AC130: AC130 Very first impressions

[ullanta]

OK, finally got my AC130... not much to film yet, and haven't looked at footage... but a few questions that I was eager to see answered, have now been answered. Also... immediate impressions:

1) The camera is big, but indeed feels a little lighter and more plasticky than the HVX or HMC. A few little rattles and squeaks (I don't mean "the clunk") when you shake it.
2) The controls are all better protected from accidental change... but I find them harder to use. We'll see if I get used to them... but for now, they seem to need more attention.
3) DRS works in all modes, and with a slow shutter!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!
4) The iris display reports smaller increments - where the HMC/HVX had three actual iris levels for each displayed fstop, the AC130 displays the iris setting exactly.
5) The iris goes to F11... if indeed this is a smaller minimum aperture than the HVX, great! Or it may be related to 4).
6) Autofocus indeed seems slow - or stymied - in some situations.
7) New LCD is very nice. Red peaking seems very effective... but may take some getting used to.
8) I may be missing something, but the camera seems NOT to have the slot for a Kensington security lock. I'm probably the only person who ever used this feature of the HMC150, so I can see why Panny might not have included it... but I really wish it were there!

OK, more to come!

 

[Barry_Green]

Iris goes to F/11, but ... seriously, don't. Unless you're shooting DV, you don't ever want to go past 5.6 if you can avoid it.

Congrats on the new camera!

 

[ullanta]

Right... but often I can't avoid it! That is... in theatrical productions, sometimes there's just one or two moments where the lighting just needs it, in the midst of scenes that are mostly shot "open". It's rare that an ND filter can be seamlessly engaged for just that... it'll also make it easier to go to 9.6 without so much worry over shutting down completely... oh, I wish there was a "never close shutter completely" option... anyway, we'll see how DRS changes this...

As to congrats, thanks! Don't get to play with it as much as I'd like, 'cause it's under my employee hat, not my freelance hat! But I'm constantly adding more and more interesting work to that gig...

 

[scapsinger]

Had never noticed there was a Kensington lock before. Not that I needed it, just hadn't noticed it.

Hadn't even noticed the f-stop change, either, but I wasn't really looking for that matter. Good to know though! I'm just so used to judging by the way the screen "clicked" between marks instead of guessing at the marking on the display, so this will definitely be helpful knowledge. Thanks!

 

[ullanta]

Had a little time to play today... some more impressions:

Red peaking is awesome! I train and supervise students to video record events, and their skill levels vary as they progress. Most of them are not ready to be adjusting focus manually during live events, so we often go by a rule such as "focus on the conductor; feel free to zoom into the conductor and people very close to him fully, but don't zoom in very closely on people far from the conductor". Works pretty well, but occasionally the focus is not tack-sharp, since it's all based on imprecision. The red peaking very clearly indicates how close the camera op can zoom in and still be in focus. It's beautiful!

In testing today, I found I could blow the AC130 footage up to at least 150% without looking clearly worse than the HMC at 100% (with HMC framing similar to the blown-up 130 image). I still have a lot of experimenting to do with detail settings... I do think this camera well meets my goals of being able to do much more extreme reframing than the 150 allows (for DVD end products).

I hate the lens cap. I love the HXV/HMC lens caps, which go on more easily and don't give me the feeling that I'm scraping the lens cap across the lens (or filter) every time I put them on. Can someone make a replacement "giant plug" lens cap for this thing?

In regards to my comments above about the controls being hard to use... this applies especially to the menu button and "joystick". The menu button is flush with a raised ridge surrounding it. Mind you, I'm having a little issue with slight numbness in my left index finger, but I do OK with the HMC and HVX... but I have a hard time getting menu button presses to register on the 130; and the stubbier joystick falls somewhere between the HMC and HVX in terms of feel and reliability.

The EVF gives me a kind of rainbow effect (like a DLP projector) if I move my head or the camera much while looking into it, or blink rapidly. Has anyone else experienced this?

