Hi everyone. Let me introduce myself first. My name is Jaume Rey and I’m the Director for Panasonic Broadcast in Europe. After reading the comments made in several Forums about this “Dancing Dots” I thought you all deserved an answer from Panasonic Europe and soon we will post more info about it in our webpage (www.panasonic-broadcdast.com). Some thoughts from our side:
1)The camcorder settings to “create” those dots are quiet unusual (in our understanding). There are several other camera settings for those light environments that would reduce dramatically the effect. Obviously, with other settings, you will need to compromise something else, but the overall result will be beter than those “Dancing Dots” (as seems people call them).
So sticking on those dots “case” is like saying “when listening my 100W HiFi system at full sound power volumen, with loudspeakers of 80W, heavy metal music and with the equalizer at full filtering on 125Hz, 1Khz, 3Khz and 12Khz the loudspeaker sounds awful”. Agree, they don’t sound well.
2) If you compare ANY OTHER 1/3″ sensor camcorder you will realize that HPX301 is less noisy and far sharper (thanks to the full HD sensor).
3) When I see people comparing camera performance only when talking about camcorders, I can’t do nothing else than smile. Because we produce CAMCORDERS, not STUDIO CAMERAS (for EU I mean). Someone can argue that camera head is very important, and obviously it is, but definitelly, not including on the test the performance of the codec (AVC-I100) sounds to me like comparing cars, excluding the wheels: nice but just partial test if you consider to buy a car to drive it instead of having it in the garage only. So in our eyes a fair comparisson is when you shoot, record, edit, include titles, etc…. and get the final result (same scenes, same process) because is then when you will actually see what you can get at the end. Having what EBU published is the recommended codec from a camcorder for the most high end productions in Broadcast Industry is not a bad thing, right? Specially if you are a professional (editing, titling, effects, etc..). I can understand for home application, 1st generation means everything, but HPX301 is NOT a consumer camcorder. Is for professionals, who need professional tools, go through professional processes and they want to have a professional look.

4) When comparing camcorders, including camera performance and codec performance you can realize that camera is not everything. Is like having large bottles with holes everywhere: you are unable to keep water inside and the more you move yourself the more water it drops. HPX301 is an slightly smaller bottle than others out there, but once the water is inside, no way even a single water drop gets out. In professional environments and with professional settings, HPX301 offers best value-for-money full shoulder camcorder deal in the market.

Once all this is said, we know that different customers have different tastes. In our opinion, no other camcorder can offer more overall at this price and those cameramen/women who will be able to take from HPX301 out the best of it, will be in a far better competitive position under current economic situation.

Thanks for reading up to here, wait for our recommended settings published in our web to reduce the effect and keep in touch.

Jaume