Panasonic Introduces AG-HSC1U, World’s Smallest Professional 3-CCD HD Camcorder

Zim said:
so will this be going up against the HV20 or the Sony HC7?

Is it considered a pro camera?
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It's considered a pro camera in that this one's being marketed by the professional division. So it's sold by Panasonic Broadcast, it's serviced by Broadcast, it's warranteed by Broadcast.

The main problem I see is how to edit.
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Today, not so easy. But again, Canopus and Adobe and Vegas and Ulead are all members of the AVC-HD coalition. And CineForm's said they were going to have something soon, too. Editing is coming.


Is Jan going to be in charge of this camera?
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Don't know. That would be interesting, but I doubt it. Panasonic Broadcast has some smaller cameras than the DVX; the DVC30 and DVC60, and she wasn't over those. I would suspect that this class of camera would fall under that person's jurisdiction.
 
filmguy123 said:
Also, I am guessing this will require similiar computer horsepower as editing HDV footage? (ie, more then working with DVCpro?)
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Pretty certain that for now, yes. The thing is, nVidia and ATI are building AVC decoder chips into their graphics boards, so if the editing program ties into those (and you happen to have one of those) then that might take the horsepower load off the CPU and make it more practical, sooner. AVC is a more complex algorithm than HDV (which is why it's 2 to 3 times as efficient) and so I would suspect that in terms of raw CPU power, you're going to need a lot, at least until the whole integrated-graphics thing comes fully into play.
 
And still not a single mention of 24p. Is it fair enough to say that there's no 24p here?
 
Jack_Felis said:
Uh, well, I was kind of wondering what this had to offer compared to the Canon HV20 which has the big incentive towards filmmakers with the 24p option. I like the idea of recording to SD cards instead of tape and that the image quality is going to be angled towards the HVX200 in quality(?), but where's the 24p?
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If it doesn't have 24p, I don't expect that it would displace the HV20 in budget filmmakers' hearts.

I just hope it helps speed the adoption of tapeless and memory card recording.

Just curious though, when did the AVC-HD format get popular?
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The day that Panasonic and Sony announced that they were on the same page with it. Right there you've got the manufacturers of something like 80% of all camcorders made. And then later Sharp, Samsung, and Canon all joined. So that's pretty much a clean sweep, the only one left clinging solely to HDV is JVC.

I thought the biggest complaint was even more compression with MPEG-4 versus MPEG-2?
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Biggest complaint by who? Answer that question and you may have your answer.

8 megabits of AVC-HD about matches 25 megabits of HDV for quality. 13 megabits of AVC-HD should substantially surpass HDV. And AVC-HD provides for up to 24 megabits! Should be able to compete healthily against XDCAM-HD as far as a pure recording format (assuming comparable camera heads). So you get twice the efficiency of HDV, plus you get true 24p support from the get-go, plus you get tapeless recording, plus uncompressed audio, plus 5.1 or 7.1 channels of audio, plus it's cross-compatible among manufacturers.

Make no mistake at all -- AVC-HD is "the new DV." HDV is going to stick around as long as people keep buying it, but both Sony and Panasonic have already announced that AVC-HD is better than MPEG-2 and that it's the format that they see as most suitable for the HD camcorder era.

Don't get me wrong, if this does indeed shoot 24p, I'd be very interested, very much the same way that I've always liked the Sanyo HD1 cameras (30p only though =P), downloading to cards is much better than tape.
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That's a big question mark though. I saw no mention of it in the press release, so I suspect it probably doesn't.
 
AuditoryVisuals said:
Probably the FX7.
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FX7 is a $3000 camcorder, this is $2000 including the hard disk SD Store unit. I believe the consumer version sells for $1500. So I don't think this would be in the same class as the FX7.
 
Barry is right, AVC-HD is going to kick the crap out of HDV quality and look-wise. I just wish they would stop with all the consumer versions of these cameras and give us something with better lenses and XLR inputs.

This camera right here (that started the thread) is a great base. I want a DVX sized camera with internal hard drive (would be sweet to have a hot swappable hard drive at that), and a nice lens or interchangable lens on front. Man, if Canon made this with the ability to put their lenses on front it would be sweetness.
 
It makes no sense at all that Panasonic would market this as a professional camera. It looks like a consumer camera, has no zoom ring or focus ring and no XLR input.
 
