ONLY A HVX200 MOCKUP IS A DISAPPOINTMENT at NAB

[Kevin Dooley]

Originally Posted by Steven White

Would you rather that Panasonic kept everyone completely in the dark until they were ready to ship the camera?

Actually, yes I would. I'm interested in reading facts and seeing results, not marketing hype and speculation...

I for one, would rather have all this information out early... even a non-working protype that let's me know sort of what to expect.

Why?

It's simple. I'm in the market for a camera, but I'm not in a hurry. I'd like the camera to last me as long as possible (as long as my XL1s has lasted me), and so I need all this information know. Like I said, I'm not in a hurry, but if NAB rolled around and there was no word from Panasonic or Canon, I would assume that the next time I needed another cam, or simply had a job to pay for a camera, that I should pick from the available offerings. By pre-announcing the release, I know that I can easily wait 6 months for what should hopefully be a much better camera than what's currently offered.

Unfortunately for Canon (yeah right, like they'll miss little ole me), without any information, I'm pretty much gonna jump ships to someone else's camera--it's a shame too, I really love my XL1s, but I'm determined to hop on up into HD.

So for my money, yeah, I can't make a firm decision without trying out the camera, but now I know to wait a few more months...

[Jesse Bekas]

Originally Posted by Steven White

...There is a rediculous amount of hype about this thing (at every forum I visit on a regular basis) and no one has even seen footage from it. Talk about a lot of faith.

Exactly. Faith in Panasonic, built up by the DVX100. :)

[Barry Green]

Of course there are good reasons for showing it as-is. There are stations and broadcasters across the country convening for this convention (or did you think it was all just aspiring indie filmmakers going to the National Association of Broadcasters convention?)

These broadcasters and stations have millions budgeted for equipment purchases every year. They need to know what's available, they need to know what's coming, they need to plan ahead. They need to fill out purchase orders and get approval, they need to hire teams, deploy cameras, etc. How could they do that, if Panasonic just "sprung" it on them, fully developed?

[Patrick King]

Originally Posted by Barry Green

These broadcasters and stations have millions budgeted for equipment purchases every year.

Good point Barry. "Follow the money" and you can usually find out the reason for all business decisions. Let's see...downside, whiny indies say we are teasing them to far out from first delivery...upside, business suits forecast the budget year and set aside a butt-load of money to buy our cam. Slam dunk; next decision please!

[Michael Struthers]

I think Panny showed it before it was ready, simply because it's a pre-emptive sales attack on Sony (which is already out) and JVC (which will beat them to production). I'm sure Panny would like to delay or slow sales of the other cams - the audience for these is limited, not small, but limited. If everyone has a sony or jvc, it will be harder to get them to adopt a different codec and workflow.

Of course, Panny may well also have the best product, which is the big ace up your sleeve.

[Aaron Koolen]

Good point Barry. I may have sprung for the JVC if I didn't know that Panasonic were bringing out the HVX. They sure stopped that happening now :)

Aaron

[Peter Sieben]

Hi Aaron,

Still looking for a new camera after encountering Lady X? You know I got myself the DVX100 (and you offered stalking GlobalMediaPro for that purchase around your corner) and now you have the possibility to go for the HVX200 later this year. The HVX200 looks like a killer machine, and not only you can shoot tapeless, it's also meat free as far as I understand the rumours.

Greetings from The Netherlands!

[Aaron Koolen]

Hey Peter, how's thing been going? Yes the HVX looks pretty damn nice. When I first heard if it, it was like "pot ver domme" (Hope that was spelt right?") :)

Seeing as the HVX is a long way off here, and I'm changing into doing more stuff soon, I might go for the DVX as an intermediate. I can get a good deal on it here I think, so I might not lose much at all.

How's the filmmaking going?

Aaron

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

It's spelled right, Aaron, but you have to put all the letters to each other ;-)
Good luck with Dutch cursing :-D

[Peter Sieben]

Hi Aaron,

You've learned the right words, get rid of the spaces between them and you're really going Dutch!

The filmmaking is going okay. After the BitterSweet adventure my work really got hectic for a period. However I did a wedding video for a family member and made a small documentary of a neighbourhood project. Doesn't sound exiting when I'm typing this here. I re-arranged my website (new URL down below).
For some months I'm preparing a new short movie project. The script is based on a 22 years old story (I heard about it when I was around 14 years old) , where two people meet in a public place. One of them confrontates the other that the world around us is a big conspiracy of people, that want you to believe it's real after all. The movie will be about the fact that there is not an objective reality, and that everyone creates his own. Like a writer that's shaping one in a new book. And if you think you understand reality, you're wrong. A textwriter is helping me out with the script which I really enjoy, as it's a skill on it's own to (re)write a story and make a proper filmscript of it. And the original writer and his publisher gave principal permission to make a movie of it, although some legal work will be in the works.

How about your film projects? Or still busy decorating your new house? I remember you had an video-blog idea or something.

[Laurence Maher]

Never know,

NAB isn't over yet. I know that Scott Billups is supposed to be going up on stage on Friday. With a camera or no I'm not sure, but if he's endorsing it, that says something, IMHO.

[Steve Roark]

I missed the part of the teasers where it said "We haven't actually built one, yet." All they seem to be doing is taking the wind out of their sister company's sails while showing a mock-up.

I'd feel silly holding a plastic shell at NAB while telling people that this is the next revolution.

I'm not saying they can't do it, just that they haven't done it, yet. When it does ship, it will probably be at least 1 year after the FX1 hit the market. Some people are actually criticizing Sony for not announcing their HVX200-killer at NAB. Maybe they were too busy depositing checks.

A camera in the hand is worth two under the sheet.

-my rant for the day

Steve Roark

[Matt Jeppsen]

Here are a few pics I took at NAB of the Panny "shell".

http://clearcreekproductions.com/misc/panasonic_hd/