Sony's new prosumer 1080p24 camera, 1080p era arrived
 

How long will Sony stay behind Panasonic? They want be always first and best. Will they allow Panasonic dominate prosumer market with prosumer 1080p24 P2 camera?

When Panasonic came out with DVX, Sony did not compete, except improved slightly PD150 to make PD170, while were preparing introduce FX/Z1, to trumph Panasonic and JVC.

Now the situation is different. They don't want to trumph Panasonic too much or they would be competing directly with their 100,000 USD cameras. My bet is they will produce true 1080p24 HDV camera.

New Sony HDV 1080p camera will not need more than 25 Mbps. 1080p25 needs same bit rate as 1080i50. They will use progressive CMOS chips. The camera will be introduced at next year's NAB. It will be announced around the time of the Panasonic P2 camera hits the market. The camera is being developed right now.

The camera may nor be as good as Pansonic P2 camera but will cost significantly less because no P2 cards will have to be bought. It will use same FX/Z1 body and lens and may be called Z2.

It is Matsushita that is starting HD revolution in low cost cameras. First it was JVC with HD1, Sony responded with their HDV. Now is Panasonic with prosumer priced DVCPRO HD. Sony will respond. And so will Canon. In actuality they may be working on next generation 1080p HDV cameras together, sharing technology.

I'm sure both Sony and JVC were luring Canon use their 1080i and 720p system. Panasonic announced 1080p prosumer camera at 2004 NAB. Canon belongs to HDV founding memebers. They would love to use 1080p for XL3.

If this year's NAB was HD show, next year's NAB may be 1080p show.

That's what I was thinking!
 

I've been waiting for affordable true progressive scan HD for a very long time and thanks for hypothesising that it will appear at next year's NAB! Still, this is only "one step for 1080p, one giant leap for HDV". The next innovations in 1080p might come at NAB 2007 when Sony might introduce the world's first 3CCD full-rez (3 Mgpxls per CCD) 1080p60 camcorder/camera (of course in the same body as the Z1 but just adding a memory stick slot for shot transistion data, RT frame grabs, and 3 Mgpxl pics in camera (photo) mode). I sure hope they think of that!

They probably have in a prototype form right now.

I suspect you're right, although I would expect slightly different casing than the FX1/Z1, and perhaps an upgraded lens (in particular, if the HVX200 does away with chromatic aberration as has been noted in the FX1/Z1U)

The cool thing is, we know the CMOS chips are coming in the HDR-HC1 and it's brother: 1920x1440 (4:3) square pixel chips... and they have 3 CMOS is one of their other consumer camcorders. If everything I've read about timing CMOS is true, it wouldn't be difficult to do away with the interlace on a re-interface with the chips for progressive modes.

I suspect Sony has a plan for progressive, and CMOS is a huge part of that.

-Steve

Sony and Matsushita are world's biggest electronic giants, they work very closely lately. I'm sure they'll pushing for 1080p soon, to avoid 1080i vs. 720p conflict that could negatively affect HDTV sales.

Radek