Panasonic's HPX500 Announcement

J

Joe_Digital

Well-known member
From the Studio Daily press release:

"Panasonic unveiled its P2 strategy for the new year today by announcing the AG-HPX500 — a new 2/3-inch 3-CCD shoulder-mounted HD camcorder that takes interchangeable lenses and offers 11 variable frame rates ranging between 12 and 60 fps. The camera ships in May and sells for $14,000, including viewfinder. And the company’s solid-state P2 recording technology is set to take a big step forward, jumping in May from a maximum of 8 GB to a much more attractive 16 GB on a single card. The HPX500’s pricing is aggressive for a 2/3-inch camcorder, and Panasonic Broadcast officials called it the company’s “key product” for 2007. The CCDs are a new version of the sensor used in the SDX900, with Panasonic’s spatial-offset technology bringing the resolution to HD. Naturally, it can shoot a raft of formats: 1080/60i, 50i, 30p, 25p and 24p; 720/60p, 50p, 30p, 25p, and 24p; and DVCPRO50, DVCPRO and DV. It has eight gamma modes, a chromatic-aberration compensation function, and sports four XLR audio inputs."

This sounds crazy. But with the pixel-shifting ala HVX200 -is this half the camera of the HPX2000, which lists for double the price?
 
Half? Probably more like 80-85% of the camera, plus variable frame rates, at half the price. But maybe the HPX2000 has other things (more extensive menus, more controllability, I don't know) that makes it worth the additional.
 
soarprod said:
looks cool but has no lens.

http://studiodaily.com/main/news/feed.rss/7711.html
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link soarprod. I am looking forward to reading the specs on the new BT-LH80W camera monitor. pixel to pixel mode, oh yeah:

"And the BT-LH80W is a nifty hybrid — a standalone 7.9-inch HD/SD LCD monitor that’s also Padesigned to work as a camera viewfinder (for Panasonic cams and others). It boasts focus-assist capabilities, including a pixel-to-pixel matching function that lets you zoom in to see a portion of your HD image mapped precisely to the screen’s 800x450 resolution. It’s slated to ship in July for less than $3,000."
 
Hey Chris, that BT-LH80W sure does look sweet! I forgot about the 16gig cards - May? Come on Panny! Damn, just blew my extra cash on the century/vocas MB :(
 
That's my point exactly Barry -if it is half the cost but not half the camera, it makes it very curious. They reference that it is based on the SDX900 and then they're using pixel-shift...makes you wonder what the true resolution is on the 2000. 14 bit processing is nice, but at twice the price?

Definitely pricing below the Red is smart considering the 1,500 of us who put down deposits. And yes, we should all be aware that neither camera comes with lenses...good thing I already have some major HD glass.
 
I love the SDX900 and if this camera offers P2 capability, variable frame rates and HD support for less than the SDX used to list for...

...I may have just found a new love!
 
I don't really see the thing here (drifting off topic, though) I'm considering buying a 2nd DVCPRO HD cam, even though I have a Red on order.

Different tools, different uses...

Gunleik
 
Joe_Digital said:
makes you wonder what the true resolution is on the 2000.
Click to expand...
I think all their 2/3" HD cameras (VariCam, HDX400, etc) have used 1280x720 before, and I think the 2000's been announced with 1280x720, right? I'm sure there's a reason or several reasons why the 2000 is nearly twice the price, but I'm hard-pressed to know what it is -- I mean, 500 offers variable frame rates, PAL & NTSC, HD-SDI, TC IN/OUT... what's missing? Maybe it's a smaller body or something? I don't know, but it sounds darned interesting: 2/3", true VFR, true progressive scan, 1080 & 720, all at less than an 1/2" XDCAM.
 
The 500 looks to be an affordable big bother to the HVX200.
I'm looking forward to seeing it at NAB.
 
Barry_Green said:
I'm sure there's a reason or several reasons why the 2000 is nearly twice the price, but I'm hard-pressed to know what it is -- I mean, 500 offers variable frame rates, PAL & NTSC, HD-SDI, TC IN/OUT... what's missing?
Click to expand...
The 2000 offers AVC-Intra. But it can't be worth more than $10K.
 
When I checked the specs of the 2000 it said it was 1370 x 744 which puts it at slightly more than 1 Million pixels. The SDX900 is 525,000 pixels. I don't understand the math with pixel-shifting but presumably 'true HD' at 720 progressive would be a factor of 25% greater than the 900? Maybe that is the difference...maybe only 12 bit processing on the 500. Not a whole lot of info, but we do know what Sony's 350 is with 1/2 chips and double the price for 35 Mbits/sec. And so it goes...
 
I would never be able to afford it anyway but just like everybody else, I can’t believe Panasonic is selling this camera at this price. Maybe there was a Party at Panasonic, where they got so drunk; they decided to set it at this price.
That is the best possible answer unless someone can think of a better reason.
 
I probably won't be buying one either, but I will certainly be interested to see what the rental houses come up with. Sounds like it could be similar to the rates for an SDX, and if that is the case, I am very interested.
 
As far as I know the 2000 has 3 x 2/3" CCDs...same or similar to the HDX900 and Varicam. Remember the HDX-900 is the successor to the SDX-900...it's been out since August '06. Arguably as nice or slightly better picture than the Varicam due to tweaks in the DSP. Rental rates on the HDX-900 are roughly the same or slightly higher than the SDX-900 mostly due to the cost of HD lenses ($12,000-$22,000 on average).

Now as I understand it, Panasonic announced/is coming out with a shoulder mount HVX-200 in June ( 3 x 1/3" CCDS) that accepts broadcast standard 2/3" HD lenses. I thought this was the 500 (hence the price difference) but after reading the preliminary brochure I'm confused!
 
The 500 is a shoulder-mount HVX, but it's not 1/3" chips, it's 2/3" chips. Apparently they're using the SDX900 chipset (which is 960x540 I think?) and using the same spatial offset technology. So it should look better than the HVX, and obviously using $15,000 lenses will give it an additional boost in picture quality.

I don't think they'd make a 1/3" camera that accepts 2/3" lenses; the field of view would be so narrow as to be of fairly limited value. I'm sure that you just confused the 1/3" with the HPX500.
 
There are a number of differences between the two (HPX500 & 2000), and I think each camera is really intended for two different markets. The HPX2000, for instance, has 5 P2 slots whereas the HPX500 has 4. The HPX2000 is also using higher native resolution imagers (1280x720) versus the HPX500's native imager resolution of (960x540) - although the imagers in both camera's are 2/3".

The HPX500 has a number of 'advantages' over the 2000 in my opinion, which cater more to the likes of us users here - it's really the bigger brother to the HVX200. The HPX500 should have more Varicam like cine gamma modes, whereas the 2000 is geared in a different market. Blah blah blah... both are great looking cameras, and I'll certainly be looking at picking up a 500 myself.

I'll be interested to see how the chromatic-abberation compensation function works.

anyway... sounds exciting... can't wait to get my hands on one!!
 
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