Panasonic AG-HVX200 P2 HD Camcorder

This one is a winner. I havent put it to too much test because I am still waiting for my 32GB P2 cards. I had done a bit of testing with the FS-100 HD and had to return it double fast. If you want to fully enjoy the use of this camera, its best to go with the P2 cards, they are light-weight and dont have any moving parts. The FS-100s are clumsy, although a great idea, you could easily pull the firewire cord without realising it and waste several hours of valuable recording in the process.

Good

The camera was in great condition and came with lots of awesome extras, though some unnecessary items. Card reader that came with the camera did not work, and seller was unresponsive to questions, but the product was quality and at a great price.

The Panasonic HVX200 is a camera that will go down in the history books as a major milestone in the development of HD video and digital filmmaking. Literally entire books have already been written just about this camera. It may be "old" by today's standards, but turn on any news channel and you are sure to see journalists STILL using this camera for ENG (electronic news gathering) applications, which it is perfect for. This camera has been used to shoot literally hundreds of award winning documentaries, and incredible work continues to be produced with it on a daily basis. This legend of a camera once costed many thousands of dollars to own, but you can now get a used HVX as cheap as $700. Never before has a broadcast quality (100mbps 4:2:2 color space) camera been so cheap. Professionals worldwide continue to buy used HVX's instead of the newer cameras now on the market. Why? Because when a camera works, it just works. The HVX200 is a real workhorse that has truly stood the test of time.

Being a professional videographer/producer.... I anxiously awaited the release of the HVX200. Having rented the 100Kplus Varicam for 1500 per day plus 600 per day for the deck.... I was head over heals when I read about the HVX coming out. It's DVCPRO HD codec is Professional. Not HDV consumer quality codec.. but real big boy stuff here. Sure, it doesn't have interchangeable lense, and a 2/3 chip... but man it's Sexy. Man it delivers the goods for a very reasonable price. One week or more of renting the Varicam and this baby is mine. It's my daily shooter.. my hammer and it's allowing me to deliver broadcast quality results without breaking the bank. Great for indi filmmakers and those looking to up their quality without killing their savings. It's also REVOLUTIONARY. Truly Tapeless and that's a God send. Tape is DEAD. Film is nearly dead and this camera is the harbinger of good things to come. It's not a pick up and shoot cold kind of cam. There's a learning curve... there some post considerations.. but all in all it's a 16mm film killer. Quality on par with 500 dollar for 10 minutes of Film kind of quality. It's variable speeds and timelapse is un-parralled. Ask anyone shooting tape to compare their Post affected slow motion with your real 60fps slow motion. It's just glorious.. as well is the 4:2:2 color. A must for green screen and high end work. Best piece of technology that I've ever bought.... and I'm sure it'll be serving me well for more to come. Already had it for a year and still excited about shooting wtih it... been a while since I could say that...

Everything is great. It would receive a full 5 star if the P2 prices is more reasonable or Panasonic driver will accept the P2 adapter and read/write regular reasonable priced SD.

Excellent image and the variable frame rate capability is excellent... however the cost of P2 cards is still absolutely outrageous.

We just received an AG-HVX200 and I tell you, it's got more menus than a powerhouse Chinese restaurant. It's not for people who enjoy the pyro-friendly camera; there are menus with the depth of a 15-layer cake. The reason is because the camera can be configured into over 100 different ways of shooting. The HVX200 gives the new user a challenge to sink or swim, because it thrusts you into deep water. If you've ever shot with the DVX100, you'll adapt to the HVX quite well, from other reviews I've read. I'm a still shooter for a major city daily newspaper, and we're moving towards high definition gear to shoot movie clips and pull frames for news print. With this in mind, the camera's color retention are quality. But I wish the configs were a bit simpler. It will take time to learn a new format of news-gathering, but I see the potential with this gear. One big drawback that I see is that the menu buttons are on top of the camera, beside and beneath the handle. Try shooting in the field and change your recording format, and it's an awkward feat to accomplish, since you're looking through the viewfinder (or watching the fold-out screen) as you scroll through the layers to figure which is the best recording format. Would I consider giving this camera up? Hail, no. It's a powerful tool, and the result is what the image quality is about. The color shift with reds and greens and blues are minimal, unlike other samples from competing cameras that I have seen. This, coupled with the ability to drop files into a PowerBook with Final Cut Pro makes it a fast and efficient companion to get files changed to .mov format to drop them into ftp for web publication. Delete unwanted files as you record. Drop the files onto a hard drive and wipe your P2 card to shoot some more. But you'd better have your software and hardware in order before you plunk down $6,000 retail,, just for the camera (and no mounted boom microphone - sold as an acc). A 4gb card sells $600, the optional 100gb Firestore costs $2,000 (which is about the same price as a couple 8gb P2 cards), Final Cut Pro 5 costs $1,000, and you aren't even talking about the need for a GOOD fluid head tripod ($500), wireless microphone system ($500), blue ray DVD burner (for the multitude of gigs of recording files), extra batteries and perhaps a large external drive to store clips as you figure how to keep all the hundreds of gigs of files from overloading all your open drive space. The HVX eats drive space like a great white eats people. It doesn't think, it just does, and at up to a gigabyte per minute. Even with working for a newspaper, we still have to adjust our budget royally to get what's needed for one HVX camera. Add filters or a 4x4 filter system and, yeesh. Or, kerching. It's bling bling for the developers, while you've just spent the same amount for your camera, just to get it up, and running. **Rule of thumb, boys and girls: plan to spend double the camera's cost to outfit a system; aka, you'll have to fork out over $11,000 to effectively shoot in the field and edit in-house.** For those in the pro field, it's probably worth it. For the casual user, or someone just getting into indie film making or trying to make money off the business, it might be worth it to wait. The HVX200 is a groundbreaking camera, like digital cameras revolutionized photography. Tapeless production will be adopted and will change the face of video production in the coming years. The price will drop as others compete for market share.