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Shoot Review: Panasonic AG-HMC150

Nov 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Reviewer: Jan Ozer

Moving AVCHD to the professional market.

Though there is also a peaking display, note that the HMC150 doesn't include all the focus aids that are included with the HPX170. Specifically, the focus bar (another visual gauge of focus levels) and Manual Focus Assist (which performs final fine-tuning adjustments) are not included with the HMC150.

Finally, DRS dynamically adjusts the gamma curve and knee slope of each pixel in realtime — which, in theory, should help preserve detail in scenes with lots of dynamic range or significant extremes in bright and dark regions. I tested this feature on the DSC Labs ChromaDuMonde test chart, which shows 11 gradations from black to white. As you can see on the upper left-hand side of both charts in Figure 3, at the maximum setting, DRS does preserve more detail in the whites. Look at the three distinct bands, which pretty much appear as an indistinguishable lump without DRS. It feels like you should have to pay a price for this expanded range, but in my limited tests, I couldn't see any downside.

While working with the ChromaDuMonde, I also assessed the resolution preserved by the camcorder. By way of background, Panasonic no longer releases the pixel counts of CCDs used in its camcorders, but it has stated that there are fewer pixels in the CCD than in the ultimate storage target. To make up the difference, Panasonic uses the same pixel-shifting (or more technically, biaxial spatial offset) that's implemented in the HVX200 and HPX170. Not surprisingly, in my tests, the resolution was about the same as that of the HPX170, which is pretty lofty for a camcorder that costs several thousand dollars less.

During all my shoots with the camcorder, I was continually reminded of the fact that I was storing relatively low-bit-rate video (compared to DVPRO HD, anyway) to an inexpensive — yet reasonably capacious — storage device. For example, the informal concert totaled 50 minutes of video, and I still had 40 minutes left of space on my 16GB card. That was sweet.

Back in the office, working with AVCHD was also sweet. All videos imported smoothly into Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, which I was glad to see. I could copy the video from the SD/SDHC card using a card reader on my computer, which was faster than USB (and much faster than realtime capture from tape). Apple Final Cut Pro seemed to work best when importing directly from the camcorder via the cable, which took longer, but the video edited fine in both programs. On my loaner eight-core workstations, a Mac Pro and an HP xw6600, editing with both editors felt snappy — though I didn't run any comparative benchmarks with HDV.

With the HMC150, Panasonic is signaling that professional AVCHD is here, and here to stay. As with the HPX170, the new focus- and exposure-related features put it ahead of other camcorders in its price range, and they set a bar that other camcorders will have a hard time clearing in the short term.

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bottomline

Company: Panasonic
www.panasonic.com/broadcast

Product: AG-HMC150

Assets: Good low-light performance, 3-second prerecord cache, useful waveform monitor, expanded focus assist that stays active in record mode, Dynamic Range Stretch preserves detail.

Caveats: AVCHD import to Apple Final Cut Pro works best when importing directly from the camcorder via the cable, which takes longer.

Demographic: ENG, corporate, and event videographers.

PRICE: $3,995

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