New Panasonic AG HC-X2 (HC-X1/UX180 successor)

I have PX270's and a CX350. I lean towards the PX270 for its image but the CX350 is very close with a lot of tweaking. The CX350 is a lot more versatile with 4k and all of the codec options. My wish was that the CX350 was a little better and would happily pay more for better images (highlight handling to be exact). Color is vey accurate. I do not know if we will even see another servo zoom camera from Panasonic. A CX450 would be great...
 
I agree I enjoy most everything with Panasonic except the image quality is a bit soft and mushy. Especially in my application filming stage performance I’ve had questions whether I set the focus for the wide shot. I have a colleague I film for who has requested I use my older 1/3” sensor camcorders which are sharper. I’m not sure if this a 1” lack of dof, non parafocus lens, or Panasonic focusing…
 
Bassman2003 said:
I do not know if we will even see another servo zoom camera from Panasonic. A CX450 would be great...
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:crybaby: I fear the same thing. Here's to hoping for a CX450 :thumbsup:, although it seems like Panasonic won't be in it for the long haul.

I'm going nuts with the thought that the cinema/ mirrorless / ILC paradigms are going to be the only ones going forward for all types of production. It makes absolutely no sense. Among other reasons, I suspect the market is heading this way because the younger folks have known little else and have the "shallow DOF at any cost" trope drummed into their heads for a long time. Institutionally speaking, I've seen some very myopic camera purchases being made by universities and stations, usually by folks who have a narrow range of experience and camera usage.

A couple of years ago I picked up some freelance work from a large PBS station. All they had were FS7's and C100's for shooting news pieces. Not a single camcorder to be found :furious3:. What an exercise in frustration and pain. The guy in charge was a show production guy with seemingly little run n' gun / ENG experience. Oi vey.

Time to go cradle my DVX200 :cool:.
 
Been using my HC-X2s on some event jobs now after the firmware update.
Certainly better color than the UX-180 / HC-X1. The LCD is good enough I have been using the camera without an external monitor. For the last 5 years or so I was using a 7" Shogun inferno on my HMC-150s and UX-180s for focus help. (The Inferno doesn't seem that great for focus or maybe it's my eyes.)

The HC-X2 is less light sensitive than the HMC-150 but it gains up cleanly. Overall I am finally mostly happy with a camcorder while all previous cameras have been frustrating due to cost cutting measures.
I wish they would allow for default fast zoom but for now I have it assigned to a user button (8) by the zoom rocker.
Already sold my UX180/HC-X1s for some X2s. Think I'm going to keep 1 HMC150 to team with my AC90As when needed and sell the other HMC150s to get a 4th HC-X2. That way I should be covered for days where I have multiple multicam events the same day.
I thought to get rid of all my camcorders for HC-X2 since I like them much better but for some projects the simple AC90 and CCD HMC150 still have some use I think, and won't bring much $ to sell.

An updated DVX200 would be great!
 
I already sold my UX180 (currently still trying to sell my DVX200), replaced by 2 HC-X2s. I agree with the color improvements and LCD screen, but if I was you I would sell the HMC150 and get another HC-X2. For the 4k and color matched.
 
hotchkiss said:
:crybaby: I fear the same thing. Here's to hoping for a CX450 :thumbsup:, although it seems like Panasonic won't be in it for the long haul.

I'm going nuts with the thought that the cinema/ mirrorless / ILC paradigms are going to be the only ones going forward for all types of production. It makes absolutely no sense. Among other reasons, I suspect the market is heading this way because the younger folks have known little else and have the "shallow DOF at any cost" trope drummed into their heads for a long time. Institutionally speaking, I've seen some very myopic camera purchases being made by universities and stations, usually by folks who have a narrow range of experience and camera usage.

A couple of years ago I picked up some freelance work from a large PBS station. All they had were FS7's and C100's for shooting news pieces. Not a single camcorder to be found :furious3:. What an exercise in frustration and pain. The guy in charge was a show production guy with seemingly little run n' gun / ENG experience. Oi vey.

Time to go cradle my DVX200 :cool:.
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Yes, I have seen Blackmagic cameras in stadium installations. People like the remote operation protocols BM have baked in but folks seemingly forget that there is no servo motor involved! "eh, who cares about the video..." :) I think Panasonic will rest on the CX350 as long as it can as its go to production camera.
 
Mike Chang said:
I already sold my UX180 (currently still trying to sell my DVX200), replaced by 2 HC-X2s. I agree with the color improvements and LCD screen, but if I was you I would sell the HMC150 and get another HC-X2. For the 4k and color matched.
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I think that is what I'm going to do. My 3 HMC150s might pay for 1 more HC-X2.
It's just that one of my HMC150s is super low usage pristine and likely won't bring more than the other 2 which are great shape but have many more hours.

I like the HC-X2 more than my pair of AC90a but those lightweight little things are useful to hand off to inexperienced users.
 
I feel your pain. C100 for news gathering is a stupid decision. DSRL's in general are always a bad choice except for B-roll and youtuber short clips. The market for small camcorders is shrinking. You either go from s35 or DSLRs for small projects or make the jump to full size broadcast Grassvalley, or Sony cameras. There's no in-between.

hotchkiss said:
:crybaby: I fear the same thing. Here's to hoping for a CX450 :thumbsup:, although it seems like Panasonic won't be in it for the long haul.

