Panasonic announces two new camcorders – AG-HMC72 & AG-HMC1502 min read

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Panasonic Broadcast has unveiled two new AVCHD camcorders, the AG-HMC72 and the HMC150, both of which will be available this year.

The HMC72 is a shoulder-mount professional AVCHD-based gadget that will ship this April following NAB at about US$2,495. It utilizes 3 1/4-inch CCDs which can capture at 1080i, and comes equipped with a 12X Leica Dicomar zoom lens (equivalent to a 35mm range of 38.5mm to 462mm).

It also has the standard one-push Auto focus and integrated Optical Image Stabilisation system, and can also capture stills at up to 2.1 megapixels, even while you are recording.

Like the HSC1U, the HMC72 can capture at 6, 9 or 13 Mbps, which translate to over 2hours at the highest quality on a single 16GB SDHC card.

The camera comes with Y/Pb/Pr BNC connections which allow for live feeds or immediate playbacks via projectors and monitors, rendering it suitable for covering live events. Audio features include two locking XLR inputs, 48V Phantom Power, auto/manual levels, mic attenuation and front/rear assignment.

Coming a little later in the year (sometime in fall, but most probably in September’s IBC show) is the HMC150, a handheld camcorder based on the popular DVX100. It utilizes three 1/3-inch CCD imagers which kick out a range of HD formats, including 1080/60i, 1080/50i, 1080/30p, 1080/25p, 1080/24p, 720/60p, 720/50p, 720/30p, 720/25p, 720/24.

It is also PAL/NTSC switchable, and comes with a 28mm Leica Dicomar wide-angle zoom lens. Since it will be released to the market slightly later than the HMC70, the HMC150 will likely have one additional enhanced recording mode in addition to its 6, 9 and 13Mbps data rates, says Panasonic’s official release.

One-upping the HSC1U, the HMC150 will have professional XLR audio input connections, and outputs via HDMI, USB2.0, component, composite and RCA (for audio). It also incorporates a long-time Panasonic P2 function, the pre-record function which allows the camera to capture footage occurring before real-time recording begins.

Also coming sometime in fall 2008 is the new 64GB P2 card, which translate to 2hours and 40mins worth of footage in 720/24p in a single card. So it looks like we’re fast approaching the day tapeless storage outstrips tape capacities.