Panasonic - HC-VX870K 4K Ultra HD Flash Memory Camcorder - Black

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.

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

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.

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.

No doubt, no Iphone or any smartphone can replace the quality and easy use. The camera is super light and with the built in monitor super easy to view what you actually recording. The HDMI output is super important to connect it to a Mac or PC in case you want to live stream or just use it as a webcam. You can mount it on any camera tripod and record also with the app remotely. It is different than a smartphone and has a lot of benefits over it.

We bought this camcorder to improve the quality of our Church livestream. So far it has performed quite well. Image quality is very good, even in a somewhat poorly lit auditorium, and the optical zoom is tremendous. We’re excited to try out more of the built in features as time goes on. The only complaint I have is that we had to search YouTube to remove the date from the HDMI output, which can be done but isn’t exactly transparent through the menu system.

I wanted to use a camcorder with remote control app so that I can control the exposure and the Panasonic HC-VX870 does the job. I previously tried the Sony AX53 and it defaults to full auto while in remote mode and messes up the video including the white balance switching to auto. The VX870 retains all my settings. Very useful. I had ignored Panasonic since a few bad experiences decades ago and has been a Sony user ever since. Now I am discovering Panny again :)