My review of the HPX-500

[Simon Wyndham]

I've put it up on my website;
http://www.simonwyndham.co.uk/panasonic-hpx-500-review.html

I only had the camera for a couple of days, so I didn't get to do anything in depth.

[TimurCivan]

thank you, great assesment.

[SPZ]

Symon, excelent review, however, I have one question to ask you.

Since you're also an XDCam operator, I would really like your opinion on how does the HPX compares to the f330, for example. Picture wyse, of course- comparable parameters, like in 1080 50i (for us pal users). Is the sharpness difference very big between the 2? I myself don't care about native resolution, just overall perception. (what your eyes tell you :) )

[Simon Wyndham]

I couldn't really say how the 500 and 330 compare as I didn't have both cameras available at the same time.

The 500 is much better in low light, and the gain can be put up further before noise becomes an issue.

The 500's colour is really nice, but it lacks a colour matrix so it can't be dialled in like the 330 can. But in general both cameras have their plus and minuses. There is no clear winner between them.

[SPZ]

Thanks, Symon. Much appreciated. My main concern was in the sharpness department.

If you say noise is better on the HPX, this is a really big help. I like natural lighting, and the less use of artificial lights the better. Just shot a short film with the HVX and it was all shot in 25 shutter and mostly natural lighting. Imagery looks fairly good, but would love to have had at least 2 or 3 additional stops gain without having to up the gain...

[Uli Mors]

Thanks, Symon, for this review.

As you know I am torn between the purchase of a f330 and a HPX500.

This review gave me a good impression about lowlight (my main work is exclusive weddings etc.) - though I ike the XDCAM disk workflow better.

Well, it looks like the HPX fits better to me - so I´ll have to become a friend of P2...

Thanks again.

ULI

[Noel Evans]

Great review Simon and Id say utterly fair across the board. The great thing is, any previous HVX owner and (but to a slightly lesser extent) a previous DVX owner can be up and running with this cam in next to no time at all (reasonably speaking of course) and that's where I think this will make the HPX a winner. An HPX with four 4gb cards - NO WAY! But now we are at 16 and 32 in the not too distant future, I think the HPX has a healthy life ahead of it. I always compare it to what Canon did with prosumer - saw a gap and nailed it with the A1.