That translates into a plethora of lens choices from cinema-style prime lenses to typical ENG zooms and everything in-between. There are good reasons for having a 2/3' inch chipset and lens mount:ġ) The majority of professional video lenses on the market today are 2/3' inch mount starting with SD lenses that go back 20 years all the way up to the latest HD-spec glass costing upwards of $80,000!. Competitive cameras offered by Sony, JVC are only 1/2' inch mounts and the only Canon with removable lenses is 1/3' inch. Even today it remains the only 2/3' inch chipset/mount HD camera for less than $15,000. Panasonic recognized this new market opportunity and created the AG-HPX500, released in 2007. The problem had always been that those cameras such as the Panasonic Varicam or Sony F900 were far, far out of the reach of most of these potential users simply because the cost is exponentially higher than any compact HD camera a fully configured camera of those types pushing $200k easily. But one of the HVX's biggest claims to fame was it's overall value to it's users because of it's great amount of configurability, ruggedness and total reliability when using the P2 media.Īlthough the HVX200 met with great and continued success many professional shooters and independent producers had been jones-ing for a logical step-up from a handheld HD camcorder to a larger 2/3' inch removable-lens system.

Not only was it the first tapeless HD camcorder but it also offered a wide variety of features such as VFR frame rates and a true progressive chipset just to name two of dozens, but of course it also gave us the gorgeous richly-colored Panasonic chipset which so many came to love starting with the DVX100. When the venerable HVX200 was released it created quite the stir in the world of commercial video and independent film production.

Panasonic p2 hd ag hpx500