By site editor Dan Chung:
We’ve looked at the upcoming Panasonic DVX200 several times here on Newsshooter. The 4K camera is designed for documentary and event shooting and has a moderately large Micro4/3 sensor with a built-in zoom lens and neutral density filter. Now we finally get to see some actual footage from the camera courtesy of DP Sebastian Wiegaertner. He was one of ten camera people from around the globe invited to Kyoto, Japan to shoot with pre-production versions of camera by Panasonic.
The footage above is shot in 4K (UHD) 50P using the V-log profile and has been graded with grain added. While it doesn’t show the full picture quality the camera is capable of, it does demonstrate that in the right hands it can produce something that looks reasonably cinematic.
Sebastian told me that the camera has a native ISO of 500 and V-log gamma curves providing a claimed 12 stops of dynamic range. As we previously reported the internal recording is limited to 4:2:0 and Sebastian was quick to point out that 4:2:2 would have been preferable. The lens is variable aperture and not fixed and Sebastian said he would have preferred a constant aperture. Despite this he told me that it produced great images and that the Vimeo version of the video you can see above doesn’t do justice to the camera thanks to the compression applied.
Sebastian also said he thought the camera was “perfect camera for Documentaries and fast TV report stuff, where you have to be fast and where you still want to achieve a cinematic image” and that “due to the M4/3 sensor it is way easier to focus than with a Super 35 or Full Frame sensor”.
Interestingly Sebastian also said that Panasonic engineers claimed the image from the DVX200 has almost the same colours as the high end Varicam 35.
Edit: We’ve also added this new footage below by French DoP Emilie Aujé who was also on the tour. It shows both 4K downscaled to HD and also cropped and looks pretty clean
You can see a behind the scenes video of the tour (with a rather cheesy soundtrack) below:
Separately UK dealer Holdan have also published a video that runs through the camera’s features that is worth watching if you are considering the DVX200:
Sebastian Wiegaertner is a Director of Photography for Feature Film, Commercial and Documentary. Mainly shooting feature films on Alexa and RED Dragon. You can visit his website www.wiegaertnerfilms.com or find him through these links:
www.twitter.com/wiegaertner
www.instagram.com/wiegaertner
www.facebook.com/wiegaertnerfilms
