The Panasonic Enigma: Camcorder or mirrorless for the Pocket Rig PF? Ranted at Raccoon City Arcade.

DRI374·video·12m 4s·analyzed·Aug 26, 2025

Analysis

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TL;DR

Raccoon City Pinball creator compares mirrorless vs camcorder for arcade video setup.

Summary

Michael from Raccoon City Pinball compares camera equipment for arcade filming, testing a Panasonic G85 mirrorless camera against his existing camcorder (Panasonic V785K) and reference camera (GHM2) to determine if upgrading is worthwhile for mobile arcade setup. He evaluates image quality, autofocus performance, white balance, contrast, and practical usability, ultimately deciding to experiment with the G85 despite the camcorder's superior convenience.

Key Claims

The Panasonic V785K camcorder has poor autofocus and produces muddy, low-contrast video due to its tiny sensor
high confidence · Direct equipment testing and visual comparison shown in video
The G85 has problematic continuous autofocus that requires manual touchscreen focus adjustment during recording
high confidence · Michael notes 'a lot of kind of problems to kind of like autofocus uh which is a little bit annoying'
The camcorder's auto white balance is difficult to dial in and requires manual adjustment for each environment
high confidence · Michael discusses white balance issues encountered at California Extreme event
The G85 with pancake lens produces better color accuracy and contrast than the camcorder for arcade filming
medium confidence · Visual comparison shows clearer detail resolution and less color mudding on G85
The camcorder is significantly more lightweight and convenient for mobile arcade setup than the G85
high confidence · Michael states 'the camcorder is just so damn convenient' and emphasizes portability as key factor

Notable Quotes

“the camcorder is just so damn convenient. Uh let's just put it that way.”
Michael (Raccoon City Pinball) @ ~50:00 — Encapsulates the core practical tradeoff: better image quality vs ease of use/portability
“I just kind of like I spent some time on this and I just kind of wanted to showcase the differences between the cameras”
Michael (Raccoon City Pinball) @ ~20:00 — States the purpose of the comparison test
“the sensor in the camcorder is not larger than a sensor that you have in a cell phone, right? And this is pretty much what you're going to get, right?”
Michael (Raccoon City Pinball) @ ~15:00 — Explains technical root cause of camcorder's image quality limitations
“I'm going to see if I can fit the G85 in in my kit and and run with that for a while and see how how I feel about it”
Michael (Raccoon City Pinball) @ ~48:00 — Indicates decision to test G85 as potential replacement for ongoing arcade filming

Entities

MichaelpersonRaccoon City PinballorganizationPanasonic V785KproductPanasonic G85productPanasonic GHM2productPanasonic 12-42mm lensproductOBSproductCalifornia Extremeevent

Transcript

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0:02

Hey folks, uh Michael with Raccoon City Pinball here. Uh I've been playing around a little bit with my uh camera setup uh in the arcade today and uh I've been trying to determine if it's kind of worth uh throwing out my uh my camcorder and replacing that with a G85 uh with like kind of a pancake zoom lens. And I'm been sort of like just comparing the the um the quality and such, right? and uh and and that I've also compared against my reference camera which is a Panasonic GHM2 uh with the 1235 lens which is not the like it's not the it's not the it's not even the nice 1235 lens. Uh, so and and I got the pancake uh lens, the 12 um uh 42 1442 uh which is very compact and that would go really good on a on a G85 camera, right? and uh the my my my trusty steed the uh Panasonic V7878

