CamCutter is a

digital video Digital video is an electronic representation of moving visual images (video) in the form of encoded digital data. This is in contrast to analog video, which represents moving visual images in the form of analog signals. Digital video comprises ...

camera technology developed by Ikegami and

Avid Technology Avid Technology, Inc. is a global technology company headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, and was founded in August 1987 by Bill Warner. It develops software, SaaS, and hardware products used in media and entertainment. History Avid wa ...

for recording broadcast quality video to

hard disk A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...

, dubbed a Digital Disk Recorder. First revealed in 1995 at the

National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a Industry trade group, trade association and lobbying, lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, broadcasters in th ...

convention in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

, it used a camera mechanism by Ikegami and a special FieldPack unit instead of a tape transport unit. The CamCutter outpaced subsequent

tapeless camcorder A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video camera, video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right s ...

s introduced by Sony and Panasonic by years. In October 2010, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) announced the recipients of the 62nd Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards. Ikegami and Avid Technology were announced as a winner for the Development and Production of Portable Tapeless Acquisition. Today's CamCutter technology can be found in Ikegami's Editcam products.

Features

Some of the features of being hard disk based was

in-camera editing In-camera editing is a technique where, instead of Film editing, editing the shots in a film into sequence after shooting, the Film director, director or cinematographer instead shoots the sequences in strict order. The resulting "edit" is therefo ...

, faster than real time transfer of footage and the RetroLoop, which used a circular buffer to constantly record footage, and allowed saving a "take" after the action happened. This camera technology provides time lapse capture and animation modes (1 frame per trigger).

Cost

The price of the initial unit was between US$40,000 to $60,000. Ikegami and Avid developed a follow on tapeless acquisition camera, the DNS201 which shipped in the late 1990s. This unit sold for below US$30,000. In 2000, NL Technology spun out of Avid and continued developing two more generations of this technology. The DNS33 priced below US$30,000 and the hi definition Avid DNxHD camera, the HDN-X10, priced in between US$30,000 and $40,000.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Due to its huge cost and prototype look and feel, many photographers did not use the initial hardware. Ikegami and NL Technology developed lower cost and more ergonomic versions that sold much better in the late 1990s and through 2010.

External links

* http://www.nltek.com/broadcast

* https://web.archive.org/web/20200201072312/https://www.avid.com/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20040819234711/http://www.macievideo.com/articles/ikeavidarticle.htm Audiovisual introductions in 1995 Digital movie cameras {{camera-stub