Aj-px270

M

Mark Bruner

Member
To those already using the AJ-PX270 can you comment if this would be an acceptable camcorder to use for high speed sports (mainly waterskiing from the boat pulling the skier or a trailing boat shooting from the side). Water skiers can hit close to 60mph at times as they accelarate across a wake. Any advice would be appreciated. We shoot stills with NIkon and Canon (fast glass on both systems) and are just researching the video end of this sport before jumping in
 
Mark,

I commented on your other thread, but will continue here. There are two main considerations here, CMOS skew and depth of field or "look". Since most all cameras these days are CMOS instead of CCD, skew is going to be there in some form or fashion. The newer model you buy the faster the sensor readouts. Which I why I think the PX270 is a great choice for a video camera...but that is if it meets the second consideration, DOF. I don't know how important the shallow look is to you or not. I have gone to the PX270s because the benefits outweigh the deeper DOF (but am really hoping Panasonic comes out with a single sensor sister camera). 1080p60 on this camera is just glorious. The color matrix and controls are what make this camera such a value. You can dial in this camera to punch above its cost.

So from my view, it is more about the look you want than if the PX270 is a good choice for sports. Hands down it is a great choice.
 
I don't own a 270, but do own a predecessor 170 which has a very important feature for action shooting which is an i-frame code codec. That means that each frame you shoot is discreet and unique. There is no frame interpolation between frames, but this does make your file sizes somewhat larger than the alternative which is a long-gop codec. Long-gop codecs take a series of frames and toss out some of the similar information, combining them into a packet of data. This is pretty simplified, but you get the idea. The upshot is that for rapid movement, the I-frame codec will be better in most all circumstances while the long-gop codec will break down, by blurring out or even dropping frames. The 270 has the ability to shoot either. The limitation on the 270 is frame rate which is limited to 60fps, but shooting 1080/60fps will do nicely.

Bassman seemed to be concerned about DOF, but IMHO, for action shooting, greater DOF is more useful so you are more likely to have your image in focus. A cam like the 270 has the characteristic of greater DOF, so that is good for action shooting. Ymmv depending on the look you want.

The third aspect of handheld shooting action is a good iOS system. The 270 has had mixed reports on ios with a Panasonic firmware update a while back, so you may want to check into how this has improved performance. If you are shooting off a gimble this may or may not be important.

Grant
 
Thanks for the advice. So many choices and limited budget ($6000). I am really leaning toward the px270. I was interested in the fs700 but that is over budget. I don,t the the shallow depth of field
 
Thanks for the input. We are struggling between the Sony pxw-x200 and AJ-px270 for wedding video and sports video. Currently a toss up
 
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