AG-DVX200 4K Large-Sensor Handheld Camcorder

Nice to see you back to post, Danilo : ) I am sure I am not alone here, Joe up there is with me!


Greetings to everyone there,

Emanuel :-)
 
Just a little practical question I don't know if anyone would be able to answer. I'm seeing various photos with and without the shotgun mic, does anyone know for sure if it'll be included within the camera package? The specifications document (http://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/dvx4k/pdf/ag-dvx200_spec.pdf) only lists the microphone holder under included accessories. Or is it a given that it'll come with the camera?
 
It's a bit poor form to have it in so many official pictures without any reference to it being sold separately (I guess not including it in the specs doc is the answer to that). So that's yet more £££ for the full package then.

Edit:
Wow, £300 approx in the UK.
 
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Danilo Del Tufo said:
I admit I was expecting footage better than GH4, also if it's from preproduction model, I noticed also aliasing at the top of the temple, probably we'll have better footage soon, I believe that Panasonic approved this footage because they advertised Kyoto shooting as important event at their Facebook page.
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My guess is that the DVX200 will be the big brother to the GH5. Panasonic made a point to say the sensor was not from the GH4 at NAB. So it makes me think they are going for a nice A + B camera setup with the two.
 
This last clip is useless.

But, I am sure, it won't be the last of many useless clips to come.
 
Bassman2003 said:
My guess is that the DVX200 will be the big brother to the GH5. Panasonic made a point to say the sensor was not from the GH4 at NAB. So it makes me think they are going for a nice A + B camera setup with the two.
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I just remember that, unfortunately the new sensor actually doesn't show its full potential according those videos I posted, but I hope for new videos from others DPs that Panasonic engaged to show the camera can confirm the quality as we are expecting.
 
mattjeh said:
I was going to say that I'm sure I was seeing interlacing, and pretty bad compression issues. If Panasonic has authorised the release of these clips, it seems strange that there is no measure of quality control on the exports that are filtering down to the public.
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[cue broken record] Which is why I say -- there's no point in looking at early stuff, from folks who just picked up the camera, who had no idea how to actually use it, and who may not have even edited it properly... of course the footage will be disappointing, especially when it has issues like this latest clip does.

That's not to fault the shooters -- I'm sure they did the best they could, but -- again, they just picked it up, and it's a very complex camera, far more advanced than the typical Panasonic handheld. Even a veteran AF100 or HPX170 user would be overwhelmed at the control that the DVX200 offers, so... I'm sure they did their best under the circumstances, but I don't think the circumstances were likely very conducive to producing the best footage possible.
 
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NorBro said:
I know this is all pre-prod footage and that video above has compression issues, but I am getting less excited about this camera...I need to stop watching these videos.
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Yep. No good will come of it, and it's not representative of what the camera is truly capable of. A prerelease camera, in the hands of folks who have never used it, and who don't yet know how to get the best from it, is not a recipe for glorious footage. They might get good stuff, or they might get stuff that could have been a lot better if they'd had more time and experience learning the camera's capabilities and characteristics. But it's too much to expect that their very first clips will be representative of what the camera could actually be capable of.
 
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Danilo Del Tufo said:
It's very strange that footage is interlaced, I don't remember that is possibile shooting interlaced with this camera, more footage coming soon and we will know how this camera real performs.
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The "interlacing" is almost unquestionably an editing/post problem. It is technically possible to record interlaced footage on a DVX200, but you'd have to be in 1080 AVCHD mode (or standard def) to do it. In 4K, it is always progressive, and almost every iteration of 1080p is progressive (except for some of the AVCHD modes), and 720p is progressive. The only interlaced option is 1080i or 480i, and since the shooter of this last clip said that they shot 4K mode, then there's no question that it must be a post-production problem.
 
Danilo Del Tufo said:
I admit I was expecting footage better than GH4, also if it's from preproduction model, I noticed also aliasing at the top of the temple, probably we'll have better footage soon, I believe that Panasonic approved this footage because they advertised Kyoto shooting as important event at their Facebook page.
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You should expect better footage than the GH4. This camera is more powerful than the GH4 and it uses a sensor that's the next generation beyond the GH4. It's totally reasonable to expect the footage to be better than the GH4. And, in the right hands, it will deliver footage better than the GH4. I don't blame the shooters who made these clips, I'm sure they did the best they could, but literally -- they are given a camera and turned loose to shoot. How great can we expect the footage to be? It's a very complex camera, far more powerful than prior Panasonic handhelds in terms of customizability and user controls. Yet the shooters had literally zero experience with it. So they got what they got, but ... it's going to take time for us to figure out how to get the best from the camera, what modes work best, how to expose best for it, where the sweet spot in the lens is, all that stuff. And the engineers still have several months of tweaking and finessing to do to the image as well.

