Digital Home Thoughts: Panasonic Shatters the Price Barrier for 3CCD Digital Video Cameras

Panasonic dropped a bomb on the digital video camera world, and not that many people seemed to have noticed (myself included): they've released the PV-GS120, a 3CCD camera, for only $699 USD MSRP. To understand why this is such a big deal, you need to look at the other cameras on the market today. The term CCD (Charge Coupled Device) referrs to the light sensor the "sees" what's going on. Single CCD systems have one sensor to record red, blue, and green. This is typical of most digital cameras today, both still and video. A three CCD system, however, has one sensor per primary colour type - the result is a much truer-to-life image. Especially in video, 3CCD systems make an enormous difference in quality, and thus are highly coveted. Pansonic defines their 3CCD system like this:

"The remarkable 3CCD camera system is the same type that's used in Panasonic professional broadcasting equipment to deliver an incomparable overall picture. Color is reproduced with great fidelity as a separate CCD is used for the reds, greens and blues that compose an image. The result is great detail with up to 540 lines of breathtaking resolution."

When I bought my MiniDV camera last year (a GL2), I did so after testing nine different cameras for the digital video book. I tested several consumer and pro-sumer level cameras, but the one that stood out head and shoulders above the rest was the Canon GL2, one of only two 3CCD cameras that I tested (the other was an older Panasonic). The quality difference between the one CCD and three CCD units was shocking. I have to admit, however, that the 3CCD Panasonic camera didn't come close to the quality of the 3CCD Canon GL2. The GL2 was $3999 CND MSRP last year, and although prices have fallen someone, it's still almost unheard of to get a 3CCD camera for under $1000 USD. For Panasonic to release a small 3CCD digital video camera at this price is no less of an event than Canon releasing the Digital Rebel for under $1000 USD.

My only concern with this is that I hope Panasonic has since improved their consumer 3CCD offering, because what I saw last year wasn't terribly impressive.