Sony joined the high-def, tapeless recording crowd with its recent introduction of the PDW-F330, PDW-F70 and PDW-F30 XDCAM HD line, companions to its SD line of optical-disc XDCAM systems. Aimed at HD field production and news gathering "on tighter budgets and in smaller studios," the new XDCAM HD uses Long GOP encoding to record images at up to 35 Mbps. $20,000 (approximate; final price and release date TBA)