HDX-200 lens good or just functional.

[Luis Caffesse]

[bullpup] “They have to leave out options that will direct professionals, who know enough about the medium, to their higher end units or there would be no reason to purchase them”

I know we’re all cynical after years of handicapped cams…
but don’t forget that this camera already is missing options that would turn most professionals off who are serious about shoting DVCProHD, or DVCPro50.

Namely, 1/3inch chips, fixed lens, and a ‘handycam’ type formfactor.

Anyone who is considering the purchase of a Varicam would not try to decide between the Varicam and the HVX. They may be deciding between an F900 and the Varicam. My guess is that those who will purchase the HVX are people who possibly rent the Varicam on a semiregular basis, or simply want to shoot DVCProHD but could never afford it.

I doubt this will affect Varicam sales much at all.

Just my 2 cents.

Luis Caffesse
Studio 3 Productions, Inc.
Austin, Texas

[Pappasarts]

Hi Christopher!

I too owned that camera. These were great for there time and it had a lens that had foucs markings and it stopped without the free spinning hell and is it also had a zoom handle. That was 15 years ago. No reason they can’t make fixed lenses like this today with the advancements of technology to throw in. Not one good honest reason at all.

Michael Pappas
https://www.Pbase.com/ARRFILMS

[Pappasarts]

By the way if people don’t know of the canon A1 digital, you can see that is had lens markings and a real zoom handle here.

https://ferrario.com/ruether/images/FS/canon-A1.jpg

michael

[Paul Harb]

I worry that just like the Beta, quility will not win out in this war for the “lower” end HD market…..it will be the marketing, just like it always has been,and that would really suck…..If they have any chance of stealing the HDV market, if this is what they are trying to do, then this camera better rock, so that there is no doubt that you would be crazy to spend the same money on the Z1…MPEG2 was never meant to be an aquisition codec….andit is turning into this big marketing campaign to sell everyone onto HD…..it will be an interesting couple of years….I really hope Panasonic blows people away with this camera at the price point…..

[Paul Harb]

eewww……a fixed lens on a $7000-$9000 camera……thats gotta suck…..better be damn good glass…..

[Christopher S. johnson]

Makes me all misty eyed seeing that pic. Awwww. Look at that beautiful SLR style handle. Fit like a glove. Zoom control was in the back, right under your right thumb all the time.

-Christopher

[Luis Caffesse]

[Paul] “I worry that just like the Beta, quility will not win out in this war for the “lower” end HD market…..”

I think that might be less of a danger in this scenario, for a few reasons.
First off, we’re definitely out the pure consumer market. These cameras will be priced high enough that the majority of those buying them are doing so to make a living (I think). When something is a business investment, as opposed to a personal luxury, I think people tend to take a closer look and educate themselves a bit more. Most people who would consider buying a $5,000+ camera probably know a bit about the video technology behind it (or am I giving most people too much credit?).

When you sit down and look at the technology, to me there is no question which is superior. I think most of those who may go with HDV will do so strictly based on recording time or an inability to get away from tape. I seriously doubt anyone will look at both formats and seriously decide they think that HDV is a ‘better’ format – instead they will say, ‘well, I need the long recording time so I guess I have to settle for HDV.’
(or am I not giving HDV enough respect here?)

The other reason I think we don’t need to worry about which will win out is just the natural progression of where technology is going. Whether or not people today choose HDV or DVCProHD will have little impact on the future of video. Processing power is increasing, and price is decreasing more and more every year. Storage is becoming cheaper and faster. The move to a more highly compressed format seems ridiculous. As technology advances, we will be able to work with less compressed formats with much more ease.

And, and this seems obvious, in the end tape will disapear.

I can imagine twenty years from now looking back and laughing about the fact that we marvelled at being able to record DVCProHD to a solid state memory card (and remember how expensive they were?). By then we will have all moved on to the next great format.

Luis Caffesse
Studio 3 Productions, Inc.
Austin, Texas