Sony Announcement, 26th July.

[Gabor Heeres]

Peik,

The FX1000 and AX2000 are present prosumer models and still sold new as well....

[Trell Mitchell]

* Maybe a new XDCAM codec, 10 Bit, 4:2:2.
* Hybrid XDCAM Camera: Quad Layer Optical Disc recording, & additional XQD, or SXS card slot for dual recording (optical disc & card). Reducing the need for external recorders.
* Longer battery life with optical disc based camera.
* USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt port for faster file transfer.

[Alister Chapman]

OK, I obviously wasn't precise enough. I have never seen Sony use the single even digits 2, 4, 6 or 8 which is why you probably won't ever see an EX2, F4, Z8 or whatever.

XDCAM is based on Mpeg2 which is an 8 bit codec, so it would not be XDCAM as we know it if it is 10bit.

Like Doug I'm under NDA so you'll have to wait until Thursday for the news.

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

Nikon don't seem to have any problems using the No. "4"...:)

[Emmanuel Plakiotis]

In recent years they only roll out memory camcorders, so I don't believe it's going to be any new disc based. Due to competition anything new should be 50Mbit.
Recently they have introduced a 1/3 50Mbit and not so long ago 2/3 50Mbit memory based camcorders.
So either an upgrade of their 1/2 line to 50Mbit or an upgrade of F3 to 50Mbit.
Since they emphasize on "Big" in their announcements I'll bet is the latter.
Taking into account the trajectory of the NXCAM lineup from FS100 to FS700, my prediction is a more expensive version of F3 with 50Mbit and 4K option, possibly with SSM as well.

[Craig Kovatch]

How about an "affordable" 10-bit external recorder? This seems to be the only area Sony doesn't have they're fingers in. A new camera at this time of year seems unlikely.

[David Heath]

Now it seems to be an XDCAM announcement, that tends to rule out my earlier guess of something for the 4k abilities of the FS700.

The XDCAM range seems pretty filled at the moment, and it's difficult to see what else could come along. Most obvious would have been extending the 50Mbs codeec into the rest of the range - But Alisters more or less ruled that out ("It won't be firmware to do 50Mb/s in an EX1 ......") - though I suppose that doesn't rule out an EX1 successor which DOES do 50Mbs?

One obvious gap may be a camera with the PMW350 front end and 50Mbs recording? And I wonder about a higher end (and XDCAM) version of the FS700?

But does "big announcement" really sound like a new camera? It makes me think of something a bit more general, something applying to the system as a whole. A new extension to the codec is an obvious possibility, or what about a simplified low cost archiving system? A few years ago there was talk of solid state memory that was permanent - one write, no posssibility of erasing, but indefinite storage. (Over years the charge may slowly "leak" with conventional rewritable solid-state.) If cheap enough, that really could be revolutionary (and worthy of being a "big announcement"!). No need for backing up, and apart from camera rushes could have a big use as permanent archive storage of edited material.

Oh well, we'll see in a few days......

[Gabor Heeres]

David,

A PMW-350 with 50 MB/s? That's coming a bit too close to the PMW-500 in my opinion. I think the chance of a successor to the outdated PDW-F335 and F355 is a lot more bigger. I think the trick they did with the PDW-680 (just providing interlaced framerate, convenient for ENG and thus saving costs) will be extracted over a wider line of cameras.

Gabor

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Gabor Heeres

A PMW-350 with 50 MB/s? That's coming a bit too close to the PMW-500 in my opinion.

Maybe, but I suspect there's a lot of people who may want the 50Mbs codec to get full acceptability, but would actively PREFER the 350 front end to the 500. The 500 may be superior in absolute image quality terms, but for many the difference in power consumption may be by far the deciding factor, and I believe the PMW350 is also better in low light?

But even if such was about to be announced, would it really class as a "big" announcement? That's why I'd tend to suspect something more than just a single new camera model.

[Alister Chapman]

The PDW-680 uses the 350 front end and records to optical disc at 50Mb/s. Optical disc appears to be making a bit of a come back right now as some broadcasters have actually moved from solid state back to optical for archive reasons.

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

Optical disc appears to be making a bit of a come back right now as some broadcasters have actually moved from solid state back to optical for archive reasons.

Doesn't surprise me, not just for archive, but for a cameraman to be able to handover media and not worry about it being returned quickly for reuse. I've now heard a lot of stories about files on solid state being prematurely wiped by error!

[Mark Andersson]

I just feel its very dissapointing for Sony not to upgrade the EX1/3 to 50Mbps 422. Its been a great industry workhorse and deserves it.

[Joe Lawry]

Pmw200....

[Toenis Liivamaegi]

...PMW200 (HD22 50 Mbps) indeed. If Sony has the technology to do 240FPS at S35mm-like sensor (albeit line-skipped), imagine what can be done with almost 20 times smaller, 1/3" ones :)...
I'd imagine super slow motion, built-in 10X Zoom lens (hopefully wider than PMW100's 40mm) and a pricetag just below $6000

Still the image quality from a 1/3 sensor wouldn't beat Sony's own RX100 but this is another story at completely different league.

Exiting times,
T

[Andy Wilkinson]

Yes, convincing pictures of a PMW-200 XDCAM are starting to appear on the web - in the last few hours.

I won't post a link to them as I know Chris doesn't do rumor sites etc. Just think bigger than the PMW 100 and with proper ND filters/XDCAM 422 at 50Mbps etc.

Looks more like an upgraded EX1. Looks good in the 3 views I've seen so far!

I wonder if they'll announced an upgraded EX3 too (mine's exactly 4 years old this week!). The EX1r and EX3 badly need an upgraded codec to match Canon's XF300 "desirable broadcast spec." etc., so it would make sense. A PMW 200 was an inevitable step after the PMW 100 announcement a while ago (in my opinion). Maybe a PMW 300 will be the EX3 replacement too - announced on 26th July, or in the future?

Not long until we know for sure!

I feel a bout of gear lust and upgrade fever coming on....