Anybody in the industry want to take a guess how soon before someone makes a three chip 1/2.6 HD cam like the HV20? I'm so stunned by it's clarity in good light that I want to wait for a three chip 1/2.6 but if it's going to be a few years then I figure . . . I'll buy something else in the next few months.

Hey matt,

Panasonic normally always comes out with 3ccd consumer cams.. in fact i had a 3ccd consumer cam from them a few years back the thing was only 600 bucks and looked amazing. now as everything is going HD. Panasonic is the only company really holding back on the consumer HD cams.

They do have one in the works but i believe it's not mini dv i think it's Flash media only(which sucks)

go here http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vModelList?storeId=15001&catalogId=13401&catGroupId=25002&cacheProgram=11002&cachePartner=7000000000000005702
and look at models HDC-SD1 and the HDC-DX1 they have the dvd but i don't know why they don't have a mini dv yet...

IT seems like panny thinks that none tape media is the next best thing.

and it would be fine with me if record time was at least 60 mins at highest and if it was not compressed to much and decent to edit.

But i too would like to see a nice sensor size 3ccd consumer HD cam.

good luck with your hunt matt... if anyone comes across this post with any more information for matt please pass it along.

~Mike