Panasonic HVX200 becomes the first camera under $100,000 to record high-definition 1080/24p. The ONLY other camera is Sony’s CineAlta, a $100,000 camera which, Lucas and Rodriguez used in ‘Star Wars II’ and ‘Once upon a time in Mexico’. They both use Sony exclusvely

Also this $5995 camera does what a $65,000 Varicam does – variable frame rates! It can shoot any framerate from 4 to 60fps!.

Yes it is a wonderboy cam – it does all ‘good’ flavors of HD without its nasty after effects.

What does that mean ?
HD as HDV is popularly called, is a horrible format. Wait, before you flame me, hear it out. HDV is a consumer format, plain and simple. It has low color sampling (4:2:0) , high compressions. Also HDV specs dont have the indie favorite 24p recording. So smarter companies (read JVC, Panasonic) take the HDV standard and customize it.

JVC customized HDV as ProHDV – it made two simple changes – added 24p and relaxed the compression algorithms. Instead of compressing a group of 15 frames, it grouped only 6. But Panasonic went further and threw out interframe compression altogether and compressed each frame individually in its DVCPRO-HD format. Also it doubled color sampling from 4:2:0 it made it 4:2:2.

JVC and Panasonic has released their respective versions now. Its called HD100 and AG-HVX200

	Panasonic AG-HVX200	JVC HD-100	Sony Z1u	Winner
Shoots in	1080/60i 1080/30p 1080/24p 720/60p 720/30p 720/24p	720/30p 720/24p	1080/50i/60i	Clearly Pana
Progressive ?	Yes	Yes	No, Interlaced	JVC & Pana
Real 24p ?	Yes	Yes	NO!	JVC & Pana
Default Lens	13x	16x interchangeable		Clearly JVC
Lens	Fixed	Real HD Manual Lens	Fixed	Clearly JVC
HD Flavor	DVCHD-PRO	PROHDV	HDV	Clearly Pana
Color Sampling	4:2:2	4:2:0	4:2:0	Clearly Pana
Recording	P2 Media & HDD	MiniDV Tape, HDD	MiniDV	JVC & Pana
Shutter	Variable! (4-60fps)			Clearly Pana
Audio	Less compressed	Compressed	Compressed	Panasonic
Compression	Within 1 frame	With group of 6 frames	Group of 15 frames	Clearly Pana
Form	Handycam	Should Mount	Handycam	JVC
Looks	Non Pro	Real Pro looks	Looks cool	JVC
Positives	720 & 1080 4:2:2 color Variable Shutter Slow motion Green Screening	Interchangeable HD Lens More Resolution Records to Tape	Shoots both NTSC/PAL
Negatives	Fixed Lens P2 Media Expensive (8gb $2000)	HDV Compression no 1080 4:2:0 Color	No 24p No Progressive 15 frame compression 4:2:0 Color
Price	$5995 – Available Oct	$6295 – Available June	$5949 – Now!

Can it get any better than this ?

Yes, how about a 4:4:4 HD interchangeable 35mm lens camera !! – enter DRAKE… more details on it when it becomes available