Canon HD?

[Bob Zimmerman]

All this talk about Panasonic, Sony and JVC HD well what about Canon? Any thoughts or ideas what Canon might do? When are we going to see a XLHD?

[Luis Caffesse]

Given the history, probably another 2 years or so.
Just my guess.

Hopefully I'm wrong.

[Dylan Couper]

I'd guess a little less than that..... maybe 23 months. :)

[Michael Struthers]

Since we are guessing, I'll say Canon will respond with greater speed than in the past...they will soon have 3 competitors who have jumped a generation on them.

I'll say NAB 2006 at the very LATEST for an HDV cam from Canon.

[Bob Zimmerman]

My post got moved to Area 51?

I think a better choice for Canon would be to make a GL size 16:9, 24p. HD camera. I wouldn't care if it was HD. But I think most new cameras will be made HD.

[Luis Caffesse]

I own't be suprised if you see a GL3 HDV camera sometime this year, probably at DVexpo. Although I guess there is a chance it will happen at NAB.

[Tom Hardwick]

You guys are right though - Canon have in the past been rather slower than the others to jump onto the moving train. It doesn't seemed to have harmed them though, and the Canon name is engraved with pride around the circumference of many a fine front element.

You can't say the same thing for Panasonic and Sony, who have had to go cap in hand to the Germans and pay royalties on evey Zeiss and Leica stamp.

tom.

[Jos Svendsen]

After a little cocktailparty I have some interesting info from a Canon-rep.

They say that they are waiting for something in the HDV-format to become a proper standard. When that happens, then they will release their HDV-product. He did not know what Canon was waiting for. But he confirmed the existance of a HDV-product.

"When the HDV-standard is solid - we'll release a product pretty soon after. It's ready, so we can move very fast, when time comes" - then he went for the bar again.

[Jeff Price]

Not sure what he means about 'when the HDV standard is solid'. The latest issue of Videography lists the 44 (?) companies supporting the HDV standard - it included Canon (and Apple). The editor says she has been attending a lot of NDA conferences learning about cameras/software that will be announced at NAB.

[Jos Svendsen]

I am not well enough into the HDV-standard to know if there are any areas that are not well defined. Can someove fill in on this?

But comments from others lead me to believe that the answer is the corporate standard reply to the question: " when does Canon annonce a HDV cam?"

However they feel quite hit and surprised by Sony's annoncements of their HDV, as it stalled Xl2-sales. And I know that Canon Europe has put presure on HQ to get HDV products.

It would be nice to have HL1 at NAB, but Canon and Apple seems to follow the same tightlipped strategy about new products.

[Jeff Price]

While I would love to see an HDV XL camera I would not be terribly surprised to see it in the GL line first. Many of the vendors seem to be targeting the prosumer lines first (though that may be changing with Panasonic's new offering). The demand on the Sony has been huge and I would hope that makes Canon take notice. Howver, this is a case of whether Canon has a design in hand and has been delaying production (in which case a prototype c ould be shown at NAB) or they have been holding off on design in which case it will be much longer before we see a Canon HDV camera.

As for rumors, Apple may be tight lipped but some of the rumor sites have been accurate enough to be sued in recent months. You just don't see the same efforts in the camera markets.

[Jos Svendsen]

The Canon rep clearly stated that a HDV-product was ready.

I did get the notion that Canons plans had been changed. They talked a lot about pricepoints at the event, so I think that a XL3 was/is in the works, but they want to hit the same price point as Sony FX-1, and changed plans.
My guess is that a HDV-camera that's an independant productline. And is, as you mentioned Jeff, targeted for the prosumers.
But .... they also said that the GL3 was 2006. If this means that they delayed the development in order to get the HL1 out, or this is the HDV cam I could not decode.

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

I wonder if it would be that hard for the upcoming camera to switch between DV and HDV with the press of a button.

[Jos Svendsen]

probably not, as all DV-functionality is down to one chip, så it will not cost anything to have that functionality, And the Sony FX1 has the possibility.

[Michael Struthers]

Well Canon had better jump to the very top rung of the hdv spec, because Panny is going DVCProHD, and Sony has XDCAM. Both will be trickling down to the masses very shortly, and neither have any hdv problems...