Shoot Review: Panasonic AG-HSC1U

About as small as a camcorder can get, the Panasonic AG-HSC1U features an intuitive graphic user interface to adjust focus, iris, gain, shutter, and white balance manually while recording, using the flip-out LCD and joystick.

At last April's NAB, Panasonic introduced what it calls “the world's smallest professional 3CCD high-definition camcorder,” the 1.1lb. AG-HSC1U. This miniature HD camcorder, about the size of a lens handgrip on a full-sized 2/3in. camcorder, is about as small as a camcorder can get, hardly wider than its lens diameter or longer than its 16:9 flip-out display.

But that's only half of what captured my attention at first. Three other outstanding features leapt out too: remarkable industrial design, an inviting user interface, and flash-based tapelessness. Not just any tapelessness, mind you, but long-GOP MPEG-4 — this being Panasonic, after all, champion of intraframe DVCPRO HD and AVC-Intra — captured to a single-slotted SD card, the postage-stamp-sized memory popular in digital still cameras and cell phones.

As if James Bond miniaturization and no moving parts weren't enough, there's more: uncompressed HDMI output as an alternative to USB video file transfer. A battery-powered SD card reader with a 40GB hard drive that stores the contents of 10 4GB SD cards in the field. A list price of $2,099, which implies online street prices of less than $2,000.

All this sounds too good to be true, but for once, it isn't. While there are significant caveats, which I'll describe below, the bottom line is that this cute, friendly HD camcorder is a great second camera.

Years ago when many of us shot more 16mm than we do now, it was common to augment your Arriflex 16 SR or Aaton kit with a wind-up Bolex. Many indelible, off-the-cuff documentary moments — seen from the window of a traveling automobile, for instance — which would otherwise have been lost because the main camera was packed away, were instead “grabbed” because a compact Bolex was at hand. Bolex cutaways always blended seamlessly.

The HSC1U nicely steps into this role. It's not a main camera or an ‘A'' camera, and it wouldn't pretend to be. There's no viewfinder. No headphone jack despite an external mic mini jack, and limited audio control. The beauty of the HSC1U lies elsewhere: Tape it to a hockey stick for a puck's point-of-view. Place it inside a jar being opened; slide it down a drainpipe; bolt it to a skateboarder's helmet; set it on the ground for a rat's-eye perspective 1.5in. high. When you're done, slip it in the pocket of your Schott motorcycle jacket, as I did.

The HSC1U's sleek, symmetrical design is so minimalist, so 21st-century, I'd nominate it for The Museum of Modern Art's design collection. The recording start/stop button and mode selection dial at the rear are coaxial with the barrel of the body and the lens, suggesting a bullet shape. An artful concept, it pleases the eye and feels solid to the hand. The 12X Leica Dicomar zoom, masked for 16:9 and recessed (no lens hood needed), incorporates a protective outer shutter that automatically opens and closes when the HSC1U is turned on and off. With only nine switches and buttons — LCD brightness, auto/manual, mode selection dial, zoom, still photo, recording start/stop, menu on/off, menu joystick, and trash button — it relies on its bright, sharp 16:9, 251,000-pixel flip-out LCD for both viewing and control.

With most camcorders, accessing the controls by LCD is a prescription for high blood pressure, but the HSC1U's superior design extends to its graphic user interface. That's right, a GUI, just like any other up-to-date computer — only the HSC1U uses a five-position mini joystick (up, down, right, left, center) instead of a mouse to navigate. And what a pleasure to use: The LCD controls are fast, animated, and colorful. Manual adjustment of iris, focus, shutter, white balance, and mic input levels are remarkably simple using the joystick, and there's even an information mode (marked by a small “I” in a circle) that explains how some of the functions operate.

The HSC1U offers nine buttons and knobs—most of which are concentrated on the rear dial—LCD brightness, auto/manual, mode selection dial, zoom, still photo, recording start/stop, menu on/off, menu joystick, and trash button. To access other controls, the unit relies on its 16:9, 251,000-pixel flip-out LCD.

