an EX will produce images rivaling products many times more expensive.

[Stefano Ben]

It's also pretty good for the Varicam/Cinealta F900 Lovers... Say goodbye to tapes!!!

 

Steve "Varicam Lover" Ben

[Tom Daigon]

Another device that is a good alternative is the Ki Pro Mini from AJA.It is the smaller brother of the Ki Pro. AJA makes great stuff and provides wonderful support.

Its advantage is that it creates Prores files that can be edited immediately in FCP. Instead of having to convert a bunch of files from MPEG to Prores. It just speeds up the process for editors.

 

http://www.aja.com/products/kipro/ki-pro-mini/ki-pro-mini-description.php

[Mike Marriage]

Tom, just to clarify on your point, the Nanoflash files can be edited natively in FCP (and some bitrates in Avid now), so a conversion is only necessary is you have a solely Prores workflow.

[Tom Daigon]

Mike, "The nanoFlash records the video/audio as MPEG2 at user selected bit-rates, using Long-GOP or Intraframe recording " (quote from Convergent design). MPEG2 is a great acquisition format and a horrid editing format. It is a nightmare to edit with any show that has lots of graphics or is long form due to the necessity or rendering the MPEG2 sequence, since it is not supported as a NATIVE codec on FCP . Long GOP structured codecs can slow the editorial process down to a snails pace due to the way they use frame estimation. The other format (Intradframe) creates files much larger than Prores which can require lots more storage space. Most editors I know will avoid editing MPEG2 like the plague and immediately convert to Prores to avoid the slowdown , image quality issues and excessive need for lots of storage that can ensue.

[Mike Marriage]

Tom, I agree that Prores is a preferable editing codec but I work with XDCAM MPEG2 natively all the time and on a modern computer it is very fast. I transcode to Prores if I am altering framerates or doing more complex effects and multi-stage compression work. In FCP you don't need to render the sequence just to edit MPEG2 material, it'll play back and edit fine, even with multiple HD streams.

 

Anyway, we digress, if your editor wants Prores, the Ki Pro Mini would likely be the better option. I was just making the point that the Nanoflash files don't HAVE to be converted before they can be edited.

[Tom Daigon]

Mike, I understand and agree. I have edited very simple cuts only projects shot with my EX3 in the XDCAM EX codec and my Mac Pro and FCP handled it just fine. In that case I just create a Prores sequence since I prefer to create all my masters in that codec. When I build complex graphics in After Effects for incorporation into a show I standardize everything to Prores. Its another case of "Horese for courses..." ;-)

[Tomas Riuka]

note that AJA KI PRO MINI is priced at 1995$, that's almost half the price of Nanoflash... and has HDMI which

is very useful if/when somebody shoots w/ HDSLR

[Tom Daigon]

note that AJA KI PRO MINI is priced at 1995$, that's almost half the price of Nanoflash... and has HDMI which

is very useful if/when somebody shoots w/ HDSLR

I spoke to tech support today at AJA and they said the Canon 5D doesnt output the correct signal for editing. The signal is great to view on a monitor but is not the full 1920 x 1080 signal. The third party software Magic Lantern almost addressed this issue on the 5D but for some reason the programmer moved on to other challenges in his life. So dont expect to use the 5D, although I was told the 7D hdmi output does work.

[Tomas Riuka]

note that AJA KI PRO MINI is priced at 1995$, that's almost half the price of Nanoflash... and has HDMI which

is very useful if/when somebody shoots w/ HDSLR

I spoke to tech support today at AJA and they said the Canon 5D doesnt output the correct signal for editing. The signal is great to view on a monitor but is not the full 1920 x 1080 signal. The third party software Magic Lantern almost addressed this issue on the 5D but for some reason the programmer moved on to other challenges in his life. So dont expect to use the 5D, although I was told the 7D hdmi output does work.

 

Thank you for interesting news... I guess 'try before you buy' or wait till someone tries.

[Dan M. Keaton]

"The nanoFlash records the video/audio as MPEG2 at user selected bit-rates, using Long-GOP or Intraframe recording " (quote from Convergent design). MPEG2 is a great acquisition format and a horrid editing format. It is a nightmare to edit with any show that has lots of graphics or is long form due to the necessity or rendering the MPEG2 sequence, since it is not supported as a NATIVE codec on FCP . Long GOP structured codecs can slow the editorial process down to a snails pace due to the way they use frame estimation. The other format (Intradframe) creates files much larger than Prores which can require lots more storage space. Most editors I know will avoid editing MPEG2 like the plague and immediately convert to Prores to avoid the slowdown , image quality issues and excessive need for lots of storage that can ensue.

 

Dear Tom,

 

The nanoFlash does record in MPEG2.

 

However, please note that we have three options, MPEG-2 without a wrapper, MPEG-2 in a Quicktime Wrapper, MPEG-2 in an MXF Wrapper.

 

The "Essense" is Sony XDCam, XDCam 4:2:2 if recording at 50 Mbps or higher, or XDCam Ex at 35 Mbps or below.

 

Actually, the files are very easily edited in Final Cut Pro and other editors.

 

 

 

Since we always record full raster, the files are actually quite easy to edit. Please do not compare this to editing HDV which is 1440 x 1080. Converting 1440 x 1080 to full raster 1920 x 1080 is a very compute intensive task, and never has to be done when using our files.

 

We have thousands of nanoFlashes in the field and many use Final Cut Pro. We have many editing in Avid, Sony Vegas, Adobe CS5, Edius and others.

 

We do, as an option, support recording in native MPEG-2, without a wrapper. Thus, this pre-rendered MPG file can be burned to a SD DVD or an HD Blu-ray without rendering, if one is using DVD or Blu-ray burning software that is smart enough to know that the file has been pre-rendered.

 

Thus, one can choose our MPG option, then quickly burn a DVD or Blu-ray.

 

We typically do not recommended editing the MPG format.

 

The Quicktime and MXF wrappers provide for an index to each and every frame of video in the file, which makes editing easier.

 

 

We support a very wide range of bit-rates:

 

SD: 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 30, 40 and 50 Mbps

HD: 18, 35, 50, 80, 100, 140, 180, 220 and 280 Mbps

 

We support both Long-GOP and I-Frame Only codecs (Intraframe). ProRes is also an Intraframe codec.

 

I welcome others who have edited our files to share their experiences.