HVX200 at SMPTE Sydney...
 

well now.. it seems that panasonic/rexel have their hands on a unit which is going on display this week.. When asked if it was a working version, my buddy was being coy and told me to wait until tomorrow :( LOL

anyways, this was just a heads up to all those sydney people interested in the unit who wanted to take a squiz. rexel will have one model on display and i cant say whether it will be operational or not coz i dont know.

SMPTE is an annual gathering much like the US NAB so feel free to dorp by if ur in the area :)

Thanks for the news, Peter! I hope you can give us a full report. Much appreciated,

Its mid July. Months have passed since NAB, and now our wonderful messenger, Jan, is nowhere to be seen... Where's she? Will she bring us new hope for the coming future? The world is getting thougher everyday, with HDV imposing itself with a strong iron grip...

Now, seriously, I would really like to hear some news on the camera, like a new retouched design (please no blue casing- it looks so plastic!), some screen grabs, the Firestore announcement, and... The release date for PAL!
I've heard from my dealer that it is estimated to cost 57000 Hong Kong Dolars when released.

I sincerely hope it is coming soon, and this year for PAL. I just want to film my short movie with this camera, since I believe the learning curve I'll have, being a DVX owner for 2 years, will be a lot shorter- a smooth transition. I've also invested on a Mac 2.7, 3ghz ram with fcphd, andreally want to put the machine on the ultimate hd test...

And I don't know if I can resist the JVC temptation...

(Delivery over here, for my professional content, will stay in sd for at least 4 more years, so I only need this camera professionally for sd, but for my own projects...)

If you're waiting on the latest new thing before you start shooting your film, you may never get started. Get what you can afford and what's available and go for it. There is always going to be a New Big Thing coming. And even if you wait for it and buy it, there will be another one on the market before you get the one you just bought paid for.

Hmm well i'm no where near Sydney (thats usually a good thing lol) soi cant go have a look. DANG! I wish i was close enough to pop in now. :D

Can anyone take footage and pics? mmyum

Have you seen my signature? :)

Anyway, we are talking about 5000+ dollars, not 200 dollars or something on that price range. This is an investment for the future. Having a dvx100, I know the limits of the camera and where it can and can't go- and knowing what the HVX will do, I believe that's the best capture machine for my short, and for future comercial productions. However, the JVC...
Unfortunatelly, in Macau, the tv comercial business over here is flooded with dv productions, and the market is too missinformed to diferentiate powerpoint style comercials from a proper script based, tought out campaign add, which means its badly paid (compared to Hong Kong- very hard to get into there, but its not impossible). People don't know the importance of displaying a unique brand image of their products...

Bummer......

its the same mock up that was at NAB...
mind you Pana are REALLY pushing P2... so theres still hope for price drops by the time the card comes out.

Nothing new to report and all the spec remains the same
No ETA for Pal either... :( :(

It's disappointing news...But can't say it wasn't expected. Major companies only reveal new information on their main markets...I believe if we are to expect any news, they should come either from Japan, Us or Uk...

But its been a really long drought on information, compared to the exciting build up before NAB, with the lovely Jan C. coming daily adding spice to conversations... It felt like someone inside was really interested on the users from this side... And there was always hope we could squeeze some information from her...

But, alas, marketing build up over, and back to normal.

Jan is an incredibly busy person. When I see her later today (at DV Expo East), I'll remind her how much y'all miss her and want her back.

;-)

I was there today and asked one of the reps about the possibility of external off the shelf hard-drives being used instead of P2, and he said that as far as he knew, yes, we should be able to do that.

He also told me that it should be out by Christmas, and we should be seeing images shot with the camera around sep/oct. As for pricing (AUD), he said that bundled with P2 cards it should be around 20 grand, and without, around 10.

Just talked with a Panasonic rep and he said it's looking like the camera will be out in "Octoberish" (in the U.S.)

I was at the DV expo East, and went to the HVX presentation by Jan. I asked her about the external drive and she definitively said "yes" they are working with Focus Enhancements on a HD device for the HVX. Later when I was at the Focus booth and asked a rep there about it, he only knew that an HDV upgrade was on the way, nothing about HD for the HVX. Now it could be that the rep at focus just didn't know...I'd suspect that Jan would know better than a rep at the focus booth.

Focus was one of the first P2 partners who were signed up. They definitely are working on it. However, they refuse to comment on forthcoming products, and since they just launched a $299 software update for the FS-4 to make it HDV-compatible, I think it's understandable that the reps at their booth were there to sell the HDV upgrade, so they may not have been briefed on the forthcoming product (for a camera that is still like four months away).

That makes sense...especially for after market products like Focus makes. Sell after market products for products that exist. HDV cameras exist. The HVX doesn't...YET.

yikes. 10k! Should be closer to 8... ggrr Aussies getting jibbed yet again! :(