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Ten years ago everyone shot Betacam. Then production seemed to split, either to HD (HDCAM and Varicam) or DV. And Betacam slowly faded into the sunset.

That left many of my clients stuck in the middle. While some productions warranted HDCAM, other budgets didn’t support HD. And many of my clients didn’t want to give into DV.

I tested many smaller DV and HDV cameras, but clients didn’t like the deep depth of field that the small chip cameras have, especially for sit-down interviews. Plus, they complained it was hard to ask their clients for bigger budgets when the camera looks like it was bought at Best Buy.

So this is what my clients asked for in a middle-class camera:
1. A professional looking shoulder mount camera
2. 2/3” chips for shallow depth of field
3. Ability to use regular (interchangeable) lenses
4. Not having to buy an expensive deck
5. HD quality at Betacam prices

The Panasonic 900 and the Sony XDCAM cameras met most of the requirements. But both have a proprietary format that requires buying expensive decks. My clients didn’t want to buy into yet another format.

The only way out of buying another deck was going tapeless with the re-usable, removable P2 cards, but the most popular P2 camera was a “prosumer” camera called the HVX200. The little 200 made a pretty nice picture shooting HD but most of the people who shot the HVX200 recorded to dv tape because the P2 cards available then were 2GB and only held 5 minutes of footage.

But this year P2 turned a corner. Panasonic came out with the AG-HPX500, a shoulder-mount camcorder with 2/3" chips that can record 32 HD and SD formats.

Plus, the size of the P2 cards I have are 16GB. With HPX500's four P2 slots and 16GB cards, the camera can record for 170 minutes of 720/24pn DVCPRO HD or 272 minutes of DV without reloading. 32GB and 64GB cards are also available*.

Audio guys have gone tapeless. Still photographers record to memory sticks and transfer to hard drives. The only people left using tape is videographers. And that won’t be for long.

Tapeless solves the format wars because we can record just about any format you want and ingest it directly into a variety of editing platforms without having to buy any decks.

After shooting with it a couple of months, this seems to be the answer to the producer looking for a Middle-Class camera:

• A professional sized shoulder mount camera

• 2/3” chips that allow control of shallow depth of field

• Interchangeable lenses for superb pictures

• 4 XLR inputs for uncompressed audio

• Records both variable frame rates and as an intervalometer

• Outputs include HDSDI, Analog Component and built-in NTSC down converter

• Built in color LCD monitor

• The fastest camera I’ve ever owned

• Matches the HVX200

And all this at Betacam prices!

* I thought I would be the first to buy the 32GB and 64GB cards.  But shooting I have found we actually pull the 16GB before they are full.  The larger cards mean longer download times and most clients would rather download quickly and often.  On the other hand, when downloading isn't convienient, the larger cards are handy and availble for rental.