The AG-HPX300 P2 HD camcorder is the only 3-MOS (Panasonic’s version of CMOS) three 1/3”chip shoulder-mount camcorder using AVC-Intra for 10-bit 4:2:2 recording. It offers great low-light performance, has CineGamma and lists for about $14,000. It is capable of recording in 32 HD or SD format choices with variable frame rate recording (overcrank/undercrank) in 720P. Panasonic’s lowest price 2/3-inch P2 HD camcorder is the AG-HPX500. Of course, the AJ-SPX800 will also operate in standard 4:3. While it does not shoot HD it can operate in a 16:9 aspect ratio, making it easier to upconvert footage to HD when necessary. There’s still also the AJ-SPX800: 2/3” P2 three CCD standard definition P2 camcorder geared heavily towards news gathering at $19,500 without lens. With a price point at less than half that of a full-blown VariCam what’s not to love about it? AVC-Intra 10-bit 4:2:2 is available as an option on this model. The AJ-HPX2000 features three 2/3”1-megapixel 1920 x 1080 CCD’s, and a feature-set geared heavily towards electronic news gathering (ENG) and general television production assignment work (extended dynamic range and low-light gain boost). What the VariCam 2700 is to the VariCam 3700, the AJ-HPX2000 is to the HPX3000.
It’s a bit less pricey at $48,000 sans glass. Then there’s the AJ-HPX3000, a very close cousin to the AJ-HPX3700 VariCam, also featuring three 2/3-inch 2.2 megapixel 1920 x 1080 CCD’s, 10-bit 4:2:2 AVC-Intra P2 HD recording, but geared more towards the television production market than the more cine-wise VariCam. Just a notch beneath this is the AJ-HPX2700 with three 1920 x 1080 2/3-inch 1-megapixel CCD imagers and 10-bit 4:2:2 AVC-Intra P2 HD recording, a great lower-cost alternative that’s priced at $39,950 without a lens. Price? It starts at $59,950 without glass. The AJ-HPX3700 has Dual Link 4:4:4 RGB output and CineGamma for outstanding cinematic image quality. The AVC-Intra codec uses only the intra-frame portion of the MPEG 4, H.264 toolset, offering sufficient bit rate reduction to provide 10-bit, 4:2:2 (High 422 profile) recording on P2 cards at 100mbs, the same rate required by the DVCPRO codec just to record in 8-bit. The top of the line is the AJ-HPX3700 VariCam that offers three 2.2 megapixel 2/3-inch 1920×1080 full-raster CCD imagers with 10-bit, 4:2:2 AVC-Intra P2 HD recording. In addition, Panasonic has always been great about offering rebates or rebate credits, thereby lowering costs. You will find “list” prices on Panasonic’s website,, but typical “street” prices can be found at resellers such as Talamas, The Camera Company, and Rule in Massachusetts. P2 HD cameras range in features just as much as they range in price.
As far as developing cameras goes, they are more focused on the mid-range, professional levels.” The Line Up “Panasonics are a little bit cheaper,” Brooks asserts, “and Panasonic really seems to listen to what indie filmmakers want. According to Michelle Brooks at Rule in Boston, Sony and Panasonic are “pretty equal partners.” Yet, Panasonic models, specifically the line of P2 HD cameras, in her opinion, are just a little ahead of the game. Panasonic’s main competition in this arena is Sony. P2 cameras have proved themselves highly reliable under all sorts of harsh conditions, are easy to use, and offer much of the same functionality that the bigger and more expensive models do with a smaller footprint at a lower price. The cameras record in MXF (Material eXchange Format) an industry standard “wrapper” compatible with most Macintosh and Windows-based editing systems. This allows for faster than real-time transfers and facilitates editing. New, larger capacity P2 cards (up to 64GB) allow for longer recording times and memory storage, and record video as computer files rather than video data. There’s no doubt they were built for travel.
They share the look, feel, as well as many of the features of high-end professional cameras, and moreover, are lightweight, portable and manageable. Introduced three years ago, Panasonic’s line of P2 solid-state recording HD cameras offers a high-definition recording system at an affordable price.