Solid-State DV Camcorder

melorama writes "The NAB convention passed 2 weeks ago, and I'm surprised nobody has pointed out the really neat Solid State Video Camcorder that was unveiled by Panasonic. It seems a bit kludgy right now (it records onto a series of PCMCIA cards), but it definitely beats the klunky Avid/Ikegami Camcutter (aka Editcam) from several years back, which records onto a self-contained harddisk. This is certainly a blow to Sony, which is working on a camera acquisition system that uses a blue-laser optical disc (read: moving parts) technology."

Comments

Re:Solid state for recording video?

[JUSTONEMORELATTE]

And you're going to get ~30GB of storage how, exactly?

The article says they're at 5 cards at 4G each today. We're 2/3rds of the way there. Expect card capacity to increase.

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Prices cost solid state storage device 2003 2 gig

[hfastedge]

http://www.bitmicro.com/ Makes SSD's. I sent them an email, and here is what prices of SSD's look like:

http://www.bitmicro.com/products_edisk_25_ide.php [bitmicro.com]
E-Disk® 2A66(2), 17408MB, Commercial Temp, No PowerGuard, NAND
E-Disk® Part Number: D2A066B 017408 CNN
Discounted Unit Price: $18,857

-- -- -- --

http://www.bitmicro.com/products_acedisk_25_IDE.ph p [bitmicro.com]
Ace-Disk 2A16, 2048MB, Commercial Temp, No PowerGuard, AND
Ace-Disk Part Number: A2A016B 002048 CNA
Discounted Unit Price: $1,356

-- -- -- --
SSD
pricing has been coming down over the last few years as the performance
continually improves. We expect the pricing to reach the consumer
level in the next 3-5 years. Two years ago we were roughly $15/MB, last
year $5-8/MB, and this year we are ranging from $1-4/MB depending on
interface/model and capacity.

With any type of real market, these prices should come down very nicely.

Re:If this stuff is...

[sebi]

Nowhere does the article make any claims that this solution will be cheap. He states that the camera will originally be targeted at news outfits, that will appreciate the speed and usually are not cash strapped when it comes to buying equipment.

Panasonic are eating Sony

[NewtonsLaw]

I was a Sony fan for a long time. Their video/VCR gear was always solid, functional and of exceptional quality.

In the past few years however they've really dropped the ball.

Their consumer-level camcorders are suffering the same rampant "featuritus" that their VCRs do and they've sacrificed good, solid reliable functionality for an incredible array of bells and whistles that really fill out a sales brochure but which your average user finds as useful as tits on a bull.

A couple of months ago I wanted a new top-end consumer camcorder (3CCD) and did a fairly comprehensive analysis of what was on the market.

Sony's offering was the DCRTRV950 which would have done the job, but thanks to the fact that they've loaded it up with "fluff" like Bluetooth and a myriad of other gee-whiz "features", it is very pricey for the basic functionality it delivers.

By comparison, Panasonic's MX500 is a brilliant camera. It has 3CCDs and all the really important high-end consumer functionality such as manual focus, zebra stripes, 3megapixel stills, etc. Just about the only feature I won't be using is the direct to MPEG recording that allows you to create MPEG files directly onto the memory card (but I'm sure many others will find this handy)

Here in New Zealand, the Sony DCRTRV950 is priced at around NZ$6K and even Sony's single CCD DCTRV50 has a list price of NZ$4299.

By comparison, the 3CCD Panasonic MX500 cost me under $3K, which meant I could afford some nice accessories to go with it.

Picture quality wise, the Sony and Panasonic offerings are very close -- the Sony having slightly better low-light performance -- but the difference is nowhere near worth paying double the price for.

I'm extraordinarily happy with my Panansonic's attitude of providing good, solid, basic functions at an affordable price.

So long as Sony continue down the path of placing more emphasis on sizzle than steak they won't see me buying any of their products anytime soon.