considering HPX300 but ? on P2 and batteries/low light

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Konstantin Kovalev

Diagonal sensor sizes:
1/3" is 6mm √2 = 8.48
1/2" is 8mm √2 =11.31
2/3" is 11mm

I've seen the 6-8-11mm sizes quoted for the respective diagonals, but understood them to be not exact? (As is also true for the fractions of an inch figures.) That the 1/3" mm equivalent could vary camera by camera, and may vary from about 5.5mm to 5.9mm?

But even taking your 6 and 8mm figures, the ratios of area vary as the square, so it's 36:64. Even that is a 78% increase - not 70%. Overall area only tells half the story anyway, it neglects the fact that photosite boundaries have to be masked, and the smaller the overall sensor size the higher the percentage of total area that gets taken up by masking.

Consequently, even if the overall area increase was only 78% going from 1/3" to 1/2", the ACTIVE area increase would be considerably more. I think "at least a full f stop" is a good estimate.

You seem to be saying that a stop difference isn't really significant, but two stops is? Two stops is obviously better than one, but I think one stop is a lot better than none!

I'd never take UK prices as a serious comparison of any object's worth... But I'm surprised they have it for nearly double the price there.

Well, it's about 75% more - not "nearly double", but what about US prices then? B&H currently list the PMW320 as $11,400, the PMW350 as $18,400. That's about a 60% increase in the US, compared to about 75% for the UK prices I quoted. Not quite as big a difference, but surely it's still wrong to say "not much more expensive"? I'd say $7,000 on top of $11,400 was quite a lot more?

Money starts becoming less of an object once you break the 10k barrier, so 12k vs. 19k doesn't seem as big a deal as going from 7.2k to 12k when comparing the 370/320k.

Looking at current B&H prices again, the list prices of the 370 are $9,430, the PMW320 $11,900 - though the 370 is subject to a $2,000 rebate for the next few weeks, the 320 to a $500 rebate. It's a bigger gap than in the UK, true, but remember you have to buy memory, and the relative pricing is much higher for P2/100Mbs than SxS/35Mbs.