Panasonic launches their AG-HVX200 HD cam

Panasonic is finally starting to get those sexy AG-HVX200 HD cams of theirs out the door. They should be arriving at resellers on December 29th, just in time for you to score some slow motion, 60fps 720p shots of drunken New Years exploits, or in 24fps 1080p if you prefer. Along with supporting DV tapes, the camera, as you recall, can record to Panasonic's proprietary flash P2 cards, which, while expensive, should make for some speedy offloading, and though the $6,000 price point for the shooter without media might sound spendy, you're just not going to find this feature set in any other cameras in that ballpark.

[Via PhysOrg.com]

[sk @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Why DV tapes? give me HD storage instead.

[mjscalesjr @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

The DVX100 version of this camera is great. I saw this camera at the GVExpo in D.C. last week and it too is beautiful. The pictures are nice, the concept of 1080i 24fps is great... however the flEsh cards (flesh not flash, because they'll cost a pound of flesh) are entirely too expensive. 8gb will retail in excess of $1,800... while on the other hand Focus Enhancements will drop the FS-4 HD DTE drive and attachment in an 80gb model for less than $2,000. The great thing is it weighs about the same as an IPOD. The flesh cards are just too expensive.

[Dario @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Engadget, could you please get this for me for xmas? Thanks.

[Xenophod @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I think the DV compatibility is a good idea.
Who said that "DV Tape" can't be "HD Storage"?
You're writing a bunch of 1's and 0's to Tape. The same sort of tape that was in an 8 Track back in the 70's... just a little better mind you... The same kind of tape that backs up Terabytes of data in data centers all across the world....

it's all 1's and 0's....

I would think that you're writting MORE 1's and 0's than with a regular DV camera, so the record time might be cut in half...

[Alex F @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

First of all, it can record in variable frame rates - 4 -60fps, previously only available on camers in the $70-$100k range. It can record 1080/24p, which also was previously only available on $100k cameras. When recording to P2 media it records using the DVCProHD codec. This records at 50Mb/s, meaning the quiality is going to be MUCH higher than HDV (19Mb/sec @ 720p & 25Mb/sec @ 1080i). DVCProHD cameras cost many tens of thousands of $$$. And this one is only $6K. You can get a package that comes w/ 2 8GB P2 cards for about $10k. It will only record about 16 minutes of DVCProHD footage on those 2 cards, and extra P2s are very expensive, but the media price will come down eventually, and even with the price of adding a ton of media, it's still a lot cheaper than buying a DVCProHD camera.

I assume that when it uses MiniDV tapes, it is recording HDV rather than DVCProHD. The quality is less, but you can at least fit 1 hour onto a cheap tape if you are in a pinch.

Don't know if it offers uncompressed HD-SDI out or not.

Either way, it really is a great deal for what you are getting... still to much for me :-(

[Alex F @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Err, correction...

DVCProHD has a bandwidth of 100Mb/sec. DVCPro50 has the 50Mb/sec bandwidth, DVCPro is 25.

This puts it a little lower than Sonys HDCam (143Mb/sec) and higher than their XDCam-HD (up to 35Mb/sec).

...and for $6k

[joe @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

#3, He's talking about HD as in a Hard Drive or Hard Disk Drive, not High Definition.

[John Laur @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

This camera at this price point is really good to see; hopefully the image quality stands up. Sony will really have to step up to keep hold of their low-end HD market.

[Screed @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

This camcorder does NOT do 1080p.

[Screed @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

...oh wait, it does, via 2:3 or 2:3:3:2 pulldown. Yech!

[Michael Wyszomierski @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Instead of making us buy those ridiculously expensive P2 cards for such a short recording time, they should allow recording to an external FireWire drive, or include an internal drive as I think is suggested by sk in the first comment.

[Alex F @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

It has firewire out. As far as image quality, I read someone that got an early preview unit I think a few weeks ago and said it was absolutely outstanding.

If it's recording DVCProHD @ 100Mb/sec bandwidth with a color space of 4:2:2, it should be outstanding.

I bet you'll eventually be seeing a lot of these out in the field. Every now & then I see on the news some celebrity or something and a lot of press is around them, and I see a few DVX100s in the film crew crowd. With everyone switching to HD these days, they make the perfect little portable HD camera, and recording using DVCProHD quality in a cheap, compact camera like this... I think it's gonna be real popular.

[JM @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

It does do 1080p, it is actually 1080@60p native. It records 1080@24p using pulldown.

As for hard drive storage options, Firestore is releasing a 100GB compatible unit that runs off the firewire port. Then there is the Cineporter CP-2 that pulls data directly from the P2 slots with sizes ranging between 100 and 240GB.

[qwe123a @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

i'm waiting untill bestbuy has them for $199

[Nogami @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Alex: The HVX200 doesn't record HDV. Panasonic has refused to support Sony's consumer HD format in favor of going full HD (non MPG). If you choose to record using the miniDV deck in the camera, you're only able to record SD (standard-def). You may also be limited in framerate to 30i/60p/24p like the DVX100.

As far as the memory cards go, I refuse to support them until either:

a) they get below $1000 for 20min of HD
b) another non-Panasonic manufacturer starts making/selling them

Until that time, what I'm REALLY waiting for is a firewire HD that can plug onto the HVX200 and record the HD signal directly to a harddrive (and I've heard roumers that it's being developed).

As much as Panasonic pushes the P2 format as the "format of the future" because of the durability aspect (no moving parts and such), I can't help but think that it might be Panasonic's version of the "razor blade" model where they sell you the camera cheap (and it IS fairly cheap for the kind of technology inside), and make their money on selling memory cards instead.

The memory cards DO have a finite lifespan - just like any other kind of flash-memory, they do wear out after repeated read/write cycles (something Panasonic does mention, but doesn't really go out of their way to call attention to). Sure, magnetic media also wears out, but a DV tape doesn't cost over a grand a piece.

Right now there's nothing that comes even close to harddisk storage for price/storage/speed. 2.5" HDs are low-power, fast, and almost disposably-priced.

N.