Adam Wilt has a very detailed article covering advanced settings and controls available on the Panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder. He has thoroughly tested the camera’s gamma, knee and matrix settings and offers suggestions for getting the most from the rig.

Adam also mentions that had he done tests like this before the “Texas Shootout” the HVX-200 would have performed better in the sharpness and highlight handling tests.

“I ran through the camera’s eight different gamma curves, including News gamma (which is available only in 60p and 30i frame rates). I left detail at 0 and knee at auto, but also tried other knees in the HD Norm and High gamma settings. I tried all four color matrices in HD Norm, High, Cinelike D, and Cinelike V gammas. I ran through detail settings from -7 to +7 with HD Norm gamma, low knee, Normal matrix, and also ran 15 combinations of color level and color temperature settings. Sample frames from all these tests are posted at the end of the article.”

He came to some very interesting conclusions, like this little blurb on Highlight Handling in an overexposure test:

“As luck would have it, Cinelike D is the worst gamma curve for this case; the non-Cine gammas are all nicer, and Cinelike V is the best of the bunch, comparable to the JVC HD100’s excellent performance.”

There are a ton of test images included in the article, showing what each setting looks like. This article looks like a must-read for Panasonic P2 shooters.