Great -- thanks for that link, Hans. I haven't seen that one before now.

After once again shooting on the V1u, and loving it, I'm eagerly anticipating a Sony USA announcement of these cameras!

Heath

I wonder if there will be a "consumer version" of the handheld cam, maybe with a fixed lens?

That would be nice.

Wouldn't that be the FX7?

heath

No. this cam has 3 x 1/3 CMOS chip

FX7 has 3 x 1/4 CMOS chip

True. I wonder how the FX7 is selling; plus, is the FX1 gone? I saw the used price for an FX1 went up a couple of months ago.

heath

And still, no model #s yet.

Has this been pointed out yet?
 

I just read this StudioDaily article about these cams.
http://studiodaily.com/main/news/8768.html

It's apears the full sized shoulder mounted one is the Sony HVR-S270U. It has 3 1/3-inch Clearvid CMOS chips with Exmor. It's slated to be priced around $10,500 (with 12x lens) and has an optional Compact Flash recorder that attaches to the side of the camera.

The smaller version is the Sony HVR-Z7U. It's the exact same chip set, but in a smaller form factor and it takes the same batteries as the Z1/V1. It's slated to come in around $6,850 with lens.

The article referenced at the top of this post goes into more detail.

The image of the Z7U in the StudioDaily article is very interesting. Is that a hard drive on the backside of the camera?

I didn't notice that before. CF card drive maybe?

Yep. Here is the official news: http://www.sonybiz.net/biz/view/Show...=1193315635243

that is for the Europe version though...

No surprise that's the Z7, much like the FX7. Very cool, though I thought it would be a V2. But my dreams of a new Z1 are here!

heath

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Z7 has an interchangeable lens, too, right? It's not clear in the article.

Heath

Heath,
As far as I know, the Z7 is the exact same camera as the larger S270, but in a smaller form factor and it only takes mini dv tapes where the larger cam takes full sized dv tapes.
So yes, it does have interchangable lenses.

And for those still unclear on the CF card recorder, unlike the Convergent Design HD-SDI CF recorder, it records HDV or DV to the card. But you can connect one of those HD-SDI recorders to the camera to get full raster 1920x1080.