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Panasonic HPX3000 camera announced

Panasonic has announced the HPX3000, a shoulder-mounted 1080p camera. It doesn't appear to be a successor to the HVX but a spinoff targeted at studio work, hence the $48,000 price tag.

The big difference between this and the HVX is that it shoots full raster 1080p, meaning that the footage you shoot is exactly 1920 x 1080 pixels and not subsampled to something lower like 1280 or 1440 pixels. That's only if you shoot using their AVC-Intra codec though. DVCPRO HD is not full raster so shooting in this codec will result in subsampling, which reduces quality. Still looks pretty good though, but not as good as it could.

I'm wondering where it stands with the Red. You buy the Red for $17,500 and once you've got lenses and accessories, you're at about $30-40k, which is still less than the $48k of this camera AND you have more than one lens. And of course, the Red shoots 4K. If you have a project coming up soon, this might be a good camera to hire rather than a Red because the current cameras aren't feature-complete and I heard the post production workflow needs some extra work. This camera, on the other hand, is from an established brand and is fully supported by Final Cut Pro (6 only).

If you are looking to buy a camera in the near future, my advice is to wait until early next year. I heard that Red should have shipped the pre-ordered versions by then and you'd have a better idea of whether or not it's the best thing since sliced bread by then.

The Panasonic HPX3000 ships later this month.