I really like this camera, but in the next generation I'm hoping for : 1) Better light sensitivity. Shooting indoors in ambient light is not easy. 2) HD-SDI output. Faster computers will soon make it possible for many people to ingest and edit this data stream. 3) Perhaps a 16x lens. The current lens is marginal for some work, and 16x seems to be more of a standard size. Other thoughts ?

Well the low light capabilities and having at least a full 720p raster set of chips are the things stopping me from considering Panasonic for my move from DV to HD.

The uprezzed chips might be fine now, but in a few years when every camera has huge chip resolution, the current chips are going to look rather pale.

AS good LCD resolution as EX1. Oh boy it was so much easier to focus on EX1 than HVX200.

AS good LCD resolution as EX1. Oh boy it was so much easier to focus on EX1 than HVX200.

Hi Kaku:

Would you say it has high enough resolution to focus with a Brevis or Letus and really shallow depth of field?

I have seen some pretty impressive footage from the EX-1.

Dan

Reading a few other posts leads me to add another suggestion - a HDMI output connector. Also, I agree that it is time to delete the tape unit. This camera is not impressive at DV recording. Those interested in DV should buy a different camcorder. In place of the tape unit, a 64 GB solid state flash hard drive would be nice. The newest ones can record a 100 Mbs data stream without problems.

Edit note - Ethan Cooper wrote that the 720p from the HVX, downconverted to DV is of very high quality, so maybe my comment about DV above is not quite correct. I would still get rid of the tape unit in exchange for a solid state hard drive.

The DV quality is excellent. I wouldn't have bought this camera without the tape drive. I'm in a small market and almost all of my business is still DV. Very few people have the ability to play an HD disk and no one around here wants to pay for it. Besides, you can't take something away on a Christmas list. That's againt the Christmas list rules.

I would love to have 16x lens and a better on board mic wouldn't hurt since I can't use 4 external mics.

Speaking of which, howabout 4 external mic inputs? That would be great.

Oh yeah, and a smoother zoom. Make it smooth and buttery like my DVC30's zoom.

How about making the remote control jacks easier to access.

The DV quality is excellent. I wouldn't have bought this camera without the tape drive. I'm in a small market and almost all of my business is still DV. Very few people have the ability to play an HD disk and no one around here wants to pay for it. Besides, you can't take something away on a Christmas list. That's againt the Christmas list rules.

How about making the remote control jacks easier to access.

Martin, You can always record in HD - then downsample it to DV for your clients. The quality of DV this way is way much better than filming it in DV in the first place. The colours are so much better (even if it is DV).

Remote control jacks - I second that. The present place is terrible ... and you run the risk of accidentally ejecting the SD card.

Get rid of and reposition the cheap, flimsy 4 pin firewire connector.

Any camera manufacturer that uses this plug instead of a locking, well positioned 6-pin connector without power should be taken behind the shed.

Martin, You can always record in HD - then downsample it to DV for your clients.

I shoot a lot of long format footage. One take is typically 45-55 min long. There really isn't a way for me to economically shoot HD. The market I'm in wont bare the cost of increasing my infrastructure to shoot in HD. Until 32Gb cards cost $400-600, which I believe will happen at about the time my market is demanding HD, I still need the tape drive.

I think there are a lot of people in small markets like me out there that have bought the HVX because it does have the tape drive. I'll bet Panny knows if this is true. Any thoughts on this Jan?

Cost of infrastructure is only one time. If your clients see the colour differences between pure SD recorded on tape and HD downconverted to SD - I think most people will prefer the later.

Also, you save lots of time - no need to run capture. Take the 32GB card out from the HVX, pop into your computer, edit right away. Plus it conveniently put one take into one file. You don't have hunt for scene differences like if you were to capture from tape. And in most projects I know of, the time saved will pay for the cost of infrastructure over and over again.

32GB cards are now about $1600. It is a one time cost only. I will never go back to tapes again after experiencing how much time P2 cards save me.

You can record dv to the P2 card...

Anyway, here's my wish list- also posted in another forum :)

1- 1440x1080 pixel shifted 1/2 ccd's. Why? Picture would be sharp enough with pixel shift, while obviously gaining on the low light front.

