Specs sound great - But I'm going to wait until I see for myself how different the image on the DVX 100A is.

Usually, 12-bit A/Ds are found in more expensive shoulder-cams, like Pana's AJ-SDX900, JVC's GY-DV5000.

Even though not very significant, but noticeable. I do not know how Pana implements this, but according to JVC:

"the 12-bit A/D allows direct digital input to the DSP without passing through analogue pre-gain and pre-knee circuits, eliminating signal degradation"

This feature is also available on the GY-DV300, aka Streamcorder. I would suggest that do a direct footage comparison with the rests, like PD, XL & DVX100 to see the difference.

DVX100A U.S. availability and pricing late December.

''They [Panasonic Broadcast Japan] announced this product at InterBEE in Japan, and we'll show it at DV Expo West in December,'' said Jim Wickizer, a spokesperson for Panasonic Broadcast US. ''What they are announcing in Japan is the same product that we're going to be bringing to the United States. We're not ready to announce pricing or availability. There will be an announcement on pricing and availability on the model in late December.''

Hey if you guys find out if Pany is going to offers upgrades for existing users can you guys make sure to tell me thanks!

Well if Panasonic fixes the audio delay problem in 24P mode, it would be another great upgrade.

Panasonic plans no upgrade path for current DVX owners.

Frederic:

Thanks for the info - are you getting this from Panasonic directly?

For those folks who are current DVX100 owners (like myself), you might want to wait before you upgrade to the DVX100A. Canon is aggressively promoting rebates on the XL1S ($500 US) and GL2 ($250 US.) I received two emails from Canon yesterday on the subject. For sure, that tells me that they have a lot of these cameras in inventory, but what is suggests is that they want to dump that inventory to make room for new models.

For my money, the current DVX100 is better than either Canon, even without interchangeable lenses, and the DVX100A looks to be be even better. However, the next generation from Canon looks like it's coming "real soon now." If you don't need to buy a new camera immediately, you might wait a bit and see what they (and JVC and others) have up their sleeves between now and NAB 2004.

Best wishes,
Len Feldman
Riverbend Entertainment

Give me 16x9 or give me death!

Won't Century Optics new anamorphic adapter work on the new dvx100a as well?

Canon's going to have to come up big now to beat this one...

havnt you heard.. canon doesnt make pro-sumers anymore.

then what do they make ???

Nice little handy cams. And Digital elphs and Rebels. nice little cameras. Oh they make a damn good inkjet printer as well.

so i guess you are anti canon... well different strokes for different folks... ;-)

no way man the XL1 was a fantastic camera, I love Canon. I just got sick of waiting for the XL2... oh about 5 years ago.. and now adays besides looking pretty cool the camera is completely outdated.

It obviously is not a priority for Canon at all... but hey who knows, maybe tommorow the xl2 will come and fall down on my head from the lords above.

But.. to make my point, I am not anti-canon at all, I own at least one product from every product group they sell.

yea i understand the waiting thing... i have been on that train for about 4 years now... hopefully soon canon will release that xl2... sorry to assume that about you... it just sounded that way...

peace

hey no problem... it takes alot to offend me. :)

I think its gonna be a big year 2004 for pro-sumers....

You gotta admit, Panasonic are making Canon look very unresponsive. The technical achievements announced by Panasonic point to what a fantastic camera the XL1 derivative could become. I just hope Canon add true widescreen as well. Like everyone else I'm waiting, waiting, waiting, but Canon better hurry or else Panasonic will steal a vast number of potential sales (including mine).

Jim

I think the basic problem with the XL1/XL1s is it's basic design (note I owned an XL1 for almost 3 years).

The interchangable lens feature is great and quality glass abounds for it, from Canon and others (mini35, Optex etc). However, given the limitations of DV format and interlaced images, the Canon glass/lens issues is not the biggest design improvement possible in DV cameras.

The areas are:

(1) Progressive scan. Ironically, the Canon's frame mode eliminates interlace problems but takes away 33% of precious DV resolution. Panasonic realized this and the DVX100 has no peer.

(2) Capture flexibility: Canon only offers 60i and 30fps frame mode. Panasonic offers 24P, 30P and 60i. JVC offers several DV and HD rates. No wonder JVC and Panasonic command mind/press share.

