AG-DVX200 4K Large-Sensor Handheld Camcorder

The more I think about it, the more awesome this camera is. I mean, when we had the DVX and HVX series cameras, no one said "I want to be able to change lenses". Everyone said "I want to be able to get shallow DOF and be able to shoot in low light".

Thats basically what what this DVX200 does, gives shooters the standard video/film camera, with the benefits of a large sensor (shallow DOF, better low light). It's likely not going to be the best at DR, the best at resolution, and the best recording format. It's the jack of all trades camera that, though it's not master at every point, it's great enough to be the camera you can rely on, that will shine no matter the circumstance.

Will it be a camera so good that Ridley Scott will want to use it on his next film? No. But it's not meant to be. It's the camera for the everyday shooter to get filmic shots day-in and day-out without lugging a huge gear bag. You, the camera, the world. Nothing else needed. Boy, am I ready for that simplicity.
 
I was thinking of it for a micro-feature... now that I know which batteries it takes found 4 with the charger at B&H for less than 500... so that should be enough if the camera comes with 1 batt.... maybe like my DVX I'll get a second batt as a bonus...

I have a Ursa mini on order... but figuring out by the time I get all I need or enough stuff to make it work... it'll be 10k or a bit more...

the savings of going with this camera I could throw towards a known actor I've worked with before.... who'll help in selling the film...\

just wish it had a little wider lens... I like a 22 (35MM)...
 
TheReverend said:
The more I think about it, the more awesome this camera is. I mean, when we had the DVX and HVX series cameras, no one said "I want to be able to change lenses". Everyone said "I want to be able to get shallow DOF and be able to shoot in low light".

Thats basically what what this DVX200 does, gives shooters the standard video/film camera, with the benefits of a large sensor (shallow DOF, better low light). It's likely not going to be the best at DR, the best at resolution, and the best recording format. It's the jack of all trades camera that, though it's not master at every point, it's great enough to be the camera you can rely on, that will shine no matter the circumstance.

Will it be a camera so good that Ridley Scott will want to use it on his next film? No. But it's not meant to be. It's the camera for the everyday shooter to get filmic shots day-in and day-out without lugging a huge gear bag. You, the camera, the world. Nothing else needed. Boy, am I ready for that simplicity.
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Exactly. It's not going to out FS7 the FS7 or out C100 mkII the C100 mkII... and it's not trying to. It's for those of us who still want our relatively shallow DoF, but yearn for the simplicity of our 1/3" cams. I get to replace my HMC150 and AF100 in one fell swoop.
 
philiplipetz said:
Barry, does the touch focus work while shooting so we can do a focus pull by touching the new focus area while shooting? This would be fabulous for those of us who are not pro focus pullers.
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Yes it does.

If so can we control the speed of the focus shift?
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Possibly. There are menu items in here for controlling focus speed, autofocus frequency, wobble detection, all sorts of things that I've never seen in a Panasonic camcorder before, and the documentation isn't ready yet so I'm having to try to figure them out. As such, I can't say, but -- it seems like you could, possibly, do what you're asking for.

There is also a focus transition function, where you can program a start and end point and control the speed of the transition and have it do that all automatically. Wouldn't likely work out for uncontrolled environments, but could possibly work for focus shifts from one actor to another (assuming they hit their marks) or for product shots or something like that. Basically, the job that a film 1st AC would do, of marking one focus point and then the other, and transitioning between them at the proper time, can all be automated within the camera.

Also, I assume that the face detection will maintain focus as the subject moves. Is this correct Barry?
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I'm not sure the DVX200 has face detection. I haven't seen it in the menus, but -- again, the menus are deep, I may have missed it, and the firmware I'm using is version 0.29 so ... there's a long way to go before it's done. If face detection is going to be part of the final camera (and I don't know that it is), it either isn't in this firmware yet or I haven't found it.
 
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Mike Harvey said:
Barry, did you ever get a chance to compare the DVX's lowlight to the HPX250 or an AF100?
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Not properly. I took a stab at it, but I screwed up on the frame rate, I accidentally shot 60p on the DVX200. Sigh. Even so, the initial reactions were that stop-for-stop the DVX200 is much better. The ISO range is much greater on the DVX200, and at equivalent f-stop it's quite a bit more sensitive than the HPX250. But the HPX250 can open up its iris more (it's 1.6 on the wide end, vs. 2.8 on the DVX200, that's almost 2 stops faster) so the difference wasn't huge when all factors were considered. Meaning -- if you want to shoot at f/4, the DVX200 slays. But if you want to stand three feet away from the subject, and open the lens all the way up, well, the HPX250 might be 1.5 to 2 stops more open than the DVX's lens can open, and that closes the gap quite a bit.

