JVC releases affordable 4K acquisition/display solution

Can't wait to see footage from this 4k camcorder. The press-release said the lens f-stop (aparture) is a 2.8 I guess to keep the image sharp for 4K. Will be tough in lowlight situations for events. Looking to see what can be done with the camera.
 
Interesting from several angles. First is that it's 4K on a 1/2" chip, so some will dismiss it immediately as "not cinema", whereas others who were begging for a 16mm-sized Scarlet might think "hmmm..."

Second, while it's not "3K for $3K" it's "4K for $5K"! :evil:

Third, it does 4K at 60P! That's crazy, the Scarlet can't even do that, I wasn't expecting that, I was expecting a max of 4K at 30p, so good on JVC for providing both 24P and 60p.

Fourth, it uses SDHC/SDXC, and records up to 144mbps. Must require UHS-1 cards or something.

Fifth, IINM, this is JVC's first foray into CMOS. JVC was pretty much the last holdout still using exclusively CCDs...

Sixth, the lens only opens to 2.8? That makes a bit of a conundrum because as I understand diffraction, on a 4K 1/2" chip, f/2.8 is about as far as you could possibly stop down before diffraction becomes a problem. To see it open up to a max of 2.8 seems really limiting; I wonder if it's actually a fixed f/2.8 lens?

No mention of bit depth or color sampling, at this price bracket I would expect 8-bit 4:2:0 but would be delighted to be pleasantly surprised.

Will be most interested to see the images coming off of this thing.
 
Side view shows an "AVCHD Progressive" logo on it, presumably for 1080 & 720 (if it does 720). But AVCHD Progressive doesn't have a provision for 4K, so I guess they're inventing their own format for that.
 
Awesome: 144mbps codec!

Awesome: realtime debayer, 4K at 60P(!!!)

Awesome: small and light

Hilarious: you could connect all 4 HDMI outputs to external recorders

Sad: no genlock, no FIZ sync - sucks or this would ROCK for 3D!

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
hmm.... could this finally be the competitor the EX1 never had?

really interested to see how much light that sensor can grab with 4 times the pixels.
 
imdjay said:
hmm.... could this finally be the competitor the EX1 never had?

really interested to see how much light that sensor can grab with 4 times the pixels.
Click to expand...
I don't think this is targeted at the EX1, it seems like a more entry-level camera. More like a 4K version of their HM100.

As for low light performance, I would presume it will be pretty weak. Hyper-tiny pixels, about the same size as a Panasonic HMC40's pixels, and the HMC40 delivers about 50 ISO, so I would expect about the same from the JVC. The 2.8 lens will hurt it in low light too. But it could be amazingly sharp in daylight.
 
ah yea and just saw a clarification, not QUITE 1/2"....

  • 1/2.3" Back-illuminated CMOS Sensor (8.3 million active pixels)
  • Ultra high resolution F2.8 10X Zoom Lens
    (F2.8 to 4,5 — f=6.7-67 mm) (35 mm conversion: 42.5 to 425 mm)
  • Built-in optical image stabilizer
  • 4K Recording: 3,840 x 2,160
    MPEG-4 AVC/H.264(.MP4) 4 Stream Separate Recording 60fps/50fps/24fps Progressive at 144Mbps
  • 4K recording for up to 2 hours (32GB SDHC, x4)
  • JVC file utility included for combining separate streams into single editable file
  • Also functions as fully featured full-HD camcorder
    AVCHD progressive (.mts) 60i/60p or 50p/50i
  • Interval (time lapse) recording in both 4K and HD modes
  • JVC's patented "FOCUS ASSIST" function
  • Full HD (1920x1080) trimming function
  • 3 assignable user buttons
  • 2 audio channels
    4K mode: AAC, 2ch, 48kHz,16bit
    HD mode: AC3, 2ch, 48kHz, 16bit
  • Manual audio level controls with audio meter
  • XLR inputs with 48V phantom power
  • Large 3.5-inch 920,000 pixel LCD display with touch panel
  • 0.24" Lcos 260,000 pixel viewfinder
  • Records to inexpensive SDHC/SDXC memory cards
    4 used in the 4K mode
    1 used in the HD mode
  • Wired remote control capability
 
So it's QuadHD instead of real 4K, I guess that means that they're recording each quadrant of the screen as its own separate 1080p file. Pretty clever, leveraging existing recording formats to work with a new technology. Don't know how they get 144 megabits though; AVCHD 2.0 provides for 1080/60p at 28mbps, so four streams of that should be 112mbps, not 144... interesting.

42.5 on the wide sure isn't wide at all, and the lens stopping down to 4.5 will probably mean some noticeable diffraction when zooming in.

Oh well, you have to expect some compromises when you're looking at a complete shootable 4K system for 1/5th the cost of the next lowest-cost 4K system on the market (assuming $25k for a Red Scarlet package with 10:1 zoom).
 
Very interesting. I bet stitching those files back together are going to be time consuming!

And the light performance might be surprising given they are using a Back-illuminated CMOS Sensor.
 
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