Category — Panasonic

One of my favorite films from back in the day was Teen Witch. Robyn Lively was the titular teen witch, Lousie. Dan Gauthier was her ‘oh so dreamy’ object of desire Brad. And Zelda Rubenstein (Poltergeist) played her cooky but lovable mentor, Madame Serena.

The movie doesn’t really make much sense and borders dangerously close to becoming a musical. But it’s fantastic, I tell you! It’s better if you really don’t know much. If you need a primer, check out the “Top That” scene that Sasha Frere Jones posted on his blog. It totally reminded me of why I love Teen Witch.

Check it:

Dear god, I hope that Teen Witch with Ashley Tisdale remake dies in development hell. I feel like the 1989 version was able to work because the climate of late eighties accepted its over the top spirit. In today’s film market, I fear it would come off as one of those INSERT GENRE movie movies like Not Another Teen Movie. I’d probably make a more entertaining homage to the original film with my friends simply reenacting the dance scenes. All you really need is someone with an inch more of charisma than that High School Reunion girl, some eighties costumes and a decent Panasonic digital camcorder.

If you liked that digital taste of Teen Witch from above, you should buy it on dvd today. It’s so cheap what could it hurt? I guarantee it’ll bring a smile to your face.

The are more video cameras on the market these days than any sane person can keep tabs on. But you won’t find many that are designed to record underwater. Not without a “housing,” anyway.

Even if you just want to take your camera into the bathtub with you (Ready for your close-up?), you’ll need a waterproof if you want to get any underwater shots. If you want to take it with you when you go snorkeling, you’ll be able to have a greater variety of subjects to choose from—and even more if you are scuba diving.

If you have an older camera, you may have to buy a new one. Manufacturers often discontinue making cases for older models. If you do have to buy a new one, make sure you buy a camera from a manufacturer that also offers a housing. Not all of them do.

You can find a more detailed discussion here. If you’re a hardcore DIY type, you can build your own. It looks like a major task to me though.

I’ve saved the best solution for last. I have enough trouble managing the gadgets I have already, so this nifty camcorder from the folks at Panasonic is just what I’d buy.

Panasonic SDR-SW20

Online video communities are chock full of digital videos of dancing babies. Parents + digital camcorders can sometimes turn into a dangerous situation.

They become totally addicted to filming their little bundles of joys (can ya blame them, tho?). A video of their first steps quickly turns into 500 clips of the kid dancing away to a leap frog fridge dj!

Good thing there are tons of affordable camcorders on the market, so all parents can learn how to capture family videos. If you know someone who is expecting and is in the market for a compact camcorder, I’d recommend any entry level flash memory camcorder by Panasonic, JVC, or Sony.

JVC Everio GZ-MG555 HDD Camcorder

Sony Handycam DCR-SR200 40GB HDD Camcorder

Panasonic Palmcorder SDR-H18 HDD/SD Camcorder

I decided to do some research on the latest hd camcorders available for commercial and personal use. Today, I’m going to take a look at what Panasonic has to offer.
Panasonic HD cameras cost depends on their ultimate uses. The consumer HD camcorders start around $2100 and then skyrocket to $48,000 for a top of the line commercial camcorder. All of these models are 3ccd camcorders that have increasing level of hd image and audio resolution.

The basic consumer camcorder is the 1/4″ ProLine trademarked camcorder with hdmi interface and miniDV capabilities.

Next in line is the 1/3″ 3-CCD HD/DVCPRO/DV Cinema P2 Camera starting at $5995. It employs their CineSwitch ™ Technology, which allows for variable frame rates up to 60fps all in 720p. The CineGamma ™ Software allows for eight specific gamma settings. But what’s a gamma setting anyway?

According to this source, “The gamma function controls the general brightness or luminance and the contrast curve. This control allows an operator to set what is known as the characteristic curve of the camera, or the way in which it reproduces various tones along the black-to-white scale. Again further it can be stated that the black gamma controls the contrast and detail in the shadow and black areas of the picture. This may be further subdivided into a black stretch control for enhancing shadow detail, and a black press function that increases contrast.”

So I guess this setting controls the tones of the picture, which I’m sure is key to filming in HD.

The next P2 solid state HD camcorder is the 2/3″ AG-HPX500 with much of the same features as the last model. However, this one costs 14K and records in 1080i.

After that Panasonic jumps into the commercial market with the AJHDX900 that’s a full HD camcorder ($26,500). With the AJHDX900 allows you to capture images that can integrate special effects seamlessly in HD. The next commercial full hd model is the VariCam that has easy button access variable rate capabilities at $45,000.

And lastly, the AJ-HPX3000 which Panasonic’s catalog states “is the industry’s first native 1080p one-piece camcorder to capture master-quality high definition video.” It has 1920x 1080i res and records on a solid state p2 card with the “Film-Rec mode (made popular by the VariCam), film-like shutter controls, intuitive film camera-like operation.” Basically, it’s the closest to a 35mm film camera with the portability of a camcorder. Sounds great, if I had the dough to throw down on it.

Harvey and Bob Weinstein have decided to create a dvd label that will rival Criterion Collection releases.

See excerpt below from Yahoo news:
“the former Miramax Films chiefs are bent on leaving their imprint on the DVD business as well, with a premium label they hope will rival the prestigious Criterion Collection or Warner Home Video’s extravagant collector’s editions” (source)

It’s called the Miriam Collection, named for their mother. The first release was for El Cid back in January. I mean there’s no way it’s going to be as good as Criterion, but their efforts for film preservation can’t hurt. And it’s looks like the Weinstein’s will still release new films under their Genius Products domestic distribution label.

An upcoming notable release is the telepic “The Deal”, which focuses on the UK PM Tony Blair’s rise to power. Stephen Frear’s film interlaces eighties news footage with a compelling dramatization of events.

Maybe after awhile they’ll work up to releasing indie movies made with basic level hd camcorders like Panasonic’s ProLine camcorder. With all the latest innovations in hd, it will become more than profitable to distribute all kinds of indie films from studios such as The Weinstein Company.