Thursday is a blessedly short day at NAB, when the show floor closes early and everyone unwinds at last. Days of frenzy and hyperactivity give way to widespread relief, bottle openers come out, and competitors become colleagues again.

Consequently, my Thursday blog will be brief. Here are some notable items I encountered today.

Vision Research‘s Phantom 35 (35mm-sized Bayer-filter CMOS) and Phantom 65 (65mm-sized Bayer-filter CMOS) digital cameras. The first, 1920×1080, up to 1000fps; the second, 4K up to 120fps. Both are progressive scan with an exposure index about 600 ISO (no microlens!). Low 40W draw. Pricey (about $100K and $200K, respectively) and lacking a viewfinder, but work great. Company has been in business since 1950.

Cine-tal‘s rugged 24in. LCD monitor for digital cinema field production. Full 1920×1080 resolution, dual-link HD-SDI and DVI input/output, with built-in OmniTek waveform monitor and vectorscope (yes!). A beauty who knows her true worth, $8500.

Ricsonix‘s teeny-tiny Pin-Mic, which can hide behind a shirt button. Attaches to “Little Buddy” body pack transmitter, petite enough to dangle in clothing behind Pin-Mic. Way too cool. (www.gracedistribution.com)

P+S Technik Skater Scope, a new compact, versatile snorkel system that can rotate the horizon 360 degrees. Superb build quality, must be operated to be appreciated. In B4, PL, and Panavision mounts. (www.pstechnik.de)

Aaton Penelope. Prototype of a compact switchable 2-, 3-, and 4-perf “quiet, quiet, quiet” sync-sound 35mm camera from Aaton’s resident genius, Jean-Pierre Beauviala. With a cryptic promise of compatibility with “Aaton JPG2008-Digi-Magazine.” Huh? Anyway, expect the demure Penelope to make her debut at NAB 2007.

Arri‘s new Arrimax 18/12, “the most powerful HMI light on the planet,” which can illuminate the side of an entire skyscraper. Lensless, it looks like nothing so much as a monstrous open-face Lowell DP light. Its single-ended 12kW or 18kW HMI lamp slides in or out of the rear of a massive parabolic reflector to adjust beam angle. (Read more on the Arrimax 18/12 here)

Further articles concerning NAB 2006 by myself and my colleagues will appear in Millimeter and Digital Content Producer over the coming months.

Thanks for reading.