Panasonic HC-X1500 UHD 4K HDMI Pro Camcorder with 24x Zoom

I’ve had the camera for about 2 months now coming from a Sony AX100 and it’s packed with a lot of features. The image quality, colors and contrast are good but not great. Let’s be real, it’s a small chip camera so it’s naturally bad in low light and fairly grainy on cloudy days. Try to keep the gain as close to zero as possible as anything above 6dB requires noise correction software like Neat Video plugins and is something to consider for your work flow.

Camera is awesome however if your having problems the customer service is horrible. Have called the past week getting bounced from division to division and no one can help with live streaming. There has to be something wrong with camera because my computer isn’t picking it up even when connected. I will be sending back.

Got this camera to upgrade our live stream. Coming from a 1080p camera that’s only able to output real time in 720p this has been quite the upgrade. Video quality looks amazing in 4K. Currently I’m outputting real-time in 1080 over WiFi and it’s working flawlessly so far. Obviously your WiFi network quality will be a big factor but the camera itself outputs great. Highly recommended so far!

As other reviews said, the low light performance is not the best… But I did not get this camera to film night-time cave-diving. I mostly got this camera for the impressive zoom and the unmatched stabilization. I plan to use it for making travel videos and other scenarios that will tend to have plenty of light. In that regards, the built in ND filter is absolutely essential and has already helped me adjust for shots that would normally be overexposed. Battery life is also the best I’ve ever seen on a camcorder.

Other reviews have mentioned bad coloring or unbearable noise when using mic input. My unit has no such issues with colors not displaying correctly. It does have very minor mic noise on input, though it does not seem to be at the same unusable level others have stated. Any audio I capture will most likely have noise removal done during editing, so I do not see this as an issue. The built in mic has absolutely no noise whatsoever and is actually very good.

Full auto mode is pretty decent at getting shots, but this camera really shines in manual mode. Limiting the Auto-Gain-Control to 3DB or 0DB also works wonders with reducing/eliminating noise.

I’ve only scratched the surface of what this camera can do. I have no doubt that I will be impressed with every feature I learn in the future.

I have had my HC-X1500 for about 5 months now, so I have been able to use it enough to offer some pros and cons. This camera has many features with a great deal of customization support. You will need to invest some time to learn it and save your settings. The User and Advanced Manuals are online. Contrary to another review that stated issues with the 1/8″ microphone input, I use the external mic and manage the levels with the external handle controls, using a Rode Mini Mic, and it works great. I am adding an XLR connected Audio Technica mic soon and will upgrade from the 1/8″ connected Rode.

Pros: MANY formats, 4K, 60p, high bitrates of 200Mbps, 150Mbps, 10 bit color, 4:2:2, etc, sub-sampling. The Cine-like profiles work well. I slightly alter and save the profile. The dual card slots are excellent. This provides a lot of continuous recording time (85 minutes each at 4K 60p). I use V-60 cards to ensure they have sufficient performance (they will support up to 480 Mbps). The battery is exceptional and runs for hours (3.5+), or plug into AC and run forever. Full size HDMI output. The camera is small and light enough to use for extended periods, and easily portable, and yet provides many features. The auto-focus and Optical Image Stabilization are vast improvements over the 1″ sensor mirrorless Panasonic FZ-2500 camera. I love the pre-recording! I shoot mainly high school band videos and never lose a moment with the approximate 5 second pre-recording. The external handle provides a lot of versatility in managing the input selections and levels. The handle must be ordered separately, but is worth the convenience, and provides the same capability of the HC-X2000, minus the SDI output. The Remote Operation Panel (ROP) app on the Android phone works fine. Once you figure out the wireless connections, it is easy to use the next time around as everything is saved. I did test the live-streaming, but at a limited bitrate, as my rural bandwidth is quite limited. It worked, but I would have liked to stream at 5Mbps or higher. The encoding is incredibly efficient, and supports H265, as well as Quicktime (MOV) containers. This works well with my worlflow in the KDENLive Non-Linear Editor. Just create your proxies in the format your workstation supports.

Cons: Light is your friend. This is a small sensor camera, which provides great Zoom in a compact form-factor, and it does best in well lighted situations, and does not fare well in the shadows of night. The next time I record at night, I will probably sacrifice 60p (59.94) for 30p (29.97) and reduce shutter from 1/120 to 1/60 to get more light, and retain the 180 degree shutter. The band was ‘quarantined’ in the shadows behind the end zone of the stadium, which was not well lit. I am not really shooting high speed at these events. If you are shooting fast moving objects you will need daylight! That is probably true of most any camera, but is a necessity of this one. The FZ-2500 actually performed better in the lower light situations and it is NOT known as a very low-light friendly camera, itself. In daylight though, it also was fantastic.

The more I use this camera and learn the many features, the more I like it. This may be 5 stars in the next month or so. A lot of bang for the buck.

 As a full time cinematographer I needed something for all of the aviation videos I make at airshows but also for military squadrons. When other spotters started switching to camcorders I decided to give it a shot. The video above proves this camera can deliver cinematic results. All audio and video are from this camera and the still image was a screen grab from a video I shot with this camera when I did not have my stills camera with me. For aviation and what I needed this is one of the best cameras I’ve used for what I do aviation wise.

Not sure why, but couldn’t shake some incredibly grainy footage no matter what setting, profile or light I used. I get it has a tiny sensor and all—but it’s possible I had a defective unit because it really produced some unusable grain/noise.

I currently work the HUDL program for my high school football team. I use this camera for the endzone view so our coaches can correct blocking issues on the sideline. Everyone has loved the quality of the video and I can even go back and capture still shots from certain plays for our players/parents to enjoy. I read several reviews before buying and this camera was either #1 or #2 in all that I read. The image posted is from a play that I got a still image from. Streaming from it is awesome too. I have streamed a handful of our JV and Pee Wee games.