Panasonic Launches New AVCHD Shoulder Mount Camcorder

Panasonic announced the expansion of its professional AVCHD product line this week with the introduction of the AG-HMC70, the industry’s first shoulder-mount professional AVCHD camcorder.

Like Panasonic’s small hand-held AG-HSC1U camcorder introduced at NAB2007, the HMC70 records 1080i video onto readily available SD/SDHC memory cards. It uses the industry standard H.264 Advanced Video Codec High Definition video format, which delivers twice the recording efficiency of MPEG-2 codec technologies like HDV, and is supported by nonlinear editing systems like Apple Final Cut Pro V. 6.0.1 and i-Movie, Grass Valley Edius, V. 4.5, Pinnacle Studio Plus 11, Nero 7 Premium Reloaded, Ulead Video Studio 11 Plus and Ulead DVD Movie Factory 6 Plus.

The HMC70 features three native 16:9 progressive 1/4-inch CCDs to record, or provide a live feed of, widescreen 1440×1080 HD resolution. The camcorder targets prosumer A/V apps such as wedding videography, law enforcement, education, live staging and documentation as well as Web video coverage for broadcasters and newspapers. The camcorder is equipped with a 12×38.5mm to 462mm Leica wide-angle zoom lens, one push auto focus and integrated Optical Image Stabilization.

The camera provides three recording modes: 6 Mbps, 9 Mbps or 13 Mbps. Using a new 16 GB SDHC memory card (available this month), the HMC70 can record for up to 360 minutes at 6 Mbps and up to 160 minutes at 13 Mbps.

The HMC70 will be available in April 2008.