I'm going nuts with the thought that the cinema/ mirrorless / ILC paradigms are going to be the only ones going forward for all types of production. It makes absolutely no sense. Among other reasons, I suspect the market is heading this way because the younger folks have known little else and have the "shallow DOF at any cost" trope drummed into their heads for a long time. Institutionally speaking, I've seen some very myopic camera purchases being made by universities and stations, usually by folks who have a narrow range of experience and camera usage.

A couple of years ago I picked up some freelance work from a large PBS station. All they had were FS7's and C100's for shooting news pieces. Not a single camcorder to be found :furious3:. What an exercise in frustration and pain. The guy in charge was a show production guy with seemingly little run n' gun / ENG experience. Oi vey.

Time to go cradle my DVX200 :cool:.
Click to expand...
 
Is there a way to shade (adjust iris, white balance, colors, etc) these cameras remotely? Not with an app and wifi, but remotely from a webpage in a VPN network. Or some kind of LANC over WAN.
We do a lot of REMI productions and we can mix video, audio, have intercom, everything remote, but not the shading part.

Any ideas? Thanks!
 
Ive now shot a number of jobs with my HC-X2s and like them very well. The color is good but the autofocus is not so good for dance recitals and frustrating. I'll share samples once I'm not so busy but they also can lose focus briefly on corporate stuff with people operating equipment that should be easier. I haven't done any simple talking heads which I expect would work well on face focus.
I may need to tweak some settings but we tried touch focus, face tracking and finally manual focus and all three cameras had considerable trouble just going completely out and unable to fix on their own. I do not like manually focussing 2.5 hr events and my crew aren't very good at it either.
My HMC150s with their 1/3 chips never had such problems or AC90a (1/4)
 
Are you on tripod shooting the stage for dance recitals?

Do they lose focus like the GH5 cameras where everything looks fine then the camera just looses it? Like it is overthinking the scene and adjusting? We are pretty far along in the game for this camera to have AF issues.
 
Well for dance shows it is not a good idea to use auto focus as light changes will throw off the best of them. I only use touch focus on my GH cameras and even before that on the Sony's I used. I set up so depth of field gets most of the stage in focus anyway. For the closeup camera it get focus at each zoom point with touch focus on lcd. Even do this on the Sony's so everything is always in manual focus. No going to stage black and back to full lights will change them. I use the GH6 for full stage and it is manual focus and exposure .

Small sensors have big depth of field so will look in focus most of the time. The larger the sensor the more critical to get focus correct.
 
Never use auto focus for a stage event. That's like the first lesson you learn doing that type of work.
 
How can I increase the saturation of the colors in the F1:default scene. I just would like to get a little bit vivid colors. The color correction menu is quite confusing to me. Thanks!
 
I do not understand why, but my X2 records 1080p mov in 1920x1072 (both 29.97 and 23.98) and besides editing software the only media player that can play the files is VLC. I updated to firmware 1.1 with the same results. I am able to edit and export the files fine in Premiere Pro.

Can any X2 owners confirm what resolution does your camera capture mov 1080p in? I tried to read the files in different windows PC's with the same results of 1072. When delivering raw footage I am having to convert them to mp4 first so the client does not run into problems during playback. This issue is only in mov, mp4 is fine. Some will ask why not shoot in mp4? Because there is no 29.97 in mp4.
 
I don't know anything about the X2, but a quick check of the operator's manual makes no mention of being able to record at 1920x1072. Therefore, we can conclude that your problem exists in post and the footage is just normal 1920x1080. I'll wager you are on a PC, right? When you import the footage into Premiere or Resolve what does it say for clip attributes? Have you tried viewing the footage in Sony's Catalyst Browse and checking the metadata?

Upload a short unedited clip for others to download and inspect.
 
Doug Jensen said:
I don't know anything about the X2, but a quick check of the operator's manual makes no mention of being able to record at 1920x1072. Therefore, we can conclude that your problem exists in post and the footage is just normal 1920x1080. I'll wager you are on a PC, right? When you import the footage into Premiere or Resolve what does it say for clip attributes? Have you tried viewing the footage in Sony's Catalyst Browse and checking the metadata?

Upload a short unedited clip for others to download and inspect.
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Correct, I am using a windows pc, in fact I tried another and got the same results. In premiere pro it shows the correct resolution (1920x1080). In explorer it reads 19020x1070 and the media player will freeze when I try to play it in both PC's with the exception of VLC.
 
I wouldn't look too much into it; it's just how software is reading or not reading the file, and the difference between 1920x1080 and 1920x1072 will be unnoticed (and I think it's really 1920x1080 but it's being read on your end incorrectly for some reason, something is affecting it).

It's like when you capture a screen recording with random software and QT might say the framerate is 29.99 (something weird) while a NLE might say it's 30fps while some third-party overseas transcoding software might say it's 31.02 (also weird).

This stuff isn't meant to be perfect. Like, how do you know your camera is recording 29.97 or 23.98? You don't...you're just trusting that it is and trusting the file to show the correct framerate in its metadata.

___

Nevertheless, like Doug said, it's really best to upload an original clip for others to download (even a few seconds with the lens cap on).
 
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