A friend of mine , when I told him I was thinking of buying a DVX100AE, excitedly asked if it was one of the new HD versions.

Is there one of these on the way, or was that a naughty rumour?

I doubt if a friend of yours in Ireland has the inside scoop.

I think you are looking at least a year maybe more for the first 3 chip HDV camera---I would suspect that Sony will be the the first out of the blocks--but then again its all conjecture.

As far as I know Panasonic is NOT on the HDV bandwagon.

I think we'll see another update of the DVX100 in the near future. They'll want to add native 16:9 here soon.

"As far as I know Panasonic is NOT on the HDV bandwagon."

Panasonic may not be planning to support HDV, but apparently they are planning their own variant.

At NAB they showed the prototype for a small HD camcorder that recorded onto solid state flash cards. It was based on the DVX design and used a form of MPG2 encoding. They said they were hoping to release it by 2006.

So, just because they aren't support HDV doesn't mean we won't see 'low cost' HD from Panasonic.

But I agree, we won't see it anytime soon. And the way things are going, Sony will probably be the first one out of the gates.

If their HDV camera is anything like the other cameras they've been releasing lately, I'm sure I'll pass on it. But I'll bet you it'll have one hell of a marketing machine behind it.

-Luis

my guess is that the Sony HDV cam, if and when it is released, will be very incredible. yes, it's true that the PD-170 and VX-2100 are hardly upgrades, but it's also true that the XL-1S sat there for several years before... POOF! the XL-2 is announced and everyone is trembling or swearing that they just bought a DVX...

i assume a similar phenomenon will happen with the Sony HDV cam. Sony's a fine company; they're obviously working on something better than the VX-2100. i would assume, at least.

Panny didn't have any problem with upgrading the dvx100 to 100a after 12 months. They are definitely the most aggressive company at the moment. I think they could give the dvx another upgrade... how about 16x9, boys with 1/2 chips boys?

<-- okay, now returning to earth>

haha. 1/2" chips and 16x9 would completely kill off that market beacase the damn thing would cost $6000.

i'm hoping for the same chip size but with native 16x9 and a 20x lens.

<<<-- Originally posted by Daniel Hollister : haha. 1/2" chips and 16x9 would completely kill off that market beacase the damn thing would cost $6000.

i'm hoping for the same chip size but with native 16x9 and a 20x lens. -->>>

Yes!

oh la la...

would be great !

How about 16x9 chips, 20x zoom and match or up the resolution of the soon to be released XL2, a better in-camera microphone, professional style matte box (2 stationary/1 rotating filter slots) with french flag and a reverse image switch for 35mm adapters and do I dare say interchangeable lens? All for under $4500 Panasonic are you listening?

P.S. I forgot one, better low light performance. May be a 1 lux rating.

These suggestions are already starting to sound like the
outrageous claims we were all making about the XL2.

The chip size definitely won't increase, and I can't remember any
camera manufacturer ever including a matte box and filter tray
with their camera.

My guess is that realistically, if and when we see a new DVX100,
chances are it will be basically the same, except it will be a solid
state camera. That seems to be the push than panasonic is
making. Everything they had at NAB this year and last year was
pushing solid state.

-Luis

At DV Expo East one of the Pana guys said they expected to have a solid-state palmcorder model out in March 2005, recording to a 16GB (four 4GB SD cards in one PCMCIA housing) flash module, so I agree that solid state will be the next upgrade for the DVX, and probably native 16:9.

Defintiely NOT interchangeable lenses becuase by not being a lens manufacturer they have little to gain (what would their mount be, an XL mount? ha!), and definitely NOT a 20X lens, as the magnesium alloy housing shape would have to change, which would be unnecessarily costly for them to produce (the longer they use the same basic housing the cheaper it remains to manufacture)

"Defintiely NOT interchangeable lenses"

I wouldn't be so quick to say that.
According to a Pana rep at DV Expo (possibly the same one you
spoke to) interchangeable lenses was strongly considered for the
DVX100 originally. He claimed this was debated until the last
moment. Unfortunately, Panasonic chose to make what they
consider to be the 'best' fixed lens available instead.

Personally I would have rather paid just as much money and
had a camera body with a lens mount.

I doubt they'll change it now, but I wouldn't go so far as to
say 'Definitely NOT.'

Although they were on the fence about it originally, I don't think they view interchangeable lenses as an option for the next iteration of the DVX100. That does not mean that they wouldn't create another line (DVX200?) that uses the same features as the orginal plus an interchangeable lense system. I was pretty surprised when they released the DVC60, which is just the DVC30 in a shoulder mount body, so you never know. I realize now to never say never (or definitely NOT :) )...