So, yes, patience please. Judgements based on first footage are going to prove to be hasty and unwarranted; folks should reserve judgement until we get footage from people who have had the camera long enough to explore it in depth and really know how to get high quality results from it.
 
mattjeh said:
Just a little practical question I don't know if anyone would be able to answer. I'm seeing various photos with and without the shotgun mic, does anyone know for sure if it'll be included within the camera package? The specifications document (http://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/dvx4k/pdf/ag-dvx200_spec.pdf) only lists the microphone holder under included accessories. Or is it a given that it'll come with the camera?
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I can't think of any Panasonic handheld that has ever included a shotgun mic with it; maybe I'm forgetting one, but I don't think so. I would not expect any mic to come with the DVX200 (other than, of course, the built-in mic).
 
Barry_Green said:
[cue broken record] Which is why I say -- there's no point in looking at early stuff, from folks who just picked up the camera, who had no idea how to actually use it, and who may not have even edited it properly... of course the footage will be disappointing, especially when it has issues like this latest clip does.

That's not to fault the shooters -- I'm sure they did the best they could, but -- again, they just picked it up, and it's a very complex camera, far more advanced than the typical Panasonic handheld. Even a veteran AF100 or HPX170 user would be overwhelmed at the control that the DVX200 offers, so... I'm sure they did their best under the circumstances, but I don't think the circumstances were likely very conducive to producing the best footage possible.
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Why does Pana even play this game, I see no upside. I mean there's the Varicam pre-release production, and there is...this. Same division.
 
mattjeh said:
Just a little practical question I don't know if anyone would be able to answer. I'm seeing various photos with and without the shotgun mic, does anyone know for sure if it'll be included within the camera package? The specifications document (http://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/dvx4k/pdf/ag-dvx200_spec.pdf) only lists the microphone holder under included accessories. Or is it a given that it'll come with the camera?
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The microphones that manufacturers market as mates for their cameras are rarely of top quality or do much justice to the capabilities of the camera. And they tend to be overpriced for what you get. You'd do much better to pick up a Rode NTG-2, Audio Technica AT-897, or even a Sennheiser ME66 in that price range. If the Panasonic mic were included in the box, I'd probably still never want to use it (as I also tend to ignore the built-in omni mics).

- Greg
 
It took me months to figure out The DVX100, the HMC150, the AF100, and now the GH4 and get them dialed in. And those are just my cameras... every time I use another model (regardless of manufacturer) owned by someone else, I have to hope they've got it dialed in because a day or two simply isn't enough time to figure out all the quirks.

Ahhh... for the good old days (1990's) when I first started to learn to shoot, and people's expectations of image quality wasn't so ridiculously high. The blessing and curse of the industry today... we have gear so good for so cheap, people complain and put down a $1,500 DSLR hybrid with a $1,500 lens if it doesn't produce images out of the box on par with a $50,000 film camera with $15,000 lens on it from 20 years ago.

What is helping sell me on the DVX200 is the shots of the woman looking outside... it looks like the shooter exposed to the shadows where the woman was, but only the brightest parts of the rocks were blown out (and some of that detail seemed to come back in the fades, which tells me there are post-production issues going on). That's kind of impressive for a sub $5,000 do-it-all camera. [EDIT] I'm talking about the more raw footage posted earlier, not the Vimeo link directly above.
 
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Greg Smith said:
The microphones that manufacturers market as mates for their cameras are rarely of top quality or do much justice to the capabilities of the camera. And they tend to be overpriced for what you get. You'd do much better to pick up a Rode NTG-2, Audio Technica AT-897, or even a Sennheiser ME66 in that price range. If the Panasonic mic were included in the box, I'd probably still never want to use it (as I also tend to ignore the built-in omni mics).

- Greg
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And those mics will last you multiple cameras... my ME64/66 combo is going strong long after I sold the DVX100 I bought it for.
 
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