A small menu button under the mode selection dial toggles the HSC1U's menus on and off. While in menu mode — either camera or playback — the joystick is used to navigate. A small representation of the joystick at the bottom of the screen tells the user which of the joystick's five positions are active at any point during menu selection. When the HSC1U starts recording, a small, semi-transparent banner rises from the bottom of the LCD (like Mac OS X's Dock) with “record” inscribed in the middle. After 3 seconds, it retreats to clear the screen. Press stop recording, and the banner returns, this time announcing “pause.” Of course, there's also a red dot at the top of the image while recording to indicate record status.

This all feels more participatory, as if the HSC1U were making more of an effort to communicate. If the SD card door is left open, for instance, it beeps and alerts you on the screen. It asks you to connect the AC adaptor when transferring scene files via USB. An activity light blinks as the SD card is accessed. In playback mode, video and still images are separated by obvious folder tabs, which are easy to navigate to. The GUI also guides clip playback. Delete a file? There's a button marked with a trash can next to the menu button.

In fact, the HSC1U's layout and GUI are so well designed it passes my Mac test. Like most Mac owners, I don't like to read manuals (although the HSC1U's is particularly well done). I've been shooting with videocameras since Portapak days, so I feel like I should be able to locate, grasp, or intuit the function of basic and advanced controls just by examining the camcorder. Somewhat akin to slipping into the front seat of a car I've never driven, yet knowing more or less where the ignition, pedals, gear shift, horn, radio, and air conditioning are. Although the HSC1U's menu tree is abbreviated (compared to that of, say, a Varicam), I was fully and readily able to operate it without the manual.

Some people would say this sort of enhanced GUI isn't good enough for, or appropriate to, professional camcorders — that it's for toy consumer camcorders only. I wholeheartedly disagree. Reminds me of those who sniffed at the Macintosh because it relied on a mouse and GUI instead of cryptic line commands. Well-considered controls and a colorful, animated GUI give a camcorder personality (which most lack) and make it fun to use in spite of creeping complexity. Why shouldn't expensive pro camcorders be as friendly as an iPhone? Or the HSC1U, for that matter?

And here's a bonus for those who use these devices in the real world, which often as not means a dark surround such as nighttime: Ever grit your teeth because you couldn't see tiny control buttons or their labels in the dark? Nearly all the HSC1U's controls are accessible via the illuminated LCD and joystick. The spill from the LCD illuminates the auto/manual button directly across from the LCD. The only other two buttons you'll need are menu and trash, and they're at the bottom of the big round mode selection dial. You couldn't lose them if you tried.

Did I mention that the HSC1U's record mode turns on and off merely by opening and closing the LCD? How smart is that? (Because this is a tapeless camcorder, recording is instant too.) Or that the Auto Ground-directional Standby (AGS) mode puts an actively recording HSC1U into pause when the camcorder is held upside down, as might be the case when an over-excited camera operator records his or her feet traversing the distance to a better spot. (Shades of iPhone's accelerometer?)

Here are the HSC1U's basic nuts and bolts: Images are 1080i60 — no progressive, no alternative frame rates. There are three 1/4in.16:9 CCDs with 520,000 useable pixels each, similar in count to those of the AG-HVX200. As with the HVX200, both horizontal and vertical pixel-shifting are needed to create a 1080×1440 end result.

Long-GOP MPEG-4 compression arrives under the brand name AVCHD, a tapeless consumer format announced in May 2006 by Panasonic and Sony for recording to 8cm (3in.) red-laser DVDs and flash memory. AVCHD's video compression, known also as H.264, is roughly twice as efficient as HDV's MPEG-2, obtaining HDV quality at half the bit rate. Color sampling is 4:2:0, 8 bits.

Efficiency naturally comes at a price. Encoding H.264 is said to be eight times more complex than encoding MPEG-2, and decoding four times, meaning brawnier processing. That may explain why the tiny HSC1U has an intake at the rear, a vent up front, and a fan. Probably not a great idea to smoke while operating this camcorder. Technically, moreover, this means it does have moving parts. Put your ear up to the camcorder, and you can hear it. The HSC1U runs warm to the touch, although not hot like some laptops.

