I’ve been using the Panasonic DVX100a for filmmaking for about two years. I like to shoot in 16:9 aspect ratio for widescreen DVDs. Being able to shoot in ‘native’ 16:9 mode is what originally interested me in the HVX200.
The DVX provides a native 4:3 standard definition (720x480) image. To get 16:9 from it, you have to shoot in squeeze mode, which basically crops off the top and bottom of the 4:3 image to 720x360 and then digitally stretches it to 720x480. The resulting widescreen looks pretty good, but it still only has only 360 pixels of “real” information in the image. I started using the Panasonic Anamorphic adapter, which optically squeezes the image (instead of digitally), so that all 480 pixels have “real” information, resulting in a sharper final image. The anamorphic adapter is complicated to use, because it focuses at one distance in the horizontal direction of the lens and at a different distance in the vertical direction of the lens. You basically have to find these two different focal lengths, average them, and then stop down the iris and use the iris to focus the camera. So – no autofocus.
So my original interest in the HVX200 was to be able to shoot in native 16:9 widescreen, without the complexity of the anamorphic adapter and without the quality loss of squeeze mode. Plus, I would be able to use autofocus again.
I knew that the HVX was a High Definition camera, but I also knew that there was no HD DVD standard yet accepted. So I was more interested in the camera for shooting SD than for shooting in HD. And I really saw the HD capabilities of the camera as “future proofing” my investment, rather than having immediate practical use. I knew that the camera could record to P2 Flash memory cards, but I didn’t know why I would want to do that rather than shooting to miniDV tape.
My expectations of the HVX200 were rather low. I just expected a camera identical to the DVX100a, but with native 16:9 widescreen.
When it arrived, the HVX200 looked like a bigger, fatter, blacker, DVX100 with the buttons in slightly different places. As I started to learn about the camera, I soon understood that my expectations were incorrect. It wasn’t like a super-charged DVX. It was like someone had time-traveled and brought the HVX back from the future. Learning to use the HVX200 has changed the way I think about filmmaking and film production.
The HVX200 is the “Swiss Army Knife” of video cameras. It is designed with features that will make it useful in a range of applications. And it is designed to fit into many workflows with many kinds of equipment. The HVX200 records in 13 different formats to P2 flash memory card, and it records in standard definition (DV) to miniDV tape; also, some clip formats recorded to P2 card can be dubbed in the camera to the miniDV tape, reducing the resolution to standard definition DV on the fly. This review discusses the NTSC version of the camera, as I don’t have the PAL version.
HD to P2 and SD to tape
Let’s talk about a few differences that make this camera unique from other cameras in its price range. The camera does not record HD to tape in HDV format, as do all the other lower-cost professional HD cameras from Canon, JVC, and Sony. Instead, it records HD video in DVCPROHD format. And although it does have a miniDV tape unit, it only records standard definition DV to tape. At first glance, this combination of HD with an SD tape unit made me shake my head. If I want HD, why not record HDV to tape like other video cameras? Why put a DV tape unit in this camera instead of an HDV tape unit? But then after considering it, I realized that a lot of people are going to continue shooting in SD for a lot of applications. For example, if you just want to record an hour of video to make a standard definition DVD, then recording in HD is overkill. A lot of content destined for DVDs, CDs, or the Internet don’t require HD. And if you record in HD, then you have to reduce the resolution in post, which consumes resources and time. So that was a great realization for me: HD doesn’t make SD go away, it just provides more production alternatives. The HVX200 can work equally well in an HD or an SD application.
