New HD Camcorder From Panasonic to use Secure Digital memory cards

[suppafreak]

Interesting, but I wonder about the quality.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20061003/tc_pcworld/127369

[edDV]

Article

"The amount of video that can be stored on a memory card will vary with the card's capacity and the video-quality setting.

For a 4GB SD card, the storage will be 85 minutes at 6 megabits per second, 55 minutes at 9 mbps and 40 minutes at 13 mbps, Panasonic said. A 4GB memory card can be purchased for as little as $68, according to PCWorld.com's price tracker.

Video is stored in the AVCHD format developed by Panasonic and Sony. AVCHD uses the MPEG-4 AVC compression system."

There has been little testing of the new AVCHD format. At the higher 13Mb/s bitrate it may be near equal to 25 Mb/s HDV for editing but with all the same temporal issues. 40 minutes on a $68 SD card is pricey vs. $3 to $6 DV tape so you are paying for small size with media cost.

These are likely to be sold with much lower camera and lens quality than current HDV models. It will be interesting to see reviews.

[Specialist]

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Jerry Jones
http://www.jonesgroup.net