New solid state HD cam

[EricTheRed 0]

This looks good. Have to wait and see if it fits our needs

http://www.dvguru.com/2006/11/08/panasonic-releases-2-new-avchd-1080i-camcorders/

illegible usually

[The111 1]

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The HDC-SD1 is the first camcorder to record 1080i HD images onto SD/SDHC Memory Cards. Approximately 90 minutes can be stored on a 4GB memory card at 6Mbps.

That doesn't make any sense. Regular mini-DV would require over 20GB for 90 minutes.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[justinb138 0]

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The HDC-SD1 is the first camcorder to record 1080i HD images onto SD/SDHC Memory Cards. Approximately 90 minutes can be stored on a 4GB memory card at 6Mbps.

That doesn't make any sense. Regular mini-DV would require over 20GB for 90 minutes.

It's probably highly compressed, and therefore crap.

[phoenixlpr 0]

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It's probably highly compressed, and therefore crap. Unsure

The fact of being compressed does not tell anything about quality.

[FeFe 0]

it uses the same avchd compression as sony sr1 just at lower rate at 13mbps

[EricTheRed 0]

A little bit more here: http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/08/panasonics-hdc-sd1-and-hdc-dx1-avchd-1080i-camcorders-loosed/

Compression is variable

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The camera utilizes those three 1/4-inch CCDs to record video to SD/SDHC cards for up to 90/60/40-minutes with 13/9/6-Mbps compression, respectively, when toting the bundled 4GB SDHC card. It'll even grab a 1.5 megapixel snap while simultaneously recording if you have the urge.

If it has a remote, it MIGHT be good - time will tell and I doubt I will be the first kid on the block with one but the time of tapeless video is coming soon I think.

illegible usually

[DSE 5]

It's AVC HD, which is the consumer name for MPEG4/Pt 10. MPEG 4 is incredibly difficult to edit at this time, requires massive CPU horsepower, and at bitrates of less than 18Mbps, suffers quality loss. At higher bitrates, it can be incredible, depending on the encoder/decoder combination. Panasonic has also announced a pro version of this, with the first prototype to be shown at NAB 2007 in April. The pro format is called AVC-I, for IntraFrame Only mpeg 4. It's speculative at best as to how this will end up, as engineers from every company except Panasonic have chuckled privately and publically about it.
Either way, AVC is coming, coming fast, and will eventually replace DV in a few years.
Bear in mind, it's not *just* the encoder that matters, but the decoder too. Both are relevant for quality.
CineForm(www.cineform.com) have announced an AVC HD conversion tool to convert AVC HD to a more editable format, should be coming soon.

[jeiber 0]

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It's AVC HD, which is the consumer name for MPEG4/Pt 10. MPEG 4 is incredibly difficult to edit at this time, requires massive CPU horsepower, and at bitrates of less than 18Mbps, suffers quality loss. At higher bitrates, it can be incredible, depending on the encoder/decoder combination. Panasonic has also announced a pro version of this, with the first prototype to be shown at NAB 2007 in April. The pro format is called AVC-I, for IntraFrame Only mpeg 4. It's speculative at best as to how this will end up, as engineers from every company except Panasonic have chuckled privately and publically about it.
Either way, AVC is coming, coming fast, and will eventually replace DV in a few years.
Bear in mind, it's not *just* the encoder that matters, but the decoder too. Both are relevant for quality.
CineForm(www.cineform.com) have announced an AVC HD conversion tool to convert AVC HD to a more editable format, should be coming soon.

With HD (and it's variants) becoming more popular, how do we take advantage of this increased resolution? I ask, because my understanding is that DVD's have a much lower bitrate the even raw DV, let alone HD, right?

Does one need an HD DVD burner/player to really take advantage of these cameras? I assume an HD player would be required as well?

Jeff

Shhh... you hear that sound? That's the sound of nobody caring!

[DSE 5]

First and foremost, an HD-acquired image will have significantly better results when downconverted to SD for DVD delivery than an SD-originated image whengoing to DVD. The colorspace of AVC and HDV are the same as delivered DVD, so there is no conversion/transcoding.

BluRay (known as BD) is now available for desktop authoring, but it will be at least 2 years before the "average Joe" will have a BD player in his/her home. There are already 630 movies released on BD with more slated to release near Xmas of 2006. Walmart starts their big BD push in the spring of 07.
Yes, you need an HD playback unit and HD display to seriously take advantage of the format, but given that the world is heading there now, you need to make a choice as to whether you want to be on the leading edge, on the top of the curve, or behind the curve.
The biggest point (for now) is that HD acquired media today has a long shelf-life. SD-acquired media today has zero shelf life. That may or may not be important to you.
My recommended workflow:
Shoot HD
Edit HD
Deliver SD.
If you get that great "once in a lifetime shot" you can string it off to any number of houses. If you're shooting for tandems, you could always hit folks up in the winter months with an HD display, or charge a little more for HD in the short term.
We're at a time where you could go either way. Buying an SD camera today (in my mind) is simply nuts. If you have an SD camera today, use it til you have no choice but to move to HD.

[tunnelfly 0]

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Buying an SD camera today (in my mind) is simply nuts. If you have an SD camera today, use it til you have no choice but to move to HD.

What if you have to buy a new camera but don't want to go top-mount? Anything worth waiting for?

No.1 reason NOT to be an astronaut: ...You can't drink beer at zero gravity...

[DSE 5]

The new crop of cams are effectively out on the market, excepting Panasonic's new AVCHD cam, and I don't know that one is worth waiting for. The HC3 from Sony is still the best in the class for skydiving, IMO, Canon's just doesn't work. A preproduction model worked great, but production models just aren't cutting it; there are problems with the OIS even when disabled.
Panasonic may have something, but the problem with AVC is that it's not supported at this time as an editing format. Sony announced last month that they'll offer a free update for Vegas users to edit AVC, but it will be painfully, excruciatingly slow due to the format. HDV is still the bomb for the "here and now" vs the "coming late '07/early 08'.
AVC HD is half the bitrate and 4 times the processing horsepower of MPEG2, but offers stunning results for many uses at 15Mbps. Problem is, the more compressed the image becomes, the more likely the macroblocking, which makes deblocking images difficult. In other words, high speed/vibration creates challenges for the codec/encoder. Having jumped 3 AVC camcorders at this point, I'm not recommending them to anyone. yet.