2- DVCPRO HD/ AVC INTRA 100 and AVCHD Recording to p2. With the new HD-SDI recorders coming to market that can make any camera with HD-SDI out capable of recording 160mbits per second Mpeg2 Intra 4:2:2 to Ordinary CF cards, Panasonic should be offering their best codec in all their professional applications. This would not be a move that would challenge their higher end cameras, but would be a move that would help create a workflow between panasonic Professional broadcast products.

3 AVCHD for HDV like capabilities/recording times, and Proxies recording.

4- No need for tape drive. The SD card slot should be able to record high quality AVCHD (25mbits per second)

3- HD-SDI with embedded audio out

4- Capability to use the 4 channels of audio of the DVCPRO HD codec.

5- Better LCD with flip capabilities.

6- Keep the fixed lens design, and weight of the HVX (for low budget support gear to work!)

7- 1080pn recording to P2

8- Variable frame rates in 1080p, and 120fps on 720p mode

9- Keep cinegamma!

10- Pal/NTSC switchable- this makes no sense anymore!

I believe that's all for now...

4- No need for tape drive. The SD card slot should be able to record high quality AVCHD (25mbits per second).

AVCHD in LONG GOP 4:2:0.

I believe you want AVC Intra.

AVCHD in LONG GOP 4:2:0.

I believe you want AVC Intra.

Did you read my post correctly? I wrote that I wanted avc intra 100 for P2. SDHC can't support the bandwidth. I am suggesting making the SD card slot able to record AVCHD, wich would make for cheap HD with good quality for those jobs you need long recording times and no so much demand in therms of quality.

Also, add DV recording to the SDHC card. This would substitute the DV tape and make the camera less heavy- the additional weight could go for a better lens or the 1/2ccd's+bigger lens.

Cost of infrastructure is only one time.

Seriously - that would be the time that I can't afford. Since it is my small business saving time doesn't save me money. It only saves me time. If I don't have the money for the 32GB card I can't save the time. Besides it's not onetime as archiving is an ongoing cost.

Humorsly - there is never a one cost for infrastructure. There is always a better, bigger, smoother, clearer, cleaner, 2nd of, 3rd of, or smaller option that you've just have that ends up sucking more money out of you. It really never stops. If it does you fall behind the compitition. Video is worse than owning a boat.

Martin,

Maybe the solution would be to remove the tape drive AND include a more efficient SD coder. For instance, broadcast SD is typically 5mbps MPEG2. By going with, say 5mbps h.264 SD, the quality would probably be adequate, and you could store 40 minutes on a 4GB card. With the price of memory falling, it would be a nice way to remove the tape drive size, cost, complexity and power drain for the HD shooters who don't need it.

That's no solution. If I wanted long GOP editing I could get an HDV camera. On the other hand you make a good point. ScanDisc has a 16gb flash memory card Part #: SDCFX3-16384-901 that is selling today for $290. That would hold over an hour of DV. I could go for that. I can't use a 40 minutes record time. That's a deal breaker.

So add that to my Christmas list. The option to use flash memory. That would shake up the world wouldn't it? Don't get me wrong I would still want P2 and all of it's advantages. But what about at least having the option?

Sorry, guys ... just got confused. What is the difference between P2 memory cards and your "flash memory"? Isn't all memories today (that are designed to retain contents without battery or constant refreshing) "flash memories"? P2 internally has 4 SDHC cards (which are flash). CF is also flash memory.

If HVX+++ comes with a slot for CF or better still, more than one CF slot, I could use that as well. CF today is already 32GB ... (check Sandisk). Of course, the functionality of P2 - namely, if one card is full, just transfer the recording to the next card won't be on CF or your "flash memory" cards. Remove the tape drive, put in 2 CF slots ... in addition to P2 slots. That's will be great.

Sorry, guys ... just got confused. What is the difference between P2 memory cards and your "flash memory"? Isn't all memories today (that are designed to retain contents without battery or constant refreshing) "flash memories"? P2 internally has 4 SDHC cards (which are flash). CF is also flash memory.

