Apple’s support site states:

The iFrame Video format is designed by Apple to speed up importing and editing by keeping the content in its native recorded format while editing. Based on industry standard technologies such as H.264 and AAC audio, iFrame produces small file sizes and simplifies the process of working with Video recorded with your camera.

Currently, only Sanyo has announced cameras that support the new format:

SANYO North America Corporation (SANYO) today introduces its high-end Dual Cameras, the VPC-HD2000A and the VPC-FH1A, as the world’s first camcorders to offer compatibility with iFrame, a next generation video format designed specifically to allow users to easily import, edit and share high quality videos.

There are several important notes about this announcement:

• At the moment, Final Cut Studio does not support this new format – only iMovie 8.0.5 does.
• The new format is designed for computer editing – fast import, fast editing, and square pixels, which removes sizing confusion when dealing with still digital images.
• The new format shoots a progressive, rather than interlaced, image.
• This is the first new video format in a long while, joining the ranks of AVCHD, HDV, and AVCCAM
• This format does not require transcoding into a different format, such as ProRes, which takes time and storage space.
• This is not a transcoding format, this format requires camera manufacturers to support it in the camera.
• The format records a 1/4 frame 1080 image (960 x 540). While more than adequate for consumer cameras, it does not compete for image quality with a full-raster HD image.

I am very curious to see if other camera manufacturers adopt the format – and whether Apple decides to support it within Final Cut Pro.

For me, the big news is that this is the first of a long series of steps needed to reconcile the differences between video and computer formats to reduce the conversions we need to make when editing video on our Macs.