Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

Some more landmarks to take note of in the ever-ongoing digital-video story:

• The Red One (base price: $17,500) creates imagery so sharp and rich that stills drawn from it can be used as magazine covers. Here's the site for Red Digital Cinema. Here's a good hands-on report about what it's like to use the Red One. Here's some sample footage.

• Panasonic's recently-announced Lumix GH1 is a pseudo-DSLR (base price: $1500ish) designed to capture snappy video as well as dandy stills. The first reviews are now coming in, and the consensus is that the GH1 is wonderfully easy to use and creates video that is near-movie-quality. David Pogue calls the camera "the real deal ... The footage looks jaw-droppingly good, like a hi-def loop playing on the $4,000 flat panels at Best Buy." Here's some sample footage.

Interesting to learn that some independent filmmakers are already shooting feature films with video-capable DSLRs.

Incidentally: If there's a part of you that would love to play with these cameras and maybe assemble a little edited something from their footage, dream on. Digital-video formats are an as-yet-unironed-out nightmare, and editing footage that's as high-quality as what the Red One and the GH1 output requires a much more powerful computer than what you have on your home desk. Next year, maybe.

Small MBlowhard reaction: Though I've found most movies shot on videocams to be sadly lacking when projected onto a movie screen, the latest high-quality footage when viewed on the HDTV in my bedroom looks darned good. It's more than up to the challenge of creating moods and casting a spell. Besides, since I do 99.9% of my movie-watching these days at home, why should I care about what this footage looks like on a movie-theater screen?

Come to think of it, the last time I went to a theater wasn't to watch a movie, it was attend a Metropolitan Opera presentation in HD. Recommended: world-class productions and singers, big images, and Dolby sound, all for around 20 bucks. It's such a satisfying way to see opera (and it has been so successful an innovation) that you worry a bit about the fortunes of local theater companies. How can they compete? Check out the Met's schedule here. The Wife and I are seeing "La Cenerentola" this Saturday.

Related: I bitched back here about that lousy "Star Wars" movie that was shot on video, and back here about a shot-on-video Robert Rodriguez western that looked like crap. Recently I confessed that I've been finding what amateurs are doing with home video these days more interesting than what the pros are doing anyway. My favorite source for news and thinking about movies and technology is the journalist and blogger Scott Kirsner.

Best,

Michael