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Wow. All I can say is wow.
I just got to demo a HVX200. Holy freaking crap. I am so impressed by this little camera. It has so many options to it that I’m still trying to figure it out. Didn’t have time to read the manual, since it was a quick loaner, so some of these have been answered and I’m an idiot for not having read the manual.
Down sides first (the glass is always half empty in my world):
– You can either shoot P2 or tape, not simultaneous, not to mention that onto tape you can only shoot DV25mps. I wish there was a way to shoot DVCPRO50, but there’s not.
– Cost of P2 cards (if you can get them right now). I had 2 8GB cards and I could get 17 minutes of 720P footage onto them. Not a very cost effective medium, but then, you’ve only spent $5700 on the camera… splurge and get a couple of extra 8GB cards! Oh, yeah… you can’t right now.
– Maybe because I’m a moron, but I couldn’t figure out how to import right into FCP until I realized that you need to have FCP 5.0.2. Ooops. Go to the newer suite, and I still couldn’t get the footage off the P2 cards into FCP without loading the footage as real-time Firewire load. I’m sure there’s a way to do it, but I couldn’t figure it out and my Panasonic rep needs the camera back at 8AM. I was able to import in native 720P real time, looked truly incredible. Again, let me say that I’m probably a moron and it should work just fine, but I spent a good 2 hours with it!!!
– You can down convert the HD footage via a component cable to whatever component deck you choose, but you can’t take HD footage and dub it straight over to the on-board DV deck. Hmmm. That seems kind of foolish. If it’s being downconverted anyways, why not the option of sending right onboard?
– I know, wah wah wah, but it’s a LOT heavier than a DVX100 or DVX100A. That’s the first thing I noticed… My Panasonic rep said, “That’s the same first thing my first person said to me!” I found it a little difficult to do anything hand-held with it, but that might be entirely due to me simply not being used to the weight. My 100 is considerably lighter, and that’s one of the things that I really like about it. It’s certainly a lot lighter than my BetaCam, but even still, I was surprised by the mass inside that little guy.
– LCD display doesn’t seem like it’s improved over the 100. Footage in the LCD looks a little on the muddy side. I know, bring a monitor with you… The detail level enhancement as a button is nice though.
– White balance button took some getting used to. In the 100, while in preset, you can toggle back and forth between 32K and 56K. Don’t know if I was doing something wrong (very possible, but it happened repeatedly) but I was never able to toggle between the two. Slowed things down a little when I had to get a fresh WB, even though I knew what my color temp was.
– Lost frames during the load of the footage when it went in between P2 cards pretty regularly. Might be the edit suite, but it was too consistent to be a coincidence.
– The eject on the deck is a little tweaked. After you hit the eject button and the door opens, you have to open it further manually to get the transport to eject the tape. It just seemed easier in the 100 and 100A.
– Don’t like having to power down when I want to go between the tape mode and P2 mode. That’s just me.Up side (okay, maybe it’s half full!!):
– This might sound like a stupid starting point, but I love the fact that Panasonic reinforced the tripod mount. Overtightening on the 100 or 100a’s really did some serious damge to the housing. I’m not going o say that you ‘can’t’ overtighten this one, but it’s chromed steel this time. Very wise.
– The images are incredible, even under low light. I just did some run-and-gun today, hoping to use available light and the 200 performed better than I thought. I also shot with production lights, and I got (sniff…) beautiful images.
– Okay, so I complained about the weight. I kinda like the weight, now that I think about it. Felt like more of a substancial camera, rather than a toy.
– The component video out is HUGE!!!!!! One of the best ideas for this camera. I would always complain about that with the 100 and 100A.
– Easy to use right out of the box. If you have any kind of shooting experience, most things are self explanatory. Ooooh, except for when you’re using it in Firewire mode, how you have to hold down the mode button for 2 seconds to put it into the PC mode. Whodathunk.
– Hard buttons. I like being able to NOT have to go through menu after menu to get to something simple like zebras, turning the display on and off.
– Battery life pretty good. Now, I DID have the 5400mAh, but it ran forever and I used the LCD with it.
– Audio was very sound (ha! get it?!?!?). On-cam mic is still marginal, but it’s still better than nothing. It was solid and easily adjustable. I like the better speaker that’s in the camera’s housing. Monitoring it seemed a little easier than the 100, since it actually had some volume to the headset!!!
– FOCUS ASSIST!!!!! This thing rocks. It looks like it does a digital zoom and enlarges the portion of the center of the screen to help with fine-tuning focus. Very nice feature. Only thing though… it didn’t seem to work unless shooting in either 1080i or 720P, any frame rate. You can’t use it if you’re shooting to tape. Hmm. That’s odd.