The LCD is very nice, and as the Green Barry estimates, 10,000,000,000,000 or so times better than that of the HMC/HVX.

I haven't tested thoroughly, but my gut feeling is that the low-light images are a lot better. Not so much in sensitivity (just haven't checked that yet), but in noise, and especially the "murkiness" and "low rezziness" in the shadows of the HMC/HVX...

80% of the testing I've done so far has been handheld, and mostly on the long end of the zoom... and I've yet to see anything obviously jello-y. I wasn't deliberately trying for jello, but was also not trying to be smooth in many cases... just quickly pointing the camera at whatever looked interesting, in a pretty frenetic way, with the camera on all the time.

Anyway, more later!

 

[David Saraceno]

I hate the lens cap. I love the HXV/HMC lens caps, which go on more easily and don't give me the feeling that I'm scraping the lens cap across the lens (or filter) every time I put them on. Can someone make a replacement "giant plug" lens cap for this thing?

Probably the same one used with the 250.

Nearly impossible to reattach, and it never seems to feel securely on.

 

[ELN614]

yeah these lens caps never give me that warm and tingly feeling when I put it on. I'll put it on (or think it's on) and the next thing I hear is the cap hitting the floor.
(Similar design on the DVX and the DVC line.)

 

[scapsinger]

I used to hate the HMC cap, so big and bulky, and nowhere to put it. But yeah, the fit is not so precise, and obviously you don't want to scuff your lens, either.

 

[Barry_Green]

Red peaking is awesome! I train and supervise students to video record events, and their skill levels vary as they progress. Most of them are not ready to be adjusting focus manually during live events, so we often go by a rule such as "focus on the conductor; feel free to zoom into the conductor and people very close to him fully, but don't zoom in very closely on people far from the conductor". Works pretty well, but occasionally the focus is not tack-sharp, since it's all based on imprecision. The red peaking very clearly indicates how close the camera op can zoom in and still be in focus. It's beautiful!

Agreed, but triply so if you put the viewfinder in black & white. Then it's magical.

I hate the lens cap. I love the HXV/HMC lens caps, which go on more easily and don't give me the feeling that I'm scraping the lens cap across the lens (or filter) every time I put them on. Can someone make a replacement "giant plug" lens cap for this thing?

Agreed. The lens cap is a huge step backwards. Why oh why can't they just make an integrated lens cap like Sony does??

The EVF gives me a kind of rainbow effect (like a DLP projector) if I move my head or the camera much while looking into it, or blink rapidly. Has anyone else experienced this?

Yes, this is the DLP "rainbow" effect that comes from a sequential RGB display. LCoS doesn't show any pixels or grid-ness because all the pixels are displayed in the same place, sequentially, one after the other, like a DLP. But just like a DLP, if you flick your eye quickly across it, you can catch the green and red and blue at different points of their display, making a bit of a rainbow effect.

I haven't tested thoroughly, but my gut feeling is that the low-light images are a lot better. Not so much in sensitivity (just haven't checked that yet), but in noise, and especially the "murkiness" and "low rezziness" in the shadows of the HMC/HVX...

Definitely. The base sensitivity is a tiny bit lower, but the gain is a lot cleaner to the point where you can gain a 160/130 up further than you could a 150 and still have clean images.

 

[Barry_Green]

Probably the same one used with the 250.

Nearly impossible to reattach, and it never seems to feel securely on.

It is the same as on the 250, yes.

 

[scapsinger]

Agreed. The lens cap is a huge step backwards. Why oh why can't they just make an integrated lens cap like Sony does??

My guess? Probably something to do with patents. That's all I can figure, because none of Sony's competitors have it. I'm assuming everyone would license it from Sony if it was affordable to do so (and knowing Sony, they probably want $100 per unit).

Pure speculation on my part...never done a single ounce of research on the matter, just have observed that Sony seems to be the exclusive manufacturer of integrated lens caps.