Great Camera! But I won't be buying it because...
 

First of all, congratulations to Panasonic, they've really out-did themselves with the HVX-200. After looking at the posted footage, I am very very impressed, with the image, and the stats. I had some reservations about the p2 workflow, but panasonic stepped up and gave us several options. A round of back pats to the engineers and all involved.

However, the one thing that will keep me from buying this camera is not one PAL capable frame rate. And I assume vice-versa on the PAL version of the HVX.

I have two different series coming up early next year. One SD PAL production for a network here in Asia, and another 1080i60 production for broadcast in the states. While I could buy two cameras, or rent one or the other, by far the easiest and most cost-effective solution for me would be to have one camera that does both.

Producing shows for different standards is not an uncommon occurrence in production these days, especially here in Asia where some countries are NTSC based, and others PAL. I hope that Panasonic will take note of this globalization of production in their upcoming products.

I am a bit skeptical of the claim that the technologies involved are too difficult to reconcile in one camera. Especially seeing that the P2 format is much easier to make variable frame rates on than tape. I mean is 25 and 50 so much more difficult to do than 24 and 48?

I understand that DVCPRO HD has different physical dimensions at PAL frame rates, but 1080, 720, and 480, are all also different dimensions which don't seem to be a problem.

Even something like Sony or Canon where you can boot into a different mode would be incredibly useful.

I'm hoping some kind of standards switching functionality will make it into the PAL version of the HVX-200, but failing that I sincerely hope that it makes it into their future products, because I do believe that Panasonic is on to something great here, and I'm sure they will have great success with it.

They just missed a small segment of the market... me. :)