UPDATED - DVX100AP Shipment halt is not true just a rumor at DVinfo.net

Kevin Peer · February 12th, 2004, 12:19 PM

I purchased a DVX100AP camera a few weeks ago and have seen a lot of grain and image noise particularly in shadows and areas with red in them. Panasonic tech support has been a nightmare in their unresponsiveness thus far. The dealer I bought it from said today that Panasonic has stopped shipping the DVX100AP because they are in 'Quality Control'. I don't know if it is because of the noise problem I am having or not, but I would suggest caution before buying one at present!

Stephen van Vuuren · February 12th, 2004, 12:23 PM

Kevin:

Sorry to hear of your troubles - what dealer did you hear this from? Do you have any screen grabs or footage of the problems?

Tavis Shaver · February 12th, 2004, 02:50 PM

if you hear back from pana about the QC post what they say.

Imran Zaidi · February 12th, 2004, 04:16 PM

Oh oh... getting nervous.... Please let this be a hoax...

Kevin Peer · February 12th, 2004, 04:19 PM

I heard about the freeze on DVX100A shipments from Winston at Biz-Max.net. I will try to post an image and/or footage, though I'm not sure how to do it..

Ken Tanaka · February 12th, 2004, 04:25 PM

Kevin,
We don't have a facility here for user uploads. If you could put a still of two up on your site, that would be good. If not, you can email them to me and I can put them on my .Mac site.

Ken Tanaka · February 12th, 2004, 10:32 PM

Kevin sent me two sample frames in .PNG format. You can download them from my .Mac file sharing page in the "KPeer-DVX100A" folder.

Kevin Peer · February 12th, 2004, 11:20 PM

Thank you for your help with the image files, Ken!

Paul Leung · February 13th, 2004, 04:17 AM

I have the same problem and posted it previously in

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...154#post136154

Is the noise level high in my clip? I do notice the red is very bad... it bleeds.

Anyway, I have set the coring to +7, PED to -5, details to -4 for 60i scene. That seems to improve the noise problem. However, red is still a headache!

Bryan Roberts · February 13th, 2004, 11:44 AM

strange that you guys said this. I've only had mine for 2 weeks or so now and the first thing I was thinking to myself was, wow the black areas seem to have some noise or grain to them. I thought maybe my black balance was set incorrectly or something. I'm going to fire off some emails to panny today asking about the quality issues...

Here's a screen shot from a dimly lit room with an orange shade over the light. There seemed to be some noise in this shot. Does this look like my unit might be one of those? This was with zero gain.

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~berobert/dvx100ap.png

Imran Zaidi · February 13th, 2004, 12:23 PM

Anybody have both the 100 and the 100A so we can see a comparison? Image quality analyses can be so subjective when you have nothing to gauge it against...

Charley Manske · February 13th, 2004, 01:11 PM

Unfortunately, I think I'm another victim.
I got a DVX100A from B&H about a week ago and I definitely see more grainy noise than I expected. Turning down the various detail settings helps some, but after reading this thread, I'm convinced Panasonic has a first-run quality control issue.
Reminds me of the focus problems with the early Canon XL1's :(

Ken Tanaka · February 13th, 2004, 01:24 PM

I have both cameras and will run some sample shots with a G-M color chart as soon as I get a chance.

Kevin Peer · February 13th, 2004, 02:10 PM

I owned a DVX100 for several months and did not have this problem then.

Like Byron, I also had the impression when I first looked through the DVX100A that there was a lot of noise in shadow areas, but thought it was the fine detail setting on the LCD viewfinder or something.

I may have mentioned that I am having alot of problems importing footage into FCP4 with this camera as well. Don't know if its the camera, the footage, or my editing configuration. For these tests I was using my Powerbook 1GZ G4 with 512mb RAM and the internal hard drive.

I've got calls in to the West coast Pan tech support guy and hope to hear from him today. Panasonic has been less than enthusiastically helpful about this, I have to say. I know 'everyone's busy' but they have certainly not had any urgency about this issue.

I'll report back when I know more.

Bryan Roberts · February 13th, 2004, 02:12 PM

With quality control issues such as this, is it likely that there will be a "fix" for current 100a owners like a way to send back ours to be repaired or maybe a trade policy to exchange for a new one? They surely wouldn't just leave us hanging after spending a serious chunk of change would they?

February 12th, 2004, 12:19 PM	#1
Kevin Peer New Boot Join Date: May 2003 Location: Lost Coast, California Posts: 14	DVX100AP Noise Problem and a Warning! I purchased a DVX100AP camera a few weeks ago and have seen a lot of grain and image noise particularly in shadows and areas with red in them. Panasonic tech support has been a nightmare in their unresponsiveness thus far. The dealer I bought it from said today that Panasonic has stopped shipping the DVX100AP because they are in 'Quality Control'. I don't know if it is because of the noise problem I am having or not, but I would suggest caution before buying one at present!

