CamCutter is a

digital video Digital video is an electronic representation of moving visual images (video) in the form of encoded digital data Digital data, in information theory and information systems, is information represented as a string of discrete symbols eac ...

camera technology developed by Ikegami and

Avid Technology Avid Technology is an American technology and multimedia company based in Burlington, Massachusetts, and founded in August 1987 by Bill Warner. It specialises in audio and video; specifically, digital non-linear editing (NLE) systems, video edi ...

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 platters coated with magn ...

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

National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than ...

convention in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...

, 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 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 side, hot-swa ...

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 Editcam is a professional digital camera system manufactured by Ikegami and first introduced in 1995, available both as professional camcorders and modular dock recorders. It is the first ever tapeless field acquisition device and has evolved int ...

products.

Features

Some of the features of being hard disk based was

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

, 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