For the last two months, JVC has been showing a prototype of a 3CCD HD camcorder, rumored to be a 3x 1/5" CCD sensor recording 1080/50/60i on a 30GB hard drive.
Details on the camera are sketchy at best. Specifications like format (HDV or AVCHD) are still lacking from JVC but it is based on the Everio GZ-MG505 HDD camcorder. This camcorder should hit the market in the first half of 2007. It is also rumored to be able to shoot 1080p, an industry move that started with the Sony HVR-V1. It seems manufacturers are pushing towards 720/1080p even for consumer models. Now that is great news for the consumer market.
Why would one want progressive over interlace, and if P is better, then why did they come out with interlaced products as the standard?
Interlacing was a trick to halve the bandwidth required for a certain framerate so they could achieve smoothness on CRT TVs.
Progressive at the same framerate is better because you've got the whole frame, not just half of it. For example 60p is better than 60i but takes double the bandwidth.
And progressive is a lot less of a pain for the editor who wants to do slo-mo etc has to transcode footage to other formats.
I have both 720P and 1080i cameras. I much prefer progressive, but interlaced tends to be more common and more supported. Picture quality much richer (imho) with progressive, although I get nice, crisp HDV with interlaced.
