4K video camera review:  Panasonic HC-VX985M - video Dailymotion

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Buy PANASONIC 4K VIDEO CAMERAS here: https://amzn.to/4dfttA2 BROWSE PROPER 4K CAMCORDERS: https://bhpho.to/3skuzI7 Today I talk about my Panasonic HC-VX985M 4K video camera and what I think about it now that I've had it for about 4 years.  Quite a nice camera:  Ultra HD resolution, 23.976 frames per second, recording on both internal hard drive and memory card, 20x optical zoom, external microphone jack & more.

Transcript

00:00How do you do? Today I want to talk about my Panasonic HC-VX985M 4K video camera.

00:10I bought myself this one. I would say it's now four years ago and I've been using it regularly.

00:16So what do I think of it? I like it, yeah!

00:20About four years ago I was looking to switch over from HD to 4K

00:24and yeah of course then I was looking for a camera. I like cameras that are easy to handle like this one

00:32but I still want it to be full 4K like Ultra HD.

00:36I know you get a lot of cameras that they sell online. They tell you yeah it's a 4K camera

00:42but then it's actually just about half the resolution that they then stretch to 4K.

00:48I mean what's up with that? That's not 4K. I want actual 4K.

00:52If you have square pixels they should be 3840 by 2160.

01:01Yeah that's real 4K or Ultra HD I would say.

01:05So I was looking for a camera and came across this one. This one was about a thousand dollars, US dollars.

01:12So it's not cheap but it's also not like insanely expensive or something.

01:17So I would say the price was agreeable for what you get.

01:21Well what I wanted to get was just the Ultra HD resolution, full Ultra HD resolution and good quality video.

01:29Of course that's not what they put in this. They put all sorts of fancy effects.

01:35You see there it says cinema like effects and Wi-Fi and yeah it has all these sort of like funny fancy functions.

01:46Like you film in 4K and then it will stabilize as you're filming in HD and I don't even know what.

01:53I don't bother with that. I don't know why they put that in a camera.

01:56I really just want a 4K camera that you point and you shoot.

02:01I just want the basic functions like the exposure and focus and yeah stuff like that.

02:07White balance and shatter speed.

02:10I don't want all these things that you really can do in post-production in your editing software.

02:17That's unfortunately with these more consumer type cameras.

02:21They always put all these fancy functions in it that really just belong in your editing software.

02:26Yeah in my opinion that just makes the camera more expensive than it needs to be.

02:31But anyway be that as it may how does it perform?

02:36Quite well. There is one problem that I ran into for a while.

02:41The focus got some trouble. Sometimes it wouldn't focus.

02:45I think what happened is dust went into it and then it's sort of like when the lenses try to turn.

02:52Maybe they grind too much or whatever. I don't know.

02:56But it worked if I turn it off and on again then sometimes it would be alright.

03:02And yeah it worked fine for about 98% of the time.

03:06And then the problem basically went away.

03:09It's been a long time since I've had that problem.

03:12Anyway let me just show you the camera up close.

03:15There's your lens.

03:16What you do to turn it on is you open up the viewfinder.

03:20Lens opens up.

03:22And yeah there it is.

03:25It's got a touch screen.

03:28And menus and all that.

03:30Oh it does take a microphone.

03:32So that's good.

03:33You can plug in a microphone.

03:35Yeah there's your zoom.

03:37Pretty standard.

03:38There's a battery.

03:39But what I like about it is.

03:42In the past if you got a video camera of course you needed to buy spare batteries.

03:47With this one I just use my power bank.

03:50You just buy yourself a really powerful power bank.

03:53And yeah then you just plug in your USB plug there.

03:57And you use the camera's charging cable.

04:00Just plug it into the power jack or whatever you call it.

04:05And yeah now it's charging you see.

04:08And yes you can use it while it's charging.

04:13So that's good.

04:14That's sometimes what I do.

04:16I just put this in my pocket.

04:18And then I have hours and hours of power for my camera.

04:23It never runs out of battery power.

04:26Yeah it does take photos at a high resolution.

04:28I forgot what the resolution is.

04:30I think 12 megapixel.

04:32But it might be something else.

04:33I will say this camera kind of restored my faith in Panasonic products.

04:38From past experience I thought Panasonic really isn't that great quality.

04:44But this one seems to withstand the test.

04:48Except for that focus problem I mentioned earlier.

04:51Yeah I should probably service it at some point.

04:53But I bought it online so I don't have a vendor to take it to.

04:57I don't know what you do in a case like that.

04:59Probably just buy a new camera.

05:01That's probably what I'm gonna do.

05:03Or else I'll send it to Panasonic wherever.

05:06The frame rate of this is 23.976 frames per second.

05:12Why such a weird uneven number?

05:16Yeah I've been asking that myself.

05:18Why not just 24 frames per second?

05:20But yeah it's 23.976.

05:24That's what it is.

05:25What you gonna do.

05:26Another thing.

05:28If you have been using your computer for editing.

05:32And you only ever edited the HD files.

05:36The files.

05:37The 4k files.

05:38This one gives you.

05:39Might be too big to play back smoothly on your computer.

05:43That was how it was in my case.

05:45I had to buy a new.

05:46What do you call it?

05:47Graphics card.

05:48Or video card.

05:49Or something.

05:50That was much faster.

05:51Fortunately I didn't need to buy a new computer.

05:53I could just buy the card.

05:55Which was quite expensive.

05:57About I would say 800 US dollars.

06:00And with that I could play back the file smoothly.

06:03It still won't play smoothly.

06:05If like in your editing program.

06:07You put a lot of the big 4k files on top of each other.

06:12Like you want a background.

06:14And you want to key out a character on top of it.

06:18And you want to add another layer of special effects.

06:21Or whatever.

06:22Then if you try to play that back.

06:24Your computer might still have a problem.

06:26If your computer isn't really the newest top of the range fastest one around.

06:32But in a case like that.

06:33You'll just have to select playback at a much lower resolution.

06:37In your editing software.

06:38And then it might still play.

06:40Depending on how many layers you have on top of each other.

06:44Having to be played back at the same time.

06:47If it's just one video layer.

06:49No problem.

06:50A fast computer with a good graphics card.

06:53Can handle that just fine.

06:55Anyway.

06:56Thanks for tuning in.

06:57That is the story then.

06:59Of my Panasonic HC-VX985M camera.

07:04Hybrid optical image stabilizer.

07:0725 times intelligent zoom.

07:10The optical zoom is about 20.

07:13Was it 20?

07:14Let me just check.

07:172, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

07:20Yes.

07:21Optical zoom is 20.

07:22That's a good thing.

07:23Yeah.

07:24For some reason they don't really put the optical zoom in video cameras anymore.

07:28I don't know why.

07:29They probably think you can do just fine with the digital zoom onto the high resolution image.

07:36Which I don't like.

07:37I want to add a high resolution image even when I'm zoomed in for 20 times at least.

07:44Please hit the like and subscribe button right now.

07:48And I'll see you in the next one.

07:49Peace.

07:50THANK YOU.

07:51THANK YOU.

07:52THANK YOU.

4K video camera review: Panasonic HC-VX985M

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