New iKan V17 sports a protective cover and adjustable yoke.
Multiple input options and battery compatibility.
Ikan announced a brand new 17" LCD monitor with Component, HDMI, BNC, and SVideo inputs for only $1195!!! They are definitely listening to the customer input. Ikan has added a lucite faceplate to cover the fragile LCD screen, incorporated new types of inputs, and have maintained amazing quality at low prices. Even their existing products have benefitted from some high tech changes. The battery mount on the ikan 8” monitor now has a hot-swap adapter, allowing you to use batteries from Sony, Panasonic, or JVC. They have also added additional input types, and increased the durability with high quality construction.
Panasonic had some great new things to show, but most important for us microfilmmakers is the addition of the E-class P2 cards. After the annoucement of the 64gig P2 card available for $2000, Panasonic talked about the E class, or economy class cards-at half the price of their counterparts. These are just like the P2 cards you normally use, though they are actually faster, but won't last as long. Current info suggests that a normal P2 card could last through 100,000 wipes or more, while the E class cards will last for roughly half that. But here's the kicker...the price. 16gig for $420, 32gig for $625, and a 64gig for $998. The 16 and 32 will be available soon, and the 64 gig E-class will be available in August.
Ever found yourself in need of a cheap teleprompter? If so, you’ll love this new company I ran across. Cheapteleprompter.com sells low cost teleprompters that still have quite respectable quality. Starting at just under a grand for the hardware and $250 for the software, you can acquire equipment that is highly sought after in most major cities, for cable commercials, infomercials, and even local government.
ILM's Chad Taylor shows the basics of Sapphire.
GenArts showed off an amazing visual effects program, Sapphire Suite. ILM's lead digital artist, Chad Taylor gave a demonstration of how the program was used to create many of the effects in Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I was amazed at how simply the tools could be used. Sapphire also comes as a plug in for Final Cut Pro and After Effects, and we will be giving you a full review of Sapphire in an upcoming issue of MFM.
