Panasonic AG-HMC70 AVCHD Camcorder

As part of my video production business I am often asked to pick-up a quick shot on video. Maybe we need some B-Roll for a documentary or footage for a PSA. Bigger projects usually require specialized equipment.

For a major worldwide real-estate developer we shot on the Panasonic HVX200 in HDV to a P2 chip. For a manufactured home community with a cutting edge concept and big budget we shot on a high speed 35mm film camera. We select the appropriate camera for the project. Since we can’t possibly have every camera in-house, we rent what we need, when we need it.

But we have to have something in house. Usually it’s a lower end camera that can take the abuse of laying around in our storage room. In the past it was a DXC series Betacam, then a DSR200 from Sony with it’s extra long record time. We even had a Panasonic DVX-100B. A camera to grab and go shoot without a lot of fuss.

So, lately I was searching for another camera to fill that bill. A grab and go that would not bring tears to my eyes when it took a scratch or bump.  I thought something around $2,500 that shoots to a solid state format like flash memory. I found the Panasonic AG-HMC70 3-chip AVCHD camcorder.

When I took possession of the camera it was presented to me on approval. That means I try it and return it if it was not worthy. I am going to keep it. I mailed the check today.

 Here’s what I like:

Shoulder mount - thank God for the entry level shoulder mount camcorder. The DVX100B was a great little cam with excellent pictures, but it was not shoulder-mountable. It was a small handheld and I hated trying to steady the cam in front of me. I always used a tripod because I could not rely on my hands to zoom as I held the camera.

Shoots to regular SD flash memory - More than an hour on a $12 4-Gig SD card in highest quality mode. I tested the different quality levels and it was soooo close I dare you to try and tell the difference. Don’t think I’m an idiot for saying this, but the AVCHD codec was so good I don’t know why the P2 card exists. Seriously. I shot with the HVX200 on P2 cards and I cannot see an appreciable gain in quality on P2 vs. the SD Flash. The easy accessibility of SD cards everywhere makes finding more memory in a pinch as easy as going into the nearest drugstore camera department.

The “normal” viewfinder - A viewfinder that is nice and beefy (albeit a tiny internal screen) and lets me grab it to adjust without thinking it will snap off.

The flip-out screen - the ubiquitous flip out LCD screens are on every camera now, and they are expected as part of standard equipment. But it would have been easy for Panasonic to cheap-out on this entry level camera and omit it. It would have been a good camera with just a viewfinder, but the Flip-out LCD is pure gravy.

 Light Weight - This is not a little tiny camera. Its a nice size. You don’t look like you are carrying a toy with this cam. But pick it up and you would think it is hollow. It was a little disconcerting at first, but if you’ve ever had a big old Betacam on your shoulder you know that you an permanently damage your spine with weight. I think my friend’s parrot is heavier than this camera. Lighter is better. An added benefit would be damage control. If you understand physics, a heavier camera will be damaged more when dropped. This thing is so light it will probably float to the floor.

Professional connectors - Real BNC, Real XLR and even HDMI and USB. I won’t get into the benefits of these connections, but they add a huge amount of value on an entry level camera. Just imagine shooting uncompressed full HD to your laptop.

Easy to use menu and controls - Really. No manual needed. Simple to use and understand.

Nice picture quality - This is the most important to me. I was so impressed by the DVX100B that I put up with the handheld design. I tried accessorizing the DVX100B so it was not so small, but it was still a prosumer camera. The AG-HVC70 looks and feels professional, not prosumer. It is priced in the prosumer ball park but I think it exceeds that catagory in picture quality. I tested in low light, bright light and studio light. It looks better than the best $30,000 Betacam I ever used. I put the pictures on scopes and viewed them on monitors. It looks as good as a $5,000 camera.

What I don’t like - the lens arrangement precludes the use of a currently available lens mount mattebox, the manual focus controls are less than intuitive, the battery life should be super due to no internal motors but it is just average, no multi-user pre-sets for different situations, the laughable system of menus and submenus written to the SD card by the formatting process, and no quick-release tripod plate to balance the connection to a tripod.

Here’s what I think they should have included - An SD card holder for extra SD cards built in (there’s lots of places to put one of these), a longer wire to the AC adapter (geez guys, why so cheap with the wire?),   a real focus ring, a plug to use readily available lens controllers (like zoom/focus by Varizoom) and just leave off the cheezy built-in microphone - they sound terrible and by leaving it off would require everyone to use a microphone that picks up sound properly.

In other words, this camera is just a few inches away from solid professional. It would not take very much work to make this a best bet for a huge segment of the shooters working industrial video. It’s a great event camera, it’s a great camera to learn the ropes on and it’s a very acceptable camera for industrial video and web video. I am pleased with the price and performance ratio. It will be fine for shooting pro bono PSAs and industrial videos for instruction and sales presentations.

It will never replace a Varicam or an uncompressed HD camera, but I didn’t buy it for that reason. I just bought it as a run and gun camera for the occasional production with budgetary constraints. With the way the economy is going I may end up shooting more on the AG-HMC70 than I do on all the others combined. A great tool in my everyday toolbox. Under $2500, that’s just nuts. But a little shopping around got mine for $1,700 with a free Blu-Ray Player that had an SD card slot to immediately play back from the SD card…  $1700??? WTF? Shop around, there are deals to be had.

This entry was posted on March 10, 2009 at 20:56 and is filed under Stuff That Can't Be Categorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

| Print