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

Got it this morning. Sending it back tomorrow morning. It’s funny, the things I was hung up on weren’t the things that would make it impractical for me. The image is actually nice and not so noisy with a little Db gain. The zoom is way slow for what I need, and I don’t want to have to assign a user button and hit it every time the camera turns on. Also, the face AF is definitely weird. I disabled the auto exposure but it won’t even activate without the full auto switch being on. I think if I had more time to test I’d be more patient, but for now I can’t afford to learn all these quirks and risk gremlins in the field.
 
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Newsguy said:
Got it this morning. Sending it back tomorrow morning. It’s funny, the things I was hung up on weren’t the things that would make it impractical for me. The image is actually nice and not so noisy with a little Db gain. The zoom is way slow for what I need, and I don’t want to have to assign a user button and hit it every time the camera turns on. Also, the face AF is definitely weird. I disabled the auto exposure but it won’t even activate without the full auto switch being on. I think if I had more time to test I’d be more patient, but for now I can’t afford to learn all these quirks and risk gremlins in the field.
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Give it a little chance. It is still in firmware 1.0. All the problems you say are perfectly fixable via firmware update. Right now the hc2 is the best camcorder in this price range.
 
It's the only option in that price range, lol.

Okay, okay...there are a few more, but they are old and/or inferior (like with 4K/30p only or no LOG) and don't compare, so that's true.
 
mitteg said:
Give it a little chance. It is still in firmware 1.0. All the problems you say are perfectly fixable via firmware update. Right now the hc2 is the best camcorder in this price range.
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Right. All the issues I have with it could most likely be solved in firmware since hardware-wise they seem to have addressed the issues from the previous model(s)
 
It sounds like he needed the camera now, for an upcoming assignment, and might not have time for the one every 6-12 month FW update Panasonic blesses their users with.
 
Yeah, with a little time I’d keep it and deal with the quirks. Even on the FX9 it took me a long time to be able to quickly bypass all the gremlins with that camera in the field. But in this case I leave in 2 weeks and I’m gone for over a month. If I’m stuck out there with a camera that I can’t control quickly I’m toast.
 
Don't overreact, the hc-x2 has great picture quality, lots of personalization options. Not perfect, but sure you'll find the way to get used to it!
 
Update. I decided to test it out more once I got home. I spent a good hour just adjusting picture and gamma settings, seeing what things like high sensitivity mode do, etc. I like that I was able to adjust the edge enhancement on the lcd, that’s the best part of this camera. Bright and I’m able to actually see what’s in focus. I recorded for a while to test the ois settings and found that the “pan tilt” ois mode was the most natural. The normal mode seemed to compensate way too hard when making slight movements at the telephoto end. The pan tilt mode was great and made me feel like a tripod when at the end of the lens, very solid.

That said, in playing back the clips on the large screen I found that my unit in particular suffers from a bad backfocus. I would zoom, grab focus, and by the time I was about halfway zoomed out my subject was soft, at full wide it was downright blurry. I tried it again with a chart and saw the same, and as I zoomed out the background was sharp but not the chart.

That was very unfortunate because there is no backfocus adjustment that I can find. I know the Sony EX cams had a sort of flange adjustment you could do electronically but I guess this camera doesn’t have that feature, at least not in the user menu.
 
Just checked my backfocus and no problem. Used a siemens chart and the camera mantains perfect focus throughout the range.
Regarding OIS mode, I agree, PanTilt is definitively the best mode.

I did not mess with gamma settings. "HD" is just the standard, isn't it? I do want to test HLG and use the extended color iMac screen.

And high-sensitivity mode? Any thoughts? I find the camera quite sensitive as is. In which situations do you recommend using the high-sesitivity mode instead of just using gain?

Newsguy said:
Update. I decided to test it out more once I got home. I spent a good hour just adjusting picture and gamma settings, seeing what things like high sensitivity mode do, etc. I like that I was able to adjust the edge enhancement on the lcd, that’s the best part of this camera. Bright and I’m able to actually see what’s in focus. I recorded for a while to test the ois settings and found that the “pan tilt” ois mode was the most natural. The normal mode seemed to compensate way too hard when making slight movements at the telephoto end. The pan tilt mode was great and made me feel like a tripod when at the end of the lens, very solid.

