I held the new JVC...
 

In short, a nice cam with lots of good control placements. Big mistake by JVC is that there is NO tele/wide rocker on the handle. This means low angle shots will be more difficult. The handle has only 2 buttons, focus assist, and rec start/stop. Balance on the shoulder is awesome in the standard configuration and a nice touch is the earphone pad that butts up to your right ear. Much lighter than the XL-2. The lens has all manual markings and the supplied mic uses an XLR connector. Will post more later, I was there shortly after the show opened and there were lots of folks waiting to touch.

-gb-

Greg, you lucky so-and-so. There are now about 16,000 people here who suddenly hate you. But we'll entirely forgive you when you post more info! ;)

Well, I didn't get the chance to hold the camera, but I watched others fiddle with it. I must say, "filmlike" doesn't even come close to how great this camera looks. The Sony FX1/Z1U are dead to me compared to this camera! But the Z1U footage I saw wasn't too shabby either, it's the PD170 of the HD age right now, no 24p, but still sharp. People, the good news is, the JVC is small! It's much smaller than the pictures lead on. The XL2 is bigger than the JVC! The only word I can use to describe this camera is "wow", but I'm still waiting on the HVX200 myself, they're still working on the CCD's apparently so no comparisons yet.

One of the cameras in the row has the optional servo zoom control next to the record button on the handle. It is black and easy to miss.

Since this camera has a real lens the servo zoom option connects to the bottom connector on the lens.

I thought the ergonomics were great, it felt good on the shoulder and the "real" lens was a relief. It's like an illusion--it feels like a Betacam that must be tethered to helium balloons to make it lighter!

I did notice a tendency for overexposed highlights to show purple fringing, and the usual overlit studio setting that the camera is aimed it made it hard to really get a sense of the image (I don't know if any camera aimed at those type of setups would look filmic) but it is a jolt to see something of that resolution come out of such a small package.

There is a Mini35 attached to an HD100 at the show, although it wasn't connected to monitors, so we know that the relay is already spec'd out and ready to go. It is similar to the XL series relays, with the iris control on the relay itself.

It's tiny tiny tiny. I think the main body is about the size of a man's hand. (a reasonably large hand, but you get the idea).

The peaking was *nice* -- a variable dial that you can crank up from very-little to "wow", so it's a nice focus aid. The "focus assist" is a little scary -- it added red bars and swathed the screen in red "peaking" detail. I imagine once you get used to it, it'd be quite useful.

The lens they showed had a 5.5 - 88mm range, with a max. aperture of f/1.4.

There was a long line, it took a while to get to it. Definitely a lot of interest in this little cam! The model I saw wasn't "done" yet, they didn't let us have access to the menus so no way to find out what type of goodies are under the hood.

But man, is it tiny... if you're expecting a shoulder-mount Betacam, you'll be really surprised. I mean, yes it's shoulder-mount, but then again so's a parrot! :)

ROTFL! Thanks Barry - I needed a cheer up!

Aaron

Nicely put, Barry... of course one expects it to be better house- and er... shoulder-trained than a parrot. ;-)

--Ralph

Can someone say or describe how the images were with this camera?
Charles already said some things, anybody else?
Just curious.
Thanks,

I envy everyone that was able to fiddle around with this camera... You SOBs :)

If anyone took pictures of other people holding the camera, please post them here!

Even better would be a bit of footage, but I'm guessing is a bit too soon for that..

I just got back from NAB and I also held the new JVC. My impressions are...wow! I want one -bad!

I spent a lot of time with the new camera. They had several on display for the attendees to toy with. They had the cameras equipped with studio rigs, wide angle lenses, hand-held ENG mode, etc. Being that I'm used to working with Beta-SP and SX camcorders, I prefer the configuration of the HD100 compared to the new Panasonic and Sony HD cams. The broadcast-type lens with it's manual controls are a must as far as I'm concerned. It felt like a "real" camera, albeit a lightweight version of such. It was very light, yet I found it comfortable and well-balanced on my shoulder. A bit nose-heavy, but far preferable to the Sony and Panasonic. As far as there being no zoom controls on the carry handle, well, neither does my Sony BVW-400 and I like it just fine. One clever feature was the built-in earpiece attached to the carry handle.

JVC gave a quick demo of the camera. They compared the image of the HD100 to a true professional HD camera. I don't know which broadcast camera they used. The crowd was so large, they blocked my view of the two demo cameras, and the JVC rep just called it "the other HD camera." As far as the image, it was terrific. Both cameras were displayed side-by-side on big plasma screens. I could tell the pro model had better color resolution and seemed a bit sharper, but overall I was very impressed with the HD100. Consider, it's 1/10th the price ($6,200 according to the reps) of a pro HD.
I know the Panasonic promises a lot more as far as recording formats, but I still prefer the JVC -at least for now. Panasonic only had a mock-up camera, so there's no way to compare image quality. The JVC definitely "felt" better.

Forgive me if I make some spelling and grammatical errors in this post, but I'm still fatigued from the long journey back from Vegas.

$6k sounds amazing! I was expecting $7k, minimum.

I really like my HD1, but I suppose it's time to start saving for a new cam...

Is there any indication as to when this new HD bad boy will be on dealer shelves?

"July". No indication if that meant 7/1/05 or 7/31/05, but they did say July.

Considering street prices could easily be $5,500 or less, this camera is indeed a great value. I don't think anyone expected it would be on the $5k side of "less than $10k".

The other nice thing about that price is it keeps it in the $200 - $250 per day range for rental.

Color me excited.

Ben