by Tim Dashwood.

JVC Professional Products has finally unveiled the highly anticipated GY-HM700, its first shoulder-mounted solid-state ProHD camcorder and "big brother" to the recently announced GY-HM100. This camcorder represents a first in the professional video industry by combining technology from JVC, Sony and Apple into a single product (not to mention the superb new bundled lens from Canon.) The popular features of the GY-HD200 series camcorders are carried over to the HM700 including focus assist, 180° image rotation, cinema gamma/matrix, white shading, truly progressive CCDs, 4-pin 12VDC power, 1/3" bayonet mount and a professional battery mount (Anton Bauer or IDX.)

I was recently granted some quality-time with a pre-production version of the camcorder. There wasn’t enough time to warrant a full technical review, but enough to become convinced this camcorder will be the big hit when it ships in March 2009.

XDCAM EX Format Pre-Wrapped in Quicktime

An out-of-the-box GY-HM700 can record to inexpensive SDHC cards (class 6 or faster) as Quicktime .MOV using the XDCAM EX codec at selectable bitrates of 19, 25 or 35Mbps. The Mpeg-2 encoder is JVC’s, the XDCAM EX codec is licensed from Sony, and the Quicktime wrapper is licensed from Apple.

All HD formats and frame rates are supported (1080i50/60, 1080p24/25/30 & 720p24/25/30/50/60.) Two built-in SDHC card slots can accommodate continuous recording from card to card allowing the card in one slot to be changed while the other is recording. This is good news for event videographers who need to document an all-day event. A pre-record buffer of 3 seconds means documentary filmmakers will never miss unexpected or unrehearsed action.

Click www.dvinfo.net for the whole story.