Pany AC-160 zoom and focus lunch test...

[Harry Pallenberg]

Lunch break Oct. 26, 2011

No color correction, FCP 7 edit & export to ProRes HQ to YouTube



Quick test during lunch of the Panasonic AC-160. Very nice camera. Bigger than most 'handycams' but not at all unwieldy, and lighter than one would expect. LCD is very nice - easy to pull focus, but I wish the focus assist was stronger... could be a setting I need to find.

The reach on the lens is really impressive as is how wide it is. My guess is that this will be the standard in 3 chip cameras for a few years. If Vitaliy / Driftwood could hack this like the GH2 it would kill the P2 version, the new Canons and pretty much anything in this size / shape / cost.

[Deer Film]

thanks for showing us this.

[mb72378]

Did you shot this handheld? At the telephoto end of the lens there seems to be a lot of wiggle to the footage.

[Harry Pallenberg]

Most is handheld - I usually say it on the audio if you turn up the volume. I went back to shoot he same basic shots with the Canon xf300 (can't seem to find that footage right now) but the 'powered' IS feature is AMAZING on that camera. In the end we bought the xf300 - the the cameras were so close but there were enough of the little things that made it worth the extra cost...

FOUND IT.... http://youtu.be/CSqCpYPdcvc

[LanceOregon]

Most is handheld - I usually say it on the audio if you turn up the volume. I went back to shoot he same basic shots with the Canon xf300 (can't seem to find that footage right now) but the 'powered' IS feature is AMAZING on that camera. In the end we bought the xf300 - the the cameras were so close but there were enough of the little things that made it worth the extra cost...

So, to summarize: the reasons in favor of the xf300 that you found were the powered IS, auto-iris, and autofocus, which you felt were all superior??

I must say that I have not been very happy with how the auto-iris has fared on my AC-130. And I'm starting to notice some issues with autofocus too. I'll have to post an example of what I experienced yesterday, and see what everyone thinks.

[sonuxxx]

Im thinking of getting a xf300 too now wanted to get the AC160 but everyday more and more Disappointed ac160 customer turning out , everybody who bought it seems to have buyers remorse autofocus is pretty bad on it and nobody from Panasonic seems to answering anybody's questions about it

[qap15]

Im thinking of getting a xf300 too now wanted to get the AC160 but everyday more and more Disappointed ac160 customer turning out , everybody who bought it seems to have buyers remorse autofocus is pretty bad on it and nobody from Panasonic seems to answering anybody's questions about it

What is clear is that the information reaching the head office is not right, there is a school of thought which claims that cameras at this level is best used with manual adjustment, while in real world as we can now see, thats not the case. An example of that miss was shown with the three cameras released this/last month, one of them has the auto function missing and from the feedbacks so far, most people are complaining about just that.

[Harry Pallenberg]

Any and all of the camera in the under $10K range can and will make beautiful pictures or tell compelling stories in the right hands.
The main reasons for our choice is the 4:2:2 codec and the way it actually feels when holding the camera for a long time... its heavy,
but in a good way... it just 'fit' me well.

The many little things like the great IS at tele zoom / focus / iris and all the rest were a bonus. There seem to be plenty of others who DO use Auto at times and when we do, its nice to
get what one expects.

There were also plenty of little things that were a negative -
like the scroll wheel not being a clickable button - that is a pain to have to take your finger off that and find the button to hit select then back to the scroll
wheel... or the pre-et IS button push it once to turn on, and once to turn off - crazy that you can't cycle through the 3 different IS modes but have to assign
the other 2 modes to other assignable buttons... lots of little things like that bother me but not enough

So, to summarize: the reasons in favor of the xf300 that you found were the powered IS, auto-iris, and autofocus, which you felt were all superior??

I must say that I have not been very happy with how the auto-iris has fared on my AC-130. And I'm starting to notice some issues with autofocus too. I'll have to post an example of what I experienced yesterday, and see what everyone thinks.