(3) Image control (especially to deal with limited latitude of DV). Panasonic and JVC (Pro-DV Cams) far outstrip Canon's limited controls.

(4) 16:9 image capture: This is still the holy grail. Sony and Panasonic have the only solutions in-cam but neither offers it with full-rez progressive & the rest have to go anamorphic or JVC HD, with it's mixed bad of high resolution and problematic artifacts.

To me, if Canon want to regain respect, they will need to at least offer full progressive scan and 24/30p. To get leadership, they will have to get image control and 16:9 in the package.

I think they should really have a three camera levels:

Entry prosumer: GL2 series
Medium prosumer: XL2 series (XL1 with 24/30p and image controls)
High prosumer/low end pro (XL2 with true 16:9).

Steve:

I agree with you completely. The Canons were first-rate cameras when they were first released, but if it wasn't for the XL series' interchangable lenses, I think that the production community would have completely abandoned them by now. However, the fact is that, as a company, Canon has superb technology; one only has to look at what they're doing in digital still cameras and consumer camcorders to see that they know how to build world-class products.

Everything I've seen and heard leads me to believe that between now and NAB 2004, there's going to be an explosion of lower-cost HD products announced by all the major vendors. No matter how much you like the DVX100A, it's at best an incremental "life extender" for the DVX100 design. It still doesn't have true 16:9, let alone HD, and it doesn't have interchangable lenses. As I said before, if you need a camera and the DVX100A does everything you need, then by all means buy it now (or buy a DVX100 after the A ships and save a lot of money.) But, if you can wait as long as April, then wait and see what arrives at NAB.

Best wishes,
Len Feldman
Riverbend Entertainment

<<<-- Originally posted by Len Feldman : Steve:
But, if you can wait as long as April, then wait and see what arrives at NAB. -->>>

Unfortunately, annoucements made at NAB are usually just that, annoucements. Take Sony's track record for example, if they annouce something at NAB, it will most likely only be available in Q4 of 2004.

Frederic:

That's generally true, and Sony's XDCAM is an excellent example; shown first at NAB last April, but it's still not available. However, there are a lot of products that are announced at or before NAB that become available in the channel either right after NAB or within 60-90 days.

I've found that manufacturers don't announce products too early if they're going to cannibalize their existing product line (the Osborne effect). If they don't think that they can ship by the end of the summer, they hold the product announcement for IBC in September. For example, the XDCAM was shown at NAB as a technology preview with no announced availability date, and it didn't impact sales of Sony's other products. It was "productized" at IBC, and it will likely ship in the next 60 days.

There are always exceptions, like Play's Trinity, which was shown at conferences for three years before it actually shipped, but by and large, companies that show working prototypes at NAB expect to be shipping no later than September.

Best wishes,
Len Feldman
Riverbend Entertainment

Panny came out with this camera so soon - everyone is already getting their HD stuff ready. The pdx100a has about a 6 month shelf life.

Not too sure about that! I'd say not until HD-DVD comes out. Sure you can shoot HD, but how are you going to distribute it? D-VHS? Windows Media 9? There just aren't any viable consumer HD distributable medium out there. So HD, although available on cable and satellite by broadcasters, is not yet a reality for those of us who rely on DVD (and God forbid, VHS) to distribute our content. SD/DV will still be here for the next couple of years. I'm not saying that HD does not have it's place, far from it. I'm just saying that SD is far from dead. Just remember that 480p is one of the ATSC standards for distributable HD... something to think about.

Wouldn't a regular DVD created from HD source look better than a regular DVD created from SD source? Assuming all the other factors like lenses/lighting/etc. (cost - ha!) are held constant.

Depends on the camera, but yes, of course it would. Even with the little HD1 camera, the image retains an incredible amount of sharpness and detail after downsizing to DVD. I don't care for the rest of the image, I think the DVX does a much better job with latitude, saturation, color rendition, motion, all other factors -- but the sharpness is retained.

I am eagerly awaiting the next HDV camera.

Alright...here you go: Adam Wilt's first-look at the DVX100A over at dv.com:

http://www.dv.com/features/features_item.jhtml?category=Archive&LookupId=/xml/feature/2003/wilt1203&_requestid=28488

Thanks John. This is a great pre-review.

Get your frame grabs (http://www.adamwilt.com/24p/) here.