Customer Ratings & Reviews

This camcorder has been a fantastic purchase for me. I do professional video and I sometimes use this camcorder on pro shoots. Its smaller sensor relative to stills-style cameras does result in worse low-light performance, but that's about the only complaint I have. When I need a long zoom or a relatively wide shot, it handles both nicely, and getting an extra angle has saved several of my paid shoots from unpredictable errors like the performers on stage moving out of view of the wide A-camera. It has been invaluable for live streaming where I couldn't get close to the subject(s) and I needed a long zoom but would never be able to afford the crazy cannon-sized lenses needed for larger cameras to reach long distances. This camcorder is worth every cent. Warning: it doesn't shoot at 24 fps, so die-hard filmmakers that can't accept shooting in 30/60 fps and decimating to 24 fps in post will not be happy. I'll gladly take more frames per second any day, so this camcorder is a great fit for me.

I love this camera, it’s very simple to operate and records fantastic 4K footage….the zoom is absolutely amazing on it. It has a WiFi flip screen option , I highly suggest purchasing this camera . Worth every penny. I added a microphone & tripod for my hunting excursions!

I am a photographer and videographer with a lot of cameras in my collection. I have a Panasonic G7 (larger sensor, 4K capable, but not a camcorder) which I can directly compare this to. Despite the video produced by the G7 being objectively better, this camcorder has become my go-to video device for some purposes. A video-capable DSLR is generally better in a controlled environment because it has a bigger sensor and a higher video bitrate, but a DSLR will never be a camcorder. When you walk out your front door and want to record something spontaneously, your DSLR's automatic performance will be worse and the way you hold it for video and use the zoom capability will be quite uncomfortable. If you're choosing between a 4K DSLR and this camcorder for video production, you can't go wrong with this camcorder. There are benefits to a smaller sensor and this capitalizes on those, particularly the longer zoom ranges. I have shot "close" videos of helicopters flying over me that I could never do with the best DSLR and telephoto lens (480mm @ 35mm equivalent) I own. Auto-focus is very fast. There is no visible purple fringing even at maximum zoom. The manual mode requires that you choose shutter speed before you choose iris and gain, however this is in stark contrast to even the double-price Sony FDR-AX100 I was desperate to buy a few months ago, a camcorder which has a bigger sensor yet only allows ONE THING to be manual at a time; if you set Sony 4K camcorders to manual shutter and then set a manual ANYTHING ELSE, they'll kick the iris back to automatic! Contrast this to the Panasonic which allows full manual settings and the Sony camcorders look crippled by comparison. Image quality in daylight is equal to my G7; in darker settings the limitations of a 1/2.3" BSI sensor become apparent and noise reduction smoothing kicks in hard, but it is still reasonable. With adequate lighting most of the NR smoothing goes away and the image looks great. Highlight roll-off is superior to Sony camcorders which have banding problems. 120fps slow-motion support is GREAT to have around. Overall, this camcorder is a great purchase. Despite having Canon and Panasonic DSLRs with nice lenses that cost a lot more, this camcorder is competitive with them and sometimes makes me wonder why I blew all that money on the other systems. I know that my other cameras have better low-light performance due to larger sensors and huge-aperture prime lenses, but when you need any sort of image automation they start to look sub-par in comparison to any camcorder...especially this one. If you are going to do a lot of video with automatic settings (not in a fully controlled environment) and you have little interest in still photography, I'd recommend this over the G7 w/14-42mm kit lens. If you're looking for maximum image quality and good low-light performance and vastly superior fully manual controls, the G7 is a clear winner. Each has its purpose and this fills its purpose well. The only con I can think of is that the "photo" button is poorly located and when I go for the zoom control I sometimes hit the photo button. One final note: the photos attached are still frames from 4K videos taken with this camera. The "photo" mode is pretty terrible though; don't expect that the photo button will produce anything good at all. This is not a photo camera.

