On first sighting Sony's PMW-EX3 last April at NAB, I blogged, “How could there be an EX3 when the PMW-EX1 debuted only a few months ago?” I called it an EX1 with interchangeable lenses and noted the “weird, oversized viewfinder cobbled together from the EX1's flip-out LCD and a sizable arrangement of viewing optics.” In my NAB wrap-up for this magazine, I dubbed it a “platypus,” that chimerical egg-laying mammal with the bill of a duck and tail of a beaver.

Those comments stand. It's virtually unprecedented for a manufacturer to release a follow-up product hard on the heels of the original, which highlights the fact that the EX3, despite a successive product number, is not a successor to the EX1 but rather its matched complement. In fact, had they been introduced in reverse order, this review might instead be touting the just-released EX1 as a compact, stripped-down version of the EX3 welcomed especially by documentary makers and those who slide slim camcorder cases into overhead bins while flying. more>>

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Nino Del Padre heads Del Padre Digital, a progressive new media production house that offers a wide variety of design and production solutions, from interactive media and flash to ultra high-definition 4K video production to 3D animation product-rendering. He started the company back in 1991 out of a closet, but it now houses a whole team of creative professionals who seize upon the newest technologies that digital media has to offer in order to better serve their clients. more>>

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Digital Content Producer and Reel-Exchange.com present a directory of top postproduction and visual effects facilities including The Mill, Phoenix Editorial and Design, SWAY, rhinofx, !mpossible Pictures, National Ministry of Design, Frantic Films, and many more across the U.S. and the globe. To view the report, click here.

Panasonic introduced the solid-state AG-HPG20 P2 portable recorder/player with AVC-Intra recording capabilities at the DV Expo conference. Supporting the 10-bit AVC-Intra codec as well as formats ranging from DVCPRO HD to DV, the P2 Portable will serve as a master quality deck for fast, file-based recording—bridging content to and from older tape based systems and HD-SDI infrastructures.

With 10-bit AVC-Intra compatibility, the HPG20 P2 brings master-quality recording—formerly only available in higher cost, full sized decks—to the field. This extraordinary workflow tool allows users to playback and review P2 cards on its 3.5in. LCD screen, manage clip files and metadata, record content from a wide range of cameras via its HD-SDI input, and backup data onto hard disk drives. more>>

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Industry News

Canon HD Lenses Deliver Production Value for Mini-series
The creation of high-quality television programming requires top talent and the best production technology available to achieve the director’s creative vision. For MegaFilms (the filmed entertainment division of the Spanish Broadcasting System), this meant shooting its acclaimed 12-hour miniseries Gabriel with a full set of six High-definition Electronic Cinematography (HD-EC) prime lenses and an HJ8×5.5B KLL-SC cine-zoom lens from the Broadcast and Communications division of Canon, a leader in digital imaging. more>>