Review: Hands-On Experience With The Panasonic AG-HVX200
Bryan Tanori (the main guy over at The Tanori Group) is a good friend of mine and also the proud new owner of a Panasonic AG-HVX200 P2 based HD camcorder. I consulted with him during the purchase to help plan his camera package and he returned the favor by bringing his new camera up to my neighborhood this past Saturday so we could take it out in the field and get some hands-on experience shooting with it.
I have been secretly lusting after this camera since it first came on the market, but had to settle on the Sony HDV solution because it was a better fit (at the time) for the kind of shooting I do most frequently. I’ve played with the AG-HVX200 a little at trade shows, but this is the first chance I’ve had to field test it and really get a feel for its pros and cons.
Let me start by just saying that I love this camera. It has a lot going for it and is a phenomenal bargain at the price. The Tanori Group’s camera package came in at around $10k with matte boxes, filter kits, tripod, 9″ HD LCD field monitor, and travel cases added in. Due to a limited amount of time and bad weather, we didn’t get a chance to use everything and test all of the various camera settings, but we did shoot about 60 minutes worth of exterior footage on the north end of Manhattan (and a few minutes of my daughter running around the apartment.) That was plenty of time to form some opinions about the camera and get a sense of the image quality.
 LED VIDEO LIGHT 4 Sony HVR V1U Z1U Panasonic AG HVX200  US $79.95
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 Panasonic AG HVX200 P2 w new FIRESTORE DRIVE Mor US $3,100.00
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 Aluminum Hard Case for Panasonic AG HVX200 DVX100B US $76.00
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 ALUMINUM HARD CASE FOR PANASONIC AG HVX200 DVX100B US $74.99
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We spent the first hour setting up the camera and working our way through some of the internal menus. We also attached the 9″ LCD monitor with an Israeli arm to use as a field viewfinder. We set the camera to record 1080 24p to the P2 cards during the duration of our testing since it is theoretically the best quality available for people wanting to achieve a film look with the camera – that being our primary goal.
From a physical standpoint, the camera feels very solid. It is a little bulky, but hand-holds easily enough. One huge plus is that the connector for the component output that we used with our field monitor actually locks to the camera. The USB, Firewire, and S-Video cables that you typically find on cameras in this price range have no way to positively lock the cables in place and it is easy to knock them loose in the field. This can be a nightmare with the camera on a crane or if you are recording to an external deck or routing to a field switcher. I wish someone would invent a BNC style connection for the USB and Firewire cables on video cameras since they seem to be the connectors of choice in the industry.
The audio controls were logically placed and easy to access as were the shutter controls, the focus control switches, the built-in ND filters, and the gain and white balance switches. The exposure control is in a very similar location to those on the Sony and Canon HDV cameras but I found myself having a hard time locating it by touch. I’m not sure why, but I always had to stop and locate it visually, which was a bit frustrating.
From a physical standpoint I found three main problems. The first is the orientation of the menu control buttons on the top of the camera. When accessing the menus you will nearly always be looking at the flip out LCD screen. The button group has a left, right, up, and down button with a selection button in the center. It all makes sense except that when looking at the LCD screen, the up and down buttons are actually facing right and left and the left and right buttons are up and down. If you turn the camera so that the buttons are oriented properly you can’t view the screen. It was very frustrating to navigate the menus like this.
The other problems I noticed had to do with the LCD screen itself. It feels very delicate and I don’t know how well it would hold up in field use. That’s ironic because the overall impression of the camera is that it is solid and sturdy. The other frustration is that the LCD screen is not touch sensitive. So much of your interaction with the footage you shoot happens through that screen and it just makes sense that it should be a touch screen. But, instead, you have to use the confusingly oriented buttons on the top of the camera. The touch screen technology is in widespread use on consumer level cameras and it should be incorporated in future versions of this one as well.
Once we had the camera setup to record 1080 24p to the P2 cards and mounted the 9″ LCD filed monitor, we headed out to make some images. The camera makes amazing images – period! The most basic shots had an impressive film-like quality and the color and clarity were amazing. We stood around for nearly five minutes just saying “Wow” over and over again.
With the field monitor attached, the camera is pretty top heavy, which made hand-held shots tough. So, we detached the it and worked in tandem. The first images we shot were out the windows of my car as we drove to the marina at 200th street and then later up to Fort Tryon park to shoot some images overlooking the Hudson River.
At a 1/60th shutter speed the moving images showed very little strobing – amazing considering the high contrast of the daylight city images. We later ran a series of pans with the shutter at 1/60th, 1/48th, and 1/24th to assess the image strobing at 24p. At the 1/24th setting there was none at all, but I need to see the footage on a large 1080p monitor to determine the overall level of blurring introduced by the slower shutter speed.
We are still assessing the images and I am waiting on copies to include with this review, but I was very impressed with the quality we saw on the monitor.
The major problem I encountered during the shooting centered on the focus ring. It seemed to take a lot of movement on the ring to shift the focus. It felt off and I never got comfortable with it. There may be a sensitivity setting in the setup menu, but we didn’t have time to look once we discovered the problem.
One quality of this camera that I enjoyed the most was that it runs silent when recording to P2 and there is no lag time when you hit the record button. As a matter of fact, the camera keeps a record buffer going so that when you hit the button it actually has a couple seconds recorded already. This is a handy feature when doing documentaries or events.
I’m looking forward to spending some more time playing with the camera’s image setup controls and also shooting some over and under cranked footage. I also need to hook up some mikes and test out the audio components as well.
Once I get some of the footage, look for stills and a few sample video clips.
If you have specific questions about the camera, please leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Andrew Seltz
The Go-To Guy!
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LED VIDEO LIGHT 4 Sony HVR V1U Z1U Panasonic AG HVX200 US $79.95
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Panasonic AG HVX200 P2 w new FIRESTORE DRIVE Mor US $3,100.00
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Aluminum Hard Case for Panasonic AG HVX200 DVX100B US $76.00
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ALUMINUM HARD CASE FOR PANASONIC AG HVX200 DVX100B US $74.99
|
October 30th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Andrew, thanks for great articles focused on the production side of things!
October 30th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Jason,
You’re welcome. I’ve had quite a bit of hands-on experience with production and enjoy being able to share that with others. Someday I’ll even figure out how to make a few bucks in the process. (If you buy any gear, go to B&H using the banner on this page. Every bit helps.)
If you’ve got any specific questions about production, leave them in a comment and I’ll do my best to bring you an answer.
Andrew
December 16th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
I dig; I was really close to getting the HVX to replace my DVX-100b (which I still have and use for wedding work). However, I went by way of Canon SLR for the low light performance and lens interchangeability. Needless to say, there are some features you mentioned on the HVX that I certainly wish I had. Cheers,