Panasonic just released new firmware for the HPX300. This is a big update with some nice feature improvements. First is the FBC function that Panasonic announced a couple months ago. FBC stands for Flash Band Correction, which reduces the appearance of flash bands that occur on CMOS chips. That’s the banding you see when a flash (from a still camera or lightning) is captured on video. This function works in 1080/60i and 720/60p, and from my tests it seems to do the job – see my video example below. Also they have reduced the video noise in 1080 24p, 25p, and 30p modes. The effect seemed noticeable right away. There are also several other updates including better support for E-Series P2 cards. If you have the HPX300 then download it HERE. And you can read all about the new firmware HERE.
Note: Some banding is not corrected for because of the red eye correction on my flash, which varies flash output. FBC seems to do better when given a large exposure difference.
