Studio Cameras: Ready for the XXl Century!

Today, multiple questions assail the user: To what extent have the boundaries between studio cameras and laptops been reduced? What is the difference between the image processing of digital and analog cameras? Is the achievement of a digitalization that has overcome the old obstacles of transmission real? Can we speak, in short, of an absolute criterion before this stage of transition?

Undoubtedly, the critical point of all these questions refers to the confrontation that exists between those who affirm that at the present time the digitization of cameras has not been perfected enough to leave behind the analog domain of the image, and between those who say that digital technology already allows to launch 100% developed products that greatly advantage the analog cameras and even among those who consider that by their nature hybrid systems with analog image processing and digital control will indefinitely surpass digital cameras.

Faced with these divergences, it is useful to dwell on the different aspects related to the improvement of television cameras and clarify what are the common developments and advantages of each system.

For some distributors of high developments aimed at television, it is inevitable to draw a parallel between the revolution that meant the transition from the tube captor system to the CCD, and the one that is operating between analog and digital cameras. The introduction of the CCD was initially controversial and with strong doubts about the new technology that nevertheless was perfected and completely imposed on the market in less than five years.

Today the CCD is irreplaceable and the cameras have reached incomparable levels of registration thanks to interchangeable CCDs that fit different production criteria and that have a super high density and an increasing number of pixels.

This year a novelty will be introduced related to the need to prepare the cameras for advanced television (ADVANCED Television, ATV) and for future high-definition television. It is the extension of three to four channels of the CCDs, so that the RGB signals (Red, Green, Blue) will no longer allocate one but two channels for the registration of the blue (B) so that no sensor area is lost with the passage to the wide screen (Widescreen).

Currently the binomial between large cameras and portable cameras in the studio is being replaced by the launch of companion cameras – Ikegami's is a clear example – that not only have lenses of similar power, but pixels and CCDs of the same characteristics. This new development increases the flexibility in the production conditions as it allows to reduce the limit of approach to the scenes and increases the expressive possibilities of the shots. Thanks to a portable-adaptable wrap, it can even use the lens and pedestal of the large camera.

In addition to the innovations in the aforementioned CCDs, there are a number of new possibilities in the current cameras driven in part by the transition of the television system to high definition that will change the ratio of the size of the image from 3:4 to 9:16 with a scanning system whose number of lines still not fully fixed will surely double the current one. But since the new screen ratio is already a fact, even though it still continues to operate with the traditional sweeping system, the latest developments of both analog and digital cameras have the possibility of adapting to the new format. Just press a switcher for it.

Likewise, there are several technologies that coincide in a common objective: the serial automation of the adjustment of the cameras and the possibility of operating them by remote command or remote control with units from the most basic to the most sophisticated. This implies that the control of the cameras already belongs to the digital domain and that it is now possible to obtain general reports of each camera on a computer screen.

Sony's DVP-700, which is the current "top" of its analog cameras, has a remote-controlled video technical surveillance system, and quick access to all image production parameters. Its master set-up unit effectively manages the installations, multi-cameras. The Ikegami HK-377, also analogous, can work with interface memory cards to control and classify scene data and read it quickly. Thanks to the quick Auto function, it performs an auto set up without requiring a test cart.

Within digital cameras, the Hitachi SK-2600 performs precise file transfers between cameras, outputs and inputs of digital audio and composite digital video, in less time than is normally used thanks to its external self-alignment system and the elimination of an internal lens adjustment pattern, which also reduces your costs.

The picture in picture function, shared by all these cameras, simultaneously allows monitoring of different images in a small camera window. The view finder is another common achievement.

In relation to optical functions, the "tops" of lines of the cameras have automatic color processing, 6-vector correctors that allow to specifically modify the tint and saturation of a color and linear matrix circuits that reduce the aliassing effect thanks to the perfect reproduction of optical aspects without distortion and that increase the resolution of separate colors.

Great progress has also been made in the control of details: not only is an automatic balancing of whites, flare of blacks, balance of range and parameters are adjusted according to the light intensity of the scene, but there are options such as the skin tone detaile that allows to graduate the tone of the skin and soften wrinkles without affecting the rest of the the image.

