are there any 1080p camcorders yet?

[BirdDad]

I have seen the one Panasonic that writes to SD cards(30 minutes to 8GB) but there are no 8GB SD cards out there.
Is there one that records to tape or hard drive?
links please

 

[gsellis]

Yes, but they are either backlogged until 2008 and/or more than $50,000 (RED is 17.5, but accessories get it to about 50k). Oh, and none of them are really hand-held. RED shoots on solidstate media in 1080p, 2k, 4k, and 4.5k. Dalsa has a camera as well as Silicon Imaging (1080p).

More to the point, why? Shoot 1080i. When you go to HDV, adding more definition will not make up for all of the other tradecraft that is required to make it look that good. For 1080p the way it should look, you need good lenses, lighting, composition, sound acquisition, etc., to make it really stunning. And when you hit 1080p, you are getting into big bandwidth for editing and playback. 1080i is not dead and at standard viewing distances of 6-8 feet, it is harder to tell the difference.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: gsellis
Yes, but they are either backlogged until 2008 and/or more than $50,000 (RED is 17.5, but accessories get it to about 50k). Oh, and none of them are really hand-held. RED shoots on solidstate media in 1080p, 2k, 4k, and 4.5k. Dalsa has a camera as well as Silicon Imaging (1080p).

More to the point, why? Shoot 1080i. When you go to HDV, adding more definition will not make up for all of the other tradecraft that is required to make it look that good. For 1080p the way it should look, you need good lenses, lighting, composition, sound acquisition, etc., to make it really stunning. And when you hit 1080p, you are getting into big bandwidth for editing and playback. 1080i is not dead and at standard viewing distances of 6-8 feet, it is harder to tell the difference.

I agree with the second half of that. A good camera cannot make up for a total lack of skills. A decent cameraman with an old JVC VHS camcorder can make a home movie look better than someone with a 1080p RED and has no skills to use it.

The one thing I have noticed about most professional photo-video-graphers is that most had started off using basic equipment (i.e. Steven Speilburg) while most people who can not take a decent photo-video but fool themselves into believing they can often try to start out with the most expensive they can afford.