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HDX-200 lens good or just functional.
About the HDX-200 Lens
Originally posted by Joonas Kiviharju :
<<<<< <<<<>>>>>>>>>> I want to believe Panasonic will do this one right, but….. Canon the all mighty lens company couldn’t even get it right. You would think that a company that is famous in the universe for lenses could put a good lens on the XL1 and XL2 as standard.
Canon did do it right once. The L1 & L2 had real lenses and markings on them. It actually stopped too! No free spinning hell! As well, it was a standard kit, not an option. This was a great little camera. I would love an HD version.
Here is a L2/L1 pic: [ https://www.findchicago.com/upload/goods/1034191095_37.jpg ]
I remember telling one of the top people at canon that “”you guys got it right in 1991 on the L1/L2, how did this happen to the XL1″” “”He said that people don’t want lenses that have manual settings, and this was better””.
I couldn’t respond to Mr. Canon with such great logic, but only could give that look of ” what the f%^$”.
I can only hope Panasonic makes up for not offering a lens mount like JVC’s hd camera and I’m sure Canons XL mount on their future HD cam 10 years from now.
It seems logical if you going to make a lens not removable, then you make it the best it can be and match the operation aspects of a manual lens.
If Panasonic is aiming this at professionals and not rich drilling dentists, then there is no accuse for not putting a good lens with true controls on it.
If Panasonic and others don’t. Then how can they claim they know what professionals want and need on there cameras and then not deliver. That’s an odd one!
Panasonic on the DVX-100 put a zoom lens that was not of the free spinning nightmare. But this was just half way. What people wanted was a manual focus like the zoom has. To date, DVX-100 is my favorite of the little DV cams that I owned.
Panasonic has been told for years on every board to do put a real manual control lens on these cameras and not the free spinning nightmare. Not just Panasonic, but Sony and Canon have had this request. Except for Canons optional manual lens, the shipping basic kits of these cameras never had real lenses or offered anything truly on target.
None of them have taken that to heart, just keep putting on this free spinning hell that these lenses are.
Why? Who knows… Years ago camcorders used to have more manual control on lenses in the consumer market. Yes, more manual then they do today. Backwards isn’t it. The L1-L2- A1- VX3-V9 just to name a few had markings etc and this was around 15+ years ago.
Has something changed? More pro’s use these small cameras then they did 15 years ago. These were made for consumers with no pro intent. Today all these companies know pro’s use their mini-cams, but now they yanked off what was given as standard 15+ plus years ago.
So as much as I would like Panasonic to do it. All I can do is go on past actions, and so far lens control is always given the shortest stick by all the companies mentioned. With the exception of the Canon’s optional manual lens.
So what will Panasonic do with the HDX-200?
Michael Pappas
https://www.Pbase.com/ARRFILMS -
17 Replies
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Can you pick a forum please? Cross posting the same exact message across multiple boards is not good netiquette.
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Hmmmm, not trying to be rude Noah, but, says who? Although it’s ignorant (and sometimes rude) to post to the wrong forum, like here on the cow with the current Panasonic P2 stuff getting posted in the HDV forum, not everyone that may have an answer to (or an interest in) a question is on multiple boards (for example, I haven’t seen the question on the other lists I frequent). I just searched by author, selecting *all* forums, and it seems that the only place his question was asked *anywhere* on the Cow was in this forum. Maybe we should have a “Objection!” “Sustained, please rephrase the question counsel” approach. 🙂
And now, back to the proceedings.
Ed[Noah Kadner] “Can you pick a forum please? Cross posting the same exact message across multiple boards is not good netiquette.”
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Withdrawn. 🙂
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Good one 🙂 Everyone rags on lawyers, but without them (and their language), we’d have much less entertainment.
Ed[Noah Kadner] “Withdrawn. :)”
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OK, back to the topic…
If Panasonic made this product “too good”, they would be cannibalizing their own Vericam and 900SDX. They have to leave out options that will direct professionals, who know enough about the medium, to their higher end units or there would be no reason to purchase them. EXPECT this camera to have a lens that is very sub-par to discriminating “cinematographers”. Think about it… it’s pretty shocking that in a few months (maybe) you will be able to purchase a camcorder that records at 100mbs for under 10gs… that’s incredible, you can’t even get a stand alone 100mbs VTR for twice that! If you added up all the features on this camera ‘on paper’, you’d come up with a product that should sell for 90K, keeping in mind that a real HD lens costs 30K +. As someone who’s been involved with digital cinema since its roots, my opinion of this camera is that it is an attempt to get low budget filmmakers to embrace P2 storage.
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What Noah’s referring to is that the exact same post was put on DVXUser, on CreativeCow, on DVInfo, and maybe on other forums as well.
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“If Panasonic made this product “too good”, they would be cannibalizing their own Vericam and 900SDX”
IMO this is not the way to look at it .. 3 months ago you would have said that they would NEVER offer DVCpro100 on a camera under 10k because it would cannibaliz V27 & 900sdx!!… panasonic will offer the most/best materials they can for the price $$.. they will put a lens on it that fits the PRICE not one based on if it interfers with other camera’s …
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As you’re right that adding tape would cost about $10,000 to the price of this camera, it’s pretty safe to compare the costs and quality, we’re guessing here, to that of a <$20,000 camera rather than a <$10,000 camera. Also, as it's more mass produced than the Varicam or SDX900, they should be able to put great glass in the lens, and cut the costs with it not being removable etc. Infact, as Panasonic are going on a quality crusade over the HDV masses, it would be pretty daft of them to put a poor lens on the front, even if it isn't removable. Graeme - http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects for FCP
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Jan implied that the HDX-200 will be able to pick up the slack on a Varicam shoot i.e crash camera, crane, and anywhere else you might not want to risk trashing a couple of Varicams. I don’t expect the quality to be that much less than the V/cam and with a little care and post magic who knows… And the number of unit sales projected (compared to the expensive models) might have a pleasant effect on lens performance. It’s one thing mandating a fixed lens but another altogether an inferior one. Why leave an obvious door open for the competition? OK I’m an optimist.
Cheers. -
Pappas is right. I owned the Cannon A1-Digital Hi 8. It was like the L1, but without the removable lens. It was THE easiest, most comfortable, most steady (for hand-held), most organic and ergonomic video camera I have ever held. I could shoot in the most intuitive ways. It felt like a 35mm SLR. Nothing has come even close in user friendliness.
-Christopher
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