Panasonic
The Panasonic AG-HVX200 ($5,995) is the only DVCPRO HD camcorder in the sub-$ 10,000 category. Though the base price is around $6,000, this doesn’t include the P2 cards, which are needed for recording HD. A Mini DV tape transport system is included, but it can record only DV footage (not HDV).
P2 is a card-based technology Panasonic developed to keep the camcorder’s costs low. While the prices are dropping, two 8 GB P2 cards, which can hold about 8-20 minutes of HD quality footage each (depending on shooting format), can cost around $1,200 each as of this writing. These cards are necessary to shoot in HD.
The AG-HVX200 is similar to the revolutionary AG-DVX100 DV camcorder in look and design. It can capture footage in 1080i 24p, 24pA, 30p and 60i, along with multiple frame rates in 720p mode, from 12 fps to 60 fps. This can give the user smooth slow- and fast-motion effects.