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Producer/Director and Digital Media Net contributing editor Peter May has, this past week, had to make one of those choices we?re facing all too often nowadays. He looked down one afternoon to see his ?old? Sony HVR-Z1 and a brand, spankin? new Panasonic AG HVX200, side by side on his bench, competing for attention. These two cameras represent two well-reviewed, new-tech-driven, high-definition alternatives, offered by respected HD players, sharing similar price points and form factors. Yet these are two very different cameras that will appeal to very different HD users. Here?s Pete?s decision and how he got there.
Don?t blame me, blame my buddy Jim.
He said, ?I need a second Sony Z1, you love new technology, sell me your Z1, buy the latest and greatest.? Just about then my editor drops by with a new Panasonic AG-HVX 200P for me to review and I?ll admit, right away I was all ?Z1 who??
Now, this article isn?t meant to be a head-to-head comparison between the Panasonic apple and the Sony orange. I mean, how dare me!? HD vs. HDV? P2 vs. tape? True 24P vs. Cineframe? Still, the fact is, HVX200 vs. HVR-Z1 is the decision presented me and, given that both these cameras hang out at the intersection of Pricepoint and Innovation, I?m betting I?m not the only who?s stood on this corner.
My background is in Design Engineering so this kind of stuff has weight with me. Last week the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and Business Week Magazine gave out their annual IDEA awards, and guess who showed in the category of Business and Industry? Yep, Panasonic?s AG-HVX200P ? and it deserved it. This is one slick little groundbreaker. It?s not that much of the technology is brand new; it isn?t. But this is the first time most of it has appeared in a camera capable of high definition and selling for less than $6K.
There?s just so much for a videographer to love about this camera ? starting with record modes. The three-CCD camera is built around a 960x540 progressive imager using a common spatial offset technique in a more uncommon two-axis strategy that yields a progressive 1920x1080 effective pixel resolution, from which, through digital signal processing, all other resolutions and frame rates are created. Through wise imager and circuitry choices, Panasonic Design has managed to achieve an excellent balance between resolution and light sensitivity.
Press releases tout 21 record modes, though I can?t figure out where they got that number. Depending on how I count I get somewhere between 19 and 32, but the point is ? from DV to DVCPRO HD, 1080i to 720p to 480i, at 60, 30, 25 or 24 fps, there isn?t much this camera can?t accomplish. It seems to do everything but the highly-compressed 25Mbps HDV I?ve come to respect in my Sony HVR-Z1. The Panasonic?s 100 Mbps DVCPRO HD intra-frame compression codec is less taxing for NLEs and intra-frame recording eliminates GOP-induced motion artifacts. The HVX200 inherited the lauded Panasonic Varicam capabilities from its HD predecessors. So, for instance, in the 720p native mode, there are 11 frame rate steps between 12 and 60 fps and again, thanks to intra-frame compression, overcranked or undercranked footage is available for instant replay and shot confidence. Other than SD DVCPRO 25, all record modes offer full, key-friendly 4:2:2 color sampling.
Once I had the camera in my hands I have to admit that my first impression was that it felt a bit clunky. The external controls are simple and the buttons are big but, I soon realized, well placed and intuitive. For example, the focus controls are on the lens barrel, right near the focus ring. The focus assist, a momentary 2X expansion of the viewfinder and display images specifically for focusing, is right there, too. The Z1 has a similar function, but for my taste, the button is poorly placed. The white balance button on the HVX200 is in front, just where my muscle memory wants it. The more I played with the camera, the more I felt ?clunky? morph to ?commodious.? I like the iris control of the HVX200 much better than the Z1. The wide adjustment wheel, in perfect thumb position, rolls freely and easily. My chief single complaint about the controls of my Z1 is the tight iris knob. Entirely too much torsion is needed in order to make what you would hope would be fine, imperceptible changes in exposure. The P2 iris wheel worked well, allowing me to easily compensate for clouds and moving shadows.
Any fellow news photographers who?ve stood in the cold, outside a sad, grey holding facility waiting for a perp walk can attest to joy of the Pre-Record function. When the camera is in Pre-Record mode, the three seconds of HD or seven seconds of SD is recorded just prior to punching the button. That could mean fewer heart attacks (and double punches) in the press corp.
In most full speed recording modes, there are four tracks of 48kHz audio available. A feature that, as an editor, I just love to see in cameras is the automatic patching. If you assign channels 1 and 2 to the front XLR inputs, the built-in camera mic is automatically patched over to channels 3 and 4. If you?ve ever jumped from shooting an interview to catching some quick b-roll and forgotten to switch the audio inputs, you?ll appreciate that feature.
I?m a Zebra guy. I?m always checking it. The empirical exposure information it offers gives me confidence and takes some pressure off my display and viewfinder setup. I think zebra is especially important when relying on my fold-out LCD display in daylight conditions when I?ve probably got the brightness cranked way up and the ?backlight? on. Yes, I?m a zebra guy, so I love that this camera has two adjustable levels of zebra. Press the zebra button a third time and the camera displays the Marker ? basically a digital spot meter. Place the area in question within the screen brackets and a percent image level is displayed. It?s a tasty little tool that goes great with zebra!
Scene Files help you squeeze every last drop of image juice out of this camera. It ships with six presets ? including a setting for shooting under fluorescents, a black stretch for drawing detail out of the shadows and a couple of ?Cine? settings. You can use the presets or make up your own. You can mess with gammas, downstream color temp, knee points and a dozen other parameters. Once you?re satisfied with a look, you can record it as a scene file and dial it in as desired and move it from camera to camera using the SD (Secure Digital) memory card. I like that the scene files are on a thumbwheel for easy and instant comparison, without stepping through a menu like on my Z1.
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