Our intrepid teammates returned from Vegas late last night, and will hopefully share their armloads of NAB-related schwag with those of use who held down the fort this time. So, here’s a summary of the latest cam announcements from the show:
Sony showed off the HVR-Z5U. It’s a sub-$5000 24p/30p HDV camcorder using Sony’s G lens and 3-CMOS image sensor design. An optional hard disk recorder turns the camcorder into a hybrid, and allows for simultaneous HD and SD recording, should you need that functionality.
[image:blog_post:13907]JVC showed the GY-HM100 camcorder, heralded as the first that can record Final Cut Pro-native files, and encode both 720p (at up to 35Mbps) and 1080i (at 25Mbps). The camcorder features a non-removable custom Fujinon lens, and includes two SDHC card slots, for up to 64GB of onboard storage.
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Panasonic’s AG-HMC40 is a 3-CMOS design using AVCCAM with a 12x optical zoom. The camcorder records to SDHC cards, and has professional XLR connectors. The camcorder also includes support for FCP and Edius, among other editing software. A free transcoder app is available at Panasonic’s Web site to decode AVCHD to DVCPROHD for easier editing with older computers. The AG-HMC-40 will be on sale in August for a suggested retail price of $3,195.