When will Panny upgrade the HMC150?

J

JMG100

Active member
I'm a video professional looking to upgrade from DV. Any idea when Panasonic will upgrade the HMC150, or even the HPX170/HVX200A? Where are we in the product cycle do you think? Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks!
 
I doubt we will see a significant upgrade for a year or two.

Product cycles in this market sector are a lot longer than consumer cameras that seem to change every year.
 
Thanks for the reply. Sony just made an announcement on the EX-1R and I thought Panasonic could make an announcement soon. Didn't realize the product cycle was so long.
 
Well... the HMC150 and HPX170 are only around a year old, and they use the sames chips as the HVX200a, which was the upgraded version of that camera (the chips were part of the upgrade). The EX-1 has been around for a while, two or three years I think. So I doubt you're going to see new versions of the camera for quite some time.
 
In theory, Panasonic could introduce a new improvement in the models by NAB, BUT I would be very surprised to see that happen in 2010, maybe 2011 or 2012, but 2010 just seems too soon.

Bob Diaz
 
Panny will upgrade the 150 when it gets a fresh batch of winter-grade grease for the focus wheel.
 
Thanks for all the input!

Cranky: I hope that problem gets solved. I've rented a HPX several times and overall find it a pleasure to use.
 
I would love to see some little improvements to the cam by the time i buy my own. Maybe dual card slots (redundancy or hot swappable smaller cards), interval recording, higher res LCD, faster servo zoom, etc. I know the major stuff wouldn't change (resolution, media, codec)
 
KnoxHotch said:
I would love to see some little improvements to the cam by the time i buy my own. Maybe dual card slots (redundancy or hot swappable smaller cards), interval recording, higher res LCD, faster servo zoom, etc. I know the major stuff wouldn't change (resolution, media, codec)
Click to expand...
Yes, I agree. Hot-swappable would be number one on my list, with interval recording a close second. Also, variable frame rates 1-60 (w/60p they do have 60 already) in 720 mode would be great, but that might make it too competitive with the HPX/HVX.
 
JMG100 said:
Yes, I agree. Hot-swappable would be number one on my list, with interval recording a close second. Also, variable frame rates 1-60 (w/60p they do have 60 already) in 720 mode would be great, but that might make it too competitive with the HPX/HVX.
Click to expand...
my thoughts exactly.....if the hmc had all of that i would probably buy another.
 
KnoxHotch said:
Maybe dual card slots (redundancy or hot swappable smaller cards)
Click to expand...

ABSOLUTLY!!! I would love to see dual card slots with the user option of Hot Swapable or dual recording... It truely makes me nervous that I am going to lose info off a card of someone wedding. Either by my fault (washing machine or something similar) or from the card just crashing on me. I would feel MUCH, MUCH better if I could record to two cards at the same time...

Phil
 
JMG100:

You might consider getting a used one to reduce your initial investment. Used ones ocassionally go (very quickly) for $2,700ish.

Im also anxious for an update on the sensor, but I have shoots I have to do now, so I bought my B & C cams used (you could barely tell) because I WILL be upgrading as soon as the next iteration is released, and I hate to have so much money in cameras.

As a side note on better sensors, Im betting there will be some great deals on used Sony EX-1s since the EX-1R has been announced. It's still going to be $4,500ish though. Very hard to justify for me.
 
How soon after the original DVX100 did the 100a come out? Wasn't that only about a year?

That said, buy what you need now, not what you think will come out sometime. Otherwise, you'll never buy anything.
 
Dual card slots wouldn't be hard to add, since the hpx170 can easily fit 2 P2 cards and an SD card under the EVF. They also need to upgrade the whole 200/170/150 line with the hpx300's LCD. A few treats would be SD AVI recording, a card checking function, and colored peaking.

I forgot another thing for the christmas list: Individual port covers (just like the hmc40) so we don't have to reveal everything to plug in a pair of headphones,
 
Last edited:
No one knows anything except the people at Panasonic. My best guess is that Panasonic will be developing cameras for the upcoming SDXC cards that will be coming out next year. I think they will go with a new generation of cameras rather than an upgrade. ??????????????
I got a 2nd HMC 150 because I needed it and not what may be coming next.
 
From my understanding (I could be wrong but this is what I was told) anything that can read an SDHC card will be able to read a SDXC card.

EDIT: Though on the sdcard.org website it says the following.

Is SDXC compatible with existing SD hosts?
Existing SD and SDHC host devices will not be compatible with new SDXC cards, but existing SD and SDHC cards will still continue to be offered by card manufacturers for the foreseeable future. Existing SD and SDHC cards will work in SDXC host devices.​

I was told that the HMC150 should be able to read these with a firmware upgrade. Can anyone confirm this?
 
Last edited:
I don't know that anyone has ever really confirmed or denied it when the topic has come up in the past. I'm not sure what the point would be though. A 32GB SDHC card will hold give or take 200 minutes in PH mode, more in the lower modes. A 64GB SDXC card seems like a bit of overkill. Also, the camera currently uses FAT32, since it's a universal format. SDXC uses FATex, which I believe is proprietary to Windows. Unless Apple licenses it from Microsoft in the near future, a large portion of the user base wouldn't be able to take advantage of it anyways. Plus, a class 4 SDHC card is more than adequate for AVCHD, as the most it can do is 24 mb/s. SDXC would be WAY faster than needed.

I'm sure future camera models and formats will take advantage of SDXC, but for the near future (at least the life cycle of the camera), it almost seems like a non-issue (except for when SDXC cards cause SDHC cards to drop in price... the one real benefit to HMC150 owners :) )
 
Well, I for one would love a 64gb card as we do a lot of event coverage. And since we can't hot swap cards.. a nice large card would be great.

I believe you can format an SDXC with fat32 as well. It's just not he "standard" file system.

I'm just a bit irked casue I was told they would be able to read 64gb cards by a panny dealer. Maybe he just assumed 64gb would be SDHC? Not everyone understands these formats.

For example, I was in a large retail electronics store the other day and they had no clue the 64+ cards were going to be a new format.

Only way to find out I guess is to wait and see what happens.
 
I want to know what the heck you're shooting for over three hours straight where you don't have a minute to swap out cards. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top