AG-AC90 Review - in the Dominican Republic

I finally finished my first two videos for public viewing. Compliments to Barry Green in the descriptions.

https://vimeo.com/56426372
2012-12 (Dec) Concrete Jungle: Phoenix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkFZYVcIdSQ
Be sure if you can to watch at 1080p
2012-12 (Dec) AG-AC90 Demo Orgnic Yellow Corn Meal

I wanted to upload both to Vimeo but they have a 500mb limit. I need to keep that in mind for my next one.

My biggest 2 limitations are low light and lack of built in waveform. Waveform is something I really want because it quickly shows if you white balanced properly (among other things). I am probably going to buy and external monitor anyways and will get one with WFM built in.


Low light is good, but in many situations where you just want to use it with available light its not as likely to be as usable. It loves light and can produce great images with a lot of light. When you start getting where gain is added (which is frequently indoors or at night) your important image detail keeps dropping off. Especially things like skin tone. From the side by side reviews I've seen we are talking about 2-3 f-stops between it and "better" low light cameras/lens. Guessing the difference between these cameras is 2-3 f-stops or roughly around 500 watts of light. Much of that detail isn't very noticeable on small devices and with internet video compression, but put it on a nice big screen and its there.
 
So if I'm only going to need a camera for films either bump up to the 130 or 160? Maybe just stay with the DVX100b? I used Available light in my last documentary and the DVX work pretty good most of the time. I don't know about ISO 40. What is it on the 130 and the 160?
 
Agree. I can live with a somewhat softer picture rather than grain. I have written this before: there is a big difference between a regular Camera's Db boost and this camera due to the nature of the backlit AC 90 chips.


Zim said:
Some people say the AC90 needs light but from some of what I've seen it looks like it handles it pretty well.
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Barry and everyone else, thanks for all of the superb info! I was active on here about 4-5 years ago for my last doc and all of your insight was critical back then as well.

Lou and Zim, could you point me to some sample low light footage? I'm considering the AC90 for an upcoming one-man doc shoot and expect a lot of low light. Shot my last doc (http://themayormovie.com) on the HMC 150 and had a great experience with it. The gain in some super low-light scenarios (night, only a single small floor light) was clutch, and from what Barry's saying about the clean gain on here, and the fact that it's backlit, it sounds like it'll at least be basically equivalent to the HMC 150 if not slightly improved.

By the way, Barry, I've never used a Nanoflash or other device like that. For broadcast requirements (4:2:2 and 50Mbps as I understand), are you able to set your data rate to just 50Mbps? Or would it be best to do ProRes 4:2:2 at 100Mbps? And which Nanoflash bundle would you recommend for the AC90 on B&H? This is new territory for me. Can the Nanoflash and an external mic be mounted? Any pictures of setups would be helpful, if possible!

Also, as the highest recording bitrate onto memory cards is 28Mbps, what SDXC cards do you guys using? I want to make sure I'm not getting ones with too low of a bitrate. Looking at 128GB cards.

Thanks!
 
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jscheib said:
Barry and everyone else, thanks for all of the superb info! I was active on here about 4-5 years ago for my last doc and all of your insight was critical back then as well.

Lou and Zim, could you point me to some sample low light footage? I'm considering the AC90 for an upcoming one-man doc shoot and expect a lot of low light. Shot my last doc (http://themayormovie.com) on the HMC 150 and had a great experience with it. The gain in some super low-light scenarios (night, only a single small floor light) was clutch, and from what Barry's saying about the clean gain on here, and the fact that it's backlit, it sounds like it'll at least be basically equivalent to the HMC 150 if not slightly improved.

By the way, Barry, I've never used a Nanoflash or other device like that. For broadcast requirements (4:2:2 and 50Mbps as I understand), are you able to set your data rate to just 50Mbps? Or would it be best to do ProRes 4:2:2 at 100Mbps? And which Nanoflash bundle would you recommend for the AC90 on B&H? This is new territory for me. Can the Nanoflash and an external mic be mounted? Any pictures of setups would be helpful, if possible!

Also, as the highest recording bitrate onto memory cards is 28Mbps, what SDXC cards do you guys using? I want to make sure I'm not getting ones with too low of a bitrate. Looking at 128GB cards.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
jscheib said:
By the way, Barry, I've never used a Nanoflash or other device like that. For broadcast requirements (4:2:2 and 50Mbps as I understand), are you able to set your data rate to just 50Mbps?
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Yes you can. The NanoFlash can be set anywhere between 25 and 280 megabits in various fixed increments. Anything from 50mbps on up is 4:2:2.

Or would it be best to do ProRes 4:2:2 at 100Mbps?
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That's your preference; ProRes at >100mbps would result in higher quality footage than MPEG2 at 50mbps, certainly, but I don't know if there's a 100mbps version of ProRes, is there? I think it's more like 140mbps. And at that point it's taking up 3x as much space. Recording space is quite cheap now so I don't think most people concern themselves with it, but if you're working with a broadcaster or edit house whose infrastructure is geared around a 50mbps workflow you might prefer the Nano.

And which Nanoflash bundle would you recommend for the AC90 on B&H? This is new territory for me.
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I think at this point most folks would probably recommend a Ninja 2 over the Nano for an AC90, because the Ninja 2 is half the price. The Nano costs as much as the AC90. It's a great recorder, I have one, but it has capability the AC90 isn't going to use (like SDI input). The Ninja 2 is an HDMI-only recorder, which I would normally find quite limiting, but because the AC90 only has HDMI output, it's quite suitable. Just be aware that none of the affordable external recorders can handle 1080/60p or 1080/50p, so if you were planning on shooting those formats, you will only be able to do so to the internal memory cards.

