The "Cinema" digital video camera arrives

Things just keep getting more interesting - if more expensive. With the advent of DSLR videomaking, a lot of people have been asking / dreaming / begging for Canon to come out with a more videocamera-oriented camera that would offer the depth-of-field capabilities of the DSLRs, but in a videocamera form factor.


Well Canon hasn't gotten around to that yet, but it seems like others are jumping in. Sony has twittered a prototype digital cinematic camera that's scheduled to be released next year. Unfortunately, no details - yet - as to what we're talking about. Is this in the low-end category (Sony's RED killer?) or is this something super-expen$ive?

Meanwhile, Panasonic has a 3D rendering of a camera described as the "first professional micro 4/3-inch video camcorder optimized for high-definition video recording. Scheduled to ship by the end of 2010." This camera has the chip size of the Panasonic GH1 and it outputs 1080p, but theres no info about what the resolution of the chip is; is it native 1080p, or are they downsampling? That could have a big effect on the image quality.

[UPDATE 4/12 9:16AM] It appears the price will be about $6,000 for the Panasonic.



[UPDATE 4/12 7:03PM] HDWarrior reports that it has a 35mm sensor, records on SxS, and has an Alpha Mount.

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