PHOENIX—Sharp Corporation used its late November National Dealer’s Meeting in Phoenix for the U.S. rollout of the first 8K, 60P Camcorder. The single Super35 sensor 8C-B60A, sporting 33 million pixels, records around 40 minutes to a removable Astrodesign 2TB SSD pack, with a 4TB SSD pack coming along soon.
The camera body weighs in at just over 10 pounds, but with accessories such as OLED viewfinder and PL mount lens, its use in the field weight is 26 pounds. A V-mount battery pack can power the camcorder for around an hour. A genlock input allows deployment in a multi-camera shoot. Frame rates available are 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, 60 Hz, and HDR (high dynamic range) is supported.
Recording to the SSD packs is lightly compressed using the Grass Valley HQX Codec. The camcorder can also output live, uncompressed 8K 60p video output at the same time as it is recording via its Quadlink 12G-SDI output. (4K and HD outputs are provided.) The camcorder can be used as a playback device from the SSD packs.
As far as audio goes, the 8C-B60A provides a pair of 3-pin XLRs for line or mic level input, and a 5-pin mic input. MADI audio can be input via a BNC. Headphone is a stereo mini-jack and there’s a monaural speaker built into the camera body.
The 8K camcorder fits into “an 8K eco-system that Sharp is developing,” said Sharp Executive Vice President Yoshihisa Ishida. “From shooting to image generation, we have products and technologies in that total system.” At the dealer event, the company also premiered its AQUOS 8K series, the first range of consumer-ready televisions and monitors
The first of the 8K camcorders will be delivered to NHK in about a year. In addition to broadcast television and motion picture uses of the camcorder, Sharp also identified medical, military and civilian surveillance, and training among target markets for the product. Cost (excluding lens) is estimated at $80,000.
