Simon Wyndham has written an excellent hands on review of the Panasonic HPX-500 well worth the read if you’re interested in learning more about this camera, go ahead and take a look.

SIMON SAYS:
With Blu-Ray discs managing to break into the top selling echelons of Amazon.coms’ charts, high definition has entered a new phase of mass adoption. This has meant that the demand for camera operators with their own high definition cameras has increased drastically even in the space of the last year or so. To enable owner/operators a way into professional high definition shooting Panasonic initially released the HDX900.

The 900 offered a good route for those who already owned or used the standard definition SDX900 and who were established in a DVCpro workflow. While the HDX900 offered a smooth upgrade path it was still a tape based camera, and as anyone who hasn’t been living underground for the last 5 years or so knows tapeless is the way the industry is going.

Thus we arrive at the new HPX500 camcorder. The HPX500 has been designed once again to allow a smooth upgrade path for those wishing to get into low cost HD production. One set of customers Panasonic appear to be targeting with the 500 are existing operators of HVX200’s who may be looking to move to a more professional style of camera.

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