You've probably guessed by now that the HSC1U is a professionalized version of a consumer design. The HSC1U's consumer forbears are the disk-based HDC-DX1 and, more so, the flash-based HDC-SD1. With its pancake disk drive, vestigial viewfinder, and external battery, the HDC-DX1 looks cobbled together — particularly when compared to the stripped-down, viewfinder-less HDC-SD1, whose compact Lithium-ion battery slips inside the body. The HDC-SD1 is the HSC1U's consumer twin.

DSP enhancements to the HSC1U include a flatter gamma, which contributes to more realistic color than the HDC-SD1. Outside is a textured matte gray finish with black trim to match Panasonic's professional camera line (better looking than HDC-SD1's titanium gray with chrome trim).

Like its consumer counterparts, HSC1U offers three AVCHD video bit rates: 13Mbps (constant bit rate), called “HF”; 9Mbps (variable bit rate), called “HN”; and 6Mbps (VBR), called “HE.” I'd like to see these confusing and arbitrary consumer designations replaced with simple bit-rate designations. I'll go further: In a pro AVCHD camcorder, the 9Mbps and 6Mbps extended-recording modes should be disabled. No pro I know ever selected extended play when recording MiniDV.

At the risk of repetition, efficiency comes at a price. Having shot a sufficient amount of AVCHD at 9Mbps and 13Mbps, I — like others — have concluded that 9Mbps doesn't make the grade; at 13Mbps, I did encounter some artifacting (what the candid operating manual details as “mosaic-pattern noise”).

In night shooting, I was surprised and impressed by how mild (and usable) the noise was at +9dB and even +12dB gain. I did observe that the HSC1U's interline transfer CCDs bloom noticeably (vertical streaking from overexposed highlights, such as car headlamps at night), which grows in severity as gain is applied.

This being lower-bit-rate AVCHD, there's no FireWire protocol and therefore no FireWire port. There is USB 2.0, analog component out, and HDMI. I imported test clips to a ProRes 422 timeline in Apple Final Cut Pro (FCP) 6.0.1 using both USB 2.0 and HDMI. In the case of USB 2.0, FCP 6.0.1's latest Log and Transfer interface adds direct support to AVCHD, and importing files couldn't be easier. (AVCHD is also supported by Apple iMovie ‘08, Grass Valley Edius Neo XL, Pinnacle Studio Plus 11, Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus, and Sony Vegas products.) Although video compression is MPEG-4, the container file format is MPEG-2 (Transport Stream), which explains the file extension .m2ts. (Go figure, Sony's new XDCAM EX file format is the reverse: MPEG-2 compression in an MPEG-4 container.)

AVCHD, being consumer in origin, contains no metadata — at least none that I'm aware of. The HSC1U begins each new clip at 00:00:00:00. It does display the creation time/date stamp, but this data did not transfer upon import to FCP 6.0.1.

Then there's HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), the “poor man's HD-SDI” (audio yes, timecode no) for full 1080×1920 HD output, which I captured to a ProRes 422 timeline in FCP 6.0.1 using Blackmagic Design's Intensity card. This seemed to degrade the image somewhat, adding aliasing and softening. I can only speculate that uprezzing the CCDs to 1080×1440, compressing to H.264 then uncompressing, then uprezzing again to 1080×1920 for HDMI output creates unintended consequences.

The HSC1U records up to 41 minutes of AVCHD at 13Mbps on a 4GB SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) card.

The HSC1U I used contained a single 4GB Panasonic SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) memory card with SD Speed Class 2 performance. SDHC is a new variant of the common SD card with faster memory addressing. On the Internet, 4GB cards sell for about $160, and Panasonic has announced a 16GB version, with 32GB expected early next year.

A 4GB SDHC card captures 41 minutes of AVCHD (high-quality mode). I filled one up with 52 clips mixing medium and high quality, mostly high. Capturing all clips to FCP 6.0.1 using HDMI playback took, as expected, a little more than 41 minutes. (The Mac Pro I used was an aggressive dual-3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon with 8GB of RAM.) Capturing the same clips via USB 2.0 took — surprise — 40 minutes. A total wash.