Also, as the highest recording bitrate onto memory cards is 28Mbps, what SDXC cards do you guys using? I want to make sure I'm not getting ones with too low of a bitrate. Looking at 128GB cards.
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Anything Class 4 or higher will handle it just fine. My cards of choice are those that have been tested for ultimate reliability and solid performance. I use the SanDisk Extreme Pro and the Panasonic Gold and UHS-1 cards.
 
Thanks for all of your comprehensive help everyone! I also found some more excellent footage that demonstrates a good range of imaging capabilities by the AC90 at this link: https://vimeo.com/53974792. Don't know the guy who shot it, but thanks to him.

To be sure, do you feel that it the AC90 would be comparable or slightly better than the HMC150's low light? I previously used the HMC150 (with 12dB gain when needed, single candle type lighting) and, while grainy, it did a good enough job.

Also, Barry, as for the Ninja 2 (the rest of this paragraph is not related to AC90 directly): thanks for the reference to it. I don't need SDI, and there's an optional converter if needed (though maybe conversion loss there, no clue), so the HDMI-only would be fine for me. By my calculations, a 480GB SSD ($350 on Amazon) would hold between about 9 to 13 hours of 82Mbps to 122Mbps footage (ProRes and ProRes LT, 1920x1080/29.97p or 23.98p) - pretty stellar. I looked at the BMD HyperDeck Shuttle 2 as well, which is way cheaper (~$350 as of writing, compared to $995 for Ninja 2 + $50/extra battery beyond first 2), but the Hyperdeck only does ProRes HQ (they haven't licensed and/or updated firmware yet to have 422 or LT, just in the past month or so made HQ available at all), and apparently the battery only lasts about 1 hour which would be terrible for long-form doc. So how do you find the Ninja 2's battery life? I see there are 2 hot-swappable batteries and have read they would last ~9 hours depending on settings, but that's unconfirmed. I don't need it for the monitor, just recording, but does it disable/override the LCD on the AC90? And could you recommend or do you know of a rig to be able to mount both the Ninja 2 and a shock-mounted microphone (used K-CAM-SM + AKG CK93 previously) to the AC90? I'll be run-and-gun, so I need something sturdy and viable for handheld.

Thanks again in advance, and hope the latter part about recorders wasn't too off-topic.
 
I can't answer those questions about the Ninja because I don't have one and haven't used one. I just brought it up because it's the lowest-cost full-featured recorder I could think of. Hopefully some owners here will be able to tell you more about it.

No, it doesn't affect or override the LCD on the AC90...
 
The HMC150 is inherently more sensitive, but grainier. You will need to use a lot of gain in the AC90 to match the brightness of the HMC150, but the AC90 will still have a cleaner image in comparison. But if you need to go deeper into the gain, the HMC150 will be able to go there, where the AC90 will be maxxed out.
 
jscheib said:
I looked at the BMD HyperDeck Shuttle 2 as well [...], but the Hyperdeck only does ProRes HQ (they haven't licensed and/or updated firmware yet to have 422 or LT, just in the past month or so made HQ available at all), [...].
Click to expand...


BMD says: HyperDeck Shuttle 2 records and plays back uncompressed QuickTime and Apple ProRes 422 (HQ).

Apple says: Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) codec [...] supports full-width, 4:2:2 video sources at 10-bit pixel depths [...]. The target data rate of Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) is approximately 220 Mbps at 1920 x 1080 and 29.97 fps.

Thus I thought, HyperDeck Shuttle 2 has 422. Am I wrong? Did I misunderstand jscheib?
 
Good review Barry thanks. But I'm still on the fence between something like the AC130 or the AC90. I'm going to replace the DVX100b for my next documentary. I plan on only using available light for interviews and stage lighting when I shoot concert footage. Will go to DVD and probably digital projection. My DVX100b handles that well can the AC90?

The difference in price is $1500 or so between the AC90 and the AC130 is it going to make much difference on the image for a documentary?
 
I own both camera. I was going to just stick with the AC90, but after careful evaluation, I am keeping the 130 which has an indescribable SOLID look compared to the AC90. Go with the 130 if within a budget.

Zim said:
Good review Barry thanks. But I'm still on the fence between something like the AC130 or the AC90. I'm going to replace the DVX100b for my next documentary. I plan on only using available light for interviews and stage lighting when I shoot concert footage. Will go to DVD and probably digital projection. My DVX100b handles that well can the AC90?

The difference in price is $1500 or so between the AC90 and the AC130 is it going to make much difference on the image for a documentary?
Click to expand...
 
Hi Lou,
Interesting observation. I have a 160A and am buying a second camera this year. The AC90 is on the list, so could you define your comment for me a bit more? Is it solid as in build quality, or are you referring to the imagery? I value real life users opinions greatly!
Cheers!
Rod
 
Lou Bruno said:
I own both camera. I was going to just stick with the AC90, but after careful evaluation, I am keeping the 130 which has an indescribable SOLID look compared to the AC90. Go with the 130 if within a budget.
Click to expand...

Kind of my feeling too. I'm still playing around with my budget.
 
Actually both in a physical sense and picture-wise...the camera is solid. I can't put "my finger" on it but the AG AC-130 imagery just has a more solid look compared to my AC-90-which I like due to its size. Let us not forget the AC-90 is much lower in cost thus some features are missing.


Rod Pike said:
Hi Lou,
Interesting observation. I have a 160A and am buying a second camera this year. The AC90 is on the list, so could you define your comment for me a bit more? Is it solid as in build quality, or are you referring to the imagery? I value real life users opinions greatly!
Cheers!
Rod
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