Panasonic Mini DV Camcorder Review AG-DVC10

Don Collins
Special Issue 2001

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The line between professional and consumer video gear is blurring, in terms of both price and performance. Panasonic's Professional Broadcast Division has introduced the AG-DVC10, a Mini DV camcorder that targets advanced hobbyist and entry level professionals.

If you're looking for professional-quality images on a budget, and like the stability of shoulder shooting, read on, the AG-DVC10 may be just what you are looking for.

In this age of tiny camcorders, the DVC10 dares to defy the trend. One of the first things you'll notice about the DVC10 is that it is designed to rest on your shoulder. Its large size gives the unit a professional look and feel, its shoulder-rest design makes steady shooting much easier, and makes the unit more comfortable to hold for long periods of time. The camera looks heavy, but it's not. The DVC10 weighs in at less than five pounds. The unit is made of lightweight plastic, much of which seems to be hollow. Only the most used controls are on the exterior of the camcorder's body, the rest are tucked into a menu system.

The DVC10's fixed lens features a 12:1 optical and 120:1 digital zoom. The variable speed zoom worked well on the unit we tested, enabling accurate zooms at various speeds, but on our test unit the zoom toggle itself wiggled loosely in the camera housing as though it were broken, and provided little resistance when pressed. The soft, wiggly toggle did not seem to affect the performance of the zoom, but it did cause us to question the quality of the unit's construction.

The automatic focus system worked well. When we zoomed in at full speed, we were pleased with how the focus matched the pace. We loved the huge rubberized ring around the lens that let us easily adjust our focus manually.

The DVC10 has two operating modes, automatic and manual. In the automatic mode, as you might expect, the camera does all of the adjusting. You need only to point and shoot.

When shooting in the manual mode, the essential controls, like shutter/iris, white balance and focus are activated. By clicking and rotating the shutter/iris wheel, we could quickly scroll to choose shutter speeds from 1/60 to 1/8,000 or adjust the aperture. To set the white balance, we pushed the button on the side of the camcorder to choose between preset indoor settings for incandescent or florescent light, an outdoor setting or the manual option.

With a push of the menu button located on the side of the body, we gained access to the menu where we scrolled down to turn a number of different settings on and off. Menu features include electronic image stabilization, digital effects, automatic exposure setting, normal and frame shooting modes, microphone pickup level, and zebra stripes (used to help set aperture), and many other settings. Advanced users who will use menu-driven functions often may find themselves wishing for a flip-out LCD viewscreen. We did.

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