AG UX180 noisy image?

F

firehawk

Veteran
For years I have been using AG HMC150s for events. I have a Panasonic FZ2500 and was originally thinking of getting the UX180 to pair with it for events, since I suspect they have similar 1" sensors. I deliver these in HD or even SD so my thinking was to record them wide in 4K UHD and then use all that extra resolution to crop zoom in, in post. This would simplify low budget jobs and allow just one man to utilize 2 cameras with a variety of "views" via crop zoom.

However, I've been testing the FZ2500 and while it produces good images, it seems rather noisy when crop zoomed in very much on a 1080P timeline. So can anyone confirm if the UX180 is also noisy?
I was hoping I could record in UHD and get a zoomed in sharp 1080P image out of it, but it doesn't seem that is the case...
I mainly use CS6 for post so hopefully that isn't reducing image quality
 
My gut feeling is the UX180 is similar, noise wise to the HMC150. I've just shot a conference in Paris. If you want, I can supply you a small clip from it.

I used a SD90 (1080p50 consumer camcorder from 2011) to cover a wide shot of the whole stage, a VX985 (current 4k consumer camcorder) to cover the audience and a UX180 for the main camera. The finished video will be 1080p and I'm cropping both the 4k cameras in post.

As a comparison, I can also supply a clip from the VX985, which is much noisier.

I'm editing at the moment in DaVinci Resolve Studio, and adding noise reduction to the VX985 and SD90, but not the UX180. I'm guessing the client will have the finished videos online in a few weeks.
 
Thank you very much Mike.
Is it possible the UX180 records a clip at 4K UHD but the sensor isn't really capturing full 4K detail (like many cameras), thus you cannot crop zoom in 100% and have a sharp HD image?
What I mean is like on the old HMC150 it recorded footage at 1920X1080 but the sensor wasn't really getting a full HD readout.

I am concerned about latency on the LCD. Have you shot anything fast action such as sports or vehicles and had trouble tracking it due to a delay on the screen?
 
That's been my experience with any camera. You'll always get better sharpness if you start with a higher resolution sensor and then scale it down.

The UX180 has a single Bayer sensor so it will not be able to quite meet the sharpness of a 3 chip camera, all other things being equal.

As for zooming in post, I do go up to 2x on an HD timeline, but there is obvious loss of sharpness. I'm comfortable up to about 1.7x.

With my current project, 2x zooming on the UX180 looks similar in terms of sharpness to the SD90.

I'll PM you a link to download a 1 minute clip so you can play with it.
 
Oh, I forgot to mention the latency.

I notice the latency on the UX180, but don't find it particularly bothersome. I also notice latency on the VX895 and SD90. I've shot fast moving small birds with the UX180 and didn't have too much trouble following them. I always shoot wildlife in 50p and suspect the the latency will be better as the frame rate increases, although I haven't tested it.
 
Thank you again.

On the clip that you kindly shared, do you remember if you had any gain applied shooting in that room?
 
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