Panasonic HC-Z10000 review

3D video cameras have traditionally fallen into two broad ranges: low-budget models that you can use for a bit of fun, such as the Sony Bloggie 3D, and high-end professional models for film and TV. With its Z10000 Panasonic has taken a different tack, producing a high-end 3D model with plenty of control that’s designed for enthusiasts.

At just shy of £3,000, the Z10000 can’t be described as cheap, but for the level of control, range of inputs and quality there’s simply nothing else at this price that’s even remotely similar. You also have to take into account that this model is a proper 3D camera, using dual 3MOS sensors (six 1/4.1in sensors in total). That means there’s a one 3MOS sensor for each eye’s image, so you can shoot Full HD progressive video in 3D, rather than using a compromise, such as the side-by-side system budget models use, where each eye’s image gets half of a 1080p resolution.

Dual XLR inputs let you attach high-quality microphones for better sound recording.

From the outside, the HDC-Z1000 is an impressive-looking bit of kit. Its large body houses the lens assembly at the front for the dual 3D lenses, plus there are two XLR microphone inputs (with phantom power) for audio, so you can use proper microphones and capture better-quality audio than by using the built-in Dolby Digital 5.1 microphone array.

As this model’s aimed at the enthusiast market, there are also three lens rings for zoom, focus and iris control. Zoom controls also sit on rocker switchers on the side, when using the camera in a traditional hand-held grip, and on the carry handle. Dual XDHC memory card slots are nice to see and you can configure them so that the second card’s for overflow shooting or for a backup, so you can protect any precious footage from memory card failure.

Discrete controls for most commonly-used features, let you take full control of the video you’re shooting.

The side of the camera consists of a set of dedicated buttons for most of the common controls, letting you quickly switch between automatic and manual modes for iris and focus, toggle the optical image stabilisation and switch between the white balance modes (auto, 3200K, 5600K, two user modes and a lock on the current automatically detected setting). There are also three programmable user buttons, but it’s a shame that there’s no quick method to adjust the shutter speed.

Instead, this setting has to be adjusted using the menu system and the touchscreen 3.48in display, which pulls out of the handle. It’s a gorgeous display with 1,152,000 dots producing an incredibly sharp image; for even clearer shooting the electronic viewfinder has a 0.45in screen with 1,226,880 dots. Both make it easy to use the manual focus when you need to.

The high-quality pop-out screen gives you a glasses-free 3D image, but its also used to change a lot of settings.

It’s here that the camera’s first minor annoyances kicks in: it doesn’t automatically detect when you’re looking through the viewfinder. In fact, the only way to switch between the LCD and viewfinder is to fold the external screen away.

An electronic viewfinder is great for shooting in bright-light, but it’s not automatically activated when you look through it.

It’s a shame, as both screens are useful when you’re shooting. For 3D work the LCD’s parallax barrier glasses-free technology helps you line up a shot and gauge depth, but the viewfinder’s still useful if it’s a bright day and you want to check the framing. At the least, there really should be a dedicated button to switch between the two modes.

Three lens rings gives you fine control, but it’s a shame there are no markings and no stop on the focus wheel.

Our other minor annoyances lie with the lens rings. For starters, there are no focal lengths marked on the zoom wheel, and it’s a bit laggy making it hard to use for fine adjustment, as it engages the electronic zoom rather than giving you direct control. It’s also a little annoying that the focus wheel has infinite movement, rather than physical stops, which we’d expect on a high-end camera.

Still, a lot of this can be forgiven once you start shooting. For 2D footage, the camera has the same sensor and max aperture (F1.5 at wide angle to F2.8 at telefocus) as well as focal length of 2.84 to 34.1mm (29.8 to 368.8mm, 35mm equivalent) as the company’s high-end consumer HC-X900. That’s no bad thing, as image quality is stunning.

Detail across the entire image, even into the far background is incredible, with the camera retaining every single bit of information without any compression artefacts. Colour reproduction is spot on, too, faithfully reproducing everything from the bright blue sky to the dark red-brick buildings in our test shots. Outside, the Z10000 gives you footage that’s superbly detailed and lifelike.

Detail throughout the image is impressive.

In full-auto mode the camera’s quick to respond and accurate. We noticed this moving from outside to inside, where the Z10000 correctly switched white balance and adjusted its iris and shutter speed to avoid under-exposing the frame. In dark situations, the fast F1.5 lens and three sensors really help out and we struggled to spot anything other than a small amount of noise in a dimly lit room. Noise gets more out of control when it’s very dark, but there’s still plenty of detail in the picture. Besides, when it gets too dark with a camera like this, you’re better off resorting to using lighting to properly light your scene.

Shooting at 1080p 50p in 2D, the footage is incredibly smooth, while retaining all of the information in the picture without any moiré or other associated problems you’d get if using interlaced footage. It’s fair to say that this camera shoots some of the best footage that we’ve seen from any camcorder.

Of course, it’s 3D that’s going to excite the most interest. As we said at the start of the review, the dual 3MOS system means that each eye gets an image that’s as detailed and accurately coloured as for 2D shooting.

On top of that, the Z10000 has some specific features designed to make shooting 3D easier and more rewarding. A dedicated convergence point dial lets you manually adjust the 3D convergence point: objects in front of this jump out of the screen; those behind disappear into the background.

A dedicated convergence wheel lets you take full control of the 3D effect.

Having the glasses-free 3D screen certainly helps when making this adjustment, but it’s not always easy to see what’s going on. We found that the tight viewing angles meant that we often saw ghosting on the screen, making it hard sometimes to accurately gauge where the convergence point was and whether or not the camera could accurately focus on the subject. In short, shooting in 3D requires a fair amount of setup before you’re ready to go, plus a good understanding of the different limitations, such as in 2D the camera can focus on objects 3cm away; in 3D mode 45cm is the minimum focal distance.

You also have to take into account whether you want to shoot at 25fps progressive or 50fps interlaced. The choice depends on what you want to shoot. We found that the progressive option gave us the best quality footage, but fast movement seemed quite jerky and didn’t look as natural; interlaced 3D produced a much smoother and more natural moving image, but the quality suffers a little as a result. For most footage, though, we’d take the smoother footage as faults in image quality are generally harder to detect in 3D.

In 3D mode the maximum optical zoom is reduced slightly to 10x from 12x in 2D mode. That’s still more flexibility that we’re used to seeing on a 3D camera, although we advise against using the zoom too much mid-shot, as you may have to adjust the convergence point to get the best result otherwise footage can look a little flat. In fairness, most of the issues you’re likely to come across are from shooting in 3D, but once you get used to what you can and can’t do in the format, the Z10000 produces stunning footage.

It’s all helped by Panasonic’s excellent Power Optical Image Stabilisation (O.I.S). On our wobble-board test it gave us rock solid video at wide-angle and only a slight hard-to-detect murmur at maximum zoom.

Overall, what’s truly brilliant about this camera is that it shoots the same high-quality footage in 2D and 3D modes. If you’re interested in shooting proper 3D footage, where you get decent control over the results, there’s nothing out there that does the same thing at anywhere near this price. Only the laggy optical zoom and over-reliance on the touchscreen for adjustments detract from it.