Sony PMW-200 4:2:2

[FilmMan]

[url="http://www.studiodaily.com/2012/07/sony-introduces-handheld-pmw-200-422-xdcam/"]http://www.studiodaily.com/2012/07/sony-introduces-handheld-pmw-200-422-xdcam/[/url]
[b] Sony Introduces Handheld PMW-200 4:2:2 XDCAM[/b]

Successor to PMW-EX1R Offers 50 Mbps MXF Recording, Genlock, Timecode
By [url="http://www.studiodaily.com/author/bfrazer/"]Bryant Frazer[/url] / [url="http://www.studiodaily.com/2012/07/sony-introduces-handheld-pmw-200-422-xdcam/"]Jul 25, 2012[/url]

Sony has improved on the PMW-EX1R XDCAM with the new PMW-200, which offers MPEG HD422 recording to SxS cards at 50 Mbps. Sony is positioning it in part as an ideal B-camera counterpart to the $25,000 PMW-500. The PMW-200 is expected to ship in September for a list price of $7790.
The camera captures imagery via three 1/2-inch Exmor CMOS chips. The increased quality of 4:2:2 recording is a nice upgrade, but the workflow advantage is the PMW-200's support for the MXF container and the UDF file system. UDF is the basis for recording to the Blu-ray optical-disc recording media favored by reality-TV producers (due to the high shooting ratios and low cost of media), and it's also utilized by the PMW-500.
That means the PMW-200 allows facilities to use the same UDF/MXF recording mode across both memory cards and optical media, using established XDCAM workflow. (However, the PMW-100 does not generate a separate proxy when shooting in MXF mode.) The PMW-200 also supports 35 Mbps and 25 Mbps MP4 and DVCAM recording tp SxS in the FAT format, making it fully backward compatible with existing XDCAM EX workflows.
The PMW-200 is far from a replacement for the PMW-500, which is a shoulder-mount camera boasting 2/3-inch CCDs. Still, Sony officials say it's a nice improvement over the EX1R, boosting the signal-to-noise ratio from 54 to 56 dB and sensitivity from F10 at 2000 lux to F11. Compare that to [url="http://www.pro.sony.eu/biz/lang/en/eu/product/xdcamcamcorders/pmw-500/technicalspecs"]published figures[/url] of 59 dB and F11 (60i) and F12 (50i) for the PMW-500.
"They're pretty well matched," Sony Electronics Senior Product Manager Christopher Tsai tells StudioDaily. "The EX1R has always been noted for really good sensitivity with low noise, and we already have a lot of people who are using the EX1R like a B camera with the PMW-500 — or even the PDW-F800."
Another upgrade from the EX1R is the ability to record up to four channels of 24-bit LPCM audio in the MXF container, the same as the PMW-500. The viewfinder is the same, but the 3.5-inch LCD panel has been upres'd from 640×480 to 852×480, and a new Wi-Fi option for remote operation via mobile app should be available via a firmware upgrade that''s scheduled to go online in December.
The 14x zoom fixed Fujinon lens has been ported over unchanged from the EX1R, meaning existing lens accessories like the VCL-EX0877 .8x wide converter will work with the new camera. The EX1R's slow-and-quick speed and slow-shutter options are also intact, along with the 15-second cache recording feature, and the battery system and accessories are the same.
In the interest of full disclosure, we asked Tsai which significant features from the EXR1 are [i]missing[/i]. He said there are three.[list]
[*]The Shot Transition push-button feature for moving automatically between two sets of presets (focus, zoom, etc) has been discarded
[*]Component video out is gone. Instead, the camera has a BNC terminal for composite video out that doubles as a genlock in. Another BNC enables timecode in and out. (The EXR1 had neither genlock in nor timecode in/out.) HDMI and SDI output are still there, of course. "We took off one output connector and gave you two additional," Tsai says.
[*]The PMW did not inherit the rotating handgrip from the EXR1.
[/list]
No doubt one or more of these will be dealbreakers for some users. For more details, take a look at the [url="http://www.studiodaily.com/2012/07/sony-brings-hd422-workflow-to-its-xdcam-handheld-camcorder-line/"]official press release[/url] or click on over to the [url="http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/micro-xdcam/"]official XDCAM website[/url].