Hi everyone,

I intend to start going back to Heathrow to do a little (a lot!) of spotting. Just a few more weeks of University and then I am free to get back to one of my hobbies!

I'm looking into 4K camcorders to start filming to upload to YouTube. The camcorder won't solely be used for spotting, but will be used a lot for doing so.

I am subscribed to Train_PlaneHub on YouTube (if you're on here, thanks for making great videos!) and he has recently purchased a 4K camcorder, the model is Panasonic HC-VX870EB-K. The quality is great, so I have no questions there. I am looking at purchasing this model as it is a fairly reasonable price.

However, I am intrigued about the zoom range. It is listed as having 20x optical zoom and 60x digital zoom. There is another YouTube channel that I am subscribed to called Casey Planespotting (again, if you're on airliners.net, great videos!) who has recently uploaded a video shooting 09L Heathrow arrivals from the Thistle hotel (link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgeoeMrrhGU&t=2744s).

I want to ask, would the 20x zoom of the 4K Panasonic HC-VX870 be enough to shoot similar videos from the same location, or would it be likely I'd have to move into digital zoom territory?

Train_PlaneHub has some great videos shooting 27L arrivals, so I know it would be perfect for use at Myrtle avenue, however I am wondering about shooting from the Thistle hotel.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

Having looked at the specs it offers an equivalent to 35mm focal length of 626mm in 4K (UHD) and over 700mm in full HD, based around a small 2/3 inch sensor. That's pretty reasonable as long as you operate off a decent tripod or it has excellent image stabilisation. It's a pretty compact piece in physical terms, so difficult to hold steady at any great zoom level. I've just ordered the Panasonic Lumix FZ-2000 bridge camera which offers 4K video and stills capture in a bridge camera format. It's twice the price of your model though, but offers a more 'pro' level of video capture as well as really great looking stills. I already have it's predecessor the FZ1000 which is also excellent for stills/video in 4k and now retails for about £550, down from around £790 when first released in 2014. Both these cameras operate around a 1" sensor which allows for greater cropping in post to effectively give a longer lens than the 400mm optical/800mm smart zoom facility, which unlike a traditional crop sensor approach to digital zoom, does an interpolated 'live' image crop giving very pleasing results.

JannEejit wrote:

Having looked at the specs it offers an equivalent to 35mm focal length of 626mm in 4K (UHD) and over 700mm in full HD, based around a small 2/3 inch sensor. That's pretty reasonable as long as you operate off a decent tripod or it has excellent image stabilisation. It's a pretty compact piece in physical terms, so difficult to hold steady at any great zoom level. I've just ordered the Panasonic Lumix FZ-2000 bridge camera which offers 4K video and stills capture in a bridge camera format. It's twice the price of your model though, but offers a more 'pro' level of video capture as well as really great looking stills. I already have it's predecessor the FZ1000 which is also excellent for stills/video in 4k and now retails for about £550, down from around £790 when first released in 2014. Both these cameras operate around a 1" sensor which allows for greater cropping in post to effectively give a longer lens than the 400mm optical/800mm smart zoom facility, which unlike a traditional crop sensor approach to digital zoom, does an interpolated 'live' image crop giving very pleasing results.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I have to say I am not too au fait with cameras and the associated terminology. I'm judging based on videos I have seen!

This video is filmed with the camcorder in question and it seems pretty good to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccdXcRlBEMA&t=238s

Are you able to tell if this was filmed with or without a tripod?

Again, I appreciate your help.

In addition, is anyone able to see any noticeable differences between these two models?

Apart from the still photo resolution as well as a couple of shooting modes, I can't see any differences to justify an additional £110.


Panasonic HC-VX870EB-K 4K - http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/cameras-an ... 0-pdt.html

Panasonic HC0VX980EB-K 4K - http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/cameras-an ... 2-pdt.html

Looking at the Canon EOS and Nikon D type of cameras