Panasonic Intros Low-Priced AVCHD Camcorder
Panasonic Solutions Co. today announced the introduction of the AG-AC7PJ, a low-cost professional AVCHD shoulder-mount camcorder. Featuring Full HD (1920×1080) and SD Memory Card recording (480i) to SDHC/SDXC media, the AC7PJ is highly compact at under four pounds, offers stable, shoulder-mount shooting and comes complete with a large grip and zoom lever, as well as a wide-diameter, manual focus ring for smooth, precise operation.
With a high-resolution 3.32-megapixel ¼.1-in. MOS imager, multiple recording formats and intuitive professional functionality, the AC7PJ is designed for entry-level professionals and will carry a suggested list price of $1,300. The camcorder can also take 2.1 megapixel still images (1920 x 1080 in 16:9) and store them as standard JPEGs on an SD card. AVCHD recordings and stills can be directly played back from an SD card on a wide range of low-cost players including Panasonic Blu-ray Disc players, laptop PCs and advanced game consoles.
The camcorder’s wide-angle 38.5.8mm lens (35mm equivalent) facilitates panoramic capture and shooting in confined spaces. The AC7PJ’s Intelligent Zoom function enables telephoto shots at up to 23x magnification, with images maintaining HD image quality. The Intelligent Zoom mode utilizes hybrid Image stabilization that combines both optical and electronic stabilization of the image.
The AVCHD format-based AC7PJ uses MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 high profile encoding, which provides a doubling of bandwidth efficiency and improved video performance over the older MPEG-2 compression based formats.
The AC7PJ supports six recording modes, including, in 1080i HD, the high-quality HA mode (approx.17 Mbps), the HG mode (approx.13 Mbps), the HX mode (approx. 9 Mbps), the HE mode (approx. 5 Mbps), and, for 480i SD shooting, the SA mode (approx.9 Mbps) and SX mode (approx. 4.5 Mbps). The camcorder can record for up to 8 ½ hours on a single 64GB SDXC card in the HA mode. AVCHD is supported by a wide range of editing options, including Apple Final Cut Pro 7.0.3 or later, Adobe Premier Pro CS5 or later and Grass Valley Edius Neo 2 booster or later.
The AC7PJ is touch-screen driven, with controls set simply by touching the 2.7-inch LCD screen. The camcorder comes standard with HDMI output, USB 2.0, analog component (BNC x 3) output, A/V output, two channels of Dolby digital audio, and a built-in stereo microphone as well as a 3.5 mm external mic-in jack.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
For editing or playback, professionals can transfer content by inserting the SD Card into Mac or PC computers or by connecting the camcorder directly via its USB 2.0 interface.
The AG-AC7PJ is available now.
Comments (1)
Christine Estevez says:
July 12, 2011 at 9:56 am
Thanks, Panasonic, for introducing a low-cost AVCHD camera with a shoulder mount.
However, the” wide-angle 38.58mm lens (35mm equivalent) to facilitate panoramic capture” is barely a wide angle at all, and will have the poor videographer’s back against the wall trying to get a wide shot. Also, the 2.7-inch view screen is too small for quick focusing, too small for all the soft-button controls. The quarter-inch sensor is too small for very low light, too small for selective focus. The lens isn’t fast enough.
Better would have been a 24mm (equiv) wide angle, a 10x or 12 x zoom would be adequate from there, a 3.5-inch view screen would work, and a 1/3″ sensor would be better.