HVX200a at InterBEE Tokyo?
 

I hear a rumor on HVX200a at InterBEE.
If it does come out, my company booth is located right close from Panasonic, so I can provide thorough report.

I wonder if Panasonic would make HVX200a equip with AVC-Intra, man, if that happens, man. That is wishful thinking, though. I guess they will make some improvements on CCD? Just as they did on DVX series migration?

Finally ...
 

A possible improvement! It would be nice to see intra and SD/HD capabilities!

What rumor?

AVC-Intra in a $6K cam?

I, for one, don't think so.

Rumor is HVX200a from pretty trusty source, the same kind of source that let us share my early video clips. And AVC-Inta is my wish. That is all.

Well, they set a clear difference between HPX555 and above on that AVC-Intra board can be installed or not, my wishful thinking won't realize, but Panasonic will have to do something to rival the XDCAM EX hype.

My predictions/picks:

HD-SDI
1080 Full HD Chips 1/3

Pal/NTSC compatible

P2 only for HD, SD for SD (panasonic created SD, I think)

1080PN recording.

Black body

LCD flip.

4 XLR inputs.

Fixed Lens- 1.4 to 1.8 max apperture

Variable frame rates for 1080p

Just my guesses :)

You may want them to, but nothing says they will. The HVX200's design is probably at least three years old. An incremental upgrade (including, for example, an LCD flip) is a nice start, but what Panasonic needs to do to compete with every new feature on Sony's cameras is to produce a camera with half-inch or larger imagers (preferably global-shutter CMOS), a removable lens, 1080pN, variable frame rates at 1080p, 10-bit (or greater) 4:4:2 or 4:4:4 (via something like AVC-Intra or a native Hydra-like capability), and HDMI or HD-SDI. This would be much more than an "a" upgrade.

Top of my wishlist is a cleaner image. The noise levels (when gain is used) on this cam are excessive IMO. Right now my HVX200 is on a very short rope -- it doesn't cut it for many shooting situations I engage in. I'm thinking of selling it and sadly ditching P2 if I don't hear some definitive HVX-upgrade news soon.

What both of you are saying is kind of covered by upper models, so it seems like Panasonic has to restructure the distribution of the features among the whole lineup. I'm thinking some of the electronic features can be covered with low-cost model, but I would think Pana will always differentiate from the upper models by the image quality?

If Pana put AVC-Intra to all of P2HD cams then I won't worry about other formats including ProRez422 at least for up to 1080 formats.

I, and probably many others, wouldn't really want AVC-intra on the HVX-200. It is reportedly a bear to edit with, requiring high-end computer equipment and longer times. A Panasonic rep at the NAB last April said he didn't expect that they would be adding AVC-intra to the HVX because the processor runs very hot and it would be difficult to keep cool in such a small camera.

Both of these issues are not insurmountable. Why would you not want the feature if, manufacturing technology permitting, it didn't add significantly to the cost of the camera? My concern is that there has been, to my knowledge, no public mention of plans for implementation of AVC-Intra quality levels above 10 bit and 4:2:2, even though H.264/AVC theoretically supports 4:4:4 up through 14 bits at 4K resolution.

Panasonic today announced the price of 32GB P2 card (about double price of 16GB, alright pana!) and the new DVCPRO HD deck, AJ-HD1800. No sign of new HVX200 at this moment.

Jan C has repeated stated that there won't be any changes for the HVX200 any time soon.

That could mean that Panasonic is concentrating on a new, sub-$10K model.