"painfully slow servo zoom and... non-functioning auto focus"
 

The latest issue of EventDv magazine had a review of the HVX200. It liked the camera, but said it has a "painfully slow zoom servo and almost non-functioning auto-focus. For all practical purposes, the auto-focus doesn't function if you zoom in or out during a shot."

Comments from users?

Also, is the transition between one P2 card to the next seamless, or is there any sort of gap in recording?

from all reports, the transition from card to card is seemless...

as for the zoom focus, this can be turned on or off in the menu. the DVX also has this...

It seems they havent tweaked the settings or someone tweked the settings and didnt reset them before the "review"considering teh resolutions were talking abotu, autofocus in prgressive mode is about 1/3 the speed of interlaced... again, teh DVX is also affected by this..

Just curious... why would you turn off the zoom focus?

Where is this "zoom focus"? Not in the menus which I just reviewed in the book...

I set both both zoom and focus on manual.

I don't use the zoom button often and find it's a lot quicker to frame a shot with the manual zoom control.

And I generally don't trust autofocus and manually focus all shots.

Doesn't this camera have the same limitation as some of the others like the DVX and the XL series in that it only has one motor for both functions. Therefore, you can't zoom and focus at the same time.

Just curious since that would explain the statement made by the magazine.

-gb-

So the servo zoom is "painfully slow?" Are we talking AG-456 slow?

If you're used to a 2/3" camera, yeah, the servo IS painfully slow. It's even substantially slower than my XL1 was (albeit smoother). As mentioned above, I've taken to turning the servo off for any shooting where I know I don't need to do a controlled zoom during the shot. Is that a pain? Yeah, kinda. Every once in a while it's bagged me...by the time I've turned it back on, I've lost the shot.

The servo also jumps between 0 and about 5%...you can't really feather it all the way off or on. It's a cheap servo. Apparently someone at Panasonic (name omitted to protect the honest) admitted as much in a burst of candor.

It's pretty clear, given the upcoming new mid-price cameras to be released, that an advance marketing decision was made to not build the 200 so good that it'd cannibalize the more expensive models.

My benchmark for slow zoom function is the Panasonic AG-456; it was like watching grass grow. Is the HVX200's zoom that slow?

The HVX takes about three to three and a half seconds to zoom from full wide angle to 13x zoom. From 4.2 to 55mm takes a bit over three seconds at its fastest speed.

Of course, you can disable the servo and execute a "snap zoom" from full wide to full tele, or back, in about 1/10th of a second.

Do either of those sound "painfully slow"?

I read in one thread that you have to turn the zoomring a lot to go from wide to to max. zoom, can you elaborate on that? Is it different than other cams?

Bye the way I received your great HVX book :-)))

This is a "feature" common to all camcorders in this price range, the sole exception of which is the JVC GY-HD100, as it uses a completely different kind of lens.

That's not accurate; the zoom is only a 90-degree throw from min to max. I actually wish it was a lot further.

Now, the focus ring, that's different, yes you have to turn the focus ring a lot further than you do with other cameras.

Hey, thanks for the update! Glad it finally got there! :)

True of other cams, but not the HVX. HVX can focus and zoom at the same time, including using autofocus in combination with motorized servo zoom. Works fine.

There seems to be a lot of contradictory info about this camera. What is the truth? Can it focus during a zoom or not? Is autofocus good or lousy? Is the viewfinder acceptable for focusing or not?

The truth is that I just ran this test, and posted my results.

Undoubtedly, unquestionably, absolutely yes.

Depends on what frame rate you're shooting at. If you're shooting 60i or 60p, it's excellent. If you're shooting 24p it's so slow as to be only of marginal value.

No viewfinder on any of the 1/3" HD cameras is acceptable for focusing. It's mathematically impossible to accurately represent a 2-million-pixel image on a 200,000-pixel display device. You can't do it, and trying will just lead to frustration (and out-of-focus shots.)

That's why JVC offers its b&w/colored-peaking "focus assist" mode, and user-dialable peaking. That's why Sony & Canon both have full-screen magnified focus assist. And why the HVX has peaking, a magnified focus assist window, and an accurate distance readout. Use the combination of tools and you'll do just fine.

But if you want to just gauge focus by using the LCD by itself, you'll be sorely disappointed by the results, with all of these cameras.

I can appreciate what you're saying. It's just that I've heard these complaints regarding the HVX200's viewfinder and viewscreen quite a bit (a dangerous thing to listen to this type of thing I know), whereas I haven't heard these complaints nearly to the same degree with the Sony Z1u, et all. Are the HVX's screens at least as good as the Sony's?

I LOVE the manual zoom on this camera! For the price range, I think it's fantastic.

I've found that by turning off the auto-zoom and holding the lens barrel with my right hand by the microphone support, four fingers down the right side, thumb around the post and on the zoom ring, then the left hand thumb and forefinger on the zoom ring, I can get a very nice controlled fast or slow zoom. If I'm hand-held, I also steady the camera against my body, and also can focus nicely with the left hand.

It also helps to keep the fingers tightly on the zoom ring, to eliminate inadvertent muscle twitches.

With three fingers from both hands on the zoom ring, I can get nice, controlled, fast or slow and ramped zooms that fit the action and composition perfectly.

Thanks for the correction, Barry -- much appreciated,

I don't believe it is. The Sony LCD is better, appears to have a wider viewing angle with the ability to hold contrast longer.

The question is -- is it enough to make a difference? No, not really, I've shot with 'em side-by-side and while the Sony's LCD is better in broad daylight, it's still nowhere near up to the task of being used by itself to determine proper focus.

It's like you need fifty bucks to buy something; the HVX's LCD gives you $10, the Sony gives you $12. Yes $12 is better than $10, but you still aren't anywhere near being able to afford the thing you want.

So you still need focus assist, you still need to check in with one-touch-autofocus, etc. You absolutely have to use peaking or you don't stand a chance. And that is true of all these cameras. Try the Canon's viewfinder for example. Or the JVC's. You'll quickly understand that it is simply not possible to work with these LCDs like we used to on standard-def. You have to use other focus assist tools, the LCDs by themselves are nowhere near adequate for the task.