Canon, Sharp, Samsung, Adobe, Canopus join AVC-HD

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Giroud Francois

there is no doubt that marketing BS will hit there (same as Full HD seen on every device now , even if the sensor is 320x240, but output is 1920x1080 compatible).

If the output looks good at 1920 x 1080, then what difference does it make what the sensor is. All that matters is the image, and what it costs. The marketing is not "BS" but is instead all about making HD acquisition as affordable as possible. Which in turn puts it into as many hands as possible.

Marketing is what determines the camera design and the price. The current HD camcorder offerings in the existing HDV and forthcoming AVCHD formats consititute an embarrassment of riches at a very reasonable buy-in rate. The only "BS" I'm seeing comes from the people who look at these formats and complain that they can't work with what they can get for their money... as if the technical specification of the image sensor is putting some sort of limitation upon their ability to create images with this gear. Which is complete nonsense, of course.

[Heath McKnight]

Chris,

I went over to Canon's consumer division, which is the only place you can gain access to the HDV cameras. But it seems like they recently added, within the consumer camcorder site, a Professional and Consumer menu:

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/co...categoryid=102

They must've heard ya! (grin)

heath

[Heath McKnight]

ps-Not to complain, but Sharp jumped onboard HDV back in September 2003, and we've YET to see a camera. I wonder if this means their support for AVCHD hints that we'll never see an HDV version...

Thoughts?

heath

[Chris Hurd]

Heath, I think that Sharp's participation in the HDV consortium might be in some capacity other than as a camcorder manufacturer.

As far as Canon USA's web site is concerned, I should have been more clear in my earlier post... sure, they're making a delineation on their site between the pro-oriented cams and the single-chips, but my point was that the same *people* are handling the marketing, sales, service, etc. for all of their camcorders and that's what I meant by one company doing the whole line. As opposed to Sony, for example, which has different companies (that is, different people) for their consumer and professional lines.

[Heath McKnight]

Good point, Chris, about Canon. And another great point about Sharp's invovlement. I never thought about that with Sharp, that they may have only been developing the tech with the other companies.

heath

[Pete Bauer]

Yeah, Canon Video has begun making a marketing distinction between their more expensive (ie, "professional") cameras and less expensive (ie, "consumer"), but AFAIK it is the same part of the company, same very nice people, same customer interface as always. They slightly re-organized their web site, created an XL/XH Owner's Club, and for the first time had a major press event with loaner cameras sent out (in NYC this past Nov -- outstanding move!).

Otherwise, as an end-user who over the past four years has bought a GL2, XL2, 2 XL-H1's, and road-tested the XH A1, I haven't perceived a lot of change in Canon. Even the warranty on the XL/XH cameras still reads as a consumer warranty, specifically excepting professional work!

The company seems to have a corporate culture to move more conservatively and gradually than some others -- that I think of as neither good nor bad -- just different from some of their competitors. So I kind of suspect this may be why the move toward creating a professional video camera line is relatively inapparent to us consumers.