One of the latest models in the company’s AVCCAM series of AVCHD products, the AG-HMC41E was unveiled to the market in April this year. Designed as a competitively priced product that will help to drive the adoption of tapeless technology across the industry, the AG-HMC41E allows users of tape based media to transition seamlessly and economically to Panasonic’s AVCHD system and to a fully tapeless environment. The bundling of Edius Neo 2 video software with the camcorder will make it even easier for professionals to move to the AVCHD system by removing remaining cost barriers associated with tapeless recording.

Nela Pertl, Market Intelligence Manager at Panasonic PBITS said: “Tapeless recording is being increasingly used across the industry. This camcorder demonstrates Panasonic’s committment to making tapeless technology as accessible as possible to the broadest cross-section of professional users and our bundled software offering effectively lowers the cost of entry even further. For a minimum outlay, users can now experience the many workflow benefits that that recording directly to SD and SDHC cards bring, meaning that there has never been a better time to embrace tapeless quality HD recording.”

With a 32GB SDHC card the AG-HMC41E camcorder will record up to 180 minutes of high quality HD video at a full-pixel HD sampling rate of 1,920 x 1,080 dots, thanks to three 1/4.1-inch progressive MOS sensors with a total of 3.05 million pixels (effective number of video pixels: approximately 2 million) and a professional use-quality PH mode (maximum bit rate: 24 Mbps). Also with the 32GB SDHC card, the AG-HMC41E can record up to 720 minutes of video using the HE mode (average bit rate: 6 Mbps). It captures still images at a resolution of approximately 10.6 million pixels, comparable to the resolution of high-performance digital still cameras.

The AG-HMC41E is compact, weighing less than 1kg. Despite its size, the new camcorder model offers multiple professional features including full HD 3MOS imagers, high-resolution 10.6-megapixel still photo capture and 12X optical zoom. It incorporates Panasonic’s broadcast/professional-use color reproduction system, various focus-assist functions, such as facial recognition and touch-type auto-focusing, as well as professional functions, such as waveform monitoring. Accessories include a removable grip and an optional removable XLR microphone adaptor.

Unlike tape-based systems, the AVCHD high definition digital video camera recorder format records video and/or audio as digital files that do not required digitising. The files can be directly and quickly transmitted to a Windows PC or Mac, simplifying the use of the captured video in various applications, such as content production, internet distribution and source-material archiving. AVCHD files can also be user edited, saving time and effort for TV program production. Media and equipment maintenance requirements associated with AVCHD mean that it is also a highly cost-effective means of recording.

The AG-HMC41E retails at £2429 inclusive of vat