HVX replacement...?
There's no denying that the venerable HVX solid state HD camera from Panasonic made a significant play at the hearts and minds of the digital indie filmmaker. Whilst much was made of its 422 recording and non-GOP DVCProHD format, it was really the excellent 24p and over/under cranking that was its real asset.
But its been some degree of years since the HVX arrived and the landscape has changed. 24p is now standard stuff and the Sony XDCAM EX1 has undeniably thrown down the gauntlet in a camera that meets and exceeds the HVX in virtually every way.
Of course, since the EX1's arrival the talk has been of What would Panasonic replace the HVX with? and When would it come?
Press Releases awash this past week brought news of the new Panasonic HMC150
\www.studiodaily.com
eugenia.gnomefiles.org
On the surface this appears to be Panasonic's replacement to the HVX; at least thats what many are declaring, but I'm not so sure....
If the HMC150 is the replacement for the HVX and intended to be the new solid state competitor to the EX1 then Panasonic have truly under-delivered with a decidedly backward step from the HVX. My guess is they have another camera still to come which is the real replacement for the HVX as an EX1 competitor and this HMC150 is an in-between; something really aimed to compete in the Sony Z1 or even A1 category of camera.
1/3" sensors (compared to EX1's 1/2") and Panasonic have dumped P2 (as I and many others have long predicted they would) in favour of standard memory cards. The HMC150 shoots all the flavors of HD but there's no mention of over or under cranking ability. They have also dumped DVCProHD format (again the writing was on the wall for DVCProHD due to its high inefficiency and the fact that Panasonic themselves had ceased development and were moving to AVC_Intra) Instead the HMC150 uses AVCHD format at a bitrate of just 13mbps. This may seem absurdly low but there is argument for AVCHD as significantly more efficient than the Mpeg2 of HDV and so can achieve an image of the same quality for a lower bitrate but we are still talking MASSIVE compression on the image, far far more than the 35mbps Mpeg2 of XDCamEX.
That Panasonic went to AVCHD is not a surprise, but that they opted for such a low bitrate when most people talking about using AVCHD for 'pro' cameras are talking about 15-25mbps or so as a benchmark seems very odd. Also very interesting is that after YEARS of decrying long GOP, bagging out Mpeg, slagging off HDV and XDCam and championing the virtues of Intra-frame codecs for acquisition, Panasonic seem to have backflipped and now embraced Long GOP AVCHD....?
The image of the HMC150 resolves to a res of 1440x1080 the same as HDV with a pixel aspect ratio of 1.333:1. Again the EX1 offers no stretch at all, native 1920x1080. If this IS indeed Panasonic's answer to the Ex1 and its replacement for the HVX then they have really and truly dropped the ball... The HMC150 might compete with the Z1 as a solid state HDV alternative but its not even in the same league as the EX1.
But Panasonic are not a stupid company - belligerent and often misleading (along with everyone else) but not stupid - so I really will be stunned if this is the HVX replacement; i'll be stunned if there isnt something else in the wings. Something Solid-State, something AVCHD-Intra based, something not using P2... If there isnt such a camera on its way from the Panasonic factory then there'll be a rush on EX1's and second hand HVX's will become rare as hens teeth as everyone hangs on to them dreaming of what might have been.....
Posted at 12:00AM Feb 17, 2008
by Mike Jones in video |
I'm curious about that statement. What is your source?
Posted by Mike Barber on April 04, 2008 at 04:32 PM EST #
As for P2 itself more broadly across their other range; the writing is on the wall. Panasonic backed the wrong horse in an effort to get into solid-state early. P2 is built on outdated technology that is now virtually unsupported in the technology sector as everyone has migrated to the more efficient and faster Express Card. Panasonic have even had great difficulty finding manufacturers to keep making P2 cards en-mass which is why the price never dropped anywhere near as much as Panasonic had hoped or suggested.
Now Panasonic are in a bind; they have a lot of products built on P2, good products, good cameras, but the physical hardware of P2 memory is simply not up to scratch anymore and is outdated. Competitors like Sony waited for the technology to evolve before entering solid-state and are reaping the benefits of the far superior Express Card 3/4 based SxS cards.
Panasonic now have the hard task of either sticking with P2 and being virtually the only technology company supporting it, Or migrating their solid-state systems to a different form of solid-state memory that is more widely supported.
That this new camera is NOT using P2 saids much about which way Panasonic will go.
P2 really has no future in its current state, its simply been left behind by SxS. Panasonic needs to find a different memory format to stay competitive as a maker of solid-state camera systems. I have no doubt that they will do just that but it will be painful process for them and those that jumped early to P2 may feel that pain.
that said, just about everyone ive ever met using a camera like the P2-based HVX is using it with a Firestore HDD anyway, so the ill-fated P2 format is simply not an issue for them. This may be the saving bridge for Panasonic to buy them time to migrate away from p2.
Posted by Mike Jones on April 06, 2008 at 11:08 PM EST #
I was turned off of P2 from the get-go, and I agree that Panasonic backed the wrong horse. I'm happy to see Sony defy the Betamax Principal ("If there are two competing and incompatible formats on the market, the inferior one will win out.") twice with Blu-ray (a no-brainer) and SxS.
Posted by Mike Barber on April 09, 2008 at 02:58 PM EST #