View Full Version : Panasonic HC-VX870 and HC-WX970 at CES2015


Phil Goetz
January 5th, 2015, 08:29 AM
There are new point and shoots as well as video cameras from Panasonic for 2015. I am just posting the features of the two highest end camcorders:

HC-VX870
4K Ultra HD Camcorder with Wireless Smartphone Twin Video Capture
• 4K Video
• 20x Optical Zoom
• Wifi Enabled
• Twin Camera Function
• HDR Movie Mode

HC-WX970
4K Ultra HD Camcorder with Built-in Twin Video Camera
• 4K Video
• 20x Optical Zoom
• 5 Axis Stabilization
• Wifi Enabled
• Twin Camera Function
• HDR Movie Mode

Joe Ogiba
January 5th, 2015, 02:14 PM
Actual Shooting 4K Video of Panasonic New 4K Camcorders: WX970/WX979/WX979M/VX870/VX878/VX870M - YouTube

Glen Vandermolen
January 5th, 2015, 03:34 PM
Here's the official Panasonic video:

Introducing Panasonic New 4K Camcorders: WX970/WX979/WX979M/VX870/VX878/VX870M - YouTube

B&H listing:

Panasonic HC-WX970 4K Ultra-HD Camcorder with Twin HC-WX970 B&H

Paul Mailath
January 6th, 2015, 03:37 AM
that was an official panasonic video?.....that was appalling!

Glen Vandermolen
January 6th, 2015, 07:57 AM
that was an official panasonic video?.....that was appalling!

Nah. It reaches its target audience: families that want to record videos of their kids, with something better than a smart phone. 4K will future-proof it better than current HD. I liked the dynamic range in the videos. Too bad the cameras don't have an EVF. I do almost all my shooting with an EVF.

Kris Kohuth
January 6th, 2015, 09:22 AM
There are a few other samples out there.
Here's one with the requisite cats, koalas and parrots:

Actual Shooting 4K Video of Panasonic New 4K Camcorders: WX970/WX979/WX979M/VX870/VX878/VX870M - YouTube

Some weirdness with moving detail (feathers and the bellies of the wrestling lions), but it's YouTube, and I'm not on a 4K monitor.
Any thoughts?

Also, someone pointed out that the mic input is under the flip-out door. Since there's no EVF, does that mean the LCD needs to ALWAYS be on when recording?
(I'd be using this unattended.)

Dave Blackhurst
January 6th, 2015, 01:57 PM
Aside from a little 30p related motion stuff (slightly "jumpy" looking because of the low frame rate) with the parrots, looked pretty decent on my 4K Seiki. Probably a slower shutter speed would have helped there.

Phil Goetz
January 7th, 2015, 02:48 PM
Article on the HC-WX970:

Panasonic Camcorders Flip the Selfie | Videomaker.com (http://www.videomaker.com/videonews/2015/01/panasonic-camcorders-flip-the-selfie?utm_source=enews&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article1_2015_wed_01_06&utm_campaign=traffic)

Glen Vandermolen
January 9th, 2015, 06:14 AM
B&H specs on the camera says it has a 460,800 pixel count LCD. Isn't that low, even for an HD camera?

Noa Put
January 9th, 2015, 06:32 AM
The image it outputs looks very good though based on these 2 videos.

Phil Goetz
January 15th, 2015, 10:04 AM
Has anyone seen any shipping ETAs on the HC-WX970?

Robert Chang
February 2nd, 2015, 12:09 PM
Based on all the information available about the X970, it seems like it's not necessarily an upgrade to the X920, since the X920 is not being discontinued by Panasonic, while priced the same as the X970.

The X970 only uses one 1.23" sensor for the 4K, which means the low-light noise level is likely higher than the X920, which has the 3MOS sensor.

4K is not nearly as important to me as having lower noise in low-light shooting, so does that mean I should just keep the X920 I already have?

I called Panasonic and they couldn't tell me I didn't already know, neither could the guys at bhphoto.

Kris Kohuth
February 5th, 2015, 02:10 PM
First actual review I've seen...though it's in Russian (linked via Google translate to English):

www.ixbt.com/divideo/panasonic-hc-wx970 (http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.ixbt.com/divideo/panasonic-hc-wx970.shtml)

Sample footage is linked for download, in various bitrates and resolutions.

Robert Chang
February 5th, 2015, 07:20 PM
Thanks for sharing that review. The automatic translation of Russian is surprisingly coherent.

The color noise of the X970 is definitely higher than the X920, while the luminance noise is similar.

Glen Vandermolen
February 5th, 2015, 08:28 PM
At last, now we know where the SD card goes: in the bottom. Different.

Phil Goetz
February 19th, 2015, 02:33 PM
I am leaning towards the 870 over the 970 if we get one for the shop. Just not going to take advantage of the additional couple features of the 970.