In yesterday’s post about the Panasonic 4K Lumix camera, I noted that the camera had a SDXC card slot, which suggested highly compressed 4K footage. However, today I found out that Panasonic is planning to use a new SDXC standard with the 4K camera that will allow higher bit-rate capture of 4K footage.
Panasonic has on display, in another area of its booth, a SDXC UHS-I Speed Class 3 card, which will offer a minimum write speed of 30MB/s (equivalent to 240Mbps). Accordingly, the new Speed Class 3 cards will accommodate the rumored 4K 200Mbps .mp4 capture.
However, that is still a far cry from the likes of Sony’s 600Mbps XAVC codec captured at 4K/60p in the new Sony PXW-Z100 camcorder. It matches up nicely though against the FDR-AX1 which makes of the lighter weight XAVC-S codec for 4:2:0 4K/60p capture at a mild 150Mbps. Both of the Sony cameras make use of the much heftier (in terms of price and performance) XQD cards.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRC5zAFh6ZA&w=640&h=360]Look for the official release of the Pansonic 4K Lumix camera in February with a groundbreaking price point under $2,000.
