avchd

Photokina hasn't even started yet and I'm ready to declare it Full-Frame Fest based on what Sony's unveiled today and what I know is coming. Sony alone is rolling out three full-frame devices aimed at a variety of different types of photographers, albeit all of them professionals.

Sony may be first to market with a compact full-frame camera, but at a price of almost $2,800, the Cyber-shot DSC-RX1 is cruelly out of reach for a lot of the enthusiasts who will stare longingly at it online only to settle for an RX100. Is it even fair … Read more

Sony and Panasonic, with their high stakes in 3D TV, are also two of the most active companies trying to generate 3D content at all levels. Panasonic now brings 3D into the entry-level professional price realm with the HDC-Z10000. (Though Panasonic won't announce the price until 30 days before it ships--also an unknown--given its size and features I'm assuming it will be comparable to the Sony HXR-NX3D1U, which was announced this past spring at the NAB Show and which has just started shipping.) Announced at the IFA show in Germany, Panasonic has also taken the opportunity to show … Read more

Owners of the video-optimized Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 have been hacking away at it for months, trying to get higher bit rates out of the poor thing--the latest hack claims 86 megabits per second. (To recap, the higher the data bit rate is at a given resolution and frame rate, the better the video quality; it's a measure of compression.) Now they get to start all over again for the GH2, which doesn't offer astronomical bit rates, a limitation of its AVCHD format, but does offer video and still shooters a few other sought-after enhancements.

Most important, the GH2 incorporates a new sensor, which drives at a higher frame rate--it can natively output 60p vs. 24p. That, and a bump to the AVCHD maximum bit rate of 24 megabits per second, are almost guaranteed to deliver improved results over the GH1; that's equivalent to current AVCHD-based prosumer camcorders. While the GH1 had a flip-and-twist LCD, the GH2's is a touch screen, which has the potential to make rack focus doable for the nonvideographer, and theoretically offers improved color rendering, especially in the reds and blues. The camera now provides a microphone levels meter and a much-demanded HDMI connector. Panasonic also claims to have improved wobble suppression during full-time autofocus, and added the capability to record specifically for slower or faster playback. And for the consumer, Intelligent Auto mode now works in video capture.

For still shooters, Panasonic claims it has the best image quality of the G series; it uses the new noise reduction algorithms as the LX5. The company has also worked on speed, saying its autofocus is twice as fast as its predecessor, beating out some of the fast phase-detection systems in some popular dSLRs (it uses three image processors compared to 2 in the GH1). The EVF is slightly higher resolution, but the image-processing engine performs some aberration correction in the viewfinder; because of the faster sensor, the viewfinder should refresh faster as well.

Here's the current field:… Read more

Pansonic belatedly toddles into the minicamcorder market, a bumper crop of sub-$250, candy-bar-style products currently dominated by models such as the Flip UltraHD and Kodak PlaySport. The company doesn't bother going for a catchy name, instead sticking with its typical product-naming conventions--in this case, the HM-TA1.

Though the company is late to market, the TA1 does offer a relatively nice design and feature set for its $169.95 price. The camcorder itself is one of the smallest available, has a streamlined front design, and comes in basic--but attractive--red, dark grey, and purple. It's got a lot of … Read more

It doesn't take a genius to guess that the first relatively mainstream large-sensor camcorder would come from one of the big three manufacturers of both cameras and camcorders: Sony, Panasonic, or Canon. And it looks as if Sony's going to cross the finish line first, in September, with its Handycam NEX-VG10. The VG10 is based around the same sensor and lens system as its Alpha namesakes, the NEX-5 and NEX-3, but in a body designed for prosumer/entry-level pro videography.

Though Panasonic, too, announced an interchangeable-lens camcorder a few months ago, the company provided very little information about it. Even the preliminary brochure (PDF) posted on Panasonic's site fails to illuminate. There's enough detail to figure out that the AG-AF100 is targeted at professionals more than Sony's--it has stereo XLR mic inputs and an SDI connector, plus a broader selection of resolution and frame rate options--but without even a ballpark price you can't make any meaningful comments about it. Plus, it's not slated to ship till the end of the year.

Here are the basic specs for the VG10 and what little is available for the AF100:… Read more

While it looks like Canon and Sony have bowed to market whims and pricing pressure, Panasonic has stood firm and year after year continues to release sub-$1,500 3-chip camcorders for enthusiast and budget-strapped indie videographers. Of course, you might argue that the continually improving CMOS chips used by competing Sony and Canon models obviate the need for 3-chip solutions to achieve extended tonal range. Or at least that the quality differences are so subtle that they're moot. Whatever the need or reason, though, Panasonic remains the last torchbearer for high-quality three-chip consumer camcorders. This year's offerings, the HDC-TM700 and HDC-HS700, don't deliver radical changes over last year's HDC-TM300, HDC-HS300, and HDC-HS150. But as long as the video quality and performance live up to their predecessors, you'll hear no complaints from me.

This year's models compared with last year's:… Read more

LAS VEGAS--At last year's CES, Sony broke new ground with its prosumer camcorders. This year, the company offers modest upgrades across the product lines.

Like many competitors, Sony's rolling out its Exmor-R back-illuminated CMOS further down the product line. Plus, the company incorporates the image stabilization improvements and other features it rolled out with the CX520V in July. One potential new crowd-pleaser is a Golf Shot mode, which continually buffers video until it hears the club hit the ball, then saves the previous 1.5-seconds-worth of frames, plus 0.5 second after, for a single 22 frame sequence. … Read more

In some ways, the JVC HD Everio GZ-HM400 is an object lesson in the corners manufacturers have to cut for size. Essentially a larger version of the GZ-X900, the HM400 uses the same large (1/2.33-inch), but overly high-resolution 10.3-megapixel CMOS sensor and low-resolution 2.8-inch LCD, but doubles the zoom to 10X and integrates 32GB onboard memory in addition to an SDHC card slot. In other words, JVC crammed more in (though it's still relatively compact), all for the same price of $999.95.

Granted, at that price, it's still cheaper than its primary competitors, … Read more

If you've a yen to pay $1,399.99 for an HD camcorder, Canon now gives you an option. It extends its HF S10/S100 line upward to the HF S11, which adds another 32GB memory, bringing the total to 64GB for the top-of-the-consumer-line. Plus it follows Sony's example, adding an enhanced version of its SuperRange optical image stabilizer, dubbed Dynamic SuperRange OIS, which compensates better while walking and at wide angles. Canon has also boosted its Video Snapshot mode; it's now Advanced, which seems to mean you can pull 4-second clips in playback mode, as well … Read more