32GB card announced

[Mitch Ives]

[Barry Green] “According to Sony’s press release, their 16GB card is 700 Euros. That translates to US $950 or so. How is that cheaper?

Granted, lots of people were *expecting* them to be cheaper, but that doesn’t appear to be what happened in reality.

But yeah, Red’s use of CF definitely points towards some interesting lower-cost options.”

I’ve discovered that you can’t do the math that way. The U.S. price for the HVX didn’t convert evenly to the European price either. The prices for things in dollars here rarely translate into currency converted Euros or British Pounds. As an example, you’ll see something at 1700 Pounds, which would be over $3,400… yet it’s U.S. selling price may only be $2,300. We’ll have to wait for the final U.S. pricing to see.

[Barry Green] “Yes, but it’s also 33% more expensive. I would hope that it would offer lots of improvements for that type of price increase.”

I don’t think it’ll be that much difference when we see it in the U.S., but you could be right.

[Barry Green] “Jan’s been asking for recommendations for an HVX200″A” over on DVXUser; be sure to add your requests to the list! No idea if we’ll actually get ’em, but it’s important for us to make known what we want. “

I’ll have to add that…

[Barry Green]

[Mitch Ives] “I don’t think it’ll be that much difference when we see it in the U.S., but you could be right.”

It already is. B&H has the HVX at $5200, and the EX1 at $7500. That’s about a 45% cost premium.

[Michael Sacci]

[Noah Kadner] “254 minutes is 8 hours non-stop recording”

Noah, may want to check your math, just a little over 4 hours, even with daylight savings time.

:-).

[Helmut Kobler]

I’m getting very tired of Panasonic’s inability to ship enough P2 cards to take care of its customers.

8 gig cards were hard to come by for a long while, and 16 gig cards are just as hard (even for people buying premium HPX bundles that are supposed to ship with 4/5 cards…a number of people have brand new cameras collecting dust as they wait and wait for their backordered cards). Now we hear about 32 GB cards in November, but I highly doubt November or anywhere near that will be a realistic date for most people.

How hard is it for a major manufacturer to properly manage supply and demand? It shouldn’t perpetually be so hard for Panasonic to figure this out, especially since P2 is now supposed to be a “mature” format.

[Barry Green]

There are cards out there, you just have to call around. Abel Cine Tech and Studio Exchange are both supposed to have a lot.

Panasonic has had some really big success with P2, which apparently has exceeded their capacity to produce cards. Latest word is that the BBC has apparently decided to go exclusively P2. That’s gonna be a big order and it’s going to stress their ability to deliver.

One would hope that they’ve learned their lesson and they’re ramping up capacity. The P2 card shortage has indeed been very frustrating for everyone.

[Noah Kadner]

Dude please- I was counting at happy hour.

Noah

[Jan Crittenden livingston]

Hi,

There are cards, it is jsut that we did not ship them all to the large dealers as we have smaller dealers who also must make a living.

The only reason that there would be a 500 shipped without cards is that the dealer sold the cards seperatly from the camera, because I know we shipped them with the camera.

Try the smaller dealer.

Thanks,

Jan

[Mitch Ives]

[Barry Green] “It already is. B&H has the HVX at $5200, and the EX1 at $7500. That’s about a 45% cost premium.”

That’s the initial price, which B&H always has high when something first comes out.

But okay, so I guess I’m the only one that thinks it’s worth $2300 (less in time) to go from 1/3″ to 1/2″ chips… to go from 960×540 to true 1920×1080 (and P no less)… to get a real lens with focus stops, barrel markings for focus, zoom and iris, and a real iris ring on the lens barrel? I’m also guessing that since this is a real Fujinon lens, that it’ll have continuosly variable zooming without the steps that the HVX 200 zoom has? That isn’t worth a couple of grand? Okay, it’s just me I guess…

[Barry Green]

I don’t recall anyone saying it wasn’t worth it. All I said was there was a substantial price difference. For some pros it won’t even be enough to make them blink. For guys who are stretching to be able to afford an HVX, going another 45% would be a dealbreaker.

And factor in what you’re giving up too — you’re giving up intraframe compression, you’re giving up 4:2:2 color, you’re giving up a system that’s impervious to rolling shutter artifacts like skew, wobble, and partial exposure. If the EX1’s wobble/skew issues are on par with the HV20, then if you shoot red carpet events, press conferences, do visual effects work or motion tracking, etc., the EX1 may very well completely screw you over as compared to a CCD-based system. Or, it’s possible they spent extra money and time trying to resolve the rolling shutter issues. We don’t know yet (but I do have firsthand testimony that yes, the EX1 does “wobble”).

It’s not like “everything is better” with the EX1, there are going to be some compromises, perhaps serious compromises if you do stuff like motion tracking. I mean, everything *should* be better, as it’s (again) 45% more expensive. And I’m not saying it’s not worth it to the right buyer. But there’s some compromise and downside in every comparison.

For example, one could easily say that the HVX price premium was well worth it over the DVX, but for someone who needs a small light-sensitive easily-hand-held camera, maybe that price premium was money not well spent (since the DVX is two stops more sensitive in 60i mode, and much smaller and lighter).

[Mitch Ives]

[Barry Green] “It’s not like “everything is better” with the EX1, there are going to be some compromises, perhaps serious compromises if you do stuff like motion tracking. I mean, everything *should* be better, as it’s (again) 45% more expensive. And I’m not saying it’s not worth it to the right buyer. But there’s some compromise and downside in every comparison.
“

You’re absolutely right Barry. I realized after the last post that I had hoped that I hadn’t given the wrong idea that I felt the EX-1 was better. What I want are those features I mentioned earlier on my HVX200! To be fair I’ve vocalized that from day one… and again recently with the folks from Panasonic.

I am not a fan of long GOP and am definitely an I-frame proponent. The HVX is still a better choice IMO, but they now have some competition on the media and on the feature set…