But -- again, don't take this as gospel. I just used scene file 1, which may not be equivalent between the two cameras, the software isn't finished on the DVX200, it's possible the noise reduction will be improved and the usable sensitivity will go up, etc. So I'm giving you a "current" evaluation, but that doesn't mean that it'll be relevant to the final product, the final product could potentially be notably better. In past cameras, noise reduction has been one of the last things that they've finessed. So, ask again in a couple of months when they've got version 1.0 of the software and you might get a different answer.
 
We have a seen a LOT of outdoor footage. WE have not seen much if any indoor LIT stuff (talking head, simplest example), even with available interior lighting (restaurant/office/house/etc.). That would all be nice to see.
 
Firstly someone asked about the IS - it has the 5 axis stabiliser and it works very well. Easy to grab multiple shots quickly by hand that are stable and staple of event / doco shooting.

Barry_Green said:
3. Magnified focus assist -- this is stellar. This brings up a box in the middle of the screen that greatly magnifies the central portion of the frame, showing you exactly what it looks like. You can then further zoom in, or zoom out, and you can move the box around the screen to magnify different areas of the frame at whatever magnification level you want.

Colored peaking and magnified focus assist can be combined so you can see the magnified image with colored peaking on it.

It works superbly.
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I concur - probably one of the best implementations Ive seen. I had 100% confidence on every shot.
 
"There is also a focus transition function, where you can program a start and end point and control the speed of the transition and have it do that all automatically."

Interesting..the Sony EX cams have similar for zoom..if only you could program..both;) Even either/or...
 
If only there were a way to control the focus with some sort of large ring. The speed at which you turned this "focus ring" controlled the exact speed at which the focus changes. The ring would have numbers on it every so often, calibrated to the rough focal distance that each mark corresponded to. :)
 
Barry_Green said:
Whether it is internally or not I can't say, but it seems to act like it is. I zoomed in 100% on something, critically focused on it, and then went into magnified focus and blew it up as big as I could so I could see every pixel on it. I then zoomed in and out throughout the entire zoom range, and it stayed in sharp focus the whole time. The lens also reported the focus distance as not changing at any point. Again, this is not a production line model, so I can't say that absolutely everything in this camera will be exactly this same way in the production camera, but it seems like this is one thing that definitely should be.
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Very helpful, thanks for the reply. This camera ticks off a lot of boxes for me. Can't wait to try it out when it releases.
 
TheReverend said:
Thats basically what what this DVX200 does, gives shooters the standard video/film camera, with the benefits of a large sensor (shallow DOF, better low light). It's likely not going to be the best at DR, the best at resolution, and the best recording format...
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Actually, it should beat FS7 - and any native 4K camera - on resolution, being an oversampled 4K sensor and all.
 
combatentropy said:
If only there were a way to control the focus with some sort of large ring. The speed at which you turned this "focus ring" controlled the exact speed at which the focus changes. The ring would have numbers on it every so often, calibrated to the rough focal distance that each mark corresponded to. :)
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Will you people stop it with your unrealistic complaints? :happy:
 
Barry_Green said:
... Even so, the initial reactions were that stop-for-stop the DVX200 is much better. The ISO range is much greater on the DVX200, and at equivalent f-stop it's quite a bit more sensitive than the HPX250. But the HPX250 can open up its iris more (it's 1.6 on the wide end, vs. 2.8 on the DVX200, that's almost 2 stops faster) so the difference wasn't huge when all factors were considered. Meaning -- if you want to shoot at f/4, the DVX200 slays. But if you want to stand three feet away from the subject, and open the lens all the way up, well, the HPX250 might be 1.5 to 2 stops more open than the DVX's lens can open, and that closes the gap quite a bit...
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Thanks Barry. Was this taking into account the high sensitivity mode?
 
Mike Harvey said:
Exactly. It's not going to out ... the C100 mkII... and it's not trying to.
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Not sure about this one. C100 will probably win in low light and, with proper lenses, in the DOF department. But de DVX should have equal dynamic range and much better resolution (or codec), as it records 4K. In 80% of the situations these cameras will probably produce very similar results when shooting in HD.
 
Couple of questions:

- Does the 5 axis stabilization work in 4K, or only 1080?
- Does the magnified focus assist work while recording?

Thanks!
 
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