– Servo zoom seems to be more solid. The 100 and 100A’s servo was less than spectacular, and it seemed that they did some work on it. Or not.
– Thumbnails. Great idea. I got to demo the full size P2 a while back and it’s a feature that I think is awesome.Well, this is just my opinion. Respond and tell me what a putz that you think I am and how I should quit my whining about the weight.
I really like the camera and am in the process of making sure that I get to keep the next one that comes my way. I’m waiting until this little camera is doing 60 fps, all the way down to 4 fps.
Does anyone know where to get some 8GB cards on the black market?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Scott Davis
sc*********@*****le.com -
12 Replies
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Excellent report — I can clarify a few things for you that may make you even happier.
[scott davis] “I had 2 8GB cards and I could get 17 minutes of 720P footage onto them.”
That of course depends on your frame rate. Had you been shooting 720/24pN, you would have gotten over 40 minutes on them.
[scott davis] “Go to the newer suite, and I still couldn’t get the footage off the P2 cards into FCP without loading the footage as real-time Firewire load.”
You can do it directly; you have to use the “Import Panasonic P2” command. Attach the camera via firewire and set it up as a 1394 Device in the menus; that way the camera will act as a card reader and will show up on the Mac desktop as an external hard disk. Then just import the files. It’ll take a few of minutes for FCP to unwrap the MXF files and re-wrap them as Quicktime MOV files, but then you’ve got ’em ready to go.
[scott davis] “but you can’t take HD footage and dub it straight over to the on-board DV deck.”
Yes you can. You have to have the switch in TAPE mode, and then go into PC/DUB mode. It’ll let you convert any high-def files straight over to the DV tape, even preserving the slow-motion or fast-motion effects of the variable frame rates, and you can select 2:3 or 2:3:3:2 pulldown if converting 24p footage.
[scott davis] “I was surprised by the mass inside that little guy.”
Definitely bigger and beefier than the DVX. It’s about the same size & weight as a Sony Z1.
[scott davis] “In the 100, while in preset, you can toggle back and forth between 32K and 56K. Don’t know if I was doing something wrong (very possible, but it happened repeatedly) but I was never able to toggle between the two”
It works exactly like the DVX does in that regard. I don’t know why it didn’t work for you at the time (was the AUTO switch engaged? Or was the SW MODE menu messed up so that preset wasn’t really assigned to PRST?) Don’t know, but rest assured that it works exactly like you’d expect.
[scott davis] “The eject on the deck is a little tweaked. After you hit the eject button and the door opens, you have to open it further manually to get the transport to eject the tape. It just seemed easier in the 100 and 100A.”
It was easier on the 100 and 100A. The 100B and HVX use a different tape mechanism. On the plus side, it’s a lot more rugged and resists the handle-pulling-on-the-door thing a lot better; that would occasionally cause some tape issues on the 100’s, but doesn’t happen on the 100B or 200.
[scott davis] ” FOCUS ASSIST!!!!! This thing rocks. It looks like it does a digital zoom and enlarges the portion of the center of the screen to help with fine-tuning focus. Very nice feature. Only thing though… it didn’t seem to work unless shooting in either 1080i or 720P, any frame rate.”
The Focus Assist is indeed one of the best features — it lets you get sharp accurate focus without needing a monitor, and it works while recording too. It’s not actually a digital zoom though, it’s more like a direct pixel mapping onto the LCD so you’re seeing the image at either full res, or something close to it. And no, it doesn’t work in standard-def, which is too bad, I wish it did!
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Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available on ebay and at Amazon (https://www.fiftv.com/db) -
Wow is a great word. A powerfull adjective for only 3 letters and you used it twice!
Nice to hear something favorable on this camera. -
[scott davis] “- Lost frames during the load of the footage when it went in between P2 cards pretty regularly. Might be the edit suite, but it was too consistent to be a coincidence.”
This is why copying files is much nicer than feeding video stream over firewire.
If there’s an error in file copying, it gets done again, as opposite to if there’s a drop in video stream, the camera does not know that and does not rewind and play it back again.[scott davis] “- FOCUS ASSIST!!!!! This thing rocks. It looks like it does a digital zoom and enlarges the portion of the center of the screen to help with fine-tuning focus. Very nice feature. Only thing though… it didn’t seem to work unless shooting in either 1080i or 720P, any frame rate. You can’t use it if you’re shooting to tape. Hmm. That’s odd.”
Quite logical I think. There’s not so much resolution in the picture to zoom in with SD.
