Well looks like Panasonic has just opened up a can of whop-ass on the competition. They are leading the way to killing tape and providing true 1080/24p HD Video for $6K.

http://www.ag-hvx200.com/

I like Sony but the FX1 can burn in hell. This Panasonic records in DVC-PRO HD @ 100mbps no crappy 25mbps mpeg 2 compression crap here. And since it is recording to a solid state memeory card it can record 60 progressive frames a second in 720p for TRUE SLOW MOTION! the P2 cards are real expensive right now but in the next year or 2 they will drop dramatically in price and tape will forever go the way of the dino.....were talking about 1080x1920 pixels! 24fps progressive! madness! I might have to go to the hospital if this boner doesn't go away soon. It's starting to hurt...

That might be all well and good, but in the end you're only able to film 8min in HD on those cards. Those 8min cards also cost somewhere around $1500, and I cant even imagine how much it would cost for a larger card. While I do think this is a huge step for the industry, these cameras are no where near cost-effective for student productions, and wont be for a VERY long time. And by the time this stuff does become cost-effective, Im sure someone will have re-invented the wheel...again...several times over.

Here is the future of P2 cards according to panasonic representatives:

8GB predicted for 2005, 16GB in 2006, 32GB in 2007, 64GB in 2008, 128GB in 2009.

And the prices will drop. Even if they do not you can still use the camera with the hard-disk recorder they are making for it. It will be cost effective with in the next 2-3 years like I said before. And dont forget that the figure of 8 minutes is only for the highest resolution(1080p). You can get something like 16-20 minutes of 720p on an 8gb card...

Check out the other thread about this:

http://forums.studentfilms.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2246029451/m/7831025581

Panasonic is prediciting that by next year it will cost less for double the capacity, but more importantly they can output the stream over firewire to an HD. It is still unclear as to whether a standard HD can be used or if it has to be something like a firestore.