Seems like an odd choice to me too. But remember that the original Sony PC-7 was marketed by Sony Broadcast as the DSR-PD1, a tiny shirt-pocket DVCAM camcorder (with no XLRs, etc). Maybe they're aiming at that same type of market?

I'm still waiting for the 24P AVC-HD DVX... :thumbsup:
 
jade8472 said:
It makes no sense at all that Panasonic would market this as a professional camera. It looks like a consumer camera, has no zoom ring or focus ring and no XLR input.
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I agree... none of my clients would take me seriously if I turned up with one as a main camera.

Having said that, if picture quality is as good as I hear, and if FCP gets up to speed with the technology, I would be interested in using it as a discreet second camera for events. Just set it up and press record... no tapes to worry about!
 
jade8472 said:
It makes no sense at all that Panasonic would market this as a professional camera. It looks like a consumer camera, has no zoom ring or focus ring and no XLR input.
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This is becoming a very bad pattern for Canon, Sony and Panasonic not including a focusing ring in their newest camcorders.
 
this thing has a place. discovery hd, underwater camera etc. there are tons of places in hte pro world where a tiny high quality 1080 camear could be useful. reardless of format.
 
MrSleep said:
with Variable Frame Rates??? :2vrolijk_08:

could this be a possible with SDHC?
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Anything's possible with SDHC. It's just data, you're not bound to any specific format at that point.

AVC-HD itself doesn't make any specific provision for variable frame rates, but it does have a 720p recording mode, so I guess it's possible...
 
720p variable on affordable SDHC, now thats pretty.. the tapeless form should make it more portable i hope!
 
Barry_Green said:
8 megabits of AVC-HD about matches 25 megabits of HDV for quality. 13 megabits of AVC-HD should substantially surpass HDV. And AVC-HD provides for up to 24 megabits! Should be able to compete healthily against XDCAM-HD as far as a pure recording format (assuming comparable camera heads). So you get twice the efficiency of HDV, plus you get true 24p support from the get-go, plus you get tapeless recording, plus uncompressed audio, plus 5.1 or 7.1 channels of audio, plus it's cross-compatible among manufacturers.
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How did you make this bitrate match? Sony HC3 and HDR-SR1 has the same sensor only the difference being HDV vs AVC-HD. The review from camcorderinfo.com describes the performance "Compared to HDV, it underperforms just like the UX1. The Sony HDR-HC3 had less noise and a slightly brighter color pallet. The Canon HV10 remains the best picture in bright light of any consumer HD camcorder so far – bold, beautiful colors and hardly a hint of noise." So with 15Mbps bitrate AVC-HD obviously underperforms compared to HDV. So if you are right than there are major workflow issues with AVC-HD and what I don't understand is why are they rushing a technology that is still not ready. Under this circumstances it can backfire. Everyone is expecting to see a 24Mbps AVC-HD camcorder to compare it to HDV but maybe the reason they are not marketing a 24Mbps AVC-HD camcorder is because HDV can still perform better.
 
yea but just like HDV, theres Good HDV (canon) and Bad HDV (sony FX1). perhaps the codec isnt well implimented yet.
 
TimurCivan said:
yea but just like HDV, theres Good HDV (canon) and Bad HDV (sony FX1).
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I definitely agree but I am talking about 2 Sony camcorders that has the same imaging sensor with only different compression techniques.

I really value and trust Barry's opinions thats why I am confused because I am adding 1+1 and it doesn't make 2 (at least for now)
 
Here is a report that says the 13MBPS of Panasonic’s previous AVCHD camcorders is much better than the highest setting of the SR1
http://www.simplydv.co.uk/Reviews/panasonic_hdc-sd1.html
"When tested alongside the Sony HDR-SR1 (and pointing at exactly the same subject whilst viewing on identical HD monitor screens), the pictures were markedly better than the Sony's - especially in the more lowly lit sectors of the screen. The Sony's images featured quite high levels of rectangular blockiness whereas the SD1's (and DX1's) equivalent images were beautifully clear and well rendered. The differences weren't just mildly worthy of note, they were immediately apparent - even to the untrained eye."

Here is some examples that shows the SR1 to be more detailed than the HC3.
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=de_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fxsupport.de%2F11.html




Anyway, I think the processing of this camcorder is much better than Panasonic's other AVCHD camcorders.
 
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