Complete Coverage: 2012 NAB Show
Sony has announced three new cameras that it will be highlighting at NAB, including PMW-100 handheld camcorder, which become the smallest camera in the XDCAM product line.
The PMW-100 XDCAM camcorder, which should be available in May, with a suggested list price of $4,500, is another example of how vendors are responding to increased demand for smaller, lighter, less expensive products.
"Advancements in digital imaging technology have enabled journalists and professional videographers to cover stories by using portable devices such as cell phones, DSLRs, and consumer camcorders," said Tatsuro Kurachi, senior manager, Professional Solutions of America, Sony Electronics, in a statement. "However, when compared to traditional shoulder-mount camcorders, there is still a significant gap in image quality, ease of editing, and data management. The PMW-100 achieves the best of both worlds, by recording full broadcast quality MPEG HD422 video within a hand-held form factor."
In addition to the PMW-100, Sony also announced a new remote camera designed to offer higher quality images. The BRC-H900, which is equipped with three ½ type Exmor HD CMOS sensors, offers HD 1920 x1080 pixels with 1,000 TV lines (horizontal) in HD-SDI mode.
That camera should also be available in May with a suggested price of $14,500.
Also available in May will be two new cameras -- the HDC-2000 and the HDC-2550 -- that are designed to expand the range of live production solutions offered by Sony.
Both the HDC-2000 and HDC-2550 models offer improved picture quality with the newly developed 2/3-inch-type Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) image sensor and Digital Signal Processing (DSP) with a 16-bit A/D converter.
Sony has not released pricing for those two cameras.
The PMW-100 uses a newly developed 1/2.9-inch Exmor CMOS sensor and comes with a 5.4-54mm (40-400mm in 35mm equivalent) zoom lens. Targeted for production environments where users need a smaller, more mobile solution, it fits into existing XDCAM workflows and productions that are using other XDCAM cameras, such as the Sony PMW-500.
It supports full HD video at 1080i, 1080p and 720p up to 50 Mbps MXF record and playback based on the MPEG HD422 codec using the standard MPEG HD422 Long GOP compression technology.
For recording media it can use high speed SxS PRO memory cards as well as SD cards, Memory Stick media, and XQD cards as an "emergency" secondary media.
The camera also incorporates HD/SD-SDI output, Composite Out, Genlock input, time code in/out, i.LINK (HDV/DV) in/out, and A/V Out.
