Los Angeles (CA) - Later this month, Panasonic will begin shipping its new HD camcorder AG-HVX200. Several months ago at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas, the company had been showing off a non-working mockup, but showed a working version at the DV Expo West today.
Just before the noon time opening of the exhibit hall, dozens of people lined up outside the doors to be the first ones to get a glimpse of the new camcorder. Panasonic's large booth was located just inside of the doors. The HVX200 camcorder was one of several camcorders on demonstration and attendees could pick it up and play it.
The camcorder records in several high-definition and standard-definition formats. Progressive recording can be done at 24 and 30 frames per second in 1920 by 1080 or 1280 by 720 resolutions. Professional users will appreciate the 100 Mbit per second DVCPRO HD recording mode which samples color at 4:2:2.
Video clips are recorded to "P2" cards which are actually PC Cards containing multiple SD cards. 4 GByte and 8 GByte versions will be sold for the camcorder. Panasonic representative Rich Buchell told us that the 4 GByte cards are currently shipping with 8 GByte cards expected to become available "soon". The higher capacity card will hold around eight minutes of video taken at the highest resolution and bit-rate. The camcorder also has a MiniDV tape slot and can record standard-definition video to tape.
The HVX200 integrates two P2 slots, which allows the recording to jump to a second card after the first one is filled up. The cards are hot-swappable so the user can remove out the first card while the camcorder is recording to the second one.
Both USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 (Firewire) connections, which enables users to edit straight from the P2 cards.
Other features of the camcorder include triple CCDs and a Leica Dicomar zoom lens. Two XLR audio inputs provide four channels of uncompressed audio in DVCPRO HD or DVCPRO 50 recording or two channels in DVCPRO and DV.
The camcorder will sell for $5995, excluing P2 media. Expect the 4 GByte P2 cards to ring in at about $500 and the 8 GByte version at about $1000. Buchell said that stores should receive the camcorder at the end of December.