Question to Panasonic people - Any chance that the factory could upgrade my HVX-200 to a 200A ? It would be worth significant money to me for lower noise and slightly increased sensitivity. If not, how about a trade-in allowance ?

Mark,

Having been a direct consultant for Panny I can answer this:

The 200 and 500 are not "upgradeable" cameras; there are no internally swappable cards to change capabilities such as many of the full-size ENG rigs do (the HPX2000 has an AVC-Intra card option, for example) nor can you change-out the imaging blocks without completely rewiring the associated circuitry. And unfortunately there are no trade-ins/upgrades with Panny or any other manufacturer directly.

However, some dealers offer equipment leasing options which *does* allow for trade-ins/upgrades so that you're not stuck with any one camera. The downside obviously is that you don't own the camera outright and the cost of the lease cost is often double the value of the equipment itself.

If you're really wanting to upgrade to the 200A your best bet is either to post your camera for-sale here in the "Private Classifieds" section or put it up on eBay.

Just sell the HVX200.

You'd probably get more that way than either paying for an upgrade or trading it in if you could.