Panny, SD1, SD3, HSC1u HD Cam

[fplowman]

Well there is a Canon HV20 thread and I assume everyone knows Im a Panny nut. Reason is that it seems most of their cams are cutting edge.. Even the commercial versions which I have never really used are geared more towards a prosumer user with their manual controls.

Why I like these new particular line of cameras are their solid state. Basically the recording is to an SD card. WOW! awesome.

This means that there are no tape decks to go bad. No moving parts ( other than lenses ). The SD card that comes with these are 4 gig. these will hold 40 minutes roughly of H.264-based Advanced Video Codec High Definition (AVCHD). This is also known as MPEG 4. They have 8 gig SD cards out now for under $100.

This is a new codec being suported by all the major camera manufacturers. We are still waiting for the NLE manufacturers to come around with the ability to Edit this footage. Vegas says they will have the ability this spring/summer.

Im really excited about the new line of cams, codecs, and storage capabilites coming out.


I just purchased the Panny broadcast pro model.
http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webap...Id=109546&catGroupId=14571&surfModel=AG-HSC1U

I think the smaller size will make it much easier to mount on the dash

 

[Esa Tuunanen]

This means that there are no tape decks to go bad. No moving parts

Now to where video goes from memory card if you're on long vacation or chasing trip?
Flash memory cards are still too expensive for having half dozen (or more) big capacity cards in your camera bag so it's good bet that you'll have something with mechanical HD which you use for storing videos.
And HDs are much more fragile than miniDV tapes, in worst case one wrong bumb and everything is gone! Compared to that tape decks and tapes seem suddenly quite reliable as long as they're treated reasonably.



BTW, SD's cutting "edge" is quite blunt, its life span is already limited thanks to low capacity limit.
(but hey, after that they can make new card and sell it and required new devices for consumers)

 

[Dan Robinson]

I would love nothing more than to go tapeless. One look at my office with 300 MiniDV tapes on the shelf from the past 3 years, one can see why. However, tapes are reliable and give one hour each of uncompressed DV or MPEG2 HD (HDV).

Sometimes I think the manufacturers are dragging their feet excessively with these cameras. The technology is there, but there's always one or more 'key' features missing from all the new cameras, including the Panasonics. Before I buy a new one, I'm waiting for an HD camera under $20k with:

1.) 1 lux or better (2/3" chips)
2.) 100mbps or better codec
3.) High recording capacity (tape or card based, it doesn't matter to me)
4.) Native 1080i chips and codec (no 720p upconverted to 1080i)
5.) Variable frame rates (for slow motion)
6.) Manual controls
7.) Under $20k with lens and battery
8.) Rugged construction for shooting storms

Right now there are cameras that do this, but you'd need to spend about $60,000-$80,000. The prosumer cams could easily do it if the manufacturers would just add one or two features to an existing cam. But they won't, because who would buy the higher end cams after that.

The HVX200 comes pretty close, but, once again, it is terrible in low light and the P2 capacity is short and expensive. Even the next step up, the HPX500 @ $20,000, uses 720p native to upconvert. Sony XDCAM is too expensive, and the codec is only 10mbps above prosumer HDV.

Prosumer HD has got a long way to go before we start seeing the benefits that the higher-end cameras enjoy. I think a camera that meets my requirements is still two years away. There is an independent company that is making a camera called RED that meets all but #8.

 

[fplowman]

lol,

Red is a 25k camera I thought I read. Would you really drop that coin on a cam? Looking at it it doesnt look hard to engineer some seals and rings for it.

I think we are alot more than 2 yrs away from the ultimate cam in a 4k or less package.