Some new info and other angle
 

If this has been posted, oh well! :-) If not enjoy..........

http://www.dvuser.co.uk/Main%20pages.../GY-HD100.html

Anyone has a picture of the camera being used by someone? As it stands, it's impossible to determine how big the camera is.

Not impossible if you've ever shot a broadcast camcorder with interchangable lenses.

Isn't this one supposed to be smaller?

It doesn't look as bulky as a DV5000U or anything like that.

I think the best description yet is a "half height" shoulder mount.

Yeah, thanks. I was thinking something along those lines.

A bit larger than the XL2, but not has bulky and heavy as a standard ENG shoulder camera.

Yeah, the XL2 is a chainsaw. This one's a leaf blower.

The handle (where your right hand goes) seems to either float in the air or attach to the lens. Since the lenses are interchangeable, and if the handle is attached to the lens, this might limit the lens possibilities (meaning, you could get a machine shop to create lens adapters but you'd also have to either go handle-less or make an adapter to hold the handle too).

Okay, I took another look at the pictures and it seems the handle bolts onto the lens in two or four places... so I suppose it'll be handle-less with lens adapters... which is fine for tripod work but problematic for shoulder-mounted purposes.

Murad, this is a standard pro lens layout. The hand grip is part of the lens assembly that includes the servo motor/rocker for the zoom etc. On the picture of the right hand side of the camera you can see the electrical cable that connects to the camera body. Most pro lenses have switches to turn off auto metering etc too.

Ron Evans

Thanks Ron.. I should have figured as much. I guess this would make it harder to adapt photo lenses, but easy for video lenses?

Yes, harder to adapt still lenses, but who cares? Most still lenses you wouldn't really want on this thing anyway.

Having a pro arrangement for the lens brings all sorts of other things to the mix, like being able to use a Microforce zoom control on the cam. It's very much a good thing.

I read somewhere recently they'll have an adapter so you can use 1/2" chip camera lenses, which are more prevalent than the 1/3" ones. Makes sense for JVC to do that, since probably a lot of their GY 500 owners might want to switch, and they wouldn't have to buy a new lens.

I wonder if those existing lenses will resolve to HD standards? Sure hope so.

based on the article, the hd100e is the one to get since it appears to support both ntsc and pal formats. And expected price under 6K Euros. hmmmm could JVC sell the dual format version here in the states or will the one sold here be ntsc only?

Well, there are authorized dealers who can get PAL gear into the U.S. One that comes to mind is B&H. Another is Analog Digital Inc., also in Manhattan (a great little outfit, I've toured the place and have met the owner, Ayres, a sharp guy).

JVC GY-HD100 estimated dimensions
 

I think it's possible to estimate the dimensions by using the miniDV cassette compartment as a reference.

The XL1 has a compartment that is 3.5 inches in width. If we assume that the HD100 has a compartment of roughly the same width, you get the following estimated dimensions from the 4th camera photo at the above link:

Length with lens including hood: 16.0 inches
Length from back of camera to front of lens mount: 9.25 inches
Height to top of microphone mount: 8.5 inches

It looks like you'd have to add some length for the battery and optional disk drive.

Assuming my estimates aren't flawed, this would make it smaller than the XL2 (19.5 x 8.7 inches)!

Sweet!

Don

JVC GY-HD100 price mentioned
 

Hadn't seen anyone mention price yet.

The above link mentions a price of 6,000 euros ~ $7,725US.

That includes the lens. Not sure if that includes a battery or mic? They mention a shotgun mic as one of the accessories along with the wide-angle lens, hard disk module, & quick release tripod plate.

Don

I think the "smaller than the XL2" guess is probably right. Someone on DVXUser made some comparison photos by using the XLR connectors as a guide, resizing the pictures so that the 3-pin XLR was the same in both the DVX and HD100 pictures. The result was that the JVC was a little bigger than the DVX, but not much.

I think people who are expecting a shoulder-mount camera are going to be surprised by just how small the JVC is. But for those who want a shoulder-mount camera without needing a chiropractor, they'll probably be delighted with the size.

Maybe this is just about right?

HD100U vs XL2

Just a simple mock-up I did, but might be kinda close.

"I think people who are expecting a shoulder-mount camera are going to be surprised by just how small the JVC is. But for those who want a shoulder-mount camera without needing a chiropractor, they'll probably be delighted with the size."

Mmm, really interesting camera. But the form factor doesn't convince me, from what I see in the pictures. I suspect the camera to be very front heavy. The shoulder rest is strongly to the back, the lens is quite heavy, so....

It does remind me in some sense to that Panasonic 'hybrid' camera AGDV10 or so (citing by heart). That one, BTW, has a remarkebly good balance.

Best,
Ton Guiking
(I wanted to subscribe, but apparently was already a member...Can't remember, but OK, here I am (again?).

I thinki it's one of the best "LOOKING" small form-factor cameras I have ever seen! *smile*

I wonder how the 24p editting is going to work on programs like VEGAS. This cameras seems like the most promising camera for Indei's considering the lens revoving and the 24p....Panasonic WOULD...BUT... the P2 issue is unescaping.

- ShannonRawls.com

ShannonRawls.com wrote:

"I wonder how the 24p editting is going to work on programs like VEGAS. This cameras seems like the most promising camera for Indei's considering the lens revoving and the 24p....Panasonic WOULD...BUT... the P2 issue is unescaping."

The upcoming Panasonic also seems to be able to record on tape. (BTW, I was talking in my mail about an older Pana camera).
A camera with only expensive solid state memory has, at this moment, no other chances than the newsgathering broadcast world, I think.

FWIW,
Ton Guiking

I read on the boards someplace that it will record HD only to P2 but will record DV to tape. Of course, the camera hasn't been released yet and the NAB version is reputed to be only a prototype, so who the heck knows for sure.

For my purposes P2 won't work at this time, even if they throw in some hard drives for the price of a P2 card. A hundred gig hard drive only holds less than 10 hours of DV compression tape. And then if you consider hard drives to be rather unstable as compared to tape, you'd want to back those up to additional drives. Not to mention the hassle of doing that on location. But for a TV station, P2 is wonderful, I think. That probably is going to be Panasonic's major marketing push in this area.

Of course, if the prices of the P2 cards drops down so you can get 3 hours of recording time for 60 bucks or so, then that's another story entirely. I wouldn't mind at all being able to store all my original footage in a children's shoe box instead of the plethora of big file boxes I have now.

BTW, the official press release for the GY-HD100E can be found here:
http://www.jvcpro.co.uk/news/releases_html?atype=release&releaseID=1192

The pricing at "under 6000 €" is very good news !