Kudos to Call for Help for hipping me to the HVX200, coming this fall from Panasonic. It’s the DV camcorder that will make videotape obsolete!
Those two slots pictured above on the camera’s backside are for the new P2-spec PC cards, which can record up to 1 minute of uncompressed high-definition video per gigabyte. And while $1,700 USD for a 8GB card is just a bit more pricey than your average $15 CAD, 60-minute miniDV tape, there are at least no issues with tape dropouts, stretching and the like.
The P2 cards will surely become more affordable over time—heck, when CDs first came out they were twenty bucks a piece, and you couldn’t even record anything on ‘em!
Andrew Currie 
3 responses to “The End of Videotape… Finally!”
AC:
What a sweet camera –with DV tape as well if you don’t like the flexibility of random access video (“please, rewind that tape again –I love the sound”).
It offers what the $100K USD Sony cameras that Lucas used for the most recent Star Wars movies for about $6K USD, plus the P2 card slots to boot. True high-definition at 24 fps, variable speeds, and a revolutionary recording format?
I’m buying lottery tickets….
Ed
Hiya Ed,
Forgot to mention that the guy on TechTV also said that the announcement of this camera has effectively killed the market—nobody’s buying anything ‘til this baby comes out!
AC:
Guess that means the prices on the current cameras will come down, right? Better save my milk money….
Ed