White Paper 034 Addendum 18 (rev 1): Assessment of, and settings for, Panasonic HVX200

Alan Roberts

Abstract

Data for this section is taken from short examinations of two production models of the Panasonic HVX200 camcorder. This is a HDTV camcorder, physically very similar to the standard-definition DVX100, with 3 ⅓” ccds, the manual gives no clue as to the sensor resolutions. The two models under test ran only at 60 Hz (actually 59.94) or 50Hz. It records HDTV using the DVCProHD algorithm onto P2 flash cards (1080i, 1080psf, 720p), SDTV using any of the DVCPro50 or DVCPro or DV algorithms onto P2 cards (480i, 480psf, 480psfa* or 576i, 576psf, 576psfa), and SDTV onto miniDV. It can also shoot “off-speed” when recording 720p onto P2 cards, but only at spot speeds, it is not continuously variable as is the Varicam AJHDC27F.

The camera is relatively light and has an integral lens and viewfinder, with side lcd panel, and seems aimed at the high-end consumer/professional market rather than full broadcast, which would normally demand interchangeable lenses. It is the first tapeless camcorder for HDTV.

It has a photographic speed of about 640ASA. It has the usual internal menus for setting the performance, not as complex as in the 720-line Varicam or the 1080-line HDX400, but enough to control most of the important features. It is not suited to multi-camera operation. It has analogue-only video outputs (components at both HD and SD via a multi-pin connector) and digits via IEEE1394 Firewire and USB. This alone puts the camera in the consumer/semi-pro market, rather than broadcast, which would normally expect either HDSDI or BNC connectors for analogue.

The same assessment procedure was used as for other HD cameras, partly attempting to get a good “filmlook”, and the settings reflect that. It is useful to think of the camera, when used in this way, to be mimicking a film camera and telecine, with “best light” transfer to tape, with about 10 stops of tonal range. Assuming that a grading operation will be used in post-production, the settings attempt to give the colourist the same range of options as with film. The recommended settings allow about 1.3 stops of over-exposure and one of under-exposure relative to normal operation. This is not as good as can be achieved in 2”/3 cameras, and arises from the difference in pixel size (the pixels here are much smaller, so sensitivity is maintained at the expense of highlight handling and video noise).

This revision corrects some minor typographical errors, none of which have any effect on picture or sound quality.

Download White Paper 034 Addendum 18 (rev 1) : Assessment of, and settings for, Panasonic HVX200

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