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Panasonic AG-HSC1U First Impressions Camcorder Reviewby John NeelyPublished on Apr 19, 2007 3:00 PM
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Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control
The AG-HSC1U (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1975)’s performs very well in auto mode, and the core image adjustments, exposure, focus, and white balance all operate adequately in bright, consistent lighting. The camcorder keeps a number of options available in Auto Mode, including digital zoom set, OIS on/off, Guidelines, Wind Cut and Zoom Mic on/off, manual audio level control, and zebras. The availability of an option like zebras and guidelines in auto mode is a great inclusion for pro applications, because it offers a way of checking up on whether manual adjustment is necessary.
Overall Manual Control
The Panasonic AG-HSC1U has a good manual image control suite, allowing independent iris, shutter speed, and gain adjustment. This matches the level of manual control found on Panasonic’s consumer line, and is one of the qualities that sets the company’s camcorders apart. Yet, for all the manual adjustability offered by the HSC1U, it’s more a point-and-shooter with good manual controls than a scaled-down prosumer model – the JVC GZ-HD7 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1529) is built much more around that concept. For this reason, the HSC1U is best viewed as a tool suited to a specific set of consumer applications.
The professional features the camcorder does include are helpful but could have been implemented more successfully. Focus Assist magnifies a portion of the image during manual focus adjustment, filling roughly the center quadrant of the LCD with an enlarged display. This helps, but is not as effective as the focus assist on the Canon HV20 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $903), which fills the screen with a magnified image and adds peaking. The combination of full-screen magnification and peaking makes focusing the Canon faster and easier. In addition, the manual image adjustment controller on the HSC1U is a joystick rather than a ring like the one on the JVC HD7. It’s possible to focus the AG-HSC1U manually, but it’s not easy, and on a sunny day that blows out the LCD screen, forget about it.
The joystick on the AG-HSC1U is also a bit more difficult to operate than the ones on its standard definition consumer predecessors. It’s essentially the same controller, but it extends out less from the body than on prior incarnations, meaning it offers less leverage than we’re accustomed to. On the plus side, this design adds the exceedingly sleek no-snag design of the camcorder. Shooters who are familiar with the Panasonic joystick interface should feel right at home. In Manual recording mode, pressing the center of the joystick brings up a 4-page menu at the lower right corner of the screen, with options for iris/gain, white balance, and shutter speed on page 4. When manual focus is enabled, a fifth focus adjustment page is added to the menu. In comparison to most consumer camcorders, the joystick makes accessing these controls a very fast process. For adjustments other than focus, the joystick works very well and the ability to control gain manually is a terrific quality control feature that HD camcorders from other manufacturers like Sony, JVC, and Canon lack.
This camcorder has a useful set of manual controls, but the Focus Assist feature is less-than-stellar, there’s no headphone jack, and zebras default to a single mystery setting at around 100 IRE. These are surprising omissions on a camcorder marketed to professionals, but Panasonic must believe they are not vital for the applications the camcorder is most suited for: close quarters, action, law enforcement, and other situations that call for compact, durable, and/or low-profile equipment.
Zoom
The zoom controller on the AG-HSC1U is excellent, allowing for accurate control over speed, and it has a responsive, comfortable feel. The position of the zoom on top of the lens barrel, just forward of the photo button should also feel right for most users, though we found it suited operation with the middle finger best. Like most compact camcorders built on a consumer chassis, there are no options for fine-tuning the action of this variable speed zoom. The Canon HV20 is an exception, offering three fixed zoom speeds. The AG-HSC1U also lacks a secondary onboard zoom (the remote includes buttons for fixed speed zooming) while most similar camcorders feature onscreen zoom controls.
Zoom Power Ratio
The Panasonic AG-HSC1U includes a 12x optical zoom, and a digital zoom option that can be capped at 30x, or allowed to run all the way to an absurd 700x. We found the HSC1U’s image held up remarkably well up to about 30 xs. At that magnification, the resolution remained comparable to what many standard definition camcorders produce – an impressive feat. Above 30x, the image quickly degenerates, so if you must use the AG-HSC1U’s digital zoom, the 30x will allow ensure that your image remains usable even in digital territory.
Focus
Focus is the bane of HD video. While standard definition video is quite forgiving, thanks to a much lower resolution, high definition video is sharp enough to magnify the slightest mistake. This is especially true of focus, and it’s simply not possible to focus accurately using the 2.7” – 3.5” displays found on today’s consumer HD camcorders. The resolution of HD video is too high (1080 x 1920) and the screens too small to make this possible. There have been a few successful remedies to this problem. Sony’s debut AVCHD camcorders, the HDR-UX1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $729.95) (sadly discontinued) and HDR-SR1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1119.99) feature huge 3.5” screens and excellent ring controls; the Canon HV20 has an excellent Focus Assist feature that magnifies the image to fill the 2.7” screen, and adds peaking.
Panasonic too has a Focus Assist option on the HSC1U and DX1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1119.99), but it’s only a partial success. Instead of filling the screen with a magnified image as on the HV20, the HSC1U fills only the center quadrant of the LCD with a magnified image. As a result, you’re only given 1/8 of the entire frame to focus on – without peaking to make the job easier. Although the HDR-SR1 from Sony doesn’t offer any assist functions, the size of the screen and the ring control makes focusing manually a relative breeze. In addition, Panasonic AG-HSC1U manual focus control is a joystick that doesn’t offer the finesse of a rotary controller like a ring or dial.
