AF100 firmware upgrade 1.23

[grunberd]

Hi fellow AF100 owners

I have a question for you all and for Panasonic. I'm trying to understand why the firmware upgrade that adds 1080/60p to the AC160 (which I also own and love) was a free upgrade, yet AF100 owners are required to pay a $250.00 fee for it.

Any insight would be very much appreciated.

Dorit

[Barry_Green]

Don't really have an answer for you. The 60p was implemented as part of the AC160A upgrade, which is three changes: two require a paid $300 upgrade, and the other was made available for free (the 60p upgrade).

AC130 owners don't have a chance to upgrade to 60p at all.

AF100 owners have the chance to upgrade to it, but it's a paid upgrade.

Can't tell you why it's that way, but that's the way it is.

[Kindredmachine]

Does the $250 AF100 upgrade do anything else... or just add a slightly higher bitrate and record option for 1080/60p?

[Barry_Green]

Does the $250 AF100 upgrade do anything else... or just add a slightly higher bitrate and record option for 1080/60p?

The paid upgrade is only for adding the 1080/60p (and 1080/50p) AVCHD 2.0 recording mode, called PS mode.

[Kindredmachine]

Thank you.

[Phil1076]

To answer your first question, it's to extract as much money as possible from the consumer with minimal effort. The reason it's free on the 160 is because they said it would be free when the 160 was released. Also, with the autofocus issues, it's kind of an apology gift.

As far as your second question, in addition to the 60p it adds 2.39:1 framing markers. I've read that the latest firmware adds the 2.39 for free and I've also ready that it's part of the paid upgrade so I'm not exactly sure.

[grunberd]

Hi Barry
Can you tell me more about the other 2 upgrades for the AC160? I'm not at all aware of them, despite being registered with Panasonic.
Thanks

[grunberd]

Hi Phil
Can you explain a bit what the 2.39:1 framing markers do that make them desirable? Also can you direct me to a discussion thread about the autofocus issues with the AC160?
thanks

[Barry_Green]

Hi Barry
Can you tell me more about the other 2 upgrades for the AC160? I'm not at all aware of them, despite being registered with Panasonic.
Thanks

The AC160A is a new model, a revision of the AC160. It adds magnified focus assist and a one-push "turbo" autofocus feature, which kind of focuses more like a DSLR does -- it "locks in" quickly and then stays there, instead of like autofocus, which is constantly evaluating as to what it should focus on. So there are three changes between the 160 and the 160A: the presence of magnified focus assist, the one-touch turbo autofocus, and the PS recording mode (which is 28mbps 1080/50p or 1080/60p including audio). Well, there's a fourth difference, which is that the AC160A costs $300 more than the AC160 did.

For USA customers who have an official USA model AC160, they can send their camera in to the Panasonic service facility and, for a $300 charge, they can get their camera upgraded to be an AC160A. Or, separately, you can download a free firmware upgrade that gives you the "PS" recording mode, for 1080/50p and 1080/60p recording, if you decide you don't need or want the changed focus features.

[grunberd]

What I have is the AC160P. Is it a newer or earlier version than AC160A? I just upgraded to the latest firmware 1.23 yesterday. I already had the one-touch turbo autofocus, and after the firmware upgrade, seem to have the PS mode as well. The only thing I'm not familiar with is the magnified focus assist. Is that the red highlighting that is in the AF100 as well or is it something altogether different?
Also, Phil in this thread wrote "...Also, with the autofocus issues, it's kind of an apology gift." Do you know what issues he's referring to?
Thanks so much for the info