Panasonic HC-VX870K 4K Ultra HD Camcorder

I am a photographer and videographer with a lot of cameras in my collection. I have a Panasonic G7 (larger sensor, 4K capable, but not a camcorder) which I can directly compare this to. Despite the video produced by the G7 being objectively better, this camcorder has become my go-to video device for some purposes. A video-capable DSLR is generally better in a controlled environment because it has a bigger sensor and a higher video bitrate, but a DSLR will never be a camcorder. When you walk out your front door and want to record something spontaneously, your DSLR’s automatic performance will be worse and the way you hold it for video and use the zoom capability will be quite uncomfortable.

If you’re choosing between a 4K DSLR and this camcorder for video production, you can’t go wrong with this camcorder. There are benefits to a smaller sensor and this capitalizes on those, particularly the longer zoom ranges. I have shot “close” videos of helicopters flying over me that I could never do with the best DSLR and telephoto lens (480mm @ 35mm equivalent) I own. Auto-focus is very fast. There is no visible purple fringing even at maximum zoom.

The manual mode requires that you choose shutter speed before you choose iris and gain, however this is in stark contrast to even the double-price Sony FDR-AX100 I was desperate to buy a few months ago, a camcorder which has a bigger sensor yet only allows ONE THING to be manual at a time; if you set Sony 4K camcorders to manual shutter and then set a manual ANYTHING ELSE, they’ll kick the iris back to automatic! Contrast this to the Panasonic which allows full manual settings and the Sony camcorders look crippled by comparison. Image quality in daylight is equal to my G7; in darker settings the limitations of a 1/2.3″ BSI sensor become apparent and noise reduction smoothing kicks in hard, but it is still reasonable. With adequate lighting most of the NR smoothing goes away and the image looks great. Highlight roll-off is superior to Sony camcorders which have banding problems. 120fps slow-motion support is GREAT to have around.

Overall, this camcorder is a great purchase. Despite having Canon and Panasonic DSLRs with nice lenses that cost a lot more, this camcorder is competitive with them and sometimes makes me wonder why I blew all that money on the other systems. I know that my other cameras have better low-light performance due to larger sensors and huge-aperture prime lenses, but when you need any sort of image automation they start to look sub-par in comparison to any camcorder…especially this one. If you are going to do a lot of video with automatic settings (not in a fully controlled environment) and you have little interest in still photography, I’d recommend this over the G7 w/14-42mm kit lens. If you’re looking for maximum image quality and good low-light performance and vastly superior fully manual controls, the G7 is a clear winner. Each has its purpose and this fills its purpose well. The only con I can think of is that the “photo” button is poorly located and when I go for the zoom control I sometimes hit the photo button.

One final note: the photos attached are still frames from 4K videos taken with this camera. The “photo” mode is pretty terrible though; don’t expect that the photo button will produce anything good at all. This is not a photo camera.

