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Sharp's $77,000 camcorder shows that 8K is coming soon
Sharp has unveiled an 8K camcorder that is undoubtedly aimed at the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but will be equally at home on a film set. Looking like an old-school ENG news camera, the 8C-B60A captures 8K, 10-bit 60fps video onto a large, Super 35mm sensor that's around the same size as the one on Red's Helium Weapon 8K. The custom 2TB SSD pack, developed in collaboration with Astrodesign, can hold about 40 minutes of 8K video.
Sony unveils NEX-EA50EH pro camcorder with nary a dog or pony (video)
Sony is continuing to build out its NXCAM video camera line with the new interchangeable lens NEX-EA50EH, a surprise entrant that's aimed firmly at the run and gun professional crowd. It sports the same APS-C Exmor CMOS sensor as other cameras in the NEX line, and has notably added a rocker-style zoom lever for its brand new SEL18-200PZ 11x E-mount Servo Zoom Lens. That item is one of the first large sensor servo zooms we've seen, and packs continuous variable isis, auto focus and "Optical Steady Shot" active image stabilization. Another eyebrow-raiser is the model's still photo flair, with the ability to shoot 16MP RAW stills, a mechanical shutter with its own release button and a flash hot-shoe all squeezed in. Video is recorded up to 60fps at 1080P in AVCHD 2.0, presumably at 28 or 17 Mbps, to SD/SDHC/SDXC cards, Sony Memory Sticks or Sony's dedicated external SSD unit, which attaches to the camera. All that is topped off by an onboard shotgun microphone, a shoulder mount form factor and $4,500 price point (which has already changed twice on B&H). That means a lot of event or ENG pros who want large sensor results -- without all the DSLR foibles -- may be sorely tempted. See the PR and video after the break for all the details.
Panasonic debuts HDC-HS700 and HDC-TM700 1080p camcorders (updated)
Panasonic's brewing up some 1080p goodies in the new HDC-HS700 and HDC-TM700 (pictured) camcorders, both of which do up 1080p video at a nice 60 fps (or 60i or 24p), and record using a 3MOS sensor system. The new cameras are differentiated with a 240GB HDD in the HS700 and the 32GB of flash memory in the TM700, and act as a followup to the well-lauded HS300 / TM300 series. Both of the new shooters are otherwise pretty much identical, including SD / SDHC / SDXC memory card expansion, new 35mm-style wide angle lenses, 12x optical zoom and some gyroscope-based "Power O.I.S." image stabilization to beef up the experience. They can also do 14.2 megapixel stills and record 5.1 surround sound with the five built-in microphones. There's no word on price yet, but it'll be announced 30 days in advance of when they ship, whenever that might be. For reference, the TM300 hovers around the $1,100 mark currently, so we doubt these will be undercutting that unit on price. There's PR after the break. Still have pricing on the brain? Panasonic is spilling the price beans on its HDC-TM55 ($530), HDC-HS60 ($700), HDC-SD60 ($500) camcorders, plus even the piddling little SDR-HD85 ($350), SDR-T50 ($270) and SDR-S50 ($250) shooters. All of these were announced back at CES and will be available by the middle of March. Update: Amazon UK has revealed a price and expected arrival date for the HS700. Priced at £1,199 ($1,873), the camcorder is listed as scheduled for a March 1 release, so there won't be much of a wait for the wealthy among us [Thanks, Ron].%Gallery-85072%
Sony unveils two new 1080p Handycams
Nothing too remarkable about Sony's latest HD camcorders, but the new 64GB HDR-CX520V and 32GB HDR-CX500V are solid updates nonetheless. Identical apart from the built-in storage, both feature an Exmor R CMOS sensor with BIONZ processing that should offer solid low-light performance and decent 12 megapixel stills, Optical SteadyShot with a new active mode and three-way shake cancellation, Face Touch autofocus that allows you to simply point at faces to prioritize focus in order, and, most notably, 60p output, which'll interpolate your footage to 60 progressive frames per second when connected to a compatible HDTV. Not a bad piece of kit, but they'll cost ya: the HDR-CX500V will run $1,100 and the HDR-CX520V will be $1,300 when they arrive in September.
