I have loved my Panasonic DV cameras. But I know that High Definition is the future. The HVX is a wonderful camera but completely impractical and expensive for my Event shooting needs. Before I bight the bullet and switch to the more practical Sony Z1 has Panasonic any plans for an HDV camera along the lines of the DVX models?
Panasonic HDV for Event Videographer?
- Thread starter NGC
- Start date
Barry_Green
Moderator
Panasonic will never produce an HDV model. But then again, Sony will probably never produce another HDV model either; both companies have launched a new format called AVC-HD. It combines long recording times with tapeless acquisition (Sony uses spinning DVDs, Panasonic has announced they'll record to regular memory cards).
Nobody knows what types of products Panasonic will come out with. Sony's already announced a couple of AVC-HD models but they're very simplistic basic consumer models. I don't think Panasonic would go that way -- AVC-HD is everything HDV was, and a whole lot more, so I expect them to produce a product that fully delivers on the format's promise. But they haven't given any indication as to what they plan to do as far as AVC-HD goes.
AVC-HD isn't perfect, it's still a highly-compressed long-GOP recording format with 4:2:0 color sampling. So it's very much like HDV, only far more efficient encoding and better audio, plus it's cross-manufacturer-compatible.
Nobody knows what types of products Panasonic will come out with. Sony's already announced a couple of AVC-HD models but they're very simplistic basic consumer models. I don't think Panasonic would go that way -- AVC-HD is everything HDV was, and a whole lot more, so I expect them to produce a product that fully delivers on the format's promise. But they haven't given any indication as to what they plan to do as far as AVC-HD goes.
AVC-HD isn't perfect, it's still a highly-compressed long-GOP recording format with 4:2:0 color sampling. So it's very much like HDV, only far more efficient encoding and better audio, plus it's cross-manufacturer-compatible.
Brandon Rice
Distributed Producer
It's Panny's answer to the A1 from Canon?
Barry_Green
Moderator
Nobody knows. They haven't announced their plans for AVC-HD, other than to say that they'll be recording to SD cards (in addition to disc, presumably?)
STORYTELLER32
Well-known member
Barry_Green said:
Barry, do you have any more details on the type of memory cards? I'm assuming you don't mean P2 here, right? Is it more like flash memory cards?
Brandon Rice
Distributed Producer
cool, it'd be neat to see a new AVC-HD cam from panny, maybe to replace the DVX?
Barry_Green
Moderator
STORYTELLER32 said:
Standard off-the-shelf SD memory cards, just like you'd find in your cell phone or digital camera.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Brandon Rice said:
Well, maybe. I mean, the DVX is still selling so they're in no rush to replace it, but I'd like to see them shovel the HVX chipset and an AVC-HD encoder into the DVX body and call it the HVX100. I think it'd be a huge seller.
I don't know that I would use it, I'm no fan of long-GOP encoding. But for those who are finding HDV acceptable, I can't see why they wouldn't be thrilled at AVC-HD, which is over twice as efficient at encoding as HDV is, plus it's full-raster (no prefiltering/scaling going on) and it includes true 24p in both the 1080 and 720 modes, plus uncompressed audio in 7.1 channels or dolby digital AC-3 encoding in 5.1 channels.
Brandon Rice
Distributed Producer
Sounds like a winner all around... though I have my reservations about the HDV format as well, and may just go to the full HD of the HVX, or RED (I'm dreamin')
STORYTELLER32
Well-known member
Barry_Green said:
If they're able to do that, then why have P2 at all? Why is it so expensive? Flash memory cards come in 4gb cards for around $70.00 now. :furious3:
Sorry, just hate feeling like we're getting fleeced.
NGC said:
Check out the Canon A1 thread in other cams.
you sound like the guy at weva last week...are you...i couldnt agree with you more...the hvx is definetly not an event camera...to costly to shoot in hd...but maybe thats just me...i would love love love nothing more then to own this camera but for somethings its just not the right camera
Barry_Green
Moderator
Keep in mind this is all complete speculation -- there is no reason to believe that such a product is actually under development! (although I think they'd be silly not to!)You get 5x as much AVC-HD as you do DVCPRO-HD (in the highest-quality mode). So an 8gb card could hold 40 minutes of AVC-HD in premium quality. But AVC-HD is scalable; I believe the Sonys offer 15mbps, 12mbps, 9mbps, even down to 5mbps. If you really, really needed long record times, you could drop to 5mbps and get 4x as much recording per gig, or about 2.5 hours of AVC-HD on a single 8gb card.
razamalik
Well-known member
thanks Barry it would make perfect sense to have a Camera like HVX add AVC-HD for more usability, it'd be kinda like your DSLR you get Raw you get Large JPEGs & you get small JPEGs opening up more options for you.... Now i would see DVC PRO HD as the Big Large Jpeg & AVCHD as the small brother for those long shoots... Raw would be nice but i guess we can live with effecient compression that saves us loads of money when it comes to storage. & the way i see it is that if i really wanted RAW i'd go hire at least a 2/3" cam (SI CAM????) or hopefully buy RED when it comes, talking of RAW out of 1/3" dont make much sense to me.
40 mins on 8GB would be great so in a 16GB you get 40x2= 80mins which would be great news for event videographers.
40 mins on 8GB would be great so in a 16GB you get 40x2= 80mins which would be great news for event videographers.
Barry_Green
Moderator
That's the way I look at it. I hope Panasonic will see it the same way!
and think about when the 16gb cards roll out at the end of the year.. 160 minutes in camera. Thats pretty tasty.
Brandon Rice
Distributed Producer
Jarred Land said:
That'll be excellent.... I'm really excited about the whole solid state revolution!
Jarred Land said:
It sure will, but at that point Id expect it to release for about $1800.... add that to a camera that is selling for about $3900, one third of the price is spent on something to capture the format. Think of someone who might buy this cam... event videographer etc. Shoot a wedding: usually 4 and abit hours of footage, would require 2 cards. I think thats less viable for most people buying a cam at that end. Just like the XL2 it has optional lenses but very few bought them because of cost and they were about 1k?
On the HVX I can completely understand it. Your paying for a DVCPRO cam at a higher price.
If panasonic wants to push p2 further then the price must come down. But of course its like anything: supply vs demand.
My point is I think if Panasonic cant bring the cost of p2 down, then they need to add another aquisition method to the cam, the SD card option would still get expensive as you would need a few but much cheaper.