New Panasonic 4K 60P Camcorder HC-X1000

Everything Barry says in post #234 was a foregone conclusion to me. I just thought everyone would do that without a second thought, especially with how much memory cards are going down in price. You could just stack the video on and put a new 1 in.

It might have been a little different if the camera only did the 4k at 30p/25p, but it doesn't. It does 4k at 60p/50p.

1 of my big problems though. To do this i will not only have to get the camera, but I'll have to do a full computer upgrade as well
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Thanks Barry and tflak for your reviews.

We have ordered this camera for it's 4K detail sharpness for our school and dance concerts so hopefully it should be good as we rarely use more than 3db gain on our 130/160s in our theatres.

Cheers,

Vaughan
 
Remember the 130 is a more sensitive camera though. I haven't got a 130/160 around to compare, but you'll need more gain with a X1000 to match the sensitivity of a 130/160 at 0dB...
 
Barry_Green said:
That would likely be down to however your editing program is doing the downscaling. In the HC-X1000, they use the entire 4K scan and properly downscale, so your results are not surprising. The 1080p looks really sharp from the X1000. It's not like on the GH4 where they pixel-skip to get 60fps out of it, in this camera it does it the ideal way, processing the entire 4K scan and then downconverting it.

However, the recorded 1080 is saved as 4:2:0, whereas the downconverted 4K should be being processed internally by your editor as 4:4:4, up until it gets rendered out. So, yes, I would shoot 4K in the first place whenever possible, as it preserves more options.
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Barry, first of all, thanks for all your comments, which are extremely helpful and very much appreciated.

Now, this downconverting and how an NLE processes the footage is pretty interesting to me. Because I'd always been in the habit of transcoding footage to ProRes 4:2:2 (regular) during import. Partly due to sometimes manipulating footage pretty heavily in post, and partly due to not-so-fast computers. So regular ProRes 4:2:2 is 8 bit. And ProRes HQ is 10 bit (and also takes up quite a bit more disk space than regular ProRes). My question is; am I defeating the purpose by transcoding if the NLE is (theoretically) converting to 10 bit 4:4:4 anyway? Not sure that's what FCPX would be doing.

Have just recently started editing on a fully tricked-out MBP/2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 which is pretty fast on a RAID 0 TB drive. However, am still transcoding on import. Mostly out of habit, I guess. And the theory that it is easier and more convenient to transcode on import than finding out in the middle of a project that my machine is getting bogged down and then needing to take the time to transcode at that point. Am definitely going to play around with skipping the transcode, but figured maybe you or someone else could shed some light in the meantime. Am the first to admit I'm not real great at understanding the technical nuts-and-bolts of these things and am far more comfortable with just finding processes that work and deliver good results.
You mean how every time you go into the menus it always starts at "camera setup"? Or are you talking about something else?
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Yes, I mean how it always starts at "Camera Setup." Admittedly, this is more of a pain when first getting familiar with a camera than after one's learned where things are located in the menu structure. But there are definitely times when performing various functions repeatedly where it's really convenient and fast to be able to return to a specific menu item. Here's a case in point - during testing and initial setup to save battery power, I've been using AC whenever possible and then unplugging the unit when needing to be more mobile. Not a problem due to the very nifty way they've implemented the whole power thing. BUT, the camera will by default enable a "feature" called "Power LCD" whenever you plug in AC. It makes the screen brighter. I really don't like that. Without a waveform, I tend to use the LCD to get at least a general sense of how a shot is going to look. And I have it adjusted in that way. The problem is it's easy to forget that the camera is going to brighten it automatically when you plug in. Your only option to turn it off is to dig into the menus (it's on page 4 of DISP SETUP).
 
vanvideo said:
Nice review, tflak! Thanks!
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Glad I could contribute. Of course, Barry's comments always add so much clarity and additional info. Ever since first getting my feet wet with the GH1 and then graduating to the AF100 and AC-160, and now the X1000 have felt very fortunate to have an invaluable resource like Barry and DVXuser community.


Hope to have more to report - especially with the weekend coming when I'll have more time to play with this puppy. Maybe even some footage posted.
 
Barry_Green said:
Thought about this some more, maybe this will help explain it -- the i.Zoom is basically the same thing as ETC mode on a GH2 (or later). On the GH2, ETC was a 1:1 pixel scan from the center of the chip. That's what i.Zoom does (when fully i.Zoomed in to the max). And on ETC, people noticed an increase in noise. Accordingly, yes, you'll see an increase in noise on the HC-X1000, as it's doing basically the same type of thing.
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That very much helps explain it. Thanks. Used to use ETC pretty extensively prior to getting the GH4 with 4K capability, so your explaining the iZoom feature in those terms makes sense to me.

There are steps you can take to control the noise, just like always -- lower the chroma level, and lower the detail level controls, and use a cine-like gamma, and all three of those steps will minimize the appearance of and effect of the noise. I ran a test where the gamma was black-press and the detail levels were cranked up and the chroma was at +7 and, yeah, you can make it look really noisy. Or, you can drop the detail and chroma levels down, and use the cine gammas, and the noise is a lot milder and less noticeable.
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Okay, up to this point have been shooting strictly with the default SCENE1 settings. Have always tweaked the SCN settings with my other Panny cams and have usually preferred CINE-V or B.PRESS, but wanted to wait until others had posted some suggestions before experimenting. So am planning on going with the following to do some outdoor shooting this weekend:

Suggestions are welcomed!

V DETAIL: -2
H DETAIL: -2
DETAIL CORING: 0
CHROMA LEVEL: -2
CHROMA PHASE: 0
COLOR TEMP A ch: 0 (haven't seen these on previous cams)
COLOR TEMP B ch: 0
MASTER PEDESTAL: -1
AUTO IRIS LEVEL: -2
DRS: OFF
DRS EFFECT: 1
GAMMA: CINE-LIKE-V
KNEE: DISABLED (this is disabled with the CINE gammas)
MATRIX: CINE-LIKE

How important is Black Balancing on this camera in terms of noise?
 
Nice one! My camera is arriving today. I'll try stick some 'zoom' footage up if I get the chance. I'll also head down to the quayside tonight to see if I can get some low-light shots.


Regrettably I didn't get two free SD cards :( So I purchased a 64GB Extreme PRO U3 card. That should see me through for a little while.

I've also bought this bag for transportation:

http://cvp.com/index.php?t=product/camrade_tm-outbag
 
nathanjrb said:
Haven't really had chance to take it out yet - but what do we make of this:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?330024-HC-X1000-Very-first-impressions-with-a-problem

I think someone mentioned it earlier in the thread and I shrugged it off.

Terrible flickering at 24p!
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Can't conclude anything until someone uploads some flickering footage. But since he says you can fix it by changing to and back from another mode, it sounds like a genuine bug but likely easily fixable in firmware.
 
Seems to have fixed it. Have to say the upgrade instructions are a huge improvement. First one I've seen from Panasonic that doesn't look like it was put together by an aging DOS programmer using Netscape.
 
Does anyone know the actual recording codec? What do they mean when they say "mov"?

If someone could post a clip, I could take a look.
 
Does anyone know the actual recording codec? What do they mean when they say "mov"?
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Edius reports it as H.264/AVC stream in a MOV container. Hope that helps. Bloody good though!

Cheers,

Vaughan
 
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