Varicam Price Drop

[A51Films]

So I was browsing the Panasonic website and saw that the Varicam has dropped down to 45k. Is that going to stay there or is that a short promotional period type thing?


http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?displayTab=O&storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=94208&catGroupId=14569&surfModel=AJ-HDC27H

 

[William_Robinette]

Wow, that's a pretty substantial drop.

 

[Barry_Green]

That is a big drop. It's probably permanent; the market is changing. They used to have a $14,000 rebate on it, now they've dropped the price by $20,000.

And there's other fun stuff upcoming; the HDX900 just launched and it's 1080 and 720 in 24, 30, and 60 fps; its price is something like $27,000 so it didn't really make a lot of sense that the VariCam would be $40,000 more than it.

Heck, Panasonic's teased a new HPX500 that will do everything the HVX does, but with 2/3" chips, and it's probably going to be around $20,000. So I would expect that this is a permanent move, but we shall see...

 

[Terry_Lasater]

Bring on the better stuff at lower prices!

Bring on the better stuff at lower prices!

Exciting times ahead for sure.

 

[Barry_Green]

Things are going pretty rapidly.

I mean, last year Canon brought out the XLH1, at $9000. Now one year later there's an A1 that delivers a comparable image for less than half that cost. And Sony finally delivers 24p, prices it close to the A1, and includes wide-latitude CMOS sensors in it. And then Panasonic ... well, nothing new in this price range, but they introduce an HPX500 that does just about everything the (formerly) $67,000 Varicam does, plus 1080, at 1/3 the price. And then Red is due to hit at about the same price point.

And this is all just in the last year. What's next?

 

[A51Films]

Well, I was reading posts on DVInfo (and I saw a link to the actual board in somebody's sig. and then I went through the forums on the Forum Home page.) and......

http://hdfilms.fvvw.com/showthread.php?t=62

get a load of those frame rates.

 

[Emanuel]

Things are going pretty rapidly.

I mean, last year Canon brought out the XLH1, at $9000. Now one year later there's an A1 that delivers a comparable image for less than half that cost. And Sony finally delivers 24p, prices it close to the A1, and includes wide-latitude CMOS sensors in it. And then Panasonic ... well, nothing new in this price range, but they introduce an HPX500 that does just about everything the (formerly) $67,000 Varicam does, plus 1080, at 1/3 the price. And then Red is due to hit at about the same price point.

And this is all just in the last year. What's next?

Good insight and suitable resume as usual.

 

[TimurCivan]

I am VERY curious about that 1080 24P Sony........