HPX250: AJ-PX270 new youtube video

Thanks for posting Jan. This camera is looking very nice. Michael Warren posted a copy of the PX-270 manual you had sent him on his blog. Having a quick look and I see some very encouraging attributes:

- AVC LongG 25/50 both have 24bit audio
- Plenty of color correction opportunities with the color matrix along with gamma settings, not just gamma presets
- Line input audio can be set to 0db or +4db. Very handy for weak board feeds.

I think this camera will give you the opportunity to create a refined image. More like a true broadcast camera instead of just a good looking 1/3" camera. Way to go Panasonic. Looking forward to seeing the images and playing with the camera.
 
The Irish TRex said:
Did you ever find out the answers to my questions by any chance:

1) Does the camera have the same focus distance readout in feet that other Panasonic cams have?
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/QUOTE]
Yes it does.

The Irish TRex said:
2) Do you know anything about the stabilization?
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Really do not want to make a judgement on this onas of yet as the one I have seen is a prototype.

The Irish TRex said:
3) We are looking at mixing this with the GH4...any suggestions on best to do that? Because the GH4 shoots 8bit 4:2:0 internally, will it match okay with some tweaking of course? Any guidance here would be greatly appreciated.
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I have not seen the GH4 or its images so I really don't know on this one, but I do imagine with the color matrix on the 270 you could come close.

Best,

Jan
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Looked the pdf PX270 operations manual that Mike Warren posted and yes it looks like you can dial in white balance manually. Nice!
 
This will have to wait until the camera comes out (unless Jan knows this) but I would like to know if the scene file preset remains engaged when dialing WB or using 3200k & 5600k. On the Canon XF300, if you have a scene file with custom colors, it only gets engaged if you manually take a WB reading or use auto. If you turn on 3200k or 5600k or dial in the WB the color preset does not get engaged. So unless you want to throw away your custom colors, dialing in or preset WB is not useful if they designed it this way.
 
I HOPE they offer a transcoder or a plugin or something becomes available so the newer codecs of this camera can be used with CS6. Pretty please :)
 
Bassman2003 said:
This will have to wait until the camera comes out (unless Jan knows this) but I would like to know if the scene file preset remains engaged when dialing WB or using 3200k & 5600k. On the Canon XF300, if you have a scene file with custom colors, it only gets engaged if you manually take a WB reading or use auto. If you turn on 3200k or 5600k or dial in the WB the color preset does not get engaged. So unless you want to throw away your custom colors, dialing in or preset WB is not useful if they designed it this way.
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I don't know about the PX270, but I can tell you that on other Panasonics, preset means *preset*. The color temp setting is disabled when you go to the preset. If you want the color temp setting to affect the color, you have to go to manual or auto. Sounds like the Canons work the same way, and I would expect that the Sony cameras do as well.
 
firehawk said:
I HOPE they offer a transcoder or a plugin or something becomes available so the newer codecs of this camera can be used with CS6. Pretty please :)
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I'm with you there! If it requires CC, I'm not going to be able to use it. If that means I have to transcode, well, I have to add that software into the "buy it or not" decision. Or wait until I have moved to a more acceptable platform. Sad but true.
 
Barry_Green said:
I don't know about the PX270, but I can tell you that on other Panasonics, preset means *preset*. The color temp setting is disabled when you go to the preset. If you want the color temp setting to affect the color, you have to go to manual or auto. Sounds like the Canons work the same way, and I would expect that the Sony cameras do as well.
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Hey Barry, thanks for your reply. I guess what is confusing me is that I see "preset 3200k" as just a white balance number. So in my mind, if I have custom color settings, the image should look the same if i took a manual reading and it came out to be 3200k or if in that same lighting environment and I just flipped "preset 3200k" on. But they do not. Could you help explain to me what this is designed this way? I think it would be obvious that we would all want our presets to be engaged not matter how we are white balancing. Right?
 
firehawk said:
I HOPE they offer a transcoder or a plugin or something becomes available so the newer codecs of this camera can be used with CS6. Pretty please :)
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It should still be compatible with the existing AVC-Intra support. AVC-Ultra is just name for the family of codecs.
 
