updated 10 Mar 2005

 

Pre-Release Information About the JVC GY-HD100
an article by Chris Hurd

Discuss this topic in our GY-HD100 message board.

First HDV Camcorder with Interchangeable Lenses
Other Pro Features  ·  Dual Media Recording Option  ·  BR-HD50U HDV V.T.R.
New HDV Format  ·  Availability & Pricing  ·  Register for Official Info

Still more than a month away from NAB2005, the biggest industry event of the year, and things are already heating up in the HDV world! It looks like the next offering in the HDV format camera line is going to be the three-chip JVC GY-HD100, a light-weight, low-height professional shoulder-mount camcorder with interchangeable lenses. Its three Progressive Scan CCD's are one-third inch in size, each containing 1.1 megapixels. Using a variant of the HDV format which JVC is calling ProHD, the GY-HD100 will record 720p24, 720p30, 480i and 480p with 1080i playback (and its 24p modes are said to be native, not emulated).

At the time of this writing, there have been only a couple of partial photos of the HD100 released to the public by JVC. They're carefully teasing the market, with one image (seen above) mosaiced out except for a clear view of the HDV logo and lens mount, and another shadowy image (lower down this page) which gives us just a slight glimpse hinting at its form factor. Needless to say, all we have to do is wait, and soon enough -- around April 18th, during NAB -- there will be plenty of photos available, as well as some premlinary hands-on reports. Until then... well, here's what we know so far.

World's First HDV Camcorder with Interchangeable Lenses

At NAB2004, JVC displayed a mockup of a full-size professional shoulder-mount HDV camcorder. This isn't it; the mockup was the forthcoming GY-HD7000, but that's a different topic altogether which we'll get to in just a little bit. No, JVC didn't preview the HD100 last year, so it really is something of a surprise. And it's the world's first HDV camcorder with interchangeable lenses, beating all other camera manufacturers to the marketplace (including themselves, considering the HD100 will be released before the HD7000).

In relatively recent history there have only been a handful of 1/3rd-inch lenses available in the broadcast video world. Starting about seven years ago, Fujinon offered a narrow selection of 1/3rd-inch lenses for the Panasonic AG-D200, 210 and 215 series of shoulder-mount DVCPro camcorders (one of these lenses, the T14x5.5 BRM4, was even adapted for the then-new Canon XL1). Canon's own broadcast video lens division also supplied a pair of 1/3rd-inch manual lenses for the XL1S to complement that camera's modular design. These were the motorless 14x and its eventual replacement, the motorized 16x which is still in use today with the Canon XL2. Up to this point, that's been the extent of availability regarding broadcast video lenses in the 1/3rd-inch size.

Apparantly there will be two choices of glass for the JVC GY-HD100. These options are a Fujinon 16x and 13x. Not a whole lot of information is available about them yet, but I'm going to take a wild guess that the 13x is a wide-angle lens. I can't think of any reason why these lenses would operate differently than any other Fujinon broadcast video lens, so I suppose they're switchable between manual and motorized zoom, will have analog zoom, focus, and iris control rings, may or may not have auto focus, most likely will not include image stabilisation, and will be fully controllable by separate remote focus and zoom controllers mechanically connected to the lens barrel. The really nice thing about the analog control rings on these broadcast video lenses is that you can smoothly adjust exposure by manipulating the aperture directly, either by hand or by remote control, without having to go through a series of incremental digital steps as most DV camcorders do. It's the same thing for focus and zoom control as well. It's truly manual, if you want it that way.

A Healthy Mix of Other Professional Features

Some other goodies concerning the HD100: it has a heavy duty magnesium chassis and weighs about five pounds; it's not a full grown shoulder-mount camera but instead appears to be a bit smaller, almost like a hybrid design. It features user selectable custom presets and a variety of image controls including Cine Gamma and a motion smoothing filter. It has a flip-out color LCD monitor and a high-resolution monochrome CRT viewfinder, enhanced focus control, perhaps similar to Sony's; and there's a removeable flash memory card, said to be in the Memory Stick format, which I assume is for copying custom presets and various camera settings from one HD100 to another (very cool!). This camera features component and composite video output and FireWire. It also has a pair of balanced XLR audio input jacks with phantom power. And from the photos, it appears to have built-in rail mounts for attaching a matte box and follow-focus controls. Just thinking aloud, I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to attach a P+S Technik Mini35 converter to this camera!

Dual Media Tape and Hard Disk Option

One of the most useful features of the GY-HD100 is that it can record to dual media, with an HDV mini-cassette built in and apparantly a hard drive option available as well. Whether or not the drive is internal or is an external add-on is not known at this time. Recent JVC professional shoulder-mount DV camcorders such as the GY-DV5100U have incorporated an optional external piggybacked Hard Disk module called the DR-DV5000, which essentially is a slightly customized FireStore FS-3 mounted in between the camera body and the camera battery. The FireStore features hot-swappable hard drives in 40GB and 80GB sizes, allowing for more than three and six hours respectively of continuous, uninterrupted recording time. Whether the new HD100 will be compatible with one of the existing external FireStore packages, or a completely new external recorder, or an internal hard disk recorder built in to the camera body is not know at this time (due to the relatively small size of the HD100 body, most likely the Hard Disk option will be an external add-on). What is known for sure is that Focus Enhancements, makers of the FireStore, have announced support for the HDV format, meaning that HDV can be recorded to the drive in an edit-ready format, bypassing the need for the tedious video capture process.

BR-HD50U HDV V.T.R. Shipping in June

There's also a new HDV deck on the way from JVC, it's called the BR-HD50U. The image to the left isn't really the 50U, it's the BR-HD60U, but they're most likely fairly similar in appearance. The BR-HD50U is the first HDV deck to accept both the mini and full size DV cassettes, which implies that you'll be able to record long-form HDV programming on full-size tapes, a first in the industry if that's true. It features component video output and FireWire, and incorporates a small built-in LCD video monitor. More details coming soon.

A New HDV Format Variant

Not too many details just yet -- but the GY-HD100 will be utilizing a variant of the HDV format which JVC is calling ProHD. With it the camera can record four channels of audio plus 720p24, 720p30, 480i and 480p with 1080i playback (and its 24p modes are said to be native, not emulated) at a data rate of 19 megabits per second. Later on in 2005, JVC will release the aforementioned GY-DV7000U. It is supposed to be the first three-chip HDV camcorder to have large 2/3rd-inch CCDs and will purportedly record 1080p at a higher bit rate. It will also feature the dual media option as well.

Availability and Pricing

The JVC GY-HD100 should be shipping by 1 June 2005. What the exact MSRP will be is not known yet, but it will be under $10,000 USD including a lens. The MSRP of the JVC BR-HD50U HDV VTR is not yet known, but it should also be shipping by 1 June 2005.

Left: the 2/3rd-inch JVC GY-HD7000U. Right: the JVC BR-HD60U.

Register with JVC, Receive Official ProHD Announcements & Info

There appear to be two official JVC sites where you can register to receive information about the GY-HD100 and the Pro HDV format once it becomes official. One of these sites is worldwide, and the other is currently limited to European residents.

• http://pro.jvc.com/prof/main.jsp -- just click on the "Pro HD" graphic in the lower left-hand corner of the site there. It'll take you to a pop-up window where you can hit a registration button. Covers residents of North America (Canada / U.S. / Mexico), Australia, and pretty much the entire world.



• http://www.prohd.net/ -- registration here is limited to European countries and does NOT include North America or Australia.

Discuss this topic in our GY-HD100 message board.

Written by Chris Hurd with Sean Dinwoodie.
Thrown together by Chris Hurd.