White Paper 034 Addendum 26: Panasonic AG-HPX500

Alan Roberts

Abstract

Data for this section is taken from a short examination of a productionmodel of the Panasonic HPX500E camcorder. This is a HDTV camcorder,physically similar to the standard Digibeta, with three 2/3"" CCD's. Themanual gives no clue as to the sensor resolutions but tests indicatethat they are probably 960x540 with precision offset both horizontallyand vertically. It records HDTV using the DVCProHD algorithm onto P2flash cards (1080i, 1080psf, 720p), SDTV using any of the DVCPro50 orDVCPro or DV algorithms also onto P2 cards (480i, 480psf, 480psfa* or576i, 576psf, 576psfa). It can also shoot ""off-speed"" when recording720p, but only at spot speeds, it is not continuously variable as isthe Varicam AJ-HDC27F. Effectively, it is a ""big brother"" to theHVX200.

The camera is relatively light and consumes only 22 watts. It has astandard B4 lens mount and separate viewfinder, with side LCD panel,and seems aimed at the low-end broadcast/professional market ratherthan consumer or full broadcast.

It has the usual internal menus for setting the performance, not ascomplex as in the 720-line Varicam or the 1080-line HDX or HPX cameras,but enough to control most of the important features. It is not suitedto multi-camera operation. It has analogue-only video outputs via amulti-pin connector, and digital-only via BNC connectors at both HD andSD, and digits via IEEE1394 Firewire. This puts the camera firmly inthe professional/broadcast market.

The same assessment procedure was used as for other HD cameras, partlyattempting to get a good ""film-look"", and the settings reflect that. Itis useful to think of the camera, when used in this way, to bemimicking a film camera and telecine, with ""best light"" transfer totape, with about 10 stops of tonal range. Assuming that a gradingoperation will be used in post-production, the settings attempt to givethe colourist the same range of options as with film. The recommendedsettings allow about 1.3 stops of over-exposure and one ofunder-exposure relative to normal operation.

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