Panasonic HC-X2000E Lightest 4K Professional Camcorders with Wide-Angle 25 mm Lens, 24x Optical Zoom and Detachable Handle

I love this camera the colours are so natural and clear IV used it several times and the built in filters are superb the battery lasts an age even wjen using the built in light if you bag the camera make sure that you don't accidentally grab the mic wire instead of the handle I know it sounds silly but IV done it only once but it's got great stabilisers built in. The zoom in great in my opinion this camera is worth the money for sure

UHD/60 or 50. SDI out. First rate superzoom lens. Battery lasts over 4 hours. Supports live streaming to YouTube over WiFi. Remote control via phone or tablet app. XLR twin inputs with phantom. Very compact and lightweight. Supports 422. Some of the buttons are a bit fiddly to use but i can live with that. Twin SD card slots. Damn good camcorder.

The footage is fuzzy and isn’t really 4k, it’s technically UHD at 60fps

This camera is excellent for sports live streaming, giving a professional broadcast feel to amateur production. The 32x zoom is perfect for close up sports action from across the pitch, and 4k quality with 50fps works nicely to provide a slo-mo replay every now and again. We love this camera so much that we bought 4 more to have the entire set-up run from it!

Great camera for anyone that wants quality production and great results.

I have covered weddings for many years using traditional camcorders, but in 2017 switched to a GH5 with its undoubtedly superb 4k 50fps image quality in light and dark situations. It has an excellent Leica 5:1 manual zoom lens, but despite using it for several weddings I had to concede to myself that I was having to sacrifice many shots I traditionally could easily achieve previously. Examples would be the bride and father coming up a long aisle towards the camera. With a smooth, very slow motorized zoom it makes a great shot to either start in wide and gently close in as they progress, or vice versa. Similarly as the groom slips the ring onto the finger, a smooth zoom to a tight close up before pulling back again was never a problem. But with a manual zoom, getting a perfectly smooth very slow zoom is virtually impossible. Similarly during speeches or dancing a nice slow zoom from tight CU to wide shot or vice versa became problematic. So although the final image results were superb with the GH5, I knew that creatively the result was worse than I would have liked.So in November 2021, despite the misgivings about the low light performance, I gave the HC-X2000 a chance, have used it for ten weddings since, and have no regrets. All the creative options with its 24x zoom variable speed zoom have been restored. I always shoot in 4k 50fps so I have the option of good 50% slo-mo or reframing in post, the built in ND filters mean instant adaptation to bright sunlight instead of fiddling with putting on a lens filter, and the battery literally lasts for hours. I use 256gb SD cards, which store over 4 hours of 4k 50fps footage.The autofocus is always spot-on. If you like sharp foreground and blurred backgrounds, this isn't for you, but in fact I love being able to clearly see the facial reactions of relatives and friends well behind the bride and groom as they make their vows: it may be fashionably cinematic to have a sea of undefined faces in the background, but in fact something is lost from the whole scene when we lose those reactions. Also in a fast moving situation where the bride and groom are moving around amongst the guests, manual focus is very tricksy, and shallow depth of field may mean loss of focus at key moments.Once the lights dim for the dancing, I do have to turn on the inbuilt light to avoid grain coming in, which I wouldn't have had to do on the GH5. This handles all situations within about 2m of the subject, but if I'm going to move well back for the shot, then I will have a second more powerful light on the camera (a Godox LED24 costing twenty pounds). It's not a big deal to have this mounted throughout the evening: once people are dancing and relaxed, they don't care if there's a video light pointing at them.It is important to know the camera. In mixed light such as daylight streaming in through the window in a tungsten lit room, I do set the white balance manually rather than relying on the auto white balance. I prefer using Area autofocus rather than face tracking autofocus/exposure. The latter works perfectly well except if there are very dark faces in a very brightly lit room such as with sunlight streaming in. If pulling out from a tight close up to a very wide shot, it will maintain the correct exposure on the face, but this can lead to an unnaturally over-bright image in the wide shot. By always using Area autofocus instead (which doesn't combine with auto face exposure), this doesn't happen, and the image always seems correctly exposed.I prefer using everything on Auto, because the results are excellent in that mode (except with that white balance caveat), but another great thing about the camera is that there is full control over exposure and focus with the two lens rings if put into manual mode if that is your preference. And once familiar with the camera, there are plenty of user buttons you can set if you want to click into other specific manual settings quickly.In summary, the fantastic run 'n gun sheer usability of the camera in a fast moving situation such as a wedding makes it a joy to use. Shoot in 4k and the image quality is excellent. Yes, you will have to use a camera light in the evening, but that more than outweighs the sheer faff of a mirrorless or DSLR type camera: fiddling about with ND filters, changing lenses, or trying to achieve a smooth manual zoom (and with a much more limited range).If you have the luxury of 2 or 3 camera coverage then mirrorless or DSLR cameras may suit your needs, but if you're hired as a single camera, then the HC-X2000 is ideal.

When opening the clips in Final Cut Pro, the audio was behind the video All clips were out to the same amount. Using the camera for my theatre group, the autofocus was unreliable in slightly lower light and switching to manual didn't seem to help. Overall, the picture quality wasn't good. On the plus side, the battery was very good, running for up to 4 hours. The controls were intuitive although the manual was very brief indeed.