Panasonic unveils 720p DVCPRO camcorder

LOS ANGELES – Panasonic took the wraps off its first 720p camcorder here at ITS last week.

The new camera is a DVCPRO HD camcorder featuring dual frame rate (30fps/60fps) progressive scan (720p) and is scheduled for delivery by December 2000 at a suggest list price of $60,000.

Panasonic joins Philips Electronics as the only companies offering 720p cameras, which have been slow in development due to what many say is an unknown and untapped market. All other HD cameras on the market use the more popular 1080I HDTV standard. ABC, which broadcasts HDTV in the 720p format, used Panasonic prototype 720p cameras for its broadcasts of Monday Night Football last season.

While many in the industry believe 720p to be superior to 1080I, demand has been low for 720p cameras, but Panasonic officials believe the time is right for a market introduction. And while interest from broadcasters struggling with the costs of the digital transition may be fleeting at first, Panasonic could find a ready market in high-end corporate and government A/V applications as well as digital cinema.

"We are extremely excited to unveil the AJ-HDC27A camcorder at the ITS Forum," says Stuart English, VP of marketing for Panasonic Broadcast. "While high definition may have been considered by some as a very specialized broadcast technology, we have observed tremendous interest in progressive scan HD production tools for cinematic and business communication applications, as well as for bandwidth-efficient broadcasting of 480 line progressive, which protects new business opportunities in datacasting and multicasting."

The camcorder is based on a newly developed 1 million pixel 2/3" IT 3-CCD imaging system, offering a Sensitivity of F11 at 2000 Lux. The camcorder provides 46 minutes of recording in 720 progressive at either 30 fps or 60 fps, and offers two channels of 16-bit/48kHz digital audio, a low power consumption of approximately 30 watts, and uses standard 2/3-inch bayonet lenses. The camcorder features a HD-SDI output for full-color live and tape storing camera set-ups.

By Tom Butts