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MillimeterReview: Panasonic AG-HPX300
Apr 13, 2009 12:00 PM, By Barry Braverman
A camera that fits the zeitgeist.
At a cost of less than $10,000, Panasonic's AG-HPX300 brings 10-bit 4:2:2 recording to a new professional tier.
This is not a $30,000 camera. You might want to repeat that to yourself as you consider Panasonic's latest P2 offering. At a street price of less than $10,000, the AG-HPX300 camcorder is impressive beyond its affordability: 10-bit AVC-Intra recording, interchangeable 17X Fujinon lens, best-in-class LCoS viewfinder, and a 2.2-megapixel imager all in a rugged, professional package.
The HPX300 is the ideal tool for the way many of us work now: increasingly alone and wearing many hats—writer, editor, producer, and shooter. The new camera accommodates this emerging paradigm in news operations, corporate and events, reality TV, and even music videos. There are inherent compromises to consider, especially for those of us accustomed to more sophisticated camcorders, such as Panasonic's own Varicam AJ-HPX2700. But the HPX300 is capable of capturing some truly remarkable images, and did I mention this is not a $30,000 camera?
New to its core
The Panasonic AG-HPX300 is a full-raster 1920x1080 4:2:2 camcorder fitted with three 1/3in. CMOS imagers, which Panasonic calls "3MOS." The camera shoots SD and HD in many familiar formats, including MiniDV, DVCPRO HD, and now AVC-Intra for the first implementation of 10-bit recording in an economical camcorder.
For the shooter, this means images with smoother gradients and an end to the ugly 8-bit contours that are occasionally visible in facial shadows and large monochromatic areas of the frame, such as the sky or the walls of sets. Ten-bit recording and workflow also mean the enhanced ability to perform precise compositing and color correction in postproduction. Remember that 10-bit recordings offer four times more accurate sampling; the HPX300 records to a P2 card one of 1,024 possible values for each sample rather than 256 as in 8-bit formats such as DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD, and the many XDCAM variants.
It's worth noting that Apple's ProRes 422 codec in Final Cut Pro supports a 10-bit workflow. So does Avid Media Composer 3.0, which provides native MXF support, thus obviating the need to transcode the AVC-Intra files into an intermediate codec.
Shooting Hollywood's back alleys
I used the HPX300 recently on a grim documentary called Bliss Café, which featured standup comics performing in the dark clubs of Hollywood's underbelly. The camera's low weight—13lbs. with lens and battery—built-in wireless mic support, and long zoom range made this dual-slot P2 camcorder a good choice for capturing the raw and raunchy performances in this low-budget production.
The HPX300 can be a powerful tool in the creative shooter's arsenal. Like the painter who exploits to the utmost his brushes and palette of colors, the HPX300 shooter should also take maximum advantage of the camera's versatility. Need to add weight to a struggling actor's performance? Push the camera to 26fps or 27fps. The HPX300 can do it. Need to add visual drama to a car chase? Slow the camera down a bit and undercrank at 20fps or 22fps. This camera can do that too.
In fact, when shooting 24p, I seldom operate a P2 camera at that frame rate. Instead, I'm constantly tweaking the rate of pictures parading in front of my audience. You obviously can't do this when shooting dialogue, but at all other times, the boxing gloves are off and the creative-fun cap is on. Sometimes I'll even slow down my actors to shoot at 12fps and gain an extra stop in low light. So we won't talk about pixel counts in this article just now. It's your craft that really matters and ultimately gets you work—and in that respect, the HPX300 elegantly supports your creative impulses.
With the HPX300, I can shoot progressively from 12fps to 60fps via 20 selectable presets. Add to this ability a 3-second prerecord function in HD, loop record, and even single-frame shooting for animated sequences just like a film camera.
When comparing cameras, many folks talk endlessly of imager size, number of pixels, and color-sampling ratios. What should be of real significance to shooters is the camera's ability to record smooth, organic images. In this way, the economical HPX300 excels in features and performance that truly count.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