February 12th, 2004, 12:23 PM	#2
Stephen van Vuuren Space Hipster Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Greensboro, NC Posts: 1,508	Kevin: Sorry to hear of your troubles - what dealer did you hear this from? Do you have any screen grabs or footage of the problems? __________________ stephen v2 www.insaturnsrings.com

February 12th, 2004, 04:25 PM	#6
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	Kevin, We don't have a facility here for user uploads. If you could put a still of two up on your site, that would be good. If not, you can email them to me and I can put them on my .Mac site. __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com

February 12th, 2004, 10:32 PM	#7
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	Kevin's Samples Kevin sent me two sample frames in .PNG format. You can download them from my .Mac file sharing page in the "KPeer-DVX100A" folder. __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com

February 13th, 2004, 01:11 PM	#12
Charley Manske Tourist Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Watsonville, CA Posts: 2	Unfortunately, I think I'm another victim. I got a DVX100A from B&H about a week ago and I definitely see more grainy noise than I expected. Turning down the various detail settings helps some, but after reading this thread, I'm convinced Panasonic has a first-run quality control issue. Reminds me of the focus problems with the early Canon XL1's :( __________________ Charley Manske "Those who don't evolve will go extinct"

February 12th, 2004, 02:50 PM	#3
Tavis Shaver Major Player Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Vancouver, BC. Canada Posts: 209	if you hear back from pana about the QC post what they say.

February 12th, 2004, 04:16 PM	#4
Imran Zaidi Trustee Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 1,315	Oh oh... getting nervous.... Please let this be a hoax...

February 12th, 2004, 04:19 PM	#5
Kevin Peer New Boot Join Date: May 2003 Location: Lost Coast, California Posts: 14	I heard about the freeze on DVX100A shipments from Winston at Biz-Max.net. I will try to post an image and/or footage, though I'm not sure how to do it..

February 12th, 2004, 11:20 PM	#8
Kevin Peer New Boot Join Date: May 2003 Location: Lost Coast, California Posts: 14	Thank you for your help with the image files, Ken!

February 13th, 2004, 04:17 AM	#9
Paul Leung Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 173	I have the same problem and posted it previously in http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...154#post136154 Is the noise level high in my clip? I do notice the red is very bad... it bleeds. Anyway, I have set the coring to +7, PED to -5, details to -4 for 60i scene. That seems to improve the noise problem. However, red is still a headache!

February 13th, 2004, 11:44 AM	#10
Bryan Roberts Major Player Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 436	strange that you guys said this. I've only had mine for 2 weeks or so now and the first thing I was thinking to myself was, wow the black areas seem to have some noise or grain to them. I thought maybe my black balance was set incorrectly or something. I'm going to fire off some emails to panny today asking about the quality issues... Here's a screen shot from a dimly lit room with an orange shade over the light. There seemed to be some noise in this shot. Does this look like my unit might be one of those? This was with zero gain. http://www4.ncsu.edu/~berobert/dvx100ap.png

February 13th, 2004, 12:23 PM	#11
Imran Zaidi Trustee Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 1,315	Anybody have both the 100 and the 100A so we can see a comparison? Image quality analyses can be so subjective when you have nothing to gauge it against...

February 13th, 2004, 01:24 PM	#13
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	I have both cameras and will run some sample shots with a G-M color chart as soon as I get a chance. __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com

February 13th, 2004, 02:10 PM	#14
Kevin Peer New Boot Join Date: May 2003 Location: Lost Coast, California Posts: 14	I owned a DVX100 for several months and did not have this problem then. Like Byron, I also had the impression when I first looked through the DVX100A that there was a lot of noise in shadow areas, but thought it was the fine detail setting on the LCD viewfinder or something. I may have mentioned that I am having alot of problems importing footage into FCP4 with this camera as well. Don't know if its the camera, the footage, or my editing configuration. For these tests I was using my Powerbook 1GZ G4 with 512mb RAM and the internal hard drive. I've got calls in to the West coast Pan tech support guy and hope to hear from him today. Panasonic has been less than enthusiastically helpful about this, I have to say. I know 'everyone's busy' but they have certainly not had any urgency about this issue. I'll report back when I know more.

February 13th, 2004, 02:12 PM	#15
Bryan Roberts Major Player Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 436	With quality control issues such as this, is it likely that there will be a "fix" for current 100a owners like a way to send back ours to be repaired or maybe a trade policy to exchange for a new one? They surely wouldn't just leave us hanging after spending a serious chunk of change would they?