Will Panasonic address the Sony F-23

[John Sharaf]

Bobby,

Yes, Panasonic most definately will offer a Digital Cinema Camera like the Sony 23. Whether it will be a three chip 2/3″ or one chip CMOS 35mm sized imager remains to be seen; but it will have the new AVC codec which allows D5 quality at 100 Mbs on P2 cards.

They showed the six-sided prototype at last NAB and have been soliciting end user import as recently as two weeks ago, when I was included in one of several group meetings with camerapeople, rental houses and others in Los Angeles with factory people here for that purpose.

Panasonic, like Sony is heavily engaged in R&D to further the capabilities and acceptibilities of Digital Cinema Cameras; they are responding to the motion picture and broadcasters expressed desire to migrate to high quality non-linear digital origionation, post production and distribution. The cost savings alone in print making and transport could justify the transition for the studios.

There will definately be more to come on this subject, but in the meantime the fact that there are very reasonably priced HD alternatives (like the HDX900 and the 1800 series Sont HDCAM VTR’s for about $20K)means that more and more folks will be pulling the trigger soon and making the move to HD production for both cinema, broadcast, cable, industrial, religious and other forms of media production.

JS

[Tony]

Maybe another question to pose is will Panasonic address the RED camera with a model of their own and call it P2 Pink?

Tony Salgado

[Tj Williams]

Perfect Performance Panapink P2 or acroynymically…. PPPP2