Firstly, the autofocus hunts quite badly. There are a couple of other factors that intensify the disappointment over the poor focus aids on the HPX250. That’s fine if everything you want to focus on is in one plane, but it’s only marginally useful for selective focus. The final focussing aid – the Focus Bar – gives you an on-screen ‘thermometer’ style bar which lengthens when more of the screen is in focus. It works far more like peaking in an old, analog viewfinder than the more sophisticated digital versions we have now come to expect. First of all, it’s buried in a layer of menus and you can’t assign it to a User button, and you can’t redefine its colour as you can, for instance, on the XF305. This would be OK if there was another, comprehensive focus aid, but the peaking implementation is pretty limited. It works very well, except it doesn’t work when you are in Record. The Focus Assist button – conveniently placed near the lens where it’s easy to find – enlarges the central part of the image to fill the viewfinder. The viewfinders have three focussing aids available. It seems crazy to have such a high-resolution display and then hide it behind optics that make it look like the world through the wrong end of a telescope. There are two viewfinders – a flip-out, 3.45in LCD and a high resolution EVF (1,226,000 dots) – and they are fine, except that the magnification on the (otherwise excellent) EVF is too low. Surprisingly, given its size, once the camera is in your hand, it feels well balanced and is easy to hold for extended periods. The body is predominantly plastic, which feels a little flimsy – it certainly doesn’t ooze the quality and solidity of the latest Sony offerings, for instance – but it keeps the weight down, which is definitely a Good Thing.
![panasonic p2 test panasonic p2 test](https://www.ephotozine.com/articles/olympus-e-p2-vs-panasonic-lumix-dmc-gf1-12937/images/olyep2vspangf1_pan_iso200_tn.jpg)
One advantage of this large body is that the control layout is clear and simple, with dedicated buttons for most common features and smattering of extra, user definable buttons. It weighs about 2.5kg, without a battery or P2 card, which is a smidgen under the 2.7kg of the Canon XF305, though the Canon – probably the 250’s nearest competitor – is physically slightly smaller. The first thing that strikes you about the 250 is that it’s big.
![panasonic p2 test panasonic p2 test](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZzkAhF8FUAA/maxresdefault.jpg)
It’s unusual for the Beeb to approve a ⅓in camera – indeed their guidelines usually require a minimum of 1/2in sensors, so there must be something pretty special about the HPX250.
#Panasonic p2 test full#
The AG-HPX250EJ is a P2 based, fixed lens camera recording AVC-Intra 100 (at its highest quality setting), all wrapped around three, full 1920×1080 ⅓in CMOS sensors. With the headlines being grabbed by the new ‘big sensor’ cameras like Sony’s F3 and Canon’s C300, Panasonic have quietly produced a ⅓in camcorder that has won BBC approval for full HD acquisition. Panasonic’s HPX250, now on the BBC’s approved camera list.