White Paper 034 Addendum 24: Menu settings for Panasonic DVCPro100 AJ-HPX2100

Alan Roberts

Abstract

A brief assessment was made on an engineering sample of the AJ-HPX2100 (serial number 3610365-0612-5, found in an unusual place), a multi-standard HDTV cam-corder with a Canon HA22x7 HD lens. It is very similar in form and function to the HDX900, sharing many features and having a very similar menu set. Production models may differ slightly from the pre-production model initially assessed for this addendum. No manual was available for these tests.

The camera is switchable between 1080-line and 720-line HDTV standards, and between the base-normal frame rates of 29.97 and 25Hz. It can also be switched, in 1080 mode, between interlace (50i, 59.94i) and progressive (25psf, 29.97psf, and 23.98psf in both 2:3 and 2:3:3:2 pull-down) modes. In 720P mode it can also be switched to half-frame rate, and thus can generate a “film look” in the camera at system speed. It has specific “film-look” gamma curves that incorporate many of the contrast handling features of earlier cameras, making it a great deal easier to set up. The camera has 3 2”/3 ccds (1280x720, progressively scanned) and records at 100Mb/s (DVCProHD intra-frame coding) onto P2 solid-state cards instead of the small-format conventional DVCPro tape used in the HDX900.

It is a little larger than the HDX900, being wider to accommodate the P2 cards instead of the tape mechanism, and has HDSDI output. It has many internal menus for setting the performance, such that it can then be used without external controls. It is not ideally suited to multi-camera operation (being a camcorder) but has enough features to make multi use possible. Monitoring and connectivity have been improved over previous Panasonic models; it will genlock to either analogue HD Y or analogue composite (PAL or NTSC as appropriate); there are two video outputs, one switchable between HDSDI, SDI (appropriate downconversion), and composite (PAL or NTSC), the other between HDSDI and HD analogue Y for monitoring; it has a IEEE1394 (Firewire) output that will feed and control an external recorder.

There is an 8-second video cache memory. Using this, it is possible to record up to 8 seconds of events that occurred before pressing “Record”. The same circuitry is also used to provide a “slow-shutter” in which adjacent frames are summed to produce smeared pictures and reduced noise (or extra gain).

Video compression is still DVCProHD, 6.7:1 for all the NTSC-related standards, 6.3:1 for all the PALrelated standards. The camera section has 14-bit adcs that deliver better noise performance than in earlier models. However, there are resolution issues that somewhat affect the usefulness of the camera in mixed format environments, it is not very good in SD, and is rather soft in HD.

In this setup, the gamma correction and knee are adjusted to capture about 2.5 stops of overload, and 1 stop of underexposure, to mimic film performance.

Download White Paper 034 Addendum 24: Menu settings for Panasonic DVCPro100 AJ-HPX2100

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