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Hands-on HVX

Feb 1, 2006 11:15 PM, By Barry Braverman

A first-look review of the Panasonic HVX200, video’s latest quantum leap.

At NAB 2005, Panasonic security dutifully watched over a glass case that held The Camera. In truth, it was not an actual camera at all, but a painted black block of wood with recycled camera parts glued on it. Had the ogling masses known this, I doubt it would have made much difference, however. Such was the level of excitement and anticipation for Panasonic's little wonder.

The AG-HVX200 clearly catered to dreamers and promised do it all, a true-high-definition, modestly priced camcorder capable of shooting variable frame rates at 720p and 1080i resolutions — at 4:2:2, no less. The camera offered the tantalizing prospect of a $150,000 shooting package for a mere $6,000. After all, this wasn't HDV with MPEG-2 long-GOP. This was the real thing.

For nine months shooters and producers and storytellers of every stripe held their collective breath. Could the HVX200 be the camera they'd been waiting for?

Last month, Panasonic lent Video Systems the first HVX200 unit made available to journalists for review. I put the camera — fitted with a single 4GB P2 card and Chrosziel 16×9 matte box and follow-focus — through a variety of shooting situations. I shot the interiors of cars and Hollywood Boulevard at night. I took the camera to a bright studio set with talent, and to a fluorescent-lit drugstore with mixed illumination. The prototype camera had some issues: it was noisy in the shadows; a few of the menus and one of the camera's two downconverters didn't work. But one thing was plainly evident from the quality of the pictures: this camera rocks, and in a very big way. The Panasonic AG-HVX200 represents the most significant progress in small format video in more than a decade, since the introduction of the first consumer DV camera (the Sony DCR-VX1000) in 1995. Anyway you parse it — and we're talking about 1080p60 RGB 4:4:4 sampling here — the Panasonic AG-HVX200 is a remarkable storytelling machine.

HD, honestly

The 5.3lb. basic HVX200 is a native 16:9, 1/3in. three-CCD camcorder. Sampling is achieved at the astounding 1080p60 rate at 14 bits though a 19-bit intermediate sampling stage. This makes for an extremely high level of sampling precision, rivaling the most sophisticated and expensive cameras on the market.

The $6,000 Panasonic camera marries the functionality of the VariCam (variable frame rate DVCPRO HD) and P2 (solid-state recording) with the general form factor of the company's popular DVX100A/B models. Clearly breaking new ground, it captures true HD (not HDV) at 1080i and 720p in the forgiving 4:2:2 color space. This means no long 15-frame MPEG GOP structure to sabotage my pans and fill my active-motion scenes with ugly macroblocks. No protracted 44-hour HDV output re-conform sessions from the NLE or convolutions when attempting to cut picture and sound natively. Of course serious shooters will routinely “bump” the original HDV camera footage to a frame-based codec like DVCPRO HD or HDCAM, but that doesn't change the fundamentals of the format: HDV's narrow bandwidth at 19 to 25Mbps, its very high compression, and its constrained 4:2:0 color space make the once consumer-intended format especially susceptible to noise and other artifacts.

Of course HDV is immensely popular and used across an ever-broadening range of professional projects. The salient point here is that the Panasonic HVX200's HD pedigree is true frame-based DVCPRO HD at 100Mbps, not a highly compressed MPEG-2 variant. Be cognizant of the difference. Finally we have a true HD camera at a reasonable price.

© 2009 Penton Media, Inc.