Panasonic AVCHD camcorders announced; plus AVC Intra (pre-NAB2008)

[Ken Hull]

The brochure for the AG-HMC70 is now available on the Panasonic website.

http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp...Model=AG-HMC70

Ken

[Ethan Cooper]

Panasonic put out a press release about their new 32GB SDHC (class 6) card coming out in April.
Here's the part I'm not so happy about:

The new SDHC Memory Card will have a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $699.

Ouch! So much for cheap media. Man.

[Matthew Johnston]

Originally Posted by Ethan Cooper

Panasonic put out a press release about their new 32GB SDHC (class 6) card coming out in April.
Here's the part I'm not so happy about:


Ouch! So much for cheap media. Man.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220254

16GB Class 6 for $75

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211245

16GB SDHC for $60, will be $30 in 3 months.

Use these cards all the time.

[Ethan Cooper]

Matthew,
What cameras are you using the cheaper off-brand SD cards in? How high of a bit-rate are you recording at?

[Robert M Wright]

I don't know that I'd call A-Data or Patriot "off brand." They've both been making reliable RAM memory for computers for awhile.

[Greg Hartzell]

Would panasonic offer a camera with higher resolution chips than the hvx, but at a lower price?

On the other hand, why would they embrace their past history of pixel shifting low res chips, when all of it's competitors have shied away from the technology?

This is quite the conundrum in my mind.

[Zack Birlew]

Well, I don't care about the bitrates or what it records on. All I care about is how the footage looks. If it can't beat my little HV20, then I can always buy an HF10 or HF100 if I want a tapeless HD camera.

[Ethan Cooper]

Originally Posted by Greg Hartzell

Would panasonic offer a camera with higher resolution chips than the hvx, but at a lower price?

I think they will if they're releasing a new HXV at NAB. It's bound to be coming soon, the HVX has been around for a while now.

[Ethan Cooper]

Originally Posted by Jack Felis

I can always buy an HF10 or HF100 if I want a tapeless HD camera.

But if you want manual controls in the style we've become accustomed, then you'll need something styled more like the HMC150.

[Chris Hurd]

Manual control is available in the HF10 / 100 via the same work-around used for the HV20, but you're quite right in that there are some applications which call for a camcorder with a much larger form factor, such as the HMC70 and 150.

[Ethan Cooper]

I love my little HV20 in good light, but I don't like work arounds.

[Kevin Shaw]

Originally Posted by Jon Fairhurst

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if they were roughly the same price, wouldn't most everybody here choose the HVX-200?

At that price maybe so, but for some purposes a camera using SD memory cards would have both cost and convenience advantages over one using P2. Plus since AVCHD is a distribution format you could archive and play the raw footage as is, which also has practical advantages. And if the new camera happens to have better sensitivty in dim light that would also be a selling point.

For me the ideal alternative to the HVX200 would be something which doesn't rely on P2 cards, costs under $5000 and uses AVC-intra at a bit rate up to 50 Mbps. This camera isn't quite there yet but getting closer...

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Jon Fairhurst

... if they were roughly the same price, wouldn't most everybody here choose the HVX-200?

They're not going to be roughly the same price.

[John Bosco Jr.]

First of all, I think Panasonic's decision to offer an enhanced mode on the HMC150 was to counter what the competitions might be coming out with. I think its chips will be newly designed and not of the HVX's flavor. Successful companies move forward with technology, not backwards. I don't think the enhanced mode will be the AVCHD max of 24mb/s; I do think it will be 17mb/s or maybe a bit higher, 19mb/s seems to be what I'm thinking. According to the release, the lens appears to be a fairly wide angle one, so I don't anticipate it being more than a 12 or 13X lens. It does appear to be a very nice camera that has definitely caught my attention and one that I might consider buying.

On the other hand, the HMC70 seems like a disappointment. Why didn't Panasonic have an enhanced 17mb/s mode on this camcorder? Gosh, that higher mode is now being used on consumer models.

[Ethan Cooper]

Originally Posted by John Bosco Jr.

Successful companies move forward with technology, not backwards. I don't think the enhanced mode will be the AVCHD max of 24mb/s; I do think it will be 17mb/s or maybe a bit higher, 19mb/s seems to be what I'm thinking.

So why not just give the consumer the option to use the full 24mb/s? It never has made sense to me why they don't leave it up to the end user how they want to set their data rate. If the spec calls for a max of 24mb/s, why limit us to 13 or 17?