Tim Duncan (remember him?) recently tested the new Sony PDW-F350 against the Varicam (written up in the new Creative Cow Magazine), and found that the Sony keyed better.

(The HVX uses the same codec as the Varicam, but is hobbled further for chroma key by the comparatively low res CCDs and heavy use of pixel shifting.)

He said the F350 footage also looked sharper, with a color reproduction that matched the Varicam (which is where it excels). And the Sony had less noise at 12 dB gain than the Varicam at 0dB, with no artifacts in HQ mode even at 42 dB gain. Really clean low-noise shadows, better than the F900 even.

He was also unable to get any kind of encoding artifacts even while doing rapid pans, testing in low light, or cranking up the detail to max and doing quick pans on outdoor shots (in 35 Mbps HQ mode).

This would seem to indicate that the DVCPRO-HD codec is not worthwile at this time.

Harsh words, but isn't that what it seems like?

The PDW350 just moved higher on my list...

Tim already bought one for his company, instead of the Varicam he had planned to buy.

Because the F350 was better, not because it was one third of the cost...

I think Sony has a clear winner on its hands here.