Panasonic AG-DVC15

Review Date
August 22, 2008

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.67 of 5, 3 votes

Reviewed by
engineer , Professional

Price Paid
$0.00

Photography Experience
6-10 years , Sports

Summary
This is the worst camera I have seen in terms of design. The flimsy connection between the CCD block and the main board has no stress release thanks to the thin plastic housing. One good blow and its all over, because Panasonic has discontinued that board! This camera was obviously designed with whatever parts Panasonic had lying around, with not much thought for durability. Buy an XL1 or whatever, and get some 1/8" to XLR adapters, you will be better off!

Review Date
April 22, 2005

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2 votes

Reviewed by
ilovefun321 , Professional

Price Paid
$1500.00 at ebay

Summary
the camera is very much a "prosumer" camera... it does however shoot much better than the canon XL1 and XL1S and i know a lot of you guys are going to get mad at me for saying that, but its true. you dont get that canon tint to everything, or that "soap opera" look to your shots like you do on the xl1s. what you do give up for buying a "prosumer" camera is the lack of some ccd size... AG-dvc 15 - 1/4th ccd's XL1s - 1/3rd inch ccd's. You also lose the ability to change lenses. but most of the time NO ONE BUYS THEM because they are $1,200 and up. some "pros" i know do have these lenses, but if you are really a "pro" you don't own an XL1s anyway, you would own a nice big pro Sony or JVC... I have to say that the view finder for the AG-dvc15 has a nice surprise to it... its a true 16:9 view finder! when you switch to your "wide" mode(16:9) your viewfinder will display the whole image without cropping or stretching the image. what happens is when you go into 4:3 mode it leaves the ends of the viewfinder black for the 4:3 image. the canon has one of the worst viewfinders i have ever looked at in the "pro" price range. and forget about trying to frame your image in a canon, the VF will just smooch the 16:9 into the 4:3 VF distorting everything, and making it really hard to focus. focus on the AGdvc15 is not bad for its price, you have the option to be completely manual. (note that its not a real manual lens) there is a ring on the lens that you can turn to focus, but its not actually attached to a lens element. it tells the chip inside to move the element by the auto focus motors. it does however hold focus quite well for its price range. HERES THE KICKER.. AUDIO... you have 2 XLR connections on the back of the camera! both with a mic line switch. canon makes you buy an attachment that connects to the back of it so you can get 2 xlr inputs and its a few hundred bux! 16-bit 48kHz quality on the AG-dvc15 and its pretty clean sound. 3 INCH LCD! Let’s you see what you’re shooting much bigger, one problem though.. when you shoot in 16:9 mode, it will show it in squeeze mode. its a bummer, but you still have your 16:9 VF so not a big problem. weight.. the AG-dvc15 does not have much of that, and that’s a bad thing in my book. its made of plastic, so its not likely to take a hit like a canon would. all in all it’s a great camera for its price.

Strengths
true 16:9 viewfinder is a BIG plus.
built in 3 inch LCD that can flip out and turn all the way around,
4-pin IEEE conection,S-VIDEO out,RCA out
2 Manual Audio controls
Built in ND filter
2 XLR connections with mic/line switch.
great color. decent white balance. manual focus. shoots much better shots than the canon XL1s! no kidding, and i used to like the canon so im not just saying it to piss people off. Sholder mounted!!!!! thats a big plus. most of these cameras dont have sholder rests... whats up with that???....

Weaknesses
plastic, prosumer, looks unprofessonal, external autofocus sensor can get blocked if using a matte box, you have to use a small dial to change your F/stop insted of a ring on the lens, 1/4th inch ccd's, manual focus sometimes hard without using external viewer like the LCD or monitor. plastic parts can damage easy,

Similar Products Used
not many, i use bigger more expensive cameras like a sony dsr700wu... XL1s close to being a similar product i guess.

Customer Service
never did it, the power button has a probelm with it, but nothing a little gaff tape wouldnt take care of.

Review Date
November 9, 2003

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Visitors rate this review
3.25 of 5, 8 votes

Reviewed by
Orlando , Expert

Price Paid
$2300.00 at B&H

Summary
It is lightweight to begin with, it has pretty good picture, and easy to handle.
I believe it has some minor problems on the carroserie but for the wedding and event photographer it is a perfect piece of equipment. I find the picture better than the more expensive XL-1S

Review Date
October 23, 2003

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

Visitors rate this review
2.80 of 5, 5 votes

Reviewed by
Dan Shugert , Professional

Price Paid
$2300.00 at b and h

Summary
I had a DVC-10 for 2 weeks prior to the 15 coming out. I was very glad i traded up. I have used the 15 on many concert, film, and educational shoots. I bumped the firewire cable once and the plug came off the back of the camera and went inside, still not fixed(shoots just fine) i also have the creaky handle, the broken plastic from the lens hood screw, i'm still very happy with the camera compared to the GL1s i was using before or the PD-100s/TRV-900s i have access to now.

Review Date
October 21, 2003

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Visitors rate this review
4.38 of 5, 8 votes

Reviewed by
Kip , Professional

Price Paid
$2100.00 at Markertek

Summary
For 2100 bucks I guess you get what you pay for. I know now that there are many a better built camera on the market for somewhat less and the prices are falling almost daily. I wanted an inexpensive shoulder mounted camera that was lacking bulk and weighing in at a comfortable tote weight. Along with the XLR audio I guess I got what I wanted, but I sure as hell won't find myself buying another or one of it's counterparts in the near future. I would like to hear from anyone who has a clue as the spec's on the camera "wide" mode. Is this a cropped function to obtain letter box or whatever? Oh yeah, the manual, if you care to call it a manual, is very evasive when it comes to details. And calling Panasonic, their very evasive when it comes to human intervention! On a scale of one to five .... Id give the AG DVC-15 a two (2) !

Strengths
For me the big plus for the DVC-15 is it's XLR audio connectors and the lack of an AGC circuit for more what appears as a friendly limiter as long as you don't push it radically. The color view finder is also a big plus with it's two different eye pieces. You can pull the side mounted video display off and scrap it because it hides the audio levels LCD's and controls. If your can't see out of your right eye you'll have problems because the eyepiece won't pull out far enough for left eye viewing unless you cock your head. Doing so cuts the on shoulder time down to 10 minutes and still being comfortable. After market items such as the Anton Bauer Gold Mount saved the day as far as running power but the also added weight. The color I must admit was natural and accurate with no evident bleeding. The focus was sharp as well and the view contained little optical distortion unless in the full wide mode. At first I thought the AG DVC-15 to be a spare parts camera. After close examination and comparing to past 3CCD models I have not doubt that it is a spare parts camera! Panasonic must have a boat load of parts.

Weaknesses
Lens hood captivation is a knurled metal screw up against a depression in plastic surrounding the lens filter assembly. The headphone amplifier for shooting (record) purposes is totally worthless. Panasonic failed to supply an audio amplifier with enough drive to produce audible noise on a simple headset. The side mounted speaker is also worthless for monitoring while recording unlike the old AG456 that had ample gain. There is radical lens distortion in the extrema wide angle position. I understand we're not talking prime glass here but come on Panasonic! There is no excuse for this even in a Nikon (E) economy lens. The handle creeks and squeaks, yes the carry handle. The two screws had to be removed and a piece of plastic wrap inserted to quell the annoyance. The tape mechanism door is flimsy and cheap at best. For a camera designed to be shoulder toted after 15 minutes becomes very uncomfortable. Soft plastic gives absolutely nothing in the area of padding, and the design of the plastic piece hinders the installation of add on padding.