I hadn't used a camcorder for several years as I've been using my iPhone. However, I missed having a decent zoom lens and wanted better quality to capture vacations and family events. I recently bought a 4K TV and decided it was time to buy a suitable camcorder. I looked online for awhile at different makes but kept coming back to this model from Panasonic. I bought it and have been using it for about two weeks and so far I really like it. The playback on the 4K TV looks awesome! Super sharp and great colors. There are lots of features with the unit for 1080 video but many of these are not available when 4K recoding is selected. This doesn't bother me as I really wanted a simple camcorder that my wife could use too. Keeping the unit in standby is great since as soon as you open the viewing screen the camera is ready to use. The zoom lens is very good and with the automatic stability feature you don't get a shaky image when at 25x optical magnification. I also like that playback is organized by the scene so you can quickly review what you just taped or completely delete a scene later (something you couldn't do with older tape units). It is also convenient that my TV's remote control will operate the camera in playback since a separate remote is not included. It has the ability to use your cellphone as a secondary camera and superimpose that video in the corner of the main video image (i.e., focus on someone's facial expressions while capturing the event they are watching). A shoulder strap is not included so I plan on getting one as I don't want to lug around a big camera bag or hold the unit in my hand all the time. The unit is very light, so I could carry it, and it fits well in my hand but again I'll buy a simple strap. I have a 64 GB card in it now and will eventually transfer the video to my external hard drive but haven't tried that yet. One minor item to note is the paper manual it comes with is truncated and only gives the basic information so you have to go online to get the full manual. Again, not a big issue for me as I downloaded it to my cellphone and can now refer to it anytime. So far the battery life is good (90 min on 4K) even when using the zoom lens. The camera does take still pictures at different resolutions with one at over 25 MB per image but I haven't done much with that yet. To date, I am very satisfied with the unit and look forward to exploring and using some of the other features it offers.

Meets and exceeds expectations. User friendly. Great for wildlife videoing. Easy to take stills from replays. Every year we make a custom calendar for friends and family and this camera will help facilitate that process. Very pleased.

Love it cant stop using it good for family videos pic

Working great we have two of these for live stream at church. Much better than the older cam we had. The picture quality is great on this cam.

This is my little baby. I love it perfect for what I do

Best cameras I’ve used! No overheating like GoPros do either!!

This camcorder is easy to use. It has sharp crisp colors, with some unique features that stands out. Like NFC for easy phone connections, Wi-Fi screen in screen and more. Absolutely love it and recommend it.

Pros: *Great 4K quality *Great in low light conditions *Ext mic input *Light Build in *Acceptable 4K photo quality Cons: *Nothing

This review is a reflection on Best Buy. I took a chance and purchased the "Excellent Condition" open box item. It arrived as you can see in the pics, the accessories were tossed in the box, not in their original packaging and the instruction book looks as if was dropped in water. The item, at best, is in good condition. Customer service was no help. The 2nd rep offered be a partial refund and we got cutoff - when I got back in the new rep said that they could not offer a partial refund so I asked for a supervisor - again even less help. It seemed as if I was inconveniencing her...my options are to go to the store so I can see what I am getting (literally that is what she said) of I can go mail it. I had this delivered for a reason - so those are out. I invested my time into cleaning the product, really that's all it took, some time invested. This has been extraordinarily disappointing...

I got this back in camcorder to replace a sony that couldn't keep a clear picture. I have two kids that play lots of soccer. This is my workhorse i use to record all their games with. It's great because i can stream a video feed to a phone or tablet using image app. So i have this on a pole and stream it to a samsung tablet that i use to ensure I have the action in view. It has worked great for the almost 3 years i have had it. It works well. It has its quirks, though. It's almost impossible to find any firmware updates if there are any. Ustream through the Lumix club has not worked since IBM bought them years ago. So if your wanting to stream, expect to purchase an elgato capture card. As of right now though, the image quality is still exceptional after probably recording somewhere around 125 games and every christmas and it functions well still. One thing i did have to do was to purchase an oversized battery for it on amazon. The stock battery will not record an entire hour and 10 minute game. This is a great 4k camera though. It has way outlasted my last sony. I paid $699 in Nov 2017 and I feel like I have gotten my money's worth easily out of this camera. I can atest though, if your using this to record sports, this camera is great. I have never had it lose focus during filming. Good value, great picture. It has gotten lots of highlights.

