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MillimeterTest Drive: Panasonic AG-HMC70, Part 2
Jul 28, 2008 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer
Figure 4. The demolition derby winner, circling with his checkered flag.
Click here for a larger image.
Real-world tests were quite positive. For example, I produced a Blu-ray Disc of my daughter’s graduation in Pinnacle Studio 12, and the video looked crisp and clear on my 36in. JVC HD television. Definite hit with the graduate and her mom.
I did notice one difference between HDV and AVCHD video: The former tends to get blocky when stressed, while the latter seems to just lose detail—which you can see in the background in Figure 4, a screengrab of the demolition derby winner taking his victory lap. As an aside, I’ll guess that this was the only demolition derby in history ever won by a pink minivan, driven by a brawny mechanic obviously in touch with his feminine side. Ah, but that’s the beauty of the sport—you just ever know what to expect. Plus, unlike NASCAR, you get to make right hand and left hand turns, and even go backwards!
Anyway, while HDV’s blockiness and AVCHD’s loss of detail are both evident in still pictures, AVCHD’s softer feel looks better in realtime. That said, with a maximum data rate of 14Mbps, not to mention low pixel count CCDs, it feels like manufacturers such as Sony and Panasonic have been making AVCHD fight with one hand tied behind its back.
While I’m confident that at the same data rate, AVCHD will preserve more quality than the MPEG-2 based HDV, I’m not convinced that at 14Mbps, AVCHD produces the same quality as HDV at 25Mbps. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait much longer to test this theory; most vendors, including Panasonic, have AVCHD camcorders with much greater pixel counts and up to 24Mbps data rates on the way.
For today, how does the AG-HMC70 stack up against Sony’s HVR-HD1000U? From a quality perspective, they’re about the same—a slight edge in detail to the Sony, courtesy of its higher pixel count CMOS imager, with the Panasonic’s three CCDs delivering slightly better color quality.
With two XLR connectors, the HMC70 has much better audio connectivity, while the HD1000 has slightly better usability, with the single configurable ring making the unit more usable under changing exposure conditions. On the other hand, in a fast-paced, run-and-gun shooting environment, the HMC70’s flash memory-based AVCHD workflow is vastly superior to the HD1000’s tape-based HDV workflow—unless you’re an Adobe producer, of course, in which case there is no real workflow for AVCHD. At least for now.