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[scott davis] “Go to the newer suite, and I still couldn’t get the footage off the P2 cards into FCP without loading the footage as real-time Firewire load.”
You can do it directly; you have to use the “Import Panasonic P2” command. Attach the camera via firewire and set it up as a 1394 Device in the menus; that way the camera will act as a card reader and will show up on the Mac desktop as an external hard disk. Then just import the files. It’ll take a few of minutes for FCP to unwrap the MXF files and re-wrap them as Quicktime MOV files, but then you’ve got ’em ready to go.
Okay, I tried that, but I got an error that said, “Incomplete or Corrupt File” and the P2 lights on the camera were flashing orange. It simply wouldn’t let me import. Trust me, I tried.
[scott davis] “In the 100, while in preset, you can toggle back and forth between 32K and 56K. Don’t know if I was doing something wrong (very possible, but it happened repeatedly) but I was never able to toggle between the two”
It works exactly like the DVX does in that regard. I don’t know why it didn’t work for you at the time (was the AUTO switch engaged? Or was the SW MODE menu messed up so that preset wasn’t really assigned to PRST?) Don’t know, but rest assured that it works exactly like you’d expect.
I was not in auto-anything. I think auto should not be an option on ANY camera beyond what you’d use at home. Went back in and checked to make sure that SW mode was normal. It was.
[scott davis] “but you can’t take HD footage and dub it straight over to the on-board DV deck.”
Yes you can. You have to have the switch in TAPE mode, and then go into PC/DUB mode. It’ll let you convert any high-def files straight over to the DV tape, even preserving the slow-motion or fast-motion effects of the variable frame rates, and you can select 2:3 or 2:3:3:2 pulldown if converting 24p footage.
Switch was in tape mode. I was in the same playback mode as record mode. It didn’t dub over. I used a workaround and did a component dub on DigiBeta. No big deal.
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[scott davis:
Okay, I tried that, but I got an error that said, “Incomplete or Corrupt File” and the P2 lights on the camera were flashing orange. It simply wouldn’t let me import. Trust me, I tried.
However you were not using FCP 5.04, and without that version it would give you that error message. With the proger version it works perfectly just like Barry described.
>I was not in auto-anything. I think auto should not be an option on ANY camera beyond what you’d use at home. Went back in and checked to make sure that SW mode was normal. It was.
It does work exactly like the DVX100 does, and everyone that I have worked with works this way.
Barry:Yes you can. You have to have the switch in TAPE mode, and then go into PC/DUB mode. It’ll let you convert any high-def files straight over to the DV tape, even preserving the slow-motion or fast-motion effects of the variable frame rates, and you can select 2:3 or 2:3:3:2 pulldown if converting 24p footage.
Scott:Switch was in tape mode. I was in the same playback mode as record mode. It didn’t dub over. I used a workaround and did a component dub on DigiBeta. No big deal.
You need to read the second part of Barry’s instruction which was for PC/Dub, which is how you would make it go, but transferring to DigiBeta was probably a better idea as you end up with 4:2:2 and not 4:1:1.
Hope that helps,
Jan
Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, AG-DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems -
[scott davis] “Maybe because I’m a moron, but I couldn’t figure out how to import right into FCP until I realized that you need to have FCP 5.0.2. Ooops. Go to the newer suite, and I still couldn’t get the footage off the P2 cards into FCP without loading the footage as real-time Firewire load. “
AH
you must be in version 10.4.2 and QT 7.03 or newer with FCP5.04.
it does not work with 10.3.9 ( says so in fine print of the the 5.04 upgrade)Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL USA -
[scott davis] ”
Okay, I tried that, but I got an error that said, “Incomplete or Corrupt File” and the P2 lights on the camera were flashing orange. It simply wouldn’t let me import. Trust me, I tried.”That meant the camera settings and the footage did not match, in this mode the camera needs to be set to the same setting as the footage being recorded is so that the camera knows how to move the “transport stream” . Extracting from the cards directly is different because there is not a camera to be sensed by FCP.
Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL USA -
I was in FCP 5.0.4.
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Hi Scott,
Very weird, as it has worked on every MAC I have tried with that upgrade.
Best,
Jan
Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, AG-DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems -
[Jan Crittenden Livingston] “Hi Scott,
Very weird, as it has worked on every MAC I have tried with that upgrade.
Best,
Jan”
I also received this error message BEFORE upgrading to 5.0.4. After that, as Jan has said, it worked without issue.
You might want to trash the FCP plist, repair permissions, make certain you have all the pro app updates.
Reset scratch disks, and try the import Panasonic P2 card command again
BTW, why is everybody using bold???
David S.
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