That said, in playing back the clips on the large screen I found that my unit in particular suffers from a bad backfocus. I would zoom, grab focus, and by the time I was about halfway zoomed out my subject was soft, at full wide it was downright blurry. I tried it again with a chart and saw the same, and as I zoomed out the background was sharp but not the chart.

That was very unfortunate because there is no backfocus adjustment that I can find. I know the Sony EX cams had a sort of flange adjustment you could do electronically but I guess this camera doesn’t have that feature, at least not in the user menu.
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mitteg said:
And high-sensitivity mode? Any thoughts? I find the camera quite sensitive as is. In which situations do you recommend using the high-sesitivity mode instead of just using gain?
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When I activated high sensitivity mode, it seemed to brighten the image about a half stop. I was still able to use gain as usual. I’m not exactly sure what it does other than that initial bump. I went up to about 9db just to test it and the noise wasn’t bad at all.
 
Newsguy said:
When I activated high sensitivity mode, it seemed to brighten the image about a half stop. I was still able to use gain as usual. I’m not exactly sure what it does other than that initial bump. I went up to about 9db just to test it and the noise wasn’t bad at all.
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Was a pretty good feature - In the previous camera it basically increased/doubled the brightness by 6db while resulting in the grain of being at 0db. It compresses it while brightening resulting in a cleaner image than doing traditional gain. You can also add gain on top of high sensitivity mode if needed but will introduce noise as expected

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO-g...roVideoSystems

I expect it's similar concept on the new HC-X2
 
firehawk said:
Was a pretty good feature - In the previous camera it basically increased/doubled the brightness by 6db while resulting in the grain of being at 0db. It compresses it while brightening resulting in a cleaner image than doing traditional gain. You can also add gain on top of high sensitivity mode if needed but will introduce noise as expected

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO-g...roVideoSystems

I expect it's similar concept on the new HC-X2
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It seems that with dual gain or dual iso sensors being commonplace now, it actually feels wrong when cameras don’t have something like this.
 
I submitted feedback requests to Panasonic about the Facetracking in Auto Mode and not being able to turn it on when in Manual Mode with Autofocus turned on, having to assign fast zoom capability to a user button and focus peaking not working when in autofocus.
they responded. Maybe they will address these things, especially if others do too
 
firehawk said:
I submitted feedback requests to Panasonic about the Facetracking in Auto Mode and not being able to turn it on when in Manual Mode with Autofocus turned on, having to assign fast zoom capability to a user button and focus peaking not working when in autofocus.
they responded. Maybe they will address these things, especially if others do too
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I support this. Where do I have to write to Panasonic to ask the same? Thanks

And why is this camera not under the Panasonic Professional line? There is only the HPX270 and the CX350. Thanks.
 
mitteg said:
I support this. Where do I have to write to Panasonic to ask the same? Thanks

And why is this camera not under the Panasonic Professional line? There is only the HPX270 and the CX350. Thanks.
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I think the HC-X2 just like the HC-X1 is under a different division than the AG line. Like before when the HC-X1 was under the consumer line whereas the almost identical AG UX180 was under the pro/broadcast line.
I'm not sure where to go because I filled out forms at 3 different locations (which I cannot remember now) and I got one response so I don't know which one worked:

https://na.panasonic.com/us/audio-v...ast-cinema-pro-video/broadcast-camera-systems

https://na.panasonic.com/us/contact-us
 
I recommend everyone interested contact them. It's funny because I contacted them a few years ago about the HC-X1 / UX180 and they basically did as I asked - make a version 2 - keep the same body but with improved processing, better LCD, LCD & EVF both on, live stream, facetrack.

New HC-X2 is basically what I suggested except they reduced some things we've already talked about above, but those things can likely be remedied via firmware if they will do it
 
In the history of cameras, there have been many true priorities that systems never addressed, so I would say the chances for something like the above are slim unless they are very important requests (IDK if they are). I would check the history of Panasonic camcorder firmware releases (for the CX350, etc) and see what type of updates are usually provided and the direction Panasonic has generally taken.
 
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