July 10th, 2007
Panasonic to ZDNet: Your camera failure was not our fault. But was it?
If you happened to catch the video rant that I posted yesterday, then you’d know by now that our Panasonic AG-HVX200 Hi-Def video camera — a camera that I originally heaped praise on and the one I use to produce all of my videos — died on us for the second time in a month. The camera has some key features (discussed in the previous posts) that, in my estimation, made it well worth its $5000+ pricetag (I’ve seen a lot of different prices for it). But, like a super expensive smartphone that can’t get enough bars to make a call or send an email, a super expensive camera isn’t going to do you a hell of a lotta good if you can’t turn it on (which has been our problem, twice).
Right now, the camera is in transit to Panasonic’s service center in Los Angeles. But during the time that has passed since that first video rant, Panasonic’s HVX200 product line manager Jan Crittenden contacted me to (1) absolve Panasonic of the blame for the camera’s failure, (2) identify the actual culprit, and (3) request that I post a correction to the original post (clearing Panasonic as the source of my woes).
But is Panasonic, as Crittenden suggests, completely innocent? Or, could it have done something to prevent the failure of our camera (as well as those of others)? During a phone call earlier today, Crittenden expressed concern that I’d pass yet another negative judgement against the company. So, in fairness to Panasonic, I’ll present the facts and let you be the judge. Here are the facts:
- We own a Panasonic AG-HVX200P. It’s a hi-def capable video camera (we don’t use the Hi-Def part yet) that, when working, can dramatically shorten the time it takes to generate a finished video.
- We use two different types of batteries with our HVX200; Panasonic’s standard batteries which last about an hour or so on a full charge and Anton Bauer’s Elipz 10K which, although weighing in at 1.25 lbs, has lasted us as many as 7 hours on a single charge.
- The Anton Bauer Elipz 10K battery is certified by Panasonic to work with the HVX200. In fact, in a special promotion, Panasonic is currently offering a free Elipz battery with each purchase of an HVX200.
- Our camera has failed twice in a one month period. Once in early June 2007. The second time was yesterday (July 10, 2007). In the case of our camera’s two failures, the issue was a blown fuse. The fuse is not customer serviceable (having spare fuses around won’t help).
- The cause of the blown fuse has to do with the faulty design of a connector that’s used to connect the Elipz 10K battery to the video camera. If an attempt is made to insert the connector into the battery upside down (easily done) and the male prongs make any incidental contact with the female side metal, the resulting reversed polarity has been proven to blow the HVX200’s fuse.
- Anton Bauer acknowledges that its connector design is responsible for the blowing fuses and has since corrected the design. In the new design, the female metal is recessed into the battery in a way that it cannot make incidental contact with the male prongs on the connecting cable. A full insertion is required (but not possible because of the “keyed” design of the connectors — a design that didn’t prevent incidental contact).
- Both Panasonic and Anton Bauer were aware of the problematic design and its showstopping results by February 2007. Jan Crittenden herself discovered the problem in the course of using HVX200s to document her participation in the Iditarod. According to Crittenden, Anton Bauer shipped her replacement batteries with the corrected design at that time.
- Although both companies were aware of the faulty design and the showstopping results, neither took any measures to proactively notify customers or dealers. According to Crittenden, some dealers and customers were reactively notified in the course of repairing a camera with a blown fuse (for example us during this second episode).
So first things first. Both Panasonic and Anton Bauer are now responding to the situation in ways that make me feel like a customer they care about. Panasonic has offered to expedite the repair so that we can be back in business as soon as possible. Anton Bauer has offered to exchange a new battery with the new design for the old battery (I’ve accepted).
But here’s the bigger question. Since the Elipz battery is certified for usage with the HVX200 camera, and since officials from both companies were aware of the problem by at least February, could both have done more to notify customers and/or dealers of the potential problem? Both were in possession of the information that would have been useful — in our case, critical — to the customer. Yet neither did anything proactive with it.
In asking both Crittenden and Anton Bauer product specialist Ken Cyr, I got two very different responses. Crittenden vehemently insists that even though Panasonic was in possession of the information regarding the batteries it had certified to work with its cameras, it bears no responsibility for notifying HVX200 owners in the event that those batteries might cause a problem. Cyr, on the other hand, says Anton Bauer is switching into a proactive mode and will be working closely with dealers to identify owners of the older batteries and to get the word out.
So, now I’m asking you. Please respond to the poll below. If you have your own episode of fingerpointing or other comments to share with us, feel free to post them in the comments section. Thanks!
[poll id=15]
