Panasonic Announces HVX200-lite Camera

Panasonic Aims for an AVCHD Future with AG-HMC150

After giving so much love to Sony's new HD cameras, I have to acknowledge Panasonic's newest announcement, the AG-HMC150. It looks like a HVX200 but without the DV tape transport and using SD/SDHC memory cards and not the more expensive P2. No price, but I'm guessing that it will be cheaper than the HVX200. It's expected to start shipping in the fall.

While it would be great to see some great competition for Sony, I have my concerns about this camera because of the AVCHD codec. You'll always hear marketing claims that AVCHD is supposed to be more "efficient" than MPEG-2--that's why AVCHD's bit rate is in the teen's and HDV's is usually 25 Mb/s. The only problem is that so far AVCHD cameras don't come close to HDV in image quality. Apparently, Panasonic will be offering some new "professional" bit-rate quality on the camera, but the lack of detail on this feature makes me skeptical.

Camcorderinfo.com, which has reviewed a lot of the AVCHD cameras out now, has this to say about the prospects for the AG-HMC-150.

Extensive testing of AVHCD camcorders in the consumer range by CamcorderInfo has shown that manufacturers have yet to produce a camcorder that can match HDV in overall quality. However, the lens and processing systems have so far remained strictly consumer-grade. The AG-HMC150 is the first AVCHD camcorder to come equipped with an imaging system this advanced, and may help overcome some of the image quality issues.

Expect to hear more news about this camera at NAB. If you want to know more about AVCHD, my latest wrap-up of AVCHD news is here.