This question is the high point of our topic. While the Hitachi is at the head of those who lead the digitization of cameras, Sony places them on the market as excellent intermediate models, and Ikegami – although it was a pioneer in its launch – considers that currently the digital processing of the image does not improve its quality and that this is not the time to implement it.

For Emilio Alemán, manager of engineering and professional products – Latin American division – of Hitachi, the fundamental advantage in the digital processing of the image is that due to the operation of the binary signals, it is absolutely accurate, and ensures an exact reproduction of the visual information, while the analog signal is subject to oscillations and points of indecision.

"Digital systems," he emphasizes, "never create a deterioration in the signal and have absolute accuracy and respectability. On the other hand, the performance of functions such as the skin tone detaile in a digital environment, allows a much more accurate handling of details. Thanks to the color matrix it is possible to change, for example, only the line of a tie."

For digital transmission – one of the biggest stumbles that in the opinion of experts faces the digitization of cameras – Hitachi developed a triaxial digital system that they maintain allows an output of the CCU (Camera Control Unit) exactly the same as that of the camera head. The system takes advantage of the low cost of the standard cable industry and is used in studio where moderate lengths (500 meters maximum) are the norm. Transmissions from outside are made with fiber optics. "This avoids – according to engineer Joaquín Varela, Hitachi's representative in Colombia – the loss of the sound/noise ratio, variations in temperature and eliminates the errors caused by the multiple conversions of analog-digital hybrid systems."

The engineer Hélmer Granja, who identifies with Ikegami's position, affirms that the possibilities of digital control of the camera are indisputable but that the digital processing of the image does not improve its quality and that it can even create a degradation of the signal if you do not have a total digitization due to the different conversions: "There is currently no camera that works digitally from the camera head to the base station via a triaxial cable and that maintains image transparency. On the other hand, the use of optical fiber is not convenient in study and if it is used remotely, a special protection system must be placed. This is excellent only when placed at fixed points and in conditions where it is not exposed to deterioration."

"In fact," he continues, "the digital works on the electronic part but not on the optical part. Analog cameras give better image quality: Ikegami has developed, for example, super high density CCDs that achieve unparalleled resolution. In addition, electronic components in digital processing require more energy and are therefore more susceptible to heating."

Although Sony presents its portable digital cameras as the best in the world, it grants the category of superior model to its latest analog cameras, arguing that digitization requires a fairly high sampling that has not yet been fulfilled.

Engineer Aldo Buenahora, representative of Sony, says: "The image quality of analog cameras is demonstrably better and the tops of each manufacturer's line remain analog because they have been perfected for 30 years while digital cameras are just beginning. However, if transmission systems are standardized on fiber optics or tetraxial cables, digital cameras will surely surpass analog systems."

As for the problem of quality, Aldo Buenahora considers that it is relative. "In fact, so it was with the transition from two-inch to one-inch machines. Even when it represented a clear loss of quality, they had great advantages that ended up imposing themselves. "I am absolutely sure that we have already started a path towards digital systems because their technology solves real user-producer needs and this will make quality problems become intangible later."

Although, however, he points out that cinematographers still prefer analog cameras, and that both the capture of the image and the first part of the processing (balances and preamplifiers) will always be analogous, he highlights as benefits of digital cameras the accuracy of their processing parameters, and the use of the digitized set up card like the one developed by Sony in its last camcords and that can allow copying the adjustment of a camera not only for others but in a deferred way in time.

Faced with one of the greatest limitations currently facing the digitization of cameras and the question of whether the entire digital process is justified to end up taking it to tape, the manufacturers of these cameras maintain that the technology is already developed but that it needs to be taken to commercial levels. Today, the cost of storing volumes of information on hard drives is higher than on magnetic tape but this does not mean that it will continue to be so in the future.

Undoubtedly, one of the most important consequences of these divergences between manufacturers and distributors is the same dynamization of the development of television. And as for the difficult moment of purchasing decisions, given that – as the engineer Aldo Buenahora affirms – "the magnitude of the technological advance of the cameras makes the differences between brands almost marginal", it is desirable that the shoot out or live comparison be extended that will allow to confront the possibilities of each camera.

If this is achieved and the elections are made with technical criteria, Latin American television can be considered as the real winner and the end user will be the biggest beneficiary.