Bassman2003 said:
Hey Barry, thanks for your reply. I guess what is confusing me is that I see "preset 3200k" as just a white balance number. So in my mind, if I have custom color settings, the image should look the same if i took a manual reading and it came out to be 3200k or if in that same lighting environment and I just flipped "preset 3200k" on. But they do not. Could you help explain to me what this is designed this way? I think it would be obvious that we would all want our presets to be engaged not matter how we are white balancing. Right?
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Well, I can't answer the question as to "why" they designed it a certain way, because I can't get in the designer's heads, but to me the philosophy is -- preset is preset is preset. It's designed to render color accurately under the color temperature that it's turned to -- either 5600k or 3200k.

If you turn to manual, or to auto, you are accepting the responsibility that the white balance is variable. But if you go to the preset, presumably it's because you want accurate, dialed-in white balance for use under controlled lighting scenarios.

That's the way I always looked at it, and since multiple manufacturers do the same thing, I'd presume it's the reason why, but again I'm speculating.
 
Thanks Barry, makes sense. One follow up question: If you have a custom preset and you decide to dial in your white balance, will your custom colors remain as you dial the number up or down? On the Canon, it seems you lose your preset colors in any scenario outside of phyically performing a WB. I am hoping the PX-270 will not work this way. Thanks and I hope you have a book in the works for the PX-270 because Panasonic has checked a lot of boxes with this model!
 
Can't answer for the 270, as I haven't used one yet.

Understand that on all prior Panasonics, *all* the scene file settings remain intact and remain affecting the picture when you go into preset white balance; the only one that stops working is "color temp". So your gamma, matrix, and phase controls all still affect the image equally whether you're in preset, auto, or manual white balance. The "color temp" setting is designed specifically to affect the color temperature (and, why when you set the "preset", it quits working -- the preset is a fixed color temperature, so going to the preset would presumably mean you want that specific color temperature).

On the AF100 you can dial in the white balance temperature you want in degrees kelvin, but only when the switch is set to the "PRST" setting. Now, here's the thing -- when you're on the PRST setting, that disables the "color temp" menu setting in the scene file, but if you dial in your white balance, you're effectively doing exactly the same thing as the "color temp" setting was doing. So in effect you do have the best of all worlds and can dial in whatever you want. The only real substantive difference here is that the "color temp" setting affects auto white balance to a fixed degree (i.e., a color temp of -3 will always make your footage a certain amount or certain percentage "redder") whereas dialing it in will give you an absolute K level. But you can get identical results as to if you were using the "color temp" menu setting (and, actually, infinitely more results, since you can change the white balance by 100k increments, whereas with the Color Temp menu you only have a range of -7 to +7.)

So how does this all apply to the PX270? No idea, because reportedly the PX270 has a 12-position (or more?) color matrix, and that might just change everything. But I would expect that the PX270 would have at a bare minimum the same level of control that an AF100 has, and probably more. So I'd think it's highly likely you can get it to do exactly what you want.
 
O.k. Thanks. I have had mixed results with my Varicam 27H regarding this topic. If I setup a color chart with 3200k lighting and take a white balance reading, the camera says 3200k and the colors look a certain way from my matrix settings. If I flip to the "preset 3200k" switch the colors change a bit. I will look forward to playing with the PX-270 and hopefully being able to match it perfectly with the Varicam for multi camera shoots.
 
The behavior you describe is pretty much exactly what I'd expect; light is rarely absolutely neutral in all aspects other than temperature, and a manual white balance may correct out for a little greenishness in the light, for example, whereas the preset would have no way of knowing that the greenishness is there, and therefore wouldn't correct out for it...
 
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