Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Before and After Firewire
It was all analog. Everything tangled up in a mass of cables. There were wires
everywhere and different standards too. We're talking 1980s' technology.
Composite Video, S-Video, Component Video.
All through the 1980s the standard was Sony Betacam. First there was standard
Betacam, followed by Betacam SP and eventually, well into the 1990s, Digibeta
emerged as the standard for professional digital production. Sony may have
lost the format war to VHS but when it came to the professional arena Sony was
untouchable.
Before Betacam it was U-matic, available in low-band and hi-band versions.
There were various one inch formats: A, B and C. C-format was the best by a
long shot. It was like working with 35 mm film and coincidentally the tape was
about the same in measurement. Before one inch there was Quad - two-inch
tape that originated in the 1950s when Ampex first invented videotape.
The 1990s. Digital is everywhere. Digibeta, D1, D2, D3, D5, D9. Avid ruled the
non-linear market, with Media 100 chasing at its heels. DV hadn't even been
invented. Final Cut Pro wasn't even a whisper.
Everything changed in 1996 with the
introduction of one camera: the Sony VX-1000.
When this camera appeared on the market the
world went crazy. I remember the BBC had
purchased 100 of these and the camera had
only just been released. Then I started hearing the BBC had a VX-1000 in every
single department in the whole of the BBC. Documentaries were filmed with
this camera, multi-camera shoots were produced and the professional world
with all their big cameras sat back in astonishment as the world of acquisition
was redefined, apparently, overnight!
DV blew the whole scene apart. The quality of DV, as a recording format, is
equivalent to Beta SP. Perhaps on a technical chart DV might score slightly less,
but then DV doesn't suffer from the drop-out problem which plagued Beta SP
due to shedding and flaking of oxide.
