Panasonic AG-HVX201

[Neilmac48]

I'm going to be retiring in the near future and will be doing some travelling mainly through Europe.My filming experience dates back to 1984,how things have changed since then! I am favouring the above camcorder but like to research on my intended buy.Does anyone know of any reviews of this camera or have any opinions on it? Thanks in advance for your replies,Neilmac.

[Phil Hinton]

Neil,
We have just chosen this as our new camera for our video podcasts. I am well impressed with the testing I have done so far, image quality is stunningly good.
There are some experienced users on the forums, ROne has said he uses it on a regular basis for production work.
There is also a large online community at DVXuser.com where you can see some of the work others have done as well as discuss the plus points. (American name for the camera is HVX200a).

I haven't seen any reviews for the 201 yet, but as it is an update 200 you should be able to find some review out there that will give you a good idea of what it is capable of.

Hope that helps, sorry I cannot give you more details, but I have only had ours two days so far. It is a heavy beast so hand held use will take it out of your arms.

[Neilmac48]

Thanks for the quick reply Phil and the link to DVXuser.com,I'll pop over and have a look.I'm a bit disappointed to hear you say its a heavy beast,did want to have some portability and be able to use it 'on the spur' whilst on my travels.Neilmac.

[senu]

It is a very fine piece of equipment but portability is not a feature. It really is more of a ..Broadcast /Pro Kit

Also It uses quite expensive cards (P2 )to record to (ideally), and requires fairly decent PC hardware.. and Software, particularly if you use it for more than DV or HDV
DVCpro HD will require separate software IIRC
I have no doubt it is capable of superlative results but you may need to do some soul searching to see if that state of the art quality will not come at the expense of more costly ancillary kit, (PC ,software, the P2 cards) and steep learning curve as well as portability
The P2 cards are not cheap and will record 32 mins but you can use nornal miniDV tapes ( with thier "disadvantage of real time transfer , the fact that they are mechanical , ect)
It really is more of a SemiPro/Pro superlative kit which is ( in Pro terms) cheap and capable
For one for your travels and spontaneous use it may not be "the one"

I am of course open to correction as my scanty knowledge about it is based on Panasonics marketing Seminars/Video Shows as well as casual chats with users

[chrishull3]

i have to agree with senu ,having a fx-7 which is smaller and lighter than the machine you are interested in i do find it tiresome at times on location with the fx-7.even with a cam the size of mine a monopod at least is needed for good foootage.so i would have a good think as there are many smaller portable cams now that take footage that is amazingly good.

[Phil Hinton]

Neil,

Most of what senu says is correct (although it does not feature HDV format). The results are very special in picture terms, it really is aimed at the broadcast market. With that comes expense in the form of media cards, a 32GB P2 will cost about £1,700 including the VAT. A tripod is also a must and a good quality one at that, so no change out of about £250 or more.

As far as software, you just download the free drivers from the Panasonic broadcast site and you can hook up the HXV via USB to dump the MXF files to your hard drive. Your NLE however might not support the native files straight away (Vegas and Premiere are the two most popular not supported). However a plugin like Raylight will allow seemless use of your files with those two NLE packages. I have been cutting HVX footage easily on Vegas the last few days.

It is a complex camera to get to grips with, I have infact ordered some tutorial stuff to help me get to grips quickly.

As for portability, well you can't just stick it in your pocket, you would need a good quality bag that will set you back a few hundred quid as well.

To be honest, unless your creative juices are flowing and you want the best possible footage available, there are other, smaller camcorders available, that will give you about 50-60% of what the HVX can do and maybe 60% of the final look if you know what your doing.

Before using the HVX I used (and still do for occasional things) the Canon HV20 HDV camcorder. The only real draw backs are the fact you have to capture from the tape into your NLE and the lens quality (like all cameras in the 400-1000 price bracket have issues with). But you can shoot some very nice looking footage in HD and I actually used it to shoot my brothers wedding and it looked better than it should have. Plus it is really portable just see the photo below with the HVX.

[Neilmac48]

Thanks for your reply senu,I liked the idea of recording onto a card format for strength and reliability,being a bit of a computer geek my system would be upto editing.However your comment about lack of portability does hit home as reiterated by Phil.Does anyone have recommendations for a system more suited to my needs i.e. portability and quality?Fortunately cost is not an overiding concern.Neilmac.