Then I discovered another practical reason for spending an additional several hundred bucks for the pro HSC1U instead of the consumer HDC-SD1: the HSC1U's battery-powered sidekick, the 40GB hard drive/SD card reader that backs up and organizes the contents of SD cards in the field. Not only did backing up in the field contribute to a little thing called peace of mind — the SD Media Storage's manual helpfully suggests you back up each SDHC card twice if time and space permit — but it slurped down my 52 clips in less than 10 minutes. In typical field conditions, faster is better. In fact, it's mandatory. (Note that standard SD card readers can't read SDHC. And that later transfer of my 52 clips from the SD Media Storage to FCP 6.0.1 via USB 2.0 took the same 40 minutes.)

When it comes to audio, the AVCHD standard calls for either 7.1-channel PCM (uncompressed) or 5.1-channel Dolby AC3. HSC1U opts for Dolby AC3. Above the lens and flush to the camera's body is what can only be called a cluster mic (five mics gathered into something the size of a quarter). The result can be fun if you have 5.1 playback, but it's of minimal professional interest. There is a mini stereo jack for an external mic, but audio controls in the menu are for global gain adjustments (all 5.1 channels at once), and there's only a rudimentary single audio level indicator while recording video. Where would you attach an external mic, anyway? And the manual states, “No sound will be heard except during normal playback.” Leave the headphones behind.

Ergonomics? I'm at an age where I'd need reading glasses to see the LCD screen if it's held up to my head. (Big advantage of viewfinder optics, by the way.) I did use the HSC1U in this position, however, steadying the camera by framing the LCD with the fingers of my left hand. What was immediately apparent is that the zoom control, which fell perfectly under the tip of my index finger, is superbly sensitive — a big plus in my book. I felt comfortable doing subtle, slow, feathered zooms with this tiny camera. Key to this endeavor was the excellent Mega Optical Image Stabilizer (Mega OIS) — critical in a camera with no mass.

I found that cradling the HSC1U at waist level like a view camera, with my right thumb on the zoom control, worked best for me. A necessary waist-level alternative, I subsequently discovered, was to hold the HSC1U in the left hand, flick the manual focus switch with the left thumb, manipulate the zoom with the right index finger, and operate the on/off record button and joystick for manual focus and exposure control with the right thumb. Easier to do than to describe.

And there's never been a better camcorder for pointing at yourself at arm's length in mirror mode for first-person diary shots. Especially when held in the left hand. For this, the HSC1U's shape and balance are perfect.

Speaking of manual focus, in no time, I mastered the hang of pulling focus because of an optional function called MF Assist. When adjusting focus with the joystick, MF Assist places an active window in the middle of the LCD display with a 2X magnified area. While there's no peaking (would be helpful), I managed nonetheless to develop a feel for this focusing method, particularly during recording. After adjusting focus, the MF Assist window vanishes.

Autofocus was reasonably responsive, although it requires sufficient image contrast and was sometimes sluggish or confused during nighttime shooting on city streets. Most impressive was ultra-close focus up to 1/2in. from the lens, at wide-angle of course. In a tiny pocket camcorder, this will find many uses.

The HSC1U is a worthy HD kit camera, comparable in utility to a classic Bolex or viewfinder-less 16mm BÖwe Bell & Howell GSAP (Gun Sight Aiming Point) camera. It's not for every purpose — no intervalometer, stop motion, or infrared — but its midget size and playful aura spark the imagination. (Strap two together at interocular distance for 3D HD on the cheap.)

Over time and use, this companionable little guy totally charmed me. HSC1U is v. 1.0 of Panasonic's “professional AVCHD product line.” Already, Panasonic has announced and previewed the next entrant, a shoulder-mount AG-HMC70 due in April, which features three 1/4in. 16:9 CCDs and the same 12X Leica Dicomar zoom as the HSC1U. I'm betting it includes a headphone jack.

Company: Panasonic www.panasonic.com/broadcast

Product: AG-HSC1U

Assets: Efficient AVCHD compression, affordable SDHC cards, inviting user interface, notable industrial design, tiny form factor, simple import of clips to recent editing systems.

Caveats: No viewfinder or headphone jack, limited audio control, 9Mbps and 6Mbps settings tend to produce artifacts.

PRICE: $2,099 (LIST)