Matthew
22-06-2004, 01:36 PM
DV.com - Inspiring and Empowering Creativity (http://www.dv.com)
by Jim Feeley
Four-Blade Razors!
Last week, I saw a new razor, a Schick Quattro ( www.schickquattro.com ).
It has four blades and the latest in shaving technology. Two conditioning
strips release aloe and vitamin E. The package says, "Anti-clog technology
provides improved rinsability."
Boy, I thought, is my face in for a treat, and I've been concerned about
poor rinsability for years. Actually, that's not true. I didn't think
that. I thought, "Why the heck would I need four blades? Well, maybe I
should try it so I'll have an anecdote for my next Pre-Roll column." So I
bought a Quattro.
The next morning, my follicles each anxiously awaited the gentle French
kiss of steel. Actually, that's not true. My beard just silently grew as
it always does.
I put on some shaving cream and started to shave. The razor worked as well
as my previous razor. Not better. Not worse. I didn't notice a difference.
Neither did my wife.
I'm glad shaving technology has progressed from clam shells and sharp
rocks. I'm glad I never had to develop skills with and dress wounds from a
cutthroat straight razor. Modern multiblade razors work well. But there is
a limit to the number of blades my razor needs. Four exceeds those limits.
Just as modern shaving dawned with the use of a single razor, so did video
editing, and I don't mean that metaphorically.
The Ampex VR-1000, introduced in 1956, was the first practical broadcast
VTR. It was a breakthrough machine, but making a clean edit on its
2-inch-wide videotapes was arduous.
An editor would sprinkle onto the tape a fine powder of metal particles or
brush on a thin solution with suspended metal particles. Peering though a
microscope, the editor saw the metal particles aligned along the
magnetized bands where the VTR recorded the video signal. The editor then
cut between these narrow bands with a razor blade or a guillotine cutter.
For my analogy, the open-blade razor of video editing was an open razor
blade.
Compared with open-blade editing, any NLE represents at least a safety
razor. NLEs with realtime preview features are twin-blade razors. A fully
realtime online NLE represents a three-blade razor. An NLE with 5000
preset transitions and 100 hours of bundled stock footage would be the
four-blade razor of the editing world. More isn't always better.
You can apply the same analogy to other technologies. In audio, 8-bit
digital recording is the sharp rock, 16-bit 48 kHz is the two-blade razor,
24-bit 96 kHz the three-blade, and 24-bit 192 kHz is either the four-blade
razor or a special dog razor.
For tape formats, DV is the single-blade razor, DV50 the dual-blade razor,
and HD formats the three-blade razor.
Film is the four-blade razor (that should generate some letters).
So where does the Panasonic DVX100A DV camcorder fit into this scheme?
Here's where my analogy doesn't cut cleanly.
The DVX100 is a very good camera. As Adam Wilt points out in his review in
this issue, the DVX100A adds welcome improvements. If I rigidly adhere to
my analogy, I'd say that the DVX100A is a one-blade camera with a
moisturizing strip. But that doesn't do justice to the camera.
If I confine the analogy to only miniDV cameras, I could say the DVX100A
is a three-blade razor and hope no one asks how the DVX100 fits in. Or I
could say they're both three-blade razors, but the DVX100A is somewhat
sharper, and admit my analogy isn't as finely honed as I first thought.
I'm glad manufacturers like Panasonic are finding ways to make small but
useful improvements to existing products.
I'd much rather see that than have an unneeded forth blade attached.
But my razor analogy only loosely fits a field growing and changing as
fast as digital video. The cutting-edge razor of today may become the dull
knife of tomorrow.
Will new HDV, 1080p, and other HD cameras make today's SD cameras
instantly obsolete? I doubt it, and waiting for my vision of the perfect
HD camera to ship could leave me with a hairy problem, or with nothing but
blank tapes for a while.
Before I bought that four-blade razor, I had a three-blade razor. Before
that, I had two-blade and one-blade razors. They all did the job. I'm not
going to buy any more Quattro blades, just like I'm not going to buy any
bit of equipment that demands a premium price but delivers negligible
benefits.
Jim Feeley is Editor In Chief of DV Magazine.