Exposure & Aperture
The joystick on the AG-HSC1U may not be a great focus controller, but its fast and adept for working your way through the manual iris adjustment options. We find the Panasonic joystick interface to be extremely efficient in the hands (or thumbs) of power users who become adept at the system’s quirks.
Here’s how it works: With the Auto/Manual/Focus selector switch set to Manual (Auto does not allow manual exposure adjustment) pressing the center of the joystick brings up the joystick navigation menu on the LCD’s lower right corner. After the menu appears, tapping down towards the “Next” option will cycle through the pages; The exposure adjustment is on the left side of page 4, labeled Iris. Tapping the joystick towards Iris enables manual exposure control, while tapping down towards “Back” returns to page 4. When Iris control is enabled, you cycle through f-stop settings by tapping left (to close down) or right (to open up) the iris. The iris settings are displayed in full f-stops as follows: f/16, f/14, f/11, f/9.6, f/8, f/6.8, f/5.6, f/4.8, f/4, f/3.4, f/2.8, and Open. An incremental (1/2 step?) setting lies between each full stop, for a total of 23 steps.
The beauty of this system is that once you pass the Open aperture setting, manual control over gain – fully independent of aperture – kicks in. The AG-HSC1U and HDC-DX1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1119.99) are the only currently available consumer HD camcorders that allow you to de-link iris and gain, though the JVC Everio GZ-HD7 will also offer this feature.
Shutter Speed
When the AG-HSC1U is recording in manual mode, the shutter speed settings can be easily reached by pressing the joystick in and navigating to page 4 of the manual control menu. Shutter speed appears on the same page as the iris/gain and white balance, and tapping the joystick left towards the SHTR label enables shutter speed adjustment. Page 4 is replaced by the manual shutter speed interface, indicating joystick-left will lower the shutter speed and joystick-right will increase the shutter speed.
The settings available on the AG-HSC1U are: 1/60, 1/100, 1/120, 1/180, 1/250, 1/350, 1/500, 1/750, 1/1000, 1/1500, 1/2000, 1/3000, 1/4000, and 1/8000 – a wide range of shutter speed options. However, the HSC1U does not allow you to select shutter speeds below 1/60 manually. To make use of slower shutter speeds, the camcorder must be set to MagicPix mode, Panasonic’s low light recording mode. With MagicPix enabled, the camcorder will automatically drop the shutter speed below 1/60 in low light. It’s certainly a useful recording mode, but it gives you no direct control over shutter speed. HD camcorders from Sonya and Canon both offer manual shutter speed settings below gm, 1/60, and the ability to select either 1/30 (1080i) or 1/24 (24P on the HV20 only) is an especially valuable asset available on those cams.
White Balance
The Panasonic AG-HSC1U includes a handful of standard-issue WB presets including AWB (auto), indoor (incandescent or halogen), and outdoor (clear, not cloudy skies). This is a limited number of presets, so the circumstances under which you’ll be able to use them are also limited.
The best thing about manual white balance on this camcorder is its accessibility and speed. To reach the manual white balance setting option, press the center of the joystick in Manual recording mode, and navigate to page 4 of the menu. The white balance select screen appears, and pressing left or right cycles through the four options, with manual white balance identified by a standard white balance icon. Tapping up once on the joystick sets white balance, and it locked in a setting after only a few seconds. We found the HSC-SD1 manual white balance setting to lean slightly towards the green end of the spectrum, though the error was visually negligible.
Gain
Independent manual gain control is a rarity on consumer camcorders, outside the Panasonic brand, and the availability of this option on the AG-HSC1U should help its case among pros who are looking for a compact cam. The AG-HSC1U includes gain options of 0dB, 3dB, 6dB, 9dB, 12dB, 15 dB, and 18dB. In between each whole-number step is an incremental gain step giving the HSC1U a total of 12 manual gain settings.
Other Manual Controls
Zebras - The AG-HSC1U includes a zebra stripe option – a feature that’s standard on prosumer camcorders, found only on high-end consumer models. Surprisingly, Panasonic only allows you to turn zebras on or off, with no level specified. It appears to be about 100 IRE, but the manual sheds no light on this so you should do some camera tests before relying on this control.
Guide Lines - The AG-HSC1U includes three LCD marker options (called Guide Lines by Panasonic) that assist with shot framing, found in Menu > Basic. The Horizontal option superimposes three horizontal lines on the LCD display; Grid1 superimposes a nine-box grid; and Grid2 superimposes a much finer grid on the screen. We found Grid2 to be the most versatile option, as it is well-suited for both horizon alignment and rule of thirds framing.
Color Bars - The AG-HSC1U includes a color bar display for color calibration of ean external monitor in Menu > Advanced.
MF Assist - MF Assist magnifies a quadrant in the center of the LCD display that is superimposed over the main image. When manual focus is complete, the enlarged quadrant disappears. If MF Assist is being used at the same time that zebras are set to on, zebra striping does not appear in the magnified portion of the image.