I'm assuming this will be Long GOP, not I-frame only?

Yeah, 50Mbps MPEG-2 intraframe only compression would be a bit rough.

just when I thought that previous Canon announcement was pretty average, it looks like they have been listening.
Looking forward to see some images both of the cam and of what it can produce

Thanks for the explanation Andrew!

Don't suppose anyone has any info on when these cams might hit the shelf?
Steve

The difference between 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 is purely down to chroma resolution. It won't change the amount of chroma noise or the intensity of the colours. In interlace the difference is more pronounced and can be seen on fine strongly coloured edges as a slightly jagged edge. In progressive the difference is much less significant and often very hard to spot. Certainly 4:2:2 is preferable, but the camera will need good sensors to fully take advantage of it. Let's hope Canon don't disappoint!

50 mbits/s with mpeg2 is a darn good bitrate and even convergent design will tell you it is a perfect balance for high quality acquisition. The only time they suggest going higher is if you really need to know every frame is rock solid as perfect as the camera itself will allow. 35 mbits is already known as a pretty solid format and moving up to 50 mbits makes it even more rock solid.

Even if computers are capable of dealing with native AVCHD editing they will always be a step ahead with mpeg2 editing. If a system a few years from now can edit 3 streams of AVCHD then it would be able to handle 6 streams of mpeg2. The rendering will also be at least twice as fast which is a pretty big deal for a lot of professionals that need a quick turn around time. A lot of NLE's even have mpeg2 smart rendering so only the stuff you change gets rendered. I would rather render a project in 2 hours compared to 10 hours if I have a client waiting.

As for broadcast specs I wouldn't be as concerned about it. Stations can tell if you shot with a 4:2:0 camera but it is much harder to tell if you shot with a 1/2" camera. If you light carefully I doubt many people would notice. Sometimes there can be a slight difference in detail as most 1/2" or 2/3" cameras use full raster CCD's. Ironically HDCAM dumbs this down to a 1440x1080 3:1:1 color tape. So other then low light performance I expect the new Canon format to at least beat the pants off the HDCAM tape format.

Maybe I should finally sell my old XL1 to pay for the tax on this new camera. LOL

Sounds like a sound business decision to me. ;0)

That info will be included in the official Canon press release announcing the camera, whenever it is issued. Until then, nobody knows for sure (and those who do are restricted by NDA). So far, Canon has said only "sometime in 2010." Of course, DV Info Net always reports official news as it happens, so stay tuned to this site.

I hope they take a page from their consumer AVCHD line and include say 128GB or 256GB (to one-up the Sony NX cams.) on board flash memory.

What else would be nifty is a tape based acquisition system too... And also the ability to use removable media like SD cards.

3 types of storage....pie in the sky?

Sounds good to me Kyle. Any reason why that would be impractical? There may well be one, but I don't know it.
Steve

Take a look at the photos in my article... there's no tape transport mechanism on this model.

You know, I've sort of wondered at times, why Sony didn't take essentially a DVCAM approach (faster tape transport speed) and offer what amounts to recording XDCAM EX on MiniDV tape, years ago, shortly after HDV was first introduced. They could have done that right from the get-go with the Z1.

10-bit color would've been nice.

Chris, I did see the pictures in your article when you posted it originally. My thought was, it was just a rough mock up with the possibility of design changes still a reality.

If Canon was able to cover all the bases with tape, SD/CF, and built in storage, they would please a lot of people. Especially those of us who have some concerns about archiving, which currently is a lot easier with tape.