[senu]

Thanks Phil,
I thought it featured HDV . Even so, its DV performance is tops


Niel, recording onto Non tape is getting to be "normal" even with the Broadcast type camcorders.
There is no "standard " though, just a lot of proprietary stuff but nothing likely to be abandoned in a hurry like betamax or HD DVD
Your needs may be a little more mainstream. Unfortunately there is a hugh chasm between very capable consumer kit and the more pocket Prosumer/ Semi pro kit >most of the latter are niether especially small nor light
The high end consumer models ten to be HDD rather than Solid state models and they are as good as but arguably not way better than tape models
The Sony EX1 does but it is not pocketable ( though far smaller and lighter than the Panasonic) and records a higher bitrate mpeg2 which Sony Vegas supports
Panasonic has been in the forefront of SD card recording ( and in fact the P2 cards are simplistically: 4X SD cards with a PCMCIA interface, which makes them costly for what they are but you are buying into a state of the art system I suppose..

[chrishull3]

Originally Posted by Neilmac48

Thanks for your reply senu,I liked the idea of recording onto a card format for strength and reliability,being a bit of a computer geek my system would be upto editing.However your comment about lack of portability does hit home as reiterated by Phil.Does anyone have recommendations for a system more suited to my needs i.e. portability and quality?Fortunately cost is not an overiding concern.Neilmac.

sorry if i am not needed here neil,but what size cam is best for carrying aroud on your travels,there is nothing between the sony a1 and the sony v1 and the canon a1 is a little larger again.in consumer cams there are very many from ones that will fit in your shirt pocket up to the canon hv30 and sony hc9 and sr12 if you go to google you can get all the info on any cam.

[senu]

Originally Posted by chrishull3

sorry if i am not needed here neil,but what size cam is best for carrying aroud on your travels,there is nothing between the sony a1 and the sony v1 and the canon a1 is a little larger again.in consumer cams there are very many from ones that will fit in your shirt pocket up to the canon hv30 and sony hc9 and sr12 if you go to google you can get all the info on any cam.

Chris..
What do you mean not needed??

The only thing about the Sony A1 ( which is very portable ) is that it really is getting long in the tooth and Sony ( or any other brand for that matter) have never made model to replace it that has a similar form factor size and portability..
That is one of the reasons it was so popular with the Pro crew on location despite being a Baby ( in quality terms) in the midst of far more capable kit

[Neilmac48]

When I talk about portability I don't mean one of these cameras that virtually fit in the palm of your hand.In fact I imagine that these are much harder to hold steadily.As a comparison when I use my old Canon F1 SLR which is metal bodied I find it much easier to hold still than these modern polycarbonate things they produce now.I want a system where quality,ruggedness and specs rate above a quick 'point and shoot'.It seems I need something smaller than the HVX201 but larger than the mass produced products.By the way,thank you for all your replies,I thought I'd get no answers which usually happens to me on various forums.Neilmac.

[chrishull3]

Originally Posted by senu

Chris..
What do you mean not needed??

The only thing about the Sony A1 ( which is very portable ) is that it really is getting long in the tooth and Sony ( or any other brand for that matter) have never made model to replace it that has a similar form factor size and portability..
That is one of the reasons it was so popular with the Pro crew on location despite being a Baby ( in quality terms) in the midst of far more capable kit

i was joking yes the a1 is long in the tooth i have a hc1 as well but they are very solid well made machines.as i said there is nothing now between the canon hv30 sony hc9 sized cams to the sony v1,you also have to decide whether you want a tape or non tape camcorder.i am getting a sony sr12 hopefully that will record over 15 hrs to the dive and almost an hour to memory stick pro,anyway best of luck

[Neilmac48]

Chris you mention the Sony V1,is this an old camera or reasonably new one? Is it smaller than the HVX201 but larger than the 'pocket rockets'? Sorry for so many questions,I'm trying to not get too confused with all these models mentioned!Neilmac.

[chrishull3]

Originally Posted by Neilmac48

Chris you mention the Sony V1,is this an old camera or reasonably new one? Is it smaller than the HVX201 but larger than the 'pocket rockets'? Sorry for so many questions,I'm trying to not get too confused with all these models mentioned!Neilmac.

its the same size as my fx-7 which is 1.4 kg without battery.it came out the same time as the fx-7 which is discontinued.the v1 is the pro version.
http://www.dvuser.co.uk/content.php?CID=141

the fx-7 here but i expect this link is out of date http://bentonvillemall.co.uk/acatalog/Sony_FX7E.html

[Neilmac48]

Thanks for that link Chris,looking at the photos this camera seems more portable and gets a good review however I note the age of it.Does this mean it is no longer available or is there an update for it?.Neilmac.