Panasonic Broadcast said its new AG-HPX170 fully solid-state P2 HD handheld camcorder would be available in late September at a suggested list price of $5,695, which includes a 16 GB P2 card.

The compact HPX170 (at 4.2 lbs., one pound lighter than its predecessor, the HPX200) features two P2 card slots, a 3.9mm ‘ 51mm 13X Leica Dicomar zoom lens, and an HD-SDI interface. It also provides independent-frame compression in 20 HD and SD formats, and is switchable between the 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios.

The cameras features three 1/3-inch progressive 16:9 CCD imagers with low noise and smear specs and improved low-light performance. Enhanced metadata features allow shooters to use a software keyboard to input of key data about the shoot and attach it to the file itself. This capability is not available on the HPX200.

The HPX170 also offers an expanded 20-step frame rate selection in 720p mode for variable-speed shooting in the 12fps to 60fps range to acquire fast- or slow-motion in-camera effects. Professionals can select from six advanced gamma modes including CineGamma, which produces the warm film-like images recordings.

The company also announced that its new AG-HMC150 AVCCAM camcorder would be available October 2 at a suggested list price of $3,995. Based on the existing DVX100, this new camcorder offers both 1080 and 720 HD recording onto solid-state SD memory cards.

For more information, visit www.panasonic.com/broadcast/.