Copyright 2002, CMP Media LLC
====
Thanks to Peter Litton for sending me this article! Go to DV.com for more useful stuff like this!
by Jim Feeley
Four-Blade Razors!
Last week, I saw a new razor, a Schick Quattro ( www.schickquattro.com ).
It has four blades and the latest in shaving technology. Two conditioning
strips release aloe and vitamin E. The package says, "Anti-clog technology
provides improved rinsability."
Boy, I thought, is my face in for a treat, and I've been concerned about
poor rinsability for years. Actually, that's not true. I didn't think
that. I thought, "Why the heck would I need four blades? Well, maybe I
should try it so I'll have an anecdote for my next Pre-Roll column." So I
bought a Quattro.
The next morning, my follicles each anxiously awaited the gentle French
kiss of steel. Actually, that's not true. My beard just silently grew as
it always does.
I put on some shaving cream and started to shave. The razor worked as well
as my previous razor. Not better. Not worse. I didn't notice a difference.
Neither did my wife.
I'm glad shaving technology has progressed from clam shells and sharp
rocks. I'm glad I never had to develop skills with and dress wounds from a
cutthroat straight razor. Modern multiblade razors work well. But there is
a limit to the number of blades my razor needs. Four exceeds those limits.
Just as modern shaving dawned with the use of a single razor, so did video
editing, and I don't mean that metaphorically.
The Ampex VR-1000, introduced in 1956, was the first practical broadcast
VTR. It was a breakthrough machine, but making a clean edit on its
2-inch-wide videotapes was arduous.
An editor would sprinkle onto the tape a fine powder of metal particles or
brush on a thin solution with suspended metal particles. Peering though a
microscope, the editor saw the metal particles aligned along the
magnetized bands where the VTR recorded the video signal. The editor then
cut between these narrow bands with a razor blade or a guillotine cutter.
For my analogy, the open-blade razor of video editing was an open razor
blade.
Compared with open-blade editing, any NLE represents at least a safety
razor. NLEs with realtime preview features are twin-blade razors. A fully
realtime online NLE represents a three-blade razor. An NLE with 5000
preset transitions and 100 hours of bundled stock footage would be the
four-blade razor of the editing world. More isn't always better.
You can apply the same analogy to other technologies. In audio, 8-bit
digital recording is the sharp rock, 16-bit 48 kHz is the two-blade razor,
24-bit 96 kHz the three-blade, and 24-bit 192 kHz is either the four-blade
razor or a special dog razor.
For tape formats, DV is the single-blade razor, DV50 the dual-blade razor,
and HD formats the three-blade razor.
Film is the four-blade razor (that should generate some letters).
So where does the Panasonic DVX100A DV camcorder fit into this scheme?
Here's where my analogy doesn't cut cleanly.
The DVX100 is a very good camera. As Adam Wilt points out in his review in
this issue, the DVX100A adds welcome improvements. If I rigidly adhere to
my analogy, I'd say that the DVX100A is a one-blade camera with a
moisturizing strip. But that doesn't do justice to the camera.
If I confine the analogy to only miniDV cameras, I could say the DVX100A
is a three-blade razor and hope no one asks how the DVX100 fits in. Or I
could say they're both three-blade razors, but the DVX100A is somewhat
sharper, and admit my analogy isn't as finely honed as I first thought.
I'm glad manufacturers like Panasonic are finding ways to make small but
useful improvements to existing products.
I'd much rather see that than have an unneeded forth blade attached.
But my razor analogy only loosely fits a field growing and changing as
fast as digital video. The cutting-edge razor of today may become the dull
knife of tomorrow.
Will new HDV, 1080p, and other HD cameras make today's SD cameras
instantly obsolete? I doubt it, and waiting for my vision of the perfect
HD camera to ship could leave me with a hairy problem, or with nothing but
blank tapes for a while.
Before I bought that four-blade razor, I had a three-blade razor. Before
that, I had two-blade and one-blade razors. They all did the job. I'm not
going to buy any more Quattro blades, just like I'm not going to buy any
bit of equipment that demands a premium price but delivers negligible
benefits.
Jim Feeley is Editor In Chief of DV Magazine.
Copyright 2002, CMP Media LLC
====
Thanks to Peter Litton for sending me this article! Go to DV.com for more useful stuff like this!