Hi all,
Thinking about the 600 as an alternative to my Panasonic ac160A. (Long zoom-slow focus). I am very interested to hear about the real life performance of the auto focus , especially the speed at max zoom between near/ far targets. And what difference the firmware updates made to the focussing. JVC state "improved focussing", what in real life was improved for any user?

My Panny has recently had a new lens and servo assembly to correct some vagaries, but it still has a dissapointing slow auto focus. This JVC looks very exciting and I would love to know more. There are no dealers down here in Dunedin, so I can't play with one, so would appreciate any feedback.
Cheers!
Rod

I got sick of waiting to hear about how this camera actually performs - so I bought one. It should arrive mid next week.. so will let you know my thoughts as soon as possible :)

I can't wait to hear your report, Jody!

Great Jody, full review please!
If you can find the time I would love to see the following test: Using auto focus on max zoom on say 2 high contrast targets (I used a couple of test charts) set targets at 12metres and 3 metres, and have them almost in line so the pan is minimal. This is a challenging test and the panasonic 160 is very slow- Panasonic say this is because of the laws of physics on the large zoom. I am desperate to see whether JVC have got round this apparent problem.

Can't wait to see some feedback on this JVC. Like you, I have been searching for user feedback and it is pretty thin on the ground!
Cheers!
Rod

Rod, just as another data point for you, I used a Canon XH-A1S over Christmas. It's 1/3" with a 20x lens.

Although I used it on full manual most of the time, I did experiment with the AF and found it to be quite slow at the tele end of the zoom. It also sometimes missed the focus on things I felt it should have been able to lock on to. It behaved much better when zoomed out to 12x or less.

From that, I'm really not expecting the 600 or 650 to be all that much different to the 160.

There's a bit of long end focusing on the HM600 in this video:

JVC GY-HM600 TEST HDTV.mp4 - YouTube

The thing that worries me more about it is I can see the IOS jumping quite badly. I'm hoping this is a pre-release model and that's been fixed.

From that, I'm really not expecting the 600 or 650 to be all that much different to the 160.

Although I have not personally shot with the AC130/160. From what I understood, the unexpected problem with the auto focus of that camera was its tendency to "get bored" and wander out of focus after a few minutes of shooting a stationary subject from a fixed tripod. Taking a little while to find the focus at high zoom is expected.

Thanks for the feedback Mike, nice to chat again. Yes I suspect you might be right, but wouldn't it be great to see a rapid snap focus on auto.

Eric, the "bored focus" thing seemed to be an affliction of the 1st generation 130 and 160. I suspect that the "A" updates fixed that issue (although it was never acknowledged as an issue by Panasonic), as mine is a 160A and has never deviated once locked on.

I did however have a problem with mine which related to inconsistent lock on and had a replacement lens and servo assembly replaced under warranty. However it is still quite slow on auto focus and this may well be a characteric of such long lenses.