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.
Look for the official release of the Pansonic 4K Lumix camera in February with a groundbreaking price point under $2,000.
