JVC is bringing its Nikon F-mount, 4K concept camera from CES 2012 to market. The JVC JY-HMQ30 looks like it will use the same multi-stream 4K recording that is found in the JVC GY-HMQ10 fixed-lens 4K camcorder, which was officially announced at CES 2012.
As it was teased in concept form last year, the HMQ30 features a 8.29MP 1.25″ CMOS sensor and uses JVC’s Falconbrid processor. As mentioned above though, the 4K recording method is different from what everyone else is doing. Instead of a single video file recorded to a single memory card, the HMQ30 will record 4 streams to 4 separate SDHC or SDXC cards.
Frame rates range from 24p to 60p at 4K. It will also capture AVCHD at 60p/60i/50p/50i at a max data rate of 28Mbps. Four Mini HDMI outputs allow you to view full res footage on a 4K TV. To be clear, the 4K signal is actually quad-HD at 3840 x 2160 (aka 4K Ultra HD). Native 4K resolution is 4096 x 2160 pixels.
The HMQ30 features dual XLR inputs with phantom power, a 920k-dot res 3.5-inch LCD touch panel, and a 260k-dot res EVF.
In my look at the HMQ10 at CES 2012, the compression from the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264(.MP4) files were obvious on a 4K TV. While the max data rate is 144Mbps for 4K capture, it doesn’t sound quite as good when you consider it is actually pulling from four separate HD streams at a max 36Mbps data rate. Additionally, you can’t work with the footage until you combine the 4 streams into one using JVC’s 4K Clip Manager program, which will convert files to 4K footage in ProRes 422.
While the HMQ10 4K camcorder was introduced at $5,000, the HMQ30 looks to be around $18,000 (going on the 1.7M yen conversion).
Here are some closer looks at the HMQ30 in concept form back at CES 2012.
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