If HVX+++ comes with a slot for CF or better still, more than one CF slot, I could use that as well. CF today is already 32GB ... (check Sandisk). Of course, the functionality of P2 - namely, if one card is full, just transfer the recording to the next card won't be on CF or your "flash memory" cards. Remove the tape drive, put in 2 CF slots ... in addition to P2 slots. That's will be great.

Tingsern, our HVX has an SD card slot. Imagine this: we are recording AVC INTRA to the P2 card, and a Proxy (a draft, or lower quality copy) to the SDCARD slot? Or Just plain simply record AVCHD to the normal SD card slot, which would mean cheaper recording, even backup (how much for a 2gb/4gb sd card anyway) of SD and AVCHD footage? Of course, lower quality to what we could achieve when recording to p2, but it would be enough for recording those long events cheaply (avchd at 25mbits/sec would give an our or more in a 8gb card...)

And you wouldn't need the tape drive anymore, which would mean more space for bigger ccd's and a better lens!

Sergio, but, if you replace the functionality of the SD slot - where are we going to put the customised scenes into then? The camera - each time we power on - reads from the SD card the customisation done.

Hence I suggested putting a CF slot in place of the tape drive. A CF slot don't take up that much space - compared with a tape. Either that, or forgo the CF and use that space for bigger CCD and larger lens.

Well, CF would be good, but I think its a bit unrealistic. panasonic seems to follow Sony in this regard. They have their proprietary solid state media (panasonic sd cards, sony memory stick), and I do not see them supporting other parties solutions...

Not a software expert, here, but wouldn't it be possible to have the scene files settings in SD card function work as well as the recording function? Theoretically, its just storing both things in different folders...And scene files loading its not constant read/write, so, I believe it should be possible to have both functions on the same slot, no?

How about 2 sd slots? Of course a CF slot would be better, but I just don't see this happening.

Sergio, sure - we can record on the SD card as well. But, there is always a risk of corrupting the data once we write-enable the SD card. Right now, I have the SD card as read only mode.

I prefer CF to SD ... CF has a higher capacity, more rugged, and faster writing times (Sandisk Extreme 3 / 4).

Of course, all these are talk only - let's see if Panny actually reads what our wishes are .....

Here’s my take:
http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?p=783566#post783566

All we can do is guess on what features will or will not be on this camcorder but I do strongly believe that their wont be a tape drive.

Well, CF would be good, but I think its a bit unrealistic. panasonic seems to follow Sony in this regard. They have their proprietary solid state media (panasonic sd cards, sony memory stick), and I do not see them supporting other parties solutions...

How about 2 sd slots? Of course a CF slot would be better, but I just don't see this happening.
Regarding Sony, a year ago I'd have been in full agreement that solid state=Memory Stick where they were concerned, but they seem to have done quite an about face over that time. New Vaio laptops now come with a built in SD slot, and they seem to be moving over to SD for their consumer still cameras. But their newest video cameras (Z7,S270) seem to be coming with Compact Flash recorders, which has certainly surprised me, especially after the EX and SxS introductions.

So who knows what Panasonic may do next?

Regarding Sony, a year ago I'd have been in full agreement that solid state=Memory Stick where they were concerned, but they seem to have done quite an about face over that time. New Vaio laptops now come with a built in SD slot, and they seem to be moving over to SD for their consumer still cameras. But their newest video cameras (Z7,S270) seem to be coming with Compact Flash recorders, which has certainly surprised me, especially after the EX and SxS introductions.

So who knows what Panasonic may do next?

Good point!

........ I do not see them supporting other parties solutions....
Just in addition Sergio, then whilst the chances of them adopting somebodys elses technology (such as MemoryStick!!) may be very remote, CF is far more open as a standard, and used by many manufacturers.

I'd say the ideal would be to put two CF slots IN ADDITION to two P2 slots. New to solid state users may find CF better for their needs, whilst it would still suit anybody who already has P2 cards and wants to carry on making use of them. It would also enable it still to fit into P2 centric workflows, such as B camera to P2 2/3" cameras.

Tada ... somebody else now singing my tune. Calling for 2 CF slots and 2 P2 slots ... hee hee.