Panasonic's greatest camera release?

NorBro said:
I used to drool over HVX200 and HPX170 videos all of the time. Lots of skateboarding, ha.

The hacked GH2 was pretty crazy tho.
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Yup............. I sold my HVX200 to some skateboarding dude way back when you could still get good money for them. Phweeeeeeeeeee! :cheesy:

Edit: On a strictly performance-value metric I would have to go with the GH5 for Pani's greatest camera release.
 
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Barry_Green said:
If you're going by passion/hype/sales/interest/traffic, we had the biggest insane level of traffic when the HVX200 was being teased and footage was slowly trickling out. 2005 was a completely bonkers time on this forum.
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I agree with Barry on this one... The HVX200/HVX202en release was a huge event. From 4.2.2 color space to the ability to shot on DV tape of P2 card.
Barry was also a huge part of that release. I remember you coming to Australia Barry to show the Panasonic guys how the new camera faired. Showing some footage of our wild life (Gallahs and Cockatoos).

I just remember I bought the HVX202en for greenscreen work. I love that camera and still own it. I now own the GH4 though with its impressive 4K footage.

So yeah HVX200 would be my pick of the bunch. Followed by the GH DSLR cameras.
 
I remember HVX200. It was my first step into solid state recording. I even used it with 35mm adapters to get that shallow focus. It worked fine until the buttons dried up and it become an expensive brick.
 
I remember loving the DVX100b. That one really changed everything for the indie/personal use camera realm.

Wasn't able to afford one at the time. Ended up with an DVC30. That was a great little hybrid camera. Had it done progressive, it might have been more of a hit. 1/3" 3CCD and XLR preamp with 48v phantom, color, gamma, and knee adjustments, and a decent EVF for the time. I still have about 400 miniDV tapes shot on that.

When the HVX came out, I was not too excited about it. There were some great aspects, and I feel I have underrated the camera's image quality to this day, but there were quirks in the design that I felt were taking things in the wrong direction.

1. 720/1080i was cool, but not entirely needed at the time, when DVD and SD was still relevant. (I know this was exciting for green screen enthusiasts thought)

2. P2 cards were part of the future, but expensive proprietary cards were for broadcast and professional venues. Recording to MiniDV meant SD content. Which meant the P2 and 720p were just useless and expensive features, to me at the time.

3. Sensitivity. I had hoped that something like the DVX100C could continue to improve in Sensitivity and dynamic range and better bit rates or 444 in budget cameras. I already knew we were bound for higher resolutions, since digital is so much more agnostic, and somewhat resented the 1080 move. Anyway, the digital/analogue transition had to happen, and there was no way 4k higher resolutions would be able to make that happen at the time.

4. Form Factor. The HVX has to be about the worst form factor I have ever used. The smaller DVX100 and DVC30 made much more sense. DVX100 was already a questionable form factor, and was at about the maximum size for usability in that form, and the HVX just did a bigger version of that.

HVX was a step back in some regards. (though, so was the whole HD era) May have brought some cool features to a new price point, but stunted some progress in other areas.

I remember also drooling over the venerable HPX500. A baby HDX900, at an unheard of price point. Ended up with an SDX900 many years later. =)
The HPX500, HDX900, SDX900, and Varicam were the peak of panasonic mojo. Though hard to bring back these cameras, as much of the character of older cameras are lost in the digital LED world. CRT screens used to do some smearing, that helped curve off electronic clipping and dithering artifacts in the shadows. With Panny's latest cameras, they are so close to regaining that esteem. GH5, EVA-1, and Varicam35 are pretty awesome cameras that challenge the status quo.

My vote would be for the Varicam and/or the DVX100B. Varicam, because it was "the best" at the time, and the DVX100, because it brought something new to an affordable market. It is called "DVXuser.com", after all.
 
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