I posted a link to a photo of Panasonic camera mock-ups from CES 2006 a while ago, well it looks like they were showing mock-ups of future HD consumer cameras (I assume they were some of the ones in the photo). The consumer cameras will come in 2007, price target of $1K is mentioned. I Have just found this interview with Panasonic North America's CEO, from January:

http://news.com.com/Panasonics+plasma+pusher+-+page+3/2008-1041_3-6027524-3.html?tag=st.num

http://news.com.com/Panasonic+to+emphasize+cameras%2C+plasmas/2100-1041_3-6024809.html?tag=st.rn


This mentions cheaper models coming, I wonder if there is a prosumer model under the HVX coming before the "consumer ones".

Why don't they do a DVCPRO50/100 SD hard disk camera? A 10 bit camera with non pixel shifted smalcamera/fill-factory cmos sensors in place of the DVX100, or a DVCPRO100 720p version (yes I am advocating 720p/SD at full 100Mb/s rate) would be a nice near end of format SD camera.

http://news.com.com/2300-7353_3-6021570-3.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

http://news.com.com/Sony+unveils+next+HD+camcorder+for+consumers/2100-1041_3-6041732.html

That's neat and all, but I'm just wondering what can you expect to do with them? Behind the scenes featurettes? It's a wonder getting a DVX as a B camera on an SD shoot with the HVX200, but if they make a consumer one (presumably 1080i), then where would that fit in? The Sony camp seems to be in the lead with this regard, since an HC1 or A1U is so darn close to the FX1 and Z1U in image quality, you can have dozens of cheaper B cameras all around. If Panasonic came out with a 720p 24p camera, we'd be in business, but as it stands, unless you're new to filmmaking, then I'm not sure this news will help out much. Not that I'm knocking the thread or anything, I'm just giving my point of view. What do manufacturers expect to happen? What happens when everyone's got an HD(v) camera? Do they release the next step in HD trinkle-down and make us prosumers suffer?

Strange times, but exciting too. =)

Depends, cmos has come along way, and the technology we tested last year definitely can blow the DVX100 with FIlmstream away. So yes, we might be able to expect decent optical quality from the future generation of consumer cameras, and even better pro cameras.

As far as compression quality goes, Panasonic didn't join up HDV, maybe they looked at the road map, and decided the competition was not enough on the consumer side of HDV for a while, and they could do DVCPROHD, or H264 etc. But I expect that codec wise it is not going to be any worse than what you expect from a descent MIniDV camera.

Releasing next year gives them plenty of options.

So, yeah, depending on the application I think HD versions of 30 60, 100 cameras would be good for the documentaries, and other jobs.

It is a shame they are not going now with Ambarella for consumer HD, and giving end of life DVCPRO50/100 SD cameras, as manufacturers tend to do with dated formats. The switch over to HD must be slowly eating away SD DVCPRO50 pro sales, making it a excellent choice to move to the consumer market. To me, a small SD camera like that in 10 bit non pixel shifted 3 chip cmos 4:4:4 (as I described before) is worth a lot more than a HC3 HDV. After upscaling the image, it will probably even look better.