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Test Bench: Panasonic AG-DVC30 Mini DV Camcorder

If you enjoy shooting a variety of subjects that require the features of several camcorders, then you'll want to look closely at the new 1/4-inch 3-CCD Panasonic AG-DVC30. Most camcorders have particular design features made for a particular type of user. The AG-DVC30, however, has something for the wedding, documentary, sports, nature and even industrial videographer.

Even if this camera attempts to be a jack-of-all-trades, it does excel at one thing: image quality. This versatile camcorder clearly compares and even surpasses some of the high-end features of Canon's GL-2 or Sony's DSR-PDX10.

The AG-DVC30 has a solid feel and is moderately heavy for a small camera, but is still very well balanced. You have good access to frequently used controls such as white balance, focus, iris, menu and others. A good example is the well-placed auto-manual slider at lower left rear of the body. Even the time code display has its own button and can be quickly toggled from a user-zeroable tape counter.

The 16x zoom is one aspect of the excellent optics. The zoom rocker gives you fluid control, from a dramatic 100-second creep to a 1-second snap zoom. The Repeatable Zoom control is just one of 16 different functions assignable to three user-programmable buttons, one behind the zoom rocker and two on the left barrel.

A button just behind the focus ring easily engages manual focus but the ring itself does not provide enough friction to make you confident it will hold focus. This may be due in part to it being multi-functional, working as either a zoom, focus or iris control. This is a drawback if you want immediate manual access to all three of these critical controls.

Auto focus is not the fastest, but is very smooth and does not fool easily by moving subjects or panning. If you need to override the auto focus, you still get a cool auto-assist. Just press and hold a user-assignable button while it quickly zooms in, auto focuses, and then release the button and it to goes back to your previous framing.

While the on-camera stereo microphone is located directly on top of the lens barrel, the magnesium alloy housing encases the tape and transport well within the bowels of the body, which makes the camera nearly silent. Sensitivity is good, and the automatic gain controls are predictably responsive, but for the cleanest audio, you may need to invest in the optional XLR Pro Audio adapter, which has key pro features like 48-volt phantom power and microphone and line level modes. You can adjust levels manually, but they are on menus.

Full color low light sensitivity is very good with relatively low noise gain settings up to +18db. Colors are well balance and saturated, without excessive bleed, and skin tones are accurate. Pro-level adjustment of White Balance, Detail, Chroma level, Master Pedestal, Skin Tone detail and more, gives the user nearly total image quality control. On some cameras it is little more than a toy feature, but the DVC30's film-like mode adjusts frame rate and gamma in an imitation of its 16mm brethren. Consumer cameras have had green-hued infrared night modes for some time. There are times when this can be useful, so it is nice to see it as an option on this camera. Illuminated by onboard infrared LEDs, you can shoot black and white in total darkness. This is a key selling point if you do nature, surveillance or law enforcement work.