New P2 HD Varicams from Panasonic

www.gtc.org has been given exciting news of two new cameras to be unveiled by GTC sponsors Panasonic at the Wildscreen Film Festival on Tuesday October 21 at 11am in Theatre 3, The Watersheds. Bristol. GTC members attending the camera exhibition in the evening can be among the very first in the UK to view these eagerly awaited cameras, the brand new P2 HD members of the Varicam family.

Panasonic PBITS UK claim the two new cameras – the AJ-HPX2700 and the AJ-HPX3700 – will 'take over from the iconic taped Varicam, offering never before seen levels of in-camera creativity and flexibility'.

Wildscreen is the world's premier event for the Natural History filming community, a sector that has enthusiastically embraced the tape version of the Varicam, hence the UK team's decision to give the cameras their first showing here to the industry.

Nigel Wilkes, head of sales for Panasonic PBITS in the UK is very excited about the two new cameras: 'Varicam has become a solid workhorse for the industry proving itself to be versatile, robust and a major choice for many hard-working DoPs and directors. The incredible quality, high sensitivity and variable frame rate ‘in camera' have long given productions creative choice on the shoot. The new P2HD Varicams continue with this and now give productions the added value of full IT workflows.'

The AJ-HPX2700 has an RRP £26800 and features:

  • Progressive 2/3-inch 1M pixel CCD's (1280 x 720)
  • Variable frame rate shooting, 1 to 50 fps, (60 at 59.94)
  • Five P2 card slots allow continuous recording, card selection, loop rec, pre-rec, interval recording and one-shot recording.
  • IEEE 1394, USB 2.0 host and device interfaces
  • F10 sensitivity at 2,000 lx

The AJ-HPX3700 has an RRP of £35000 and features:

  • 3 Progressive 2/3-inch 2.2M pixel CCD's (1920 x 1080)
  • Variable frame rate shooting, 1 to 30 fps
  • Five P2 card slots allow continuous recording, card selection, loop rec, pre-rec, interval rec and one-shot recording.
  • Three HD-SDI outputs (Dual Link + monitor) allow EE output of 4:4:4 RGB high-quality images.

Both cameras come with 5-year extended warranty and will be available to buy or rent in November. The GTC is working with Panasonic to set up a workshop for members interested in finding out more about the new cameras.

Marc Irwin, Marketing Manager in the UK said of the launch, 'The industry has been eagerly awaiting these cameras. Taped Varicam in only DVCPRO HD was, and still is, an incredible unit. Now enhanced with P2 and AVC-I making them capable of recording master quality content in 10 bit and 4:4:4 through dual link this makes them killer products.'