Panasonic Announces New HPX-170

HPX 170 - PHOTOS and Features

HPX 170 - PHOTOS and Features

Here is a look at some of the new features of the HPX. Right from the show floor at NAB. These are just a few of my observations of the features that stood out to me.


Jan gives a group of us the features rundown:


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The HPX170

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Side view.

1.) The audio gain dials are guarded on top by a small piece of plastic to avoid accidental level changes

2.)The WFM button overlays A wave form monitor. If you press it twice it overlays a vectorscope.

3.) It is out of focus in this pic but there is also a toggle switch that changes the focus ring on the cam to an iris ring. The ring is still free spinning with no hard stops, but can now be used for Iris or Focus.

4.) The LCD button toggles the brightness of the LCD through three brightness levels.


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Wider side view:

5.) The Menu interface is the toggle joystick just like the DVX 100B.


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6.) Also It gains one more ND filter stage ( now has 1/4 1/16 and 1/64)

7.) The Focus assist is now the same as the HPX 300

8.) You will also notice they moved the Servo manual zoom toggle from the front of the cam to the side

sidefront.JPG




Back View:

9.) They have moved the SD card to the top of the P2 Slots on the back

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10.) SDI out

11.) 6 Pin Firewire

12.) Newly designed component connector

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I did not get a look at the Menu tree because it was disabled on this pre production model.


In summery:

The chip set is THE SAME AS THE new 200a.
It can now select 20 frame rates in HD from 12fps to 60fps
It is expected to be available for orders in June/July and will probably ship in September

Pricing has not been set, but it is said to be in the same price range as the HVX 200A.
 
Bokes said:
I wish Panasonic added a Frame rate dial on the camera body.
Click to expand...
They basically did. :thumbsup:

Basically, it's not a dial, but it's the same functionality. You know how you change the shutter speed in the HVX200, by using the "+" and "-" buttons? Well, now you do the same thing with the frame rate. You can assign "frame +" and "frame -" to user buttons and then change the frame rate right from the body. It's not a round dial, but it's the same functionality.
 
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Cees Mutsaers said:
Summary changes in HPX170 compared to the HVX200 :

improved light sensitivity (0.5 stop)
increased S/N
less smear
HD/SD- SDI
20 in stead of 12 frame rates
flip frame
6-pins FW
last clip delete button
PAL/NTSC switchable
3 types of focus assist, wave form + vectorscope (can be switched off on demand)
framerate change out of menu structure
joystick type of control of play functions like in the DVX (and not 90 degrees rotated)
lens 72 mm (instead of 82 mm of the HVX)
no DV tape deck (which makes the cam lighter and smaller)
extra ND filter
anti-theft provision

correct me if I am wrong or missed something


When you sum it up like this it is a huge change !!!
Click to expand...
That's pretty much a good summation. You missed the best little unexpected update: it can now play back pretty much all clips regardless of what format they were shot in!

HVX200 owners will know what I'm talking about here; you know how you might shoot some 1080 clips, and some 720 clips, and then some 480 clips, and then you go to playback and only the 480 clips will play? And the 1080 and 720 clips are in red and won't play? And then you have to go back to camera mode, back into the menus, back into recording setup, and change the recording format in order to play one of those other formats, right?

Well, no more... now you can play back all those clips, without changing modes! If you want to play back a "red" clip, just push down the "set" button for a second or so, and the camera will switch into the proper mode automatically and you can now play all those clips.

And the waveform is SWEET. Those of you who know what the waveform is like on the 8", 9", 17", and 26" monitors, well, this ain't like that! Those waveforms are kind of low-res and blocky. This cam's waveform is high res and just slick as can be. It looks like the waveform in the P2 Gear. And, it also has a vectorscope that looks like the P2 Gear's vectorscope.

The menus weren't working so we couldn't dig around and find out what else may be new. If there's one other thing I would hope to find in there, it'd be the P2 Gear's capability to subclip and export portions of clips, and its ability to display clips using the User Clip Name. That would be pretty sweet.
 
Oh, regarding Focus Assist, there are basically four focus assist functions.

