love the "old-school" form factor

Your teachers were correct – you should have listened in math class :-)

Excellent review – enjoyed it.

Batman!

How's the cam in terms of DOF as compared to your current EX+Letus setup?

Seems like the colors look more sony-ish then they do on the HVX200. Can you confirm?

Well IMO, the sony(EX1, HC1) colors are much more sober, less vivid then the panasonic ones (hvx200,hpx170), they are probably more realistic but the warmth and intensity of the panasonic has its charm and fans. I don't know if it's a deliberate choice of the two companies or just due to technical differences (CMOS/CCD).

Btw, I like what you do, I especially liked the shots in "The Echo" (a great text and great acting as well). I think using the entire shallowness of field (SOF) that the 35 mm DOF adapters allow is actually overdoing it with regard to 35mm movie film, because the 35mm movie film image is half the size of the 35mm still picture.
The 1/2 inch of the ex1 sensor is about the size of 16mm film frame . People did not bother use DOF adapters with 16mm film even when they blew it up to 35mm. I just mean I wonder if it's worth loosing that bit of sharpness and ergonomics for that (perhaps that too much of) SOF (shalowness of field).

Hey Phil what happened?U r gaining weight!lol
good review!5 stars

Thanks for putting this together! At that price, this camera is really impressive! I know once I move up from the palmcorder up to a serious camera.. this is definitely one I will take a close look at!

you've got it made phil

great instruction. This is a nice camera, still better as the HPX500, I think

Its on my christmas list

Hi Philip,

what camera was used to film this review, 171?
cheers

A Panasonic camera's footage looks like film. Sony's footage is more like video. And the Red footage is really like just like video (with a slightly negative connotation...) ;~))

Now, since Panny had unleashed this HPX300/301 beast, its dealers have difficulty unloading the VariCam 2700. Okay, so the 2700 has a 2/3-inch sensor, but... BUT... it is only has a 1MP sensor. And this little sucker has a 2.2MP sensor. Case closed. I would rather have a 1/3-inch sensor with 2.2MP than a 2/3-inch sensor w. 1MP.

Othern than the HPX300, one would really need to move up to the top dawgie, the 3700 VariCam. It is still the best D-film camera out there for a reasonable amount of money, which is why the Panny VariCams have handily beat the Sony F and Red One in an ASC D-Cinema shootout.

300 or 3700... could that be the question?

Nice review, always fun to get all the stuff I actually really want to know. Good to see Panasonic is producing a "real" camera for the budget market. Big promise for the future when it will be time to trade in my EX-3.

The 300 reminds me a bit of the cute little 700 DVCPRO Phillips/BTS and Pana use to have. That was a really nice compact little camera.

422 is really good news and love the USB file option!
If only Letus would make a 1/3 relay....

Probably should check the Pana site, but looks like it comes with AB gold mount and I just switched to Vmount :P

About the "copy the files to an external USB device". A friend and me went up to our Professional camera supplier here in Norway (Video4) and talked to them about this function, they had no clue on what I was talking about and I showed them this video. We messed around the camera for about 20 mins looking for this function in the menu without luck. Futhermore he called me back during the week and he had sent some emails around Norway to other retaliers about this, but no luck. He is now waithing for an answer from Panasonic in Germany. Your video created quite a stir ;)

Feel to explain? Please, its driving us nuts :)

Great review! Thanks Philip!

Just bougth the camera and it kicks ass! Took some test shoots and watched it on our 42" LCD tv and we where blown away hehe ;) Going to town next week and take some test shoots, uploading the result here later on ;)

Hi Philip, I know you have tested both Cameras HPX 300 & JVC 700, which one you recommend for wedding purpose and Music video?
Appreciated.

Hi Philip, excellent review as always.

Quick question - do you prefer the image quality of the hpx301 over the EX3? What do you find better to shoot with?

Say you have the HMC150 with 1/3-inch chips or even the Sony HC1. It is damn small. Then you have this shoulder-mount beast with the same 1/3-inch chips, with the lens outside the box in the front, the battery outside the box in the back and the mic outside the box on the top. What is inside the box?