I bought this camcorder purely for the 4K and for the size and price, it does a great job. I also have the FZ1000 and the image quality is comparable. Chromatic aberration is worse, audio is better, manual controls are worse, stabilization is better. The reach on the VX870 zoom is a tiny bit better and when 4K is output to 720p -- the real benefit of 4K -- there's a bit more room in the frame to zoom and pan and still maintain sharpness. Both cameras are great at this, though, and the effective reach for clear HD nature photography is astounding. If I only had one $900 4K camera on a desert island, it would be the FZ1000. If I wanted more room to pack food and water, I'd take the VX870!

After many many years with my old movie camera I finally needed an upgrade. I'm glad my hours of online searching led me to this fantastic camcorder. I've used it for a month now and am still learning all of it's features. I love the clarity of the videos and also all the setting you can set for pictures and video. This camcorder can make my shots look closer to professional shots. I had read a review about the sound not being that good, but I haven't noticed any thing with my unit. I had read the battery takes 1 1/2 hours to fully charge so I bought two extra batteries for UN-interrupted filming. Like my last camcorder, this one only charges the battery when connected to the camcorder. I filmed 3 days of activities during this past fourth of July with our entire family and never ran out of power during a days shoot. I plugged it in at night and never had to actually use the extra batteries. It is nice to know that you can continue filming when having the extra batteries. I would have no problem now filming an entire wedding without worrying about running out of power. I like the feel of the camera and all of the function buttons and pretty much self explanatory. Zoom is really great and I got some shots this past weekend of some fawns and a couple of turkeys on our up North property. I went ahead a bought the 256 card and have not had to transfer anything I've shot for the past 3 weeks. That really saves some time and allows you the freedom of not being a slave to emptying a full SD card. When I did transfer the videos and pictures, they came out great on the PC. I haven't worked with the w-fi or some of the other trick features yet but am looking forward to it. I love this camcorder and would suggest it for the price and features to anyone. Glad I did the research to find this jewel.

I bought this to record a recital. Never having used one before, it was easy to user. The default settings and no external mic picked up the sound really well. And the picture was greate. Zoom feature was easy to use. I bought this one over the cheaper one because this one has the feature to put it on a tripod.

This camera does everything well. Movies and stills both produce very good pictures. The camera also lets you take still pics while recording video. Its size makes it convenient to use but battery life is average. A second battery is highly recommended. A separate battery charger is not part of the package. The camera doubles as the charger when not in use. This might become inconvenient. For the price point, this is a very satisfying unit. The software and apps that support it are downloaded from the Internet, and perform as advertised.

I bought this camcorder because I did not want the BOKA effect which is a problem with normal DSLR point and shoots. This camcorder may not come with a diaopter but it does the same thing. Now this model beats out the Sony because it has better features that the Sony does not offer like a bigger sensor, similar technology but, without the hefty price of a sony. It has great features and quality build. Yes, it is a smaller size than the Sony AX43 but, it works so much better. Panasonic parts have same quality parts and abilities. It has a smooth zoom. The camcorder is simple to use and not bulky I would recommend this item because it better than a cell phone with a bigger sensor.

I needed a high quality and easy-to-use digital HD camera for my ongoing family history video project. For the price, the Panasonic HC-VX870K 4K Ultra HD camcorder just couldn't be beat. I've recorded many hours of older family members recounting their past and have many more connections to document--this camera will help me to do just that--and in great Ultra HD fashion.

Exellent camera. I purchased did this camera for recording my kids sporting events. Is easy to use, simple if you want(like me) or has lot Of high tech features for those of you that wish a little more. Battery is short lived but can purchase an extra one in desired. Overall very good