1:12

V785K uh has been a very uh good workhorse for me. But the thing is it it's a camcorder and uh it has it limitations and and all that good stuff, right? So, uh, let me just kind of, uh, kick it off here and, um, show you some, uh, comparisons here. So, uh, this is the camcorder. Uh, this is the reference in the middle. And then we have the G85, uh, on the on the right here, right? And it's very difficult to kind of compare cameras, right? Because you can't get them at the exact same angle and such. So, it's sort of like my reference camera hangs where it always hangs. And then I have the left and right kind of hanging there, right? Uh, let me just uh turn off the u Yeah, sorry. The setup here is a little bit goofy. So, I'm just going to turn off the text there. And uh now we can kind of examine these a little bit closer. Right. So, if we just kind of look at them as it is right now, you can't you can't really see that much of a difference. You can see that uh obviously the reference picture uh the reference camera has a really great colors. It might be a little bit dark, but um that is something that's kind of easy adjustable, but that's what it is on my display here that I'm kind of watching it on anyway, right? Uh and you can see that the um the camcorder on the left is a little bit kind of it's a little bit kind of like blurry and kind of muddy, right? And uh the G85 does not quite have the the brilliance as the center one. Right. And I've sort of like done some adjustments here and there and um to kind of make it look better uh to kind of uh make it representable against the reference camera. And I just noticed that the G85 have uh a lot of kind of problems to kind of like autofocus uh which is a little bit annoying, right? So you kind of need to uh just kind of touch the the display to make sure it focus on the right things and stuff, right? And the camcorder does not have any such is issues, right? And my reference camera I always run with manual focus anyway, right? So that's that's nothing uh and and and that's just something I do at home and like all that good stuff. So it doesn't really matter that much, right? Uh so uh if we kind of go in the details here, I'm just going to pause here while we kind of pan around here. Like another kind of detail is as well like every all the cameras are kind of shot with 1080p 60, right? So there's no kind of cheating on the reference camera here. It's it's being fed uh 1080p uh to to my recorder, right? So, uh, but you can see that there's really nice kind of contrast and and and one kind of detail you can see here, uh, that you can kind of see that this is a Phillips head screw for instance, right? Right here, there's like there's no doubt about it, right? And, uh, and if you go over the D85 and kind of look at the same detail, yeah, it's not quite in the same place. You can see like, yeah, there's some kind of screw head, right? and you can't quite make it out. And uh some of the text is not as clear either, right? And uh looking at the um yeah, sorry about the scrolling here. This just what it's going to be like. Uh you can kind of sort of discern a little bit of a cross there, but not quite. Right. And and you can also see here like on the camcorder, it's just like the colors are a little bit muddy. It's not as high contrast and such, right? And and I've been kind of been thinking about kind of like can I do something to the kind of to the palette do apply some filter in OBS to kind of just like increase the contrast a little bit, right? Uh so the black is like proper black and such, right? But it doesn't have as much high dynamic range, right? Because the sensor in the camcorder is not larger than a sensor that you have in a cell phone, right? And and this is pretty much uh this is pretty much what you're going to get, right? you get rid of model modeled and uh you get some kind of u patterns in the uh in in some of the details here because uh the very low uh very tiny sensor, right?

6:02

Yeah, you can see uh here it's just just a bunch of noise. And typically you there there's noise in the reference camera as well, but it but it's not as uh distinguished, right? You can't really make it out, right? And the noise that is there, the um the encoder for Twitch and YouTube kind of uh kind of smooth it out a lot, right? Uh looking at the the G85 here. Got some noise. It's a little bit whited out here. It's a little bit too bright for some reason. And uh getting the colors right is probably easier on this one. I just think it's a little bit too bright. And if you just kind of like tone it down a little bit and I think it would be fine, right? Um, so I'm not quite sure like what to do in this situation to be honest. I I just kind of like I spent some time on this and I just kind of wanted to showcase the u um uh the differences between the cameras, right? and and and obviously the price range here is uh uh the camcorder and the G85 you could probably get away with like the same amount of money with that particular lens I have for it. Uh and uh but the thing is that the camcorder is just so much more lightweight and it's just so much easier to kind of have in a mobile setup because that's all that's all I'm evaluating this for basically, right? Uh while the D85 is sort of like yeah it's a really advanced kind of micro four thirds uh camera with uh uh with removable lens and uh and such right and it has much more advanced features etc. But the the autofocus was just like horrible on it. It just doesn't work right. And it it is the continuous autofocus that that I'm talking about, right? Because the G85 I kind of used as a player camera for many many years now, right? And I always use them with my uh kind of fixed focus uh fisheye lenses um or at at a certain depth. So it's never been I never used it for autofocus at any capacity whatsoever. Right. So that's why it's worked really well for that, right? And uh having a little bit more brighter as it is right now kind of was a bit beneficial for for a play for a player camera, I guess. Um yeah, let's just dive in there and see if we can see any more fun details. And there there's a lot of color kind of going on in in this uh kind of general area. uh around the spider and the pterodactyl, the flasher and the water and everything there, right? And and I I don't know like is is it is it worth kind of like reabling the harnesses and getting this camera in here because it has a lot of focus kind of a lot over the entire kind of playfield, right? Once you kind of get all the focusing right and uh once you kind of hit the autofocus while you have the camera hovering over the play field, it kind of locks in pretty nice. That's what it what I've done here, right? And it it kind of looks uh kind of looks pretty good, right? And and and one of the benefits here is obviously that you get a little bit better kind of uh a little bit better contrast, right? Okay, it looks a little bit washed out here now because all the lights here. But if you're going to compare this particular image here, now we have like the Kong kind of all it's all dark in this particular area. And then you switch over to let's see here uh reference image really nice and dark there. And you look at the camcorder is kind of a little bit kind of like muddled and washed out. And it's kind of like it's almost like this like a gray tint on it. And I did notice Yeah, there's another detail that's kind of annoying with the camcorder, I'd say, is the is the auto white balance. It really it's really difficult to kind of dial in. You kind of have to set it for every environment you're in. And otherwise, it kind of looks like crap. And like my my last California Extreme, I I did not like spend a lot of time on getting the auto white balance or or setting the white balance correctly. and most of the games just look like right? And I think that is less of a problem going with the G85. I uh I can't see that there's any wrong anything wrong with the uh white balance here. I probably should have had a little bit uh lower uh or higher aperture uh to kind of get it a little bit darker, but other than that, I think like you can read all the text here. is like really nice and uh and relatively focused for being such a such a cheap little camera.