I bought this camera because it had great reviews, fast autofocus and good low light performance. However, I returned it after a few days. I think it’s important to share my experiences because there are so many rave reviews about it (or its predecessor).After I had charged the battery, the first thing I did was a test of the room I was in. Focusing on a bookshelf about 20ft away with plenty of contrast, it seemed fine. Then I tilted the camera up very slightly, with the bookshelf still occupying at least 60% of the screen, and it went completely out of focus and stayed out of focus, even after I panned around to give it other things to focus on.I thought this was perhaps a fluke of the room. I took the camera on several test runs, and in various low light situations, it would randomly loose focus, without having moved the camera. That is, one minute it was focused on an object and the next it was completely blurry, no movement or panning. I had to stop the video and restart the camera to force it to focus.I tried multiple settings to try to stop this from happening, but it occurred under all settings, using autofocus. The only reason it didn’t get 1 star is because in outdoor, bright conditions the picture was nice and crisp. But even under those conditions, it struggled with exposure if I was in shade and pointed it towards very bright sunlight. It took a long time to adjust to the lighting conditions and also had numerous focus problems in that situation.One of the other reasons I bought the camera was for the infrared night mode. In this mode, it also went randomly out of focus, under the same conditions. I had to turn off the camera and when it came back on, the night mode setting had to be reset every time. 10 minutes later, I could resume filming.A couple of other things were troubling, but if it had auto-focused in those situations, I may have kept it. The other issues I had were:1) The menus were laborious. I had to go into the menus over and over to apply settings. The screen items are very tiny, and apparently I have fat fingers, because I had a really hard time having it register what I was pressing on. So, in addition to having to redo menu items repeatedly, I also went places in the menu I didn’t want to go. This is a pressure screen by the way, not touch. As far as I can see, all the Panasonics have this, so if you’re used to it or don’t change settings very often, it’s a different situation. I’ve seen a stylus used with the screen, which is fine if you want to carry a stylus around.2) There is no viewfinder and no way to turn the screen off. You can close it while filming, but without a viewfinder, that is a little pointless. Many of the cameras are like this – I’m just pointing out that this one is as well. For this price, however, I think it should have a viewfinder.Realizing that this wasn’t going to meet my needs, I took it back to the store. After showing the clerk footage and explaining the autofocus problem, he told me that I would have this autofocus issue with all camcorders, even expensive professional ones, and that I would have to use manual focus. I was a little skeptical because of how poorly it had performed, but had not bought a camcorder in several years so wasn’t sure of the current state of camcorder technology.I decided, instead, to buy 2 different camcorders in the hopes of having them meet my needs. Even though I was prepared to spend a fair amount if I had to, I decided to try out the Canon Vixia HF R600, a camcorder that is $ cheaper. And the result? It didn’t have the same autofocus problems in the exact same situations. The menus were far easier to navigate, and even without night vision, it could pick up a lot of detail in low light conditions provided the exposure was ramped up. Yes it is a slightly lower quality picture in low light, but at least it’s in focus, and I can put the other $ to good use.I will be reviewing the Canon HF R600 in detail once I’ve had more time to use it. I will also probably eventually post sample footage of the focusing issue with the VX870 as it compares with the Canon.

I bought this camcorder purely for the 4K and for the size and price, it does a great job. I also have the FZ1000 and the image quality is comparable. Chromatic aberration is worse, audio is better, manual controls are worse, stabilization is better.

The reach on the VX870 zoom is a tiny bit better and when 4K is output to 720p — the real benefit of 4K — there’s a bit more room in the frame to zoom and pan and still maintain sharpness. Both cameras are great at this, though, and the effective reach for clear HD nature photography is astounding.

If I only had one $900 4K camera on a desert island, it would be the FZ1000. If I wanted more room to pack food and water, I’d take the VX870!

Since 2006 I purchased top consumer HD camcorders every year from B&H and this one is by far the best one yet first of all it has countless settings night vision recording and let me tell you the Leica lens alone is worth the purchase of the camcorder this high end lens system makes a huge difference in image quality especially at full 20x optical zoom and as for the 4K quality if you’ve been to an electronic store watching the 4K TVs on display Then that is the kind video quality that this camcorder can produce keep in mind you need to learn the settings before getting the described results but once you do this will be far superior than anything you see on HD TV or at theaters in video quality! I want to thank B&H photo for being the top online electronic store to me always taking care of my issues never failing me

I will start by saying that I own the x920, and beyond a few quirks I have been very happy with it. Keep in mind that that camcorder records up to 1080p60.

This camcorder records up to 4k yet the quality is relatively poor. I think it is most likely due to the sensor size. The pop out LCD screen is great and very high quality, but any videos shot indoors with incandescent light have a lot of video noise.

This camcorder is much smaller than the x920, and in perfect conditions does much better than the x920, but its smaller sensor leaves much to be desired. I was hoping for something like the AX100 but can say I am rather disappointed by the substatntial amount of chroma noise.

