I don't want to digress ... but do a lot of indie producers use the JVC HD100 or 110?

Heh heh... I must admit to being a proud soon-to-be HMC owner. I do agree that the HMC150 represents an amazing value, a solid tapeless performer at the XH-A1 price point.

Jay, I can understand someone being indecisive about buying the HMC150 or the Canon XH-A1, but why in the world would you say "good-bye to an XH-A1 that you already have?

Index of /~dvxuser/PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM

Reference clips shot by Barry Green. If you haven't checked these out yet, then you could be selling this camera a little short. The 720/60p mode clips looked very good.

I think the 150 will be a very good 720p camera for the money. And although it can do 1080p/i it appears that 720/24 is the sweet spot for the least amount of compression and the codec doesn't seem to noise up or break at all.

Cheers.

Here is a new HMC150 brochure from Panasonic. We're getting close!

ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasoni...0_brochure.pdf

Thanks Darren.

The brochure also includes a good explanation of MPEG4 Intra frame prediction with variable block size vs. HDV MPEG 2 with fixed blocksize. That is why I'm seeing less noise (if any at all) in sample clips from this camera vs.HDV 720p and 1080i.

The one thing i thought was a little off target was the explanation on 2x, 5x, or 10x digitial zoom.,,,, "magnification equivalent to 130x zoom without the drop in light intensity that happens when using a lens extender." I'm sorry but at 130x digital zoom will crap out and loose rez so badly, who cares about loss in light. I think we'll sacrifice that 1/2 or more stop loss for a lot more clarity thank you. At least you can correct in post.

Cheers.

Didn't you see the photo next to the 130x zoom, it looked great. :)

Just kidding.

BTW, there is a lot of info in that brochure. Very informative.

This camera has caught my eye.

It has caught my eye too, but I am still not sure if I should get a 720p camcorder instead (like the JVC HD110) or the Canon XH-A1. It could well be that the JVC, for example, gives better footage.

Any word when it will be shipped and what the waiting period will be if ordered through BH PhotoVideo?

October 2? It's really not confirmed but I think I heard that date mentioned.

Speaking of JVC cameras, this video is worth viewing. It is an interview with Semir Nouri, Product Manager of JVC Europe. Lots of great info about 720p60 which definitely applies to the HMC150.....

http://www.macvideo.tv/camera-techno...ticleId=104032

That interview is great stuff! Thanks for posting it. So JVC will very soon switch to SD card recording as well, interesting!

Interesting idea to put HDV onto SDHC cards. It makes for easier editing at the moment... Sure hope FCP edits AVCHD natively and quickly with the next update!

But Sony have done virtually the same with the Z7 and S270, though onto CF instead of SD.

The beauty of both their approach and now that of JVC is that one has a choice of tape or solid state depending on the situation. Or both - solid state for ease of editing, keep a tape for backup. That seems a far better choice at the moment than solid state only recording.

I noticed there is a HMC-152. Seems to do it all compared to the 150. It can do PAL+NTSC. Is that the only diff?

http://panasonic.com.au/products/inf...contextID=4168

That's the Aussie version of the HMC-150 that can shoot upside down. ;-)

Cool, no need to flip the DOF adapter footage in post! ;)