Panasonic announced in late 2007 the launch of a new HD camcorder that allows you to implement workflows without tape, using SD memory cards, the same ones we use in our digital photography cameras. It is about the AG-HMC70, a shoulder-oriented camera, in principle, to educational applications, the videography of events and the corporate market. With this model, Panasonic continues its tradition of offering professional users large small cameras with a performance and an aspect that clearly separates them from the cameras of use domestic.
But in this case Panasonic offers a camcorder which is closer to the pro world than to the world homemade, although its controls in manual mode can be something frustrating for the videographer accustomed to the high equipment Range, the 70 offers the functions that are really needed along with total automation options comparable to those of any consumer palmcorder. However, it has connections from XLR audio and BNC-type video, and that clarifies a few things about his true vocation. However, as usual in our market, the borders between the pro world and applications Broadcast are quite blurry, which makes the HMC70 can be interesting for many TV and Video readers.
The AG-HMC70 is a camcorder with three progressive CCD sensors of 1/4, which generate 1080i signals with a resolution effective 1440 x 1080. The material is recorded using the codec AVCHD, a variant of MPEG-4 based on H.264 encoding, system that has taken a lot of strength in IP Video applications. Panasonic has become a strong proponent of the AVC codec, which has taken on some importance in camcorders for domestic use and possibly appear in the near future on the platform Q2.
The HMC-70 allows you to select data rates of 6.9 or 13 Mbps, and although it is feasible to use ordinary SD cards, it is it is advisable to use SDHC cards, which allow to ensure a better performance. According to Panasonic, the efficiency inherent in the MPEG-4 compression allows to ensure a quality equivalent to that of HDV with bandwidths close to 13 Mbps, slightly more than the half of the 21 Mbps that the HDV 1080 invests in compression video.
As a point of reference, we can point out that on a card 16 GB SDHC can be recorded just over 2 hours 30 minutes of material at 13 Mbps, or about 40 minutes on a card of 4 GB that can be purchased without major inconvenience in any shop, although it would be a good idea to stay with well-known brands; as many of us have painfully encountered, not all cards SDs work just as fast.
An additional attraction of SD cards is that, eventually the material can be viewed in multiple devices: in addition to any PC equipped with a cards, most HDTV receivers and HDTV players blue discs that come equipped with SD slots, have the ability to decode MPEG-4 video.
At this point, several of the most editing platforms important directly support the AVC codec; in addition to Final Cut and IMovie, the users of Canopus/Grass Valley Edius, from Pinnacle Studio Plus and Corel/Ulead products can handle the material of the HMC70 without any inconvenience.
Considering all of the above, I wouldn't be surprised to find an AG-HMC70 doing reporting work in some city close and maybe recording a party the next day.
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