1) Peaking. (actually, I'm assuming here... I didn't try turning peaking on and off, but... it's gotta be there, right?)

2) Magnified focus. This is basically the same as on the HVX200, except it doesn't turn itself off! It doesn't "time out" anymore, it just stays on until you decide to turn it off. Nice.

3) Histogram. This is the same focus assist function as on the HPX500. It works very nicely, if a bit confusingly for someone who's not used to it. I always liked it on the 500, but I wish the 500 had both magnified focus assist and the histogram. It doesn't, but the HPX170 and HMC150 do -- you can have all the focus assists active simultaneously.

4) Horizontal bar. This is a really simple thing, and I'm not sure how great it is or not. Basically, you turn the focus ring until the bar gets as long as possible, and when it reaches that point, well, you're in focus. It seems like a simplistic version of the full histogram function.

So, while the LCD panel itself didn't seem to be improved any, the additional focus assists do certainly make it a lot easier to get razor-sharp focus.
 
Cees Mutsaers said:
I wonder if they also improved the battery mounting system (the first HVX200s suffered from breaking "plastic" tabs in the battery bay). Maybe they made them now from metal ?????
Click to expand...
Yes it's much improved. The battery now mounts vertically (like the DVX used to), which protects it against the increased leverage that the HVX200's horizontal mounting exposed it to.
 
timbook2 said:
nice move panasonic ! totally tapeless and more sensitive than the HVX200 at a lower price. I wonder how that AVCHD model will fare compared to this one.
Click to expand...
The 150 is basically the identical same hardware. Not all the same features (no HD-SDI, no variable frame rates) but most of the same features. Same imaging, same picture, same lens, same waveform and vectorscope, everything is basically the same. The major difference is the recording media and format (AVC-HD on SD cards, vs. DVCPRO-HD on P2 cards).

There may be other differences under the hood, but physically they look like they're the same.
 
Barry_Green said:
it can now play back pretty much all clips regardless of what format they were shot in!
Click to expand...

AWESOME news!!

And by the way, that's one more thing that was on our 'user requested options' list.
It's good to see Panasonic was really listening.
Can't help but feel that DVXUser had a small hand in this camera.
:thumbsup:
 
jason.adams said:
there is also a toggle switch that changes the focus ring on the cam to an iris ring. The ring is still free spinning with no hard stops, but can now be used for Iris or Focus.
Click to expand...

Nice!
That's yet another one that was on our list here.
This is just getting better and better.
:thumbsup:
 
Since the HVX is now including a P2 card, I wonder if this cam will have one in the box as well. That would be awesome!
 
Daygola814 said:
Since the HVX is now including a P2 card, I wonder if this cam will have one in the box as well. That would be awesome!
Click to expand...

Well, in my opinion it should, just because if you don't have a p2 card you can't use this camera(except be outputing thorugh the various outputs). But you could use the HVX with the tape.
 
Daygola814 said:
Since the HVX is now including a P2 card, I wonder if this cam will have one in the box as well. That would be awesome!
Click to expand...
That would indeed be excellent. Don't know, as we're probably five months away from shipping and they didn't even announce a firm price yet. But I would be surprised if it didn't.
 
Jan did mention in an interview that they're going to be bringing back the 8GB cards.
If that's the case I woudln't be surprised if one was included with the cam.

I can't see them throwing in a 16 or 32GB card in as standard though.
Then again - who knows.
 
Barry_Green said:
That would indeed be excellent. Don't know, as we're probably five months away from shipping and they didn't even announce a firm price yet. But I would be surprised if it didn't.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it would be a little odd if it didn't.

So Barry, will we see an HPX170 book? :thumbsup:
 
Luis Caffesse said:
Jan did mention in an interview that they're going to be bringing back the 8GB cards.
If that's the case I woudln't be surprised if one was included with the cam.

I can't see them throwing in a 16 or 32GB card in as standard though.
Then again - who knows.
Click to expand...

Tthe HVX200 now comes with a free 16GB card, right? I'd guess that they would do the same with this cam, but who knows. The release date is so far away, it's hard to tell at this point.
 
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