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MillimeterTest Drive: Panasonic AG-HMC70, Part 2
Jul 28, 2008 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer
Figure 2. The ChromaDuMonde chart measuring both detail and color accuracy.
Click here for a larger image.
Next up is the ChromaDuMonde chart, which measures both resolution and color accuracy (Figure 2). In terms of resolution, the XH A1 again clearly wins, while the Sony seems better at resolving horizontal detail—as evidenced by the vertical lines circled on the upper left of all charts.
Holding the chart up to my big-screen HP LP3065 monitor to compare color, I noticed that the Panasonic’s color were more accurate than either other camcorder—particularly in the greenish box on the upper left hand side and the brownish box on the lower left. It’s hard to draw any conclusion from this, however, because I color-corrected all videos, and the differences are subtle.
Figure 3. The fabulous CamBelles chart seems to indicate that the Panasonic AG-HMC70 has more accurate skin tones than the Sony HVR-HD1000U.
Click here for a larger image.
To get a better handle on the color issue, I shot the fabulous CamBelles chart shown in Figure 3. Here, it looked like the HMC70 matched skin tones more accurately than the HD1000, which often looked a touch brassier and a slightly noisier.
Alhough the XH A1 was the clear winner in all detail-oriented tests (as you would expect), the Sony and Panasonic camcorders were neck and neck. While the Sony’s big-pixel CMOS imager seemed to provide an advantage in terms of detail preservation, the Panasonic’s three CCDs seemed to produce better color. That said, few viewers would notice the difference in either still-frame or realtime playback tests.
