Procision JVC GC-PX100 Camcorder announced at CES2013

[Gints Klimanis]

What's up with the frequency of "50P" appearing in the press release?

[Chris Hurd]

Hi Gints,

The page you're looking at: New Flagship JVC Camera Designed to Capture Fast-Moving Action at DV Info Net

...contain *two* press releases. The first one is the UK version and it references 50p. It has more info than the US version, so it received top billing. The US version references 60p. Hope this helps!

[Anmol Mishra]

Hmm. Wise they would indicated specs regarding frame rates ASAP.

1080p - 50/60p
720p - 100/120p ???
WVGA 200/240p ??
VGA 500/600P ????


Need a decent 120fps camcorder with manual shutter control..

[Lee Mullen]

Originally Posted by Gints Klimanis

What's up with the frequency of "50P" appearing in the press release?

Most of the world uses 25/50p Gints.

[Lee Mullen]

1/2.3″ 12.8 Megapixel Back-Illuminated CMOS Sensor

Is that a good sensor?

[Glen Vandermolen]

My PX10 has the same size sensor. I don't know if it's the same one, but the PX10 takes sharp images. Not as good in low light as my Panasonic TM900, but I don't know if that's because of the sensor or lens.

[Gints Klimanis]

Originally Posted by Jalan Salur

Most of the world uses 25/50p Gints.

I'm left wondering why camera manufacturers continue to bother limiting cameras this way. I see the 50/60 switch as a competitive feature that would influence my purchase.

[Chris Hurd]

What are the primary questions about this camcorder? I would assume we'd all like to know what the recorded resolutions are at the various frame rates... what else?

[Gints Klimanis]

I was hoping for a higher bitrate for 1080p60 or 720p120 ...

0. Finer control of shooting speeds.

1. Audio compression specs for various shooting modes (Press release mentions linear PCM for MOV mode)

2. Shooting parameters controlled from Wifi app

3. Focal length and aperture over lens over zoom range (only see "fast F1.2 wide-angle)

4. Audio inputs / microphone connectivity. I see a shoe mount and one fat microphone connector cover in the US press release. Mono 3-pin XLR or Stereo 5-pin XLR? [EDIT : Chris Hurd provided a pic. ]

5. Specs on video stream over Wifi

6. Price/specs of optional color viewfinder. Any "push zoom" functions for focusing aids? Possible to run LCD and VF at the same time?

7. Audio AGC functions, specifically, disabling AGC and Limiter.

[Bernd Eller]

Gints,
I would be very surprised if this consumer camcorder had XLR. I am pretty sure the mic input is a 3,5mm jack.

Looking at the specs of another one of the new JVC camcorders, the VX815, it seems that both share the same sensor and the same lens. And in the VX815 press release there is more information about the lens: It's a 10x zoom lens with a shortest focal length of 29,4mm (35mm equiv.). So I guess these are the specs of PX100 also.

[Chris Hurd]

See the photo in my post #15 -- that's gotta be a stereo mini jack.

[Gints Klimanis]

Thanks for the pic and explanation of the no-longer-so-fat audio jack cover, Chris.

[Craig W. Scribner]

Here's a question, Chris:

Will the zoom be available during high-speed filming?

Thanks!

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Jalan Salur

1/2.3″ 12.8 Megapixel Back-Illuminated CMOS Sensor

Is that a good sensor?

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

What are the primary questions about this camcorder? I would assume we'd all like to know what the recorded resolutions are at the various frame rates... what else?

The point is less whether or not the sensor itself is any good, but readout methods used. I doubt very strongly that they are able to read out the full photosite count and process it at anything above 60Hz, certainly not in a camera at this price point.

Consequently, expect pixel skipping/binning tricks to be used to keep the processing load down to a viable level, certainly at the higher frame rates.

Chris very correctly poses the question about resolution at higher frame rates - but it's more than simple resolution. That will indeed almost certainly drop off substantially as the framerate goes up, but it's likely to be accompanied by strong and unpleasant artifacting in terms of moire, aliasing etc. If anybody has any doubt of that, see Adam Wilts zone plates on the FS700 in slo-mo mode - Pro Video Coalition: Camera Log by Adam Wilt (scroll down to the end).

I believe this camera is squarely aimed at such as coaches in the sports world whose prime interest is analysing technique via slo-motion without spending too much money - not film makers looking for a certain level of quality. As such, I'm sure it does exactly what it says on the tin.

The bitrate figure (36Mbs) doesn't really mean much in isolation, not without knowing type of codec etc. And what happens in slo-mo mode? Does the write speed go up in proportion to frame rate (as with EX S&Q), such that playback is always at 36Mbs? Or (more likely) is the write speed always 36Mbs - in which case playback of 10x slo-mo will equate to a bitrate of only 3.6Mbs!!!

[Gints Klimanis]

I hope cropping modes are offered as a choice for the higher frame rates that are coupled with lower resolutions.