If the release of the Canon XF 350 means, as I surmised last week, the demise of tape as a recording medium in the consumer/semi pro market, then the announcement of the HXR-MC50E from Sony Broadcast could accelerate the switch from large shoulder mounted camcorders to quick and flexible hand helds in the area of ENG (electronic news gathering).

Admittedly I haven’t seen one as yet, let alone had a play – that should be rectified very soon – but on paper this looks the ducks guts.

All the boxes are ticked with a Sony G lens and Exmore filter, 10X optical zoom, large battery capacity, a shotgun mic holder and headphone port plus a combination SD and Memory Stick storage on top of the built in 64GB memory . Other goodies include GPS receiver and map index, IR shooting and a shotgun mic.

The price is a cracker too at $2299. I expect Channels 2, 7, 9, 10 and SBS will be ordering a few as will station stringers.

I can’t wait for a play! (The full specifications can be seen at AusCam Online).