I went back and forth on choosing a camera and I am very happy with this camera. Pros: Sharp image, great zoom, and very good on board sound. I purchased this video camera to record a wedding. I haven’t gotten that far yet, but I tested all the shots I might need. Nature scenery, Medium Light indoors, zoomed all the way in, 240 frames per second, low light, and slow motion. It preformed well on all these. I have recorded a couple live concerts with great success. The flashing and low lights occasionally confused the auto focus, but only momentarily. I was expecting the loud bass to overpower the sound. Even in front of the PA The sound was of very usable quality. The 240 frames a second is just an incredible feature. I captured a butterfly’s tongues dipping into flowers sweet nectar reservoirs and droplets of water from a waterfall 100 feet away. The camera is very capable for the avid aspiring videographer. cons: Before I begin. This is the only sections of reviews I read. I’d rather a huge list of cons. I want to know where the limit of my device will be before I buy. There are always limits. This is Prosumer. I would love for it to be a ten thousand dollar camera. Its not, it is the price I payed for it. That being said here is my list of cons. They take away many of the manual features a professional camera has. As a control freak I miss control features. Switching between manual modes and auto modes is clunky because it is all done on a touch screen with sub menus. The auto-focus works great, but sometimes i want to control this manually. The control of the manual focus is located on the bottom left. It is a small wheel. It is difficult even with a tripod to adjust focus without causing disturbance. If the focus ring was around the lens and one was to use their entire hand to steadily change focus I think I would be more satisfied. There is just something about using one finger on a small diameter wheel that seems poorly designed. No view finder. I knew this when i bought it. The asymmetry of having the screen out bugs me. You can flip it around and nest it into the side of the camera, but then it is hard to look at your subject and also know the camera is looking there as well. I dislike how the 240fps is not always available. You have to stop recording, change modes, begin recording then hold down a button on the screen in order to record. I do not like having to hold my finger on the screen while also trying to steady, pan, or zoom. I think it would benefit greatly if the touch screen function was removed. That being said I refuse to upgrade to a smartphones because I just don’t like touch screen. I want buttons that i can feel. To many words on the camera. I had to cover my camera in electrical tape to hide all the words. Sure some of them are there to help user know what to push, but I like stealth. I don’t like advertising for brands. If they want to put the name of the lens, the camera, the microphone, the this, and the that I feel like they should pay me. I’m not supporting brands with free advertising. Unless they are supporting me financially. I’m sure other things bug me,but at this point you probably know I’m just picky. Honestly this is a good buy for someone who wants to make high quality videos, doesn’t want to micromanage every setting, doesn’t have an aversion to touch screens, and doesn’t mind having text written all over things.

I hadn’t used a camcorder for several years as I’ve been using my iPhone. However, I missed having a decent zoom lens and wanted better quality to capture vacations and family events. I recently bought a 4K TV and decided it was time to buy a suitable camcorder. I looked online for awhile at different makes but kept coming back to this model from Panasonic. I bought it and have been using it for about two weeks and so far I really like it. The playback on the 4K TV looks awesome! Super sharp and great colors. There are lots of features with the unit for 1080 video but many of these are not available when 4K recoding is selected. This doesn’t bother me as I really wanted a simple camcorder that my wife could use too. Keeping the unit in standby is great since as soon as you open the viewing screen the camera is ready to use. The zoom lens is very good and with the automatic stability feature you don’t get a shaky image when at 25x optical magnification. I also like that playback is organized by the scene so you can quickly review what you just taped or completely delete a scene later (something you couldn’t do with older tape units). It is also convenient that my TV’s remote control will operate the camera in playback since a separate remote is not included. It has the ability to use your cellphone as a secondary camera and superimpose that video in the corner of the main video image (i.e., focus on someone’s facial expressions while capturing the event they are watching). A shoulder strap is not included so I plan on getting one as I don’t want to lug around a big camera bag or hold the unit in my hand all the time. The unit is very light, so I could carry it, and it fits well in my hand but again I’ll buy a simple strap. I have a 64 GB card in it now and will eventually transfer the video to my external hard drive but haven’t tried that yet. One minor item to note is the paper manual it comes with is truncated and only gives the basic information so you have to go online to get the full manual. Again, not a big issue for me as I downloaded it to my cellphone and can now refer to it anytime. So far the battery life is good (90 min on 4K) even when using the zoom lens. The camera does take still pictures at different resolutions with one at over 25 MB per image but I haven’t done much with that yet. To date, I am very satisfied with the unit and look forward to exploring and using some of the other features it offers.

Bought this camera to shoot surfing and skateboarding from a distance and it does the trick. The 4K even at only 30fps looks far better on my 1080p tv than my older 1080p cam at 60fps. Grabbing still frames are less blurry.

I also own the Panasonic LX100. I was very excited to see this in action as it has real image stability, flip out screen and a better / usable mic. However the picture it produces is washed out, over exposed and just struggles with artifacting. I really wanted to keep this but the PQ between the two is night and day. It doesn’t even look like 4k IMHO on my 5k retina Imac. Very dissapointed.

Very good lenses, fast focus and smooth 4k results . Best ever the fact that file is made under MPEG format so export is super easy