Panasonic AG-HVX200

The Panasonic AG HVX200 is a fixed lens high-definition video camera released in December 2005 (NTSC) and April 2006 (PAL). It can record HD video on solid state P2 cards or record DV video on MiniDV tapes. It also features variable frame rates (used for slow motion & fast motion cinematography) and a recording data rate of up to 100 Mbit/s, which is four times that of similarly priced HDV and DV cameras. The US$6000 MSRP camera is popular with independent filmmakers.[1]

The camera uses three 1/3 in 960x540 pixel (0.5 mega-pixel) progressive scan CCD's to capture the image. HD resolution is achieved by both horizontal and vertical spatial offset (aka. pixel shift or 'SBS-HD'). The green CCD in the array is physically shifted 1/2 pixel biaxially to achieve up to 50% higher horizontal and vertical resolution. This would make the theoretical maximum resolution of the image, 1440x810 pixels, even though each CCD has only 960x540 photosites. Internally the camera uses 1920x1080. In real-world use the actual measurable resolution of this camera has been tested at 540 lines horizontally by 540 lines vertically (see http://www.adamwilt.com/HD/4cams-part2.html).

The HVX200's resolution is recorded at 960x720 for 720p mode, and 1280x1080 for 1080i mode in 60 Hz territories; in 50 Hz (PAL) regions it is recorded at 1440x1080. The sensors employ variable scanning rates from 2 Hz to 60 Hz (NTSC version) or 50 Hz (PAL version) and are always capturing progressive images. The images are always scanned from the chips at a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Those images are then downsampled to a size appropriate for the recording format (for DVCPRO that means 720x480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL; for DVCPRO HD it means 960x720 for 720p or 1280x1080 for US/NTSC 1080i/p, or 1440x1080 for EU/PAL 1080i/p).

Features

The HVX200, successor to the Panasonic DVX100, supports:

• Variable frame rates and resolutions, including (in the NTSC version):
  • 1080: 60i, 30p, 24p
  • 720: 60p, 48p, 36p, 32p, 30p, 26p, 24p, 22p, 20p, 18p, 12p
  • 480: 60i, 30p, 24p
  • The camera can also record in non-standard framerates at 720 lines of resolution using a hack, including all even numbers from 2 through 60 fps plus 3, 23, and 27 fps ([2] [3]). Using external hardware and the framerate hack allows recording of 24.975 fps, similar to the PAL standard([4]). All of these framerates are approximate.
• Professional/Robust format (DVCPRO-HD)
• Tapeless recording using the P2 storage media (Available in 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB, and now recently 64 GB sizes.) A hard disk recording device has also been announced by various 3rd-party vendors (FS-100 Firestore, Shining Corp's Citidisk HD and Cineporter from Spec-Comm, but due to lack of market interest, the CinePorter™ will NOT be going into production.)
• Audio: 48 kHz 16-bit 4-channel PCM audio, 2xXLR

Digital Cinema and Videography

The AG-HVX200 is popular with users because the DVCPro HD recording format helps minimize compression issues and maintain color fidelity (4:2:2 color compression) compared to similarly priced HDV and DV cameras (both performing 4:2:0 color compression). The variable frame rate options of the AG-HVX200 are also more extensive than in competing cameras. HDV serves a different market by recording high-definition video on inexpensive miniDV and DV tapes, with some potential quality compromises from using inter-frame compression and reduced color sampling.

Competitors

The main competitors of the HVX200 as of December, 2007 are as follows:

• Sony PMW-EX1
• Sony HVR-Z1U
• Sony HVR-V1U
• Canon XH-A1
• Canon XH-G1
• Canon XL-H1
• JVC HD100U and HD-110U

In late 2007 Sony introduced the Sony XDCAM EX, which records in XDCAM HD format on SxS and SSD memory cards. Because this camera offers tapeless HD recording and higher bandwidth encoding than HDV, it is likely to be seen as a more direct competitor to the AG-HVX200 than the cameras listed above. The downfall is still that the Sony XDCAM EX records at a 35mb/sec mpeg data stream which is better than the HDV 25mb/sec, but the HVX200 records at up to 100mb/s DVCPro HD data stream.

Note: the HVX200 has 3 1/3" 960x540 resolution CCD's; whereas the EX1 from Sony has 3 1/2" 1920x1080 resolution CMOS chips. In summary, the Panasonic has higher bandwidth (lower compression), and lower resolution sensors, which are smaller. The size of the sensors are relevant to depth of field, sensitivity, and fidelity among other things.

Professional Use

The film Cloverfield was shot partially with the HVX200 (other cameras used were the Sony CineAlta F23 and the VIPER FilmStream). The HVX200 was most likely used for the "setup" and "flashback" segments that appear at odd points throughout the film, whereas the other cameras would be more practical for use with shots involving complex CGI.

External links

• Official page at Panasonic
• The HVX200 page in the Movie Making Manual WikiBook.
• Call Box Post-production training DVD for the HVX200 and Apple's Final Cut Pro.
• Detailed comparison of pixel-shifted and high-res sensors.