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The end of the camcorder?
  • DrDaveDrDave

    As I'm watching the slow rollout of cameras I'm Impressed with some of the new offerings, but I wondering if this is the end of the camcorder, and, if this is the end of the "prosumer" camcorder.
    I started filming with camcorders because way-back-when that was all there was. When we moved to 4K, we had the Lumix cameras, but also the Sony ax100 and the even-better ax700. Both these camcorders has some of the best lenses and sharpest 4K images I have seen in an affordable, compact body that could record unlimited video and be fitted with a monster battery. The mega zoom on these Sony camcorders is astoundingly good.
    I don't see any real updates to this line, in fact I don't see any 8K prosumer camcorders on the horizon.
    This is a shame because just the zoom rocker alone on such a great lens is incredibly useful for the work we do.
    Is this the end of the camcorder?

  • 1 Reply sorted by
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @DrDave

    Say thanks for social conditioning. Now selling smartphones is most profitable business - hence all media is pushing them. They are also extremely prone to breaking and battery don't last so long and very hard and costly to replace.

    Sony ax100 and ax700 are, in fact, ideal consumer form factor for 2D video. I can go ever further and say that 3D camcorders are, in fact, much more appealing for consumer (if you count the emotions from watching old footage) if you are recording family events and some travel stuff.

    Issue with camcorders is very small amount you can sell now - and it is lot of expenses to start production of new model. And biggest issue - companies can't make new competitive LSI for them, as they must compete to top Snapdragon chips (this stuff cost around $10 billions for design and masks). Cost for making new chip is rising exponentially. Also they require new 1" dual pixel AF chips with embedded DRAM, costly stuff. Cameras mostly exist because almost all moved to Sony made sensors that are partly financed from smartphones sensors sales.

    8K 30fps smartphones can be got for $200-300 used (2020 flagman models). I mean LG V60 and Zenfone 7 Pro. Note that both have Dual Pixel AF and OIS on main cameras.

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