When I saw this a few months ago, I was told that the XH-A1 was the base model used for specs and price level, and the new JVC would keep a similar price and improve on the specs. It seems to have done that.

At the show I saw the camera, I was specifically asked by the NJ rep about what price I was willing to pay.

This camera has some hidden value also. For example the 16 bit PCM sound. Also, to get both NTSC and PAL standards in the Canon cameras, you have to pay for a $500 upgrade. However, in the new JVC camera, you get everything, all standards. This is great for the low profile documentary where you may be shooting in both 60hz and 50hz lighting situations. The camera gives you everything you need to get good video that you can work with later. I am also very interested to see what the low-light features mentioned on the B&H site will produce video-wise.

This camera has the potential to sell cross-market. If there is a good volume, I would expect to see some price level drop. (The XH-A1s lists at $3999, but it has already dropped a couple of hundred in the U.S..)

Tim gets his hands on one of the only two engineering samples in the U.S.

Sorry for the grainy-grain, my digicam was set to high ISO.

I read several months ago that Sony did license XDCAM encoding to JVC.

It might have been on this very forum.

Even with the typical price drop off list, that seems incredibly expensive for a 1/4" sensor camera.

I hope it does well, but there just haven't been any sensor breakthroughs recently. So Im guessing poor or very noisy low light and marginal resolution.

Does anyone know the native sensor resolution, or did I just miss that?

Can you even get 20 to 35MBPS of real data off a 1/4" sensor block?

Sorry to sound so negative, but the 1/3" cameras performance seems to be the lower limit for a camera in this price range. Maybe I am missing the market.

Interested...
 

No, more than interested, a little excited by the prospects of this cam. Tim, now that you have had a chance to play around with it, any thing new to add? lowlight impressions? Noise? Does it actually record using sony xdcam ex?

Thanks

I was hoping it would be a bit less than $4,000, but it's pretty much in line with the prosumer HDV camcorders that Sony makes right now. $3,000 would have made it sweeter but I think there will be a lot of takers.

Re: 1/4" sensors: It's possible to produce a very good 1/4" sensor. After all a 1/3" sensor, which is now the 'gold standard' of the prosumer camcorders is only about 25% larger than a 1/4" sensor. With innovations in technology it's possible that a 1/4" sensor could be as sensitive, as color accurate, and sharp as a 1/3" sensor. It is possible to get true 1920x1080 off a 1/4" sensor block, the Sony HDV camcorders to this. I had a Sony V1U (now I have a Sony EX1), which did produce native 1920x1080 (just downrezzed it for HDV to 1440x1080) and it's sensitivity and detail, in my opinion, were wonderful. HDV is 25mb/s. And that was a 2 year old camera. By the time the JVC GY-100 comes out it's technology will be 2.5 years later than that camera. If it's images were as good as that one I'd be happy.

The proof will be in the actual image quality of this JVC. I'm suspect when a new camcorder is released, but there is no actual official footage shown, just pictures of the camcorder and specs. Personally, I see this as the 'little brother' to the 'game-changing' Sony EX series, same codec but smaller form factor.

At the LAFCPUG Supermeet, where the the JVC GY-HD 100 was announced, the Apple Final Cut Studio rep (forgot his name, but he's at all the Apple Final Cut Studio marketing events) showed some workflow with the new JVC and there were some scenes from New York city. I wasn't impressed with the images, but he was doing workflow discussion, rather than demoing the camcorder, and who knows if these images were actually shot with the camcorder.

I can't wait to see some video shot with this camcorder.

Tim?
 

So you got to hold it... any thoughts? Impressions? Low light? Specs on CCD? Anything?

Also am I reading it right the small one is shown first but not available till April, while the shoulder mount 1/3 CCD will be shown in Feb., but read to ship 1st? Is that right - or a typo.

The footage shown were those actually taken with the HM100. We received two working prototypes from our factory at the end of December and went to NYC to shoot, specifically to gather footage for the SuperMeet Final Cut editing demo.

The FCP demo was done by Richard Townhill, Director of Pro Video Product Marketing at Apple.

Correct: The GY-HM100 ships in April, while the GY-HM700 is due in March.

Craig,

Since this is out in the open that there's a shoulder mount version, we would be pleased if you'd at least release a photo of the HM700? I have the HD100 and HD200 so you can understand my excitement to the next evolution of the proHD line up.

please....

Ted

Craig, so you actually did shoot with this camcorder? Are you at liberty to tell us your impressions of it, say compared to some other camcorders, such as the Panasonic HMC150 or those with similar codecs such as the Sony EX series? What we saw at the Supermeet were basically previews inside of FCP, so not expecting full-quality images, therefore no way to really judge. Do you know if any footage is going to be available from JVC or anywhere anytime soon? Thanks for your contribution here.

Craig?
 

Are there going to be any demo units for studio evaluation in the LA area anytime soon? I work at KCET - PBS in Los Angeles and would love to look at this unit for an upcoming series.

And like the above posts - can either you or Tim give any info?

We're still waiting for the official pics to come from Japan. I'll post them as soon as I get clearance.

Promise...

We actually had a pro photog do impromptu shoot in NYC. We were only able to get handheld shots since, as you may know, tripods are a no-no expecially around Time Square and being so close to the New Year celebration. Also, we had only two days to shoot before we had to bring the camera to SF to test the workflow with Apple prior to the SuperMeet.

In short, the amount of detail in the shots were amazing. Lots of lines of resolution, and the imaging hasn't even been fine-tuned. We're still in the evaluation stage, so I can't go into specifics...

The ultimate plan is to post video clips from the cameras on our web site. We'll post to let everyone know when this happens.

Thanks very much for everyone's support. It goes without saying, but we built this one for you all.

Craig

We only have a handful of units and they need to go through testing before we release the shipment in April. The best way is to contact your local JVC Professional dealer and make sure they place their orders for these cameras so they have one to demo for you.