Gave the 500 a short test drive

Jim Carswell

Jim Carswell

Well-known member
Recently while attending the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana I had the opportunity to give the HPX500 a little test drive. I really like the form-factor of the camera. It's more like what I've been used to for so many years prior to picking up the HVX200. For what it is, the lens seemed decent. All the camera menus and settings were familiar after using the 200 for the past year or so. I did some shooting with available light/indoors and was pleased with the lack of noise. Thank you 2/3" chips. The SDI out is a real bonus as are the four card slots and included four 16GB cards. It'll be great to shoot an hour of 1080 video without having to stop and go. Plus, the firestore will work nicely with it as well.

I'm confident I will add one of these by the end of the year. It's a lot of bang for the buck.

Jim
 
yeah the C16/2X kit is the way to go.. definitely the best deal and makes good use of the 4 slots for ENG type work that you do.
 
I finally got to use the HPX555 (japanese version) with the XA17x7.6BERM-M58B CAC lense. I must commend Panasonic on a job well done. There were 6 of us running through the camera and I think everyone was reasonably impressed. The big factor here is this camera is aggrresively priced and I think the technology has allowed a high quality camera in this range. When you look at comparative rental costs this is a winner for me (compared to the Sony Xdcam 350k or l) it will come in cheaper (for me here in Japan).

It's early days and I havent used it a lot. But my initial impressions are good. We were watching on a 26" panasonic HD LCD monitor (which to the best of my knowledge doesnt actually resolve a full 1920x1080 image), but is pretty accurate. I was really trying to be picky with retained detail in certain elements of the image, and using the lense to obtain a short DOF. Both were higher than my expectations. Dont let anyone tell you that with one lense you couldnt go out and shoot ENG and NARRATIVE , of course more would be preferred, but with some creativity in shooting and post you COULD operate in both modes quite happily.

I should have some footage to post late next week when I have been told I will be able to check out the cam with a few different lenses. Can't wait for that.

EDIT: Actually that will be early next month (was getting a bit ahead of myself).

Well done Panasonic / Jan et al. This is looking very promising for my future needs (initially I can happily say さよなら (SAYONARA) to XDCam rentals!).

Oh yes agree with Jim - form factor is very good.
 
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