AF-100 Wishlist/Suggestion Discussion Thread

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The HPX300/370 sits in a sweet spot where few other cameras reside and that $8k baseline price point hasn't hurt their sales.

To the contrary, Panasonic captured a lot of new and legacy news broadcast business because the camera brought master-quality 10-bit recording with the added benefit of P2 workflow, removable broadcast lens and shoulder-mount form-factor. Nothing else like it existed before the HPX300. The news market was saturated with DVCPro50 tape rigs and an assortment of Sony product.

The market is the market. None of us have access to Panasonic's marketing research, but our knowledge of the market isn't totally worthless either. This very thread might make up a small part of Panasonic's market research path to their finished product. And a good number of users are stating that the camera should be P2HD and benefit from everything that comes with that - including a premium if necessary.
 
I'd love to see an option, with 2 versions of the camera.
I, for one, am totally happy with SD-card recording and AVCHD.
I also know some hvx200 P2 people who are quite annoyed with that more costly and tedious workflow.
So an option for either sdhc or P2 with appropriate pricing would satisfy a larger group of people.
 
my impression is, they do plan to release a p2 version... theyre just trying to feel how it will go with the avccam
 
dcloud said:
my impression is, they do plan to release a p2 version... theyre just trying to feel how it will go with the avccam
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Do you mean that you think they're not serious about the AVCCAM version? And that they intend to instead do it as a P2 product?

I don't think so. They're very serious about AVCCAM, it's a huge investment for them and h.264 is the post-MPEG-2 future. I think if they only release one camera, it'll be AVCCAM. I'm hoping they release two. Actually, my ideal world would be that they release one switchable camera that can record to P2 (sorry for those who don't agree, but I vastly prefer P2 over SDHC) but I'd love to be able to record AVCCAM and AVC-I on that P2 card.

If it's got to be SDXC/SDHC, well, okay -- but I'd still want to record AVC-I and AVCCAM onto that SDXC card.
 
as long as its on sdxc/hc cards, i don't care. =)
of course i'd be happy to have a higher quality codec, but i totally love the cheap, small and convenient sd cards over the insanely pricey P2 cards that also require additional insanely pricey extra bits of hardware to quickly ingest the files to your computer (compared to SD cards in an sd card slot or usb dongle).
 
Barry_Green said:
Do you mean that you think they're not serious about the AVCCAM version? And that they intend to instead do it as a P2 product?

I don't think so. They're very serious about AVCCAM, it's a huge investment for them and h.264 is the post-MPEG-2 future. I think if they only release one camera, it'll be AVCCAM. I'm hoping they release two. Actually, my ideal world would be that they release one switchable camera that can record to P2 (sorry for those who don't agree, but I vastly prefer P2 over SDHC) but I'd love to be able to record AVCCAM and AVC-I on that P2 card.

If it's got to be SDXC/SDHC, well, okay -- but I'd still want to record AVC-I and AVCCAM onto that SDXC card.
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At least it'll keep costs down. Look at HMC-150 vs HPX-170.
 
Barry_Green said:
Do you mean that you think they're not serious about the AVCCAM version? And that they intend to instead do it as a P2 product?
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Not at all. Im basing on the 3d camera jan made a statement about. She said a p2 version of the 3d camera will be coming along next year. I dont know the details but that came frm her on one opf thd interviews so basing on that its not unlikely that theyll make a 'hpx170' version in the coming future
 
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averan said:
as long as its on sdxc/hc cards, i don't care. =)
of course i'd be happy to have a higher quality codec, but i totally love the cheap, small and convenient sd cards over the insanely pricey P2 cards that also require additional insanely pricey extra bits of hardware to quickly ingest the files to your computer (compared to SD cards in an sd card slot or usb dongle).
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I would prefer SDXC or SCHC as well. Of course AVC-I or even RAW data formats would be nice, but please keep it on cheap and convenient open-standard cards.
 
Barry_Green said:
Right, I think that's entirely possible. I'd love to see two versions.
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I think they would make a lot more money going this route. I personally don't have a use for P2, but I do recognize that *a lot* of people do, and can definitely see the advantages of a P2/AVC-I 100 variation of this camera.
 
So here's a thought... after seeing the part about on Luis' official list about easily strapping on the HPG20. The HPG20 retails for over $4k. While you get a nice little controls and LCD screen, some of those may not be necessary for the AF100, and the stand alone recorder won't easily attach to it.

So here's my thought... some of the Sony's like the Z7u don't have a CF module built in, but allow you to add it on. Why not do something similar? Have the AF100 sell as is with the current announced specs, and then sell an add-on P2/AVC-I module that plugs into a port/mount similar to the Z7u. Say for around $2k. Those of us who don't need it don't have to buy it. Those of you who do need it and are willing to plunk down an extra $2k for a P2 camera anyways get it. None of the hassle of trying to figure out how to attach a standalone P2 recorder to the camera to make it easily portable, or trying to figure out how to slave the record/stop functions. You still have the HD-SDI socket free for external monitoring or whatever you want to use it for. And they don't need to worry about trying to manufacture two different cameras.
 
Erik Olson said:
The market is the market. None of us have access to Panasonic's marketing research, but our knowledge of the market isn't totally worthless either. This very thread might make up a small part of Panasonic's market research path to their finished product. And a good number of users are stating that the camera should be P2HD and benefit from everything that comes with that - including a premium if necessary.
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Hi Eric,

I certainly didn't mean to pooh-pooh your ideas or suggest otherwise, but one man's low price is another man's ceiling. In another thread others are complaining - moaning really - about the $6K price point as being way, way too high.

Adding P2 as the sole medium would be a deal breaker, IMHO, and I have P2 media. I think SD has arrived.
 
compact flash may have been a smarter choice though as it can have sustain data rates at a much higher speed than SD (AT THE MOMENT) and is still very affordable. Would allow for more overcranking, different or better codec, or not. But I think people asking for so many framerates, 120 fps at 720p may not be possible with a SD card... I could be wrong, but it feels extremely unlikely to me.
 
Mike Harvey said:
So here's a thought... after seeing the part about on Luis' official list about easily strapping on the HPG20. The HPG20 retails for over $4k. While you get a nice little controls and LCD screen, some of those may not be necessary for the AF100, and the stand alone recorder won't easily attach to it.

So here's my thought... some of the Sony's like the Z7u don't have a CF module built in, but allow you to add it on. Why not do something similar? Have the AF100 sell as is with the current announced specs, and then sell an add-on P2/AVC-I module that plugs into a port/mount similar to the Z7u. Say for around $2k. Those of us who don't need it don't have to buy it. Those of you who do need it and are willing to plunk down an extra $2k for a P2 camera anyways get it. None of the hassle of trying to figure out how to attach a standalone P2 recorder to the camera to make it easily portable, or trying to figure out how to slave the record/stop functions. You still have the HD-SDI socket free for external monitoring or whatever you want to use it for. And they don't need to worry about trying to manufacture two different cameras.
Click to expand...

I really like this idea. It would help on many fronts. One it would allow people to get into the AF100 system at a much lower price than built in P2, and it would allow those who really want P2 to have that as well. The Huge advantage for people like me, that is those who have not yet made an investment in P2, is that we can test the waters as it were. I could perhaps rent the P2 module for a shoot to see how the workflow fits into my world. If i like it, and/or find the intraframe codecs to be "needed" i can purchase one at a later time. This, to me at least, is a much better system than having two cameras.
 
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