Sony’s first three XDCAM HD products, the PDW-F330 camcorder and the
PDW-F30 and F70 decks, will not ship in volume until the second quarter
of 2006. Quoting only European prices, Sony said the F330 will list
for€ 20,000 ($24,500), and the F30 and F70 decks for€15,000 ( $18,500)
and €10,000 ($12,200), respectively.
The F330 is similar to current XDCAMs except for the positioning of the
LCD screen and the option of using an auto-focus lens. The F70,
designed for an HDCAM environment, offers HD-SDI and features including
slow-motion playback.
XDCAM HD records 1080i 4:2:0 HD at three different quality levels — 18
Mbps (120 minutes), 25 Mbps (90 minutes) and 35 Mbps (60 minutes) — and
allows users to mix footage shot at all three bit rates on the same
XDCAM disc. Sony plans to use the IP address in the camcorder (as with
the XDCAM 1.4 software) for live proxy streaming, but, Senior Marketing
Manager Olivier Bovis warns, because it’s based on wi-fi, it can
introduce instability in a production environment. "Put simply, it is
not up to broadcast work," he says. XDCAM HD records 1080i 4:2:0 HD at
three different quality levels — 18 Mbps (120 minutes), 25 Mbps (90
minutes) and 35 Mbps (60 minutes) — and allows users to mix footage
shot at all three bit rates on the same XDCAM disc. Sony plans to use
the IP address in the camcorder (as with the XDCAM 1.4 software) for
live proxy streaming, but, Senior Marketing Manager Olivier Bovis
warns, because it’s based on wi-fi, it can introduce instability in a
production environment. "Put simply, it is
not up to broadcast work," he says.
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