Panasonic 4K DVX200 Announced

[David Parks]

Of all the features of the DVX 200, I am most excited about Vlog L. It will allow you to get 12 stops of latitude and match with footage from GH4. We have been shooting with flat profiles on the GH4 and applying a Varicam 35 Vlog to Rec 709 LUT with inteeeresting results. The demo below gives you a good feel for the extended dynamic and color range you can achieve with Vlog L.

Panasonic 4K Anamorphic and V-Log L - Official Video on Vimeo

[Philip Lipetz]

Panasonic DVX200 First Look - YouTube

[Andy Wilkinson]

Good summary of features.

My mouse has been hovering over the pre-order button for this cam on a major UK supplier's website more than once the last few weeks!

Can't wait to see some images actually shot with the DVX200 - but I guess those won't be too far off now.

[Andy Wilkinson]

DVX200 footage!

It's worth noting the comments he (Jonathan Lawrence) made on the YouTube page too, directly quoted below:

"Please do not judge the camera's ability by my footage - this is just a sneak peak. I did not understand the full potential of this camera until after I shot this.

The image quality you will see coming from this camera is without question some of the best I have seen from from a camera in the price range.

The camera has some problems in the pre-release that I hope Panasonic will take into consideration for the final release, Several cinematographers and myself just spent two days in Japan, shooting with and for Panasonic. We all came to similar conclusions about the camera's strength and weakness . If they are able to solve these issues the camera could find and audience. It has much potential for documentaries, sports and event video. I will have more cinema style samples posted soon.

This footage is over graded and down converted to HD it is not meant to dissect only to start a conversation of the possibilities of this camera."

DVX200 - YouTube

[Noa Put]

Looking at some shots in this video it gives me the impression the camera has limited DR and doesn't handle highlights well, like the image at 01:00 where a part of the building was lit by sunlight and the rest was in the shade, the building was exposed right but you hardly could see details in the rest of the image, can this be because a preset was used that added to much contrast and saturation? The image that stood out the most was the girl at the end of the video where the outside part was quite overexposed which reminds me a lot of the look you get with cheap handicams.

[Andy Wilkinson]

Exactly my early impressions too - but this is the very first footage that we've seen from the DVX200 (apart from some badly shot "engineering samples" - supposedly - filmed though a hotel window that appeared on YouTube about a week ago).

From now (the end of July) until around September/October still gives Panny a lot of time to tweak it/get things right.

So I won't judge the cam just yet. Here's hoping they really do get this right/produce a winner.

[Noa Put]

I don't want to offend the guy that shot this video but I don't understand why Panasonic gives a prerelease camera to someone who shoots it in the way he does, he says so himself it's overgraded and I can add overexposed and shaky all over. Releasing such a video does Panasonic more harm then good because if I was in the market for such a camera based on this video I now already would be looking elsewhere.

[Andy Wilkinson]

Better (much better...) DVX200 footage.

As always, it's not just the camera but the skill of who is using it that matters.

Seriously thinking of pre-ordering a DVX200 after seeing this tonight!

News Shooter | First Panasonic DVX200 footage published online by Sebastian Wiegaertner

[Rich Adrion]

I think that was the rough edit, this seems to be the final cut
The First Footage from the Panasonic DVX200 Looks a Lot Like the GH4, Which Is Great

KYOTO - A Panasonic AG-DVX200 short film on Vimeo

[Jack Zhang]

My biggest gripe is the focus. When it's iris is wide open, I see problems normally associated with a servo backfocus based system like an EX1's, but magnified due to the sensor size. I wouldn't shoot on this with a wide open aperture. Simple test: If for some reason the focus doesn't breathe at all, it's backfocus based focus. Manual lenses will always breathe at this price range.

The thing I learned about the EX1 is never ever leave it at F1.9. In this case you may want to stop down from it's wide open of F2.8 to F3.5 or F4. This will drastically affect Telephoto.

Noticed on the train shot from the amateur filmmaker some bad rolling shutter. Could be the HPX300 all over again where you have to choose the 60p framerate to avoid rolling shutter.

The 4:2:0 H.264 is going to limit grading. Let's hope the HDMI 2.0 port on the production model can be hooked up to a portable HDMI 2.0 recorder soon.

[Philip Lipetz]

One test specifically said there is no back focus problem

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Rich Adrion

I think that was the rough edit, this seems to be the final cut

That other video was shot by another guy but they appeared to both be on the same location, same camera, different operator and you immediately see the difference.

[Jack Zhang]

Originally Posted by Philip Lipetz

One test specifically said there is no back focus problem

By design, if everything works as it should, it shouldn't have problems to the average user. But it doesn't look as good with a wide open iris as I was hoping. My EX1R doesn't look good with a wide open aperture at full wide zoom, and this one has that effect magnified. Just personally, I'd always shoot closed down to F4 if I had my hands on this camera.

It's not a problem that the backfocus is off, the thing is the servo focus is the backfocus. This is why the EX1 was able to hit the price point it did and not have any focus breathing.

[Jim Martin]

Great looking stuff......and if you saw Jonathan's footage yesterday vs this, the only real difference is style. It shows that the same camera (assuming they had identical base settings) in two different hands can get you very different "feels" to their chosen shots....both good, just different..I personally like the German's shots....and we set Jonathan up with Panasonic to go on the trip!

Jim Martin
EVSonline.com

[Andy Wilkinson]

Interesting French DVX200 test footage on YouTube.

YouTube (Short URL)