* PANASONIC HC-X800 TOUCHSCREEN REVIEW HC-X900 *

[HC-X800]

Panasonic HC-X800 touchscreen here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBTL3Xd7HS4

...looks cool!

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The Panasonic HC-X900 is capable of filming side-by-side
Full-HD 3D using the VW-CLT2 Conversion Lens. 3D mode is
activated in the menu and the LCD screen also displays
the image in 3D. Lighter and more compact than the
previous version, Panasonic has made the 3D lens easier
to mount by using a latching system instead of a screw.
The X900 also gives 33 mm wide angles, compared to
58 mm on the last model. Price: £200.

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The HC-x900 is Panasonic's new Ferrari. This AVCHD
digital camcorder has everything a videographer would
need, with the highest quality Full HD resolution on the
market.

The relatively large X900 may seem daunting at first: it
is 15 centimetres long and weighs nearly 500 grammes with
the battery attached. It has every function an enthusiast
would want in his tool belt and is highly user-friendly.
The Power button turns the machine on and off, and a
battery saver switches it off automatically after a few
minutes without use (the time settings can be changed in
the menu). It also turns on automatically whenever you
open the screen or pull out the viewfinder. By the way,
the mere presence of a viewfinder is rare enough these
days to point out. It's too bad it doesn't swivel and the
hole is so small (6 mm). The LCD screen, on the other
hand, is a hands-down success. At 8.8 cm large with
1.15-Megapixel resolution, it swivels all the way around
for a mirror effect and is 3D-compatible.

It has a satin finish, which is certainly higher quality
than the glossy-glittery coating used on the last model,
but it looks all too chintzy for our taste. And the
connection ports are housed under plastic flaps that don't
exactly scream longevity. It's a shame that Panasonic
didn't use nicer materials for a high-end camcorder that
costs upwards of £800.

When it comes to usage, in iA mode all the settings are
automated: automatic white balance, exposure and (very
fast) focusing. But we like the fact that you can quickly
switch to manual mode simply by hitting the Manual button
on the outside of the camcorder. This allows you to do
your own focusing with the lens ring, control the gain
and calibrate the white balance yourself. You can also
deactivate the image stabiliser by pressing the O.I.S.
button if you're filming on a tripod. And last but not
least, there's a button for switching to 1080/50p mode to
obtain the highest possible quality HD image. Simply put,
the X900 can be used without ever having to go through
the touchscreen menu. And that's a good thing.

Now for the menu. It opens via an arrow button on the
touchscreen. A page with three submenus opens: 1) Record
Setup, 2) Picture, 3) Setup. Here you can select the HD
image quality (resolution, speed, scanning), the mic
volume and the digital zoom. Basically, the kind of
settings you rarely change.

The battery that comes in the box (VW-VBN130) provides
only 50 minutes of customary use (recording, turning the
device on and off, using the screen...). It takes 2 hrs
30 min to charge back up via an adapter with the battery
attached to the camcorder. Unfortunately Panasonic
decided to do away with the external charger, which would
allow you to charge one battery while using another on
the device.

The reason you can't see any accessory mounts on the
outside of the body is because they're hidden beneath a
protective cover on the front right-hand side of the
casing. An adapter is included for attaching a DC light
or stereo microphone.

Images filmed with the HC-X900 are extremely sharp thanks
to the astounding 9-Megapixel resolution, distributed
across three ¼-inch 3-Megapixel MOS sensors. The signal
is then down-sampled to 2 Megapixels to produce a 1920 x
1080 pixel Full HD image that's noticeably more precise
than with lower-quality sensors. But contrary to
photo/video devices like the Canon 7D whose oversized
sensor produces a good deal of moiré (lines getting
jumbled), with the X900 we detected none on our test
chart. In fact, it's the sharpest image we've seen,
along with the HC-V700, also from Panasonic.

The X900 performs equally as well in low lighting, giving
a very "clean" image, in that there's practically no
noise under 3 lux (gain up to 18 dB). In automatic mode
the colours turn out bright, if not at times saturated in
over-exposed areas. The automatic white balance tends to
make the image a bit cooler, with a slight tendency
towards blue-green.

As an AVCHD 2.0 camcorder, the HC-X900 features the same
1080/50p mode that Panasonic has integrated in all of its
camcorders post-2009. This is the highest quality HD image
right now, combining the smooth motion of 50 images per
second with the close precision of progressive scanning
(p). The files are stored on an SD/SDHC/SDXC card (min.
Class 4, up to 64 GB) that is inserted in the slot on the
underside of the camcorder. The X900 has no internal
storage. One 32 GB SD card can store 2 hrs 40 min of
1080/50p recording. A warning to video editors: 50p files
require more resources from video editing and playing
software than AVCHD 1080/50i clips, primarily due to the
high speed (28 Mbps) and Mpeg-4 compression.

The Leica lens offers a 12x optical zoom starting at a
29.8 mm wide angle in 35 mm equivalent. The lens is
stabilised with Hybrid O.I.S. technology, a system for
optical/electrical image stabilisation. This new system
greatly reduces the effect of vertical and horizontal
trembling of the hands when zoomed all the way in. During
our tests we found that it was especially effective with
minor, vertical trembling. On the whole, the stabiliser
guarantees a sharp and stable image at long focal lengths.

And Panasonic hasn't forgotten the audio. The HC-X900
features a 5.1 microphone that picks up ambient sound all
around the camcorder. The mic jack allows you to plug in
an external microphone, and the headphone jack gives you
control over the sound level (set manually). A USB cable
is included for transferring videos onto a computer.
However, it's often simpler to copy them directly from the
SD card (most computers have an SD slot).

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