AC130: Buy or wait?

L

LarsN

Member
I am planning on buying a camera. And I had my mind set on the AG-AC130. But I am reading allot of posts about focus problems and upgrades.

The work I plan to do with the camera is events (school musicals, promotional films, dance shows, etc etc)
The problem is I need a new camera before 18 may 2012. I got some deals from professional Panasonic dealers and they can get me the camera before my dead line. I am completely in the dark on this one

My second question since I am a Sony person and have no experience with Panasonic, what is the difference between a

Panasonic AG-AC130EJ
Panasonic AG-AC130
Panasonic AG-AC130A
AG-AC130P
AG-AC130E
AG-AC130EN
 
Hi LarsN,

We used Panasonic 130/160s for our stage shows last Novemember/December (all 32 of them!), and are very impressed with the results. A much cleaner picture than our aging Sony EX 1's and the dynamic range during changing light shows is very impressive.

Panasonic have different model numbers for different regions of the world.

Buy the right model number for your country (region) and you'll be on your way.

Just for your info, do a search on scene files and you'll realise that Panasonic cameras can give you much better pictures than they are set up out of the box.

There are good suggestions in this forum to give you a more sparkling picture to suit stage shows which you can quickly dial in to give excellent results.

Cheers,

Vaughan
 
Yes with the Sony's I have allot of problems in low light situations with I hope are resolved with this camera. The plan is to buy one and rent 5 so I have a total of 6 camera's. Do you know what region type europe/belgium has? The first Professional Panasonic dealer for me is 1 hour away. Today I am have to decide what I am going to do
 
Hi Lars

My two are the AC-130EN and are the European PAL version so your dealer would probably only stock the PAL version ...can't see them stocking a camera in the 130 series that shoots in 60i ...Just remember if you get a 160 it shoots both formats!!!

Chris
 
All those camera models you listed are the same EXCEPT the AC130A (which is the new version just announced a few days ago...adds some new focus tools and costs about $300 more than the older version).

As Chris said, you can pay an average of $500-$600 more right now for the AC160 over and above the cost of the AC130 and it can be toggled between NTSC and PAL (if that's any value to you) plus the other additional features of the AC160 over the AC130.

Panasonic cameras have always handled low light very well, the new AC130 and AC160 are no exception. In fact, they can utilize a relatively high gain setting (6dB or even 12dB) without a lot of additional noise noticeable in the image. They're very clean in low light compared to many other camcorders.

As to whether you buy now or later, well....the AC130A (new version just announced, shipping next month) adds a couple of focus assisting tools, but it depends on what you're doing. I've been happy with the AC130 already, shooting mostly manual focus but occasionally auto-focus. I'm not planning to pay the $300 upgrade fee for the expanded focus option and newer push-auto improvements. Both features are really meant more for manual shooters, so if you plan to do a lot of auto-focus jobs then the newer features might not be useful to you at all.
 
I just placed a order for the camera €4719 incl. tax (6234,9786USD)

AG-AC130
3 x Panasonic Battery
2 x SDHC 32gig Pro 5
10m XLR Cable
External mic
External light

I do not trust auto features on a camera when recording a show so that will not be a problem.

What shoulder mount should I get?
 
Congrats on your new baby! :thumbsup:

FYI - the AC130 comes with a large battery that'll give you about 3.5 to 4 hours runtime, so you may not really need 3 spare (14 hours runtime). I have 2 large per camera, and I've found that as long as I can charge one after switching, I've never needed anything beyond it. I once did a 10 hour gig with just the 2 batteries (though the actual recording time was only about 4.5 or 5 hours total...the rest was standby). Just some info in case you didn't know, or wanted to adjust your order before it's too late.

For shoulder mount, you could check out indisystem...they have reasonably priced rigs and good quality. Although good luck getting someone on the phone (I think it's a very VERY small shop there).
 
scapsinger said:
Congrats on your new baby! :thumbsup:

FYI - the AC130 comes with a large battery that'll give you about 3.5 to 4 hours runtime, so you may not really need 3 spare (14 hours runtime). I have 2 large per camera, and I've found that as long as I can charge one after switching, I've never needed anything beyond it. I once did a 10 hour gig with just the 2 batteries (though the actual recording time was only about 4.5 or 5 hours total...the rest was standby). Just some info in case you didn't know, or wanted to adjust your order before it's too late.

For shoulder mount, you could check out indisystem...they have reasonably priced rigs and good quality. Although good luck getting someone on the phone (I think it's a very VERY small shop there).
Click to expand...

I got the third battery at half price and the first show this camera will record will be 6 hours long. I rather have a battery extra then a dead new camera :D
 
LarsN said:
I rather have a battery extra then a dead new camera :D
Click to expand...

I hear ya...that's my logic on pretty much everything, better to have spent a $100+ to cover your butt on a shoot than to be sitting there powered down in the middle of it thinking "hrm, that extra battery sure seems like a good deal right now...."

Just wanted to make sure you were aware that it's a full-sized battery in the package. Enjoy!
 
LarsN said:
What about the SDHC cards should I also get a third one?
Click to expand...

Depends on your setup. I've got a shoot next week with 7 camera operators doing 3 one-hour sessions throughout a day, and there's not going to be a lot of time for rolling off the footage as we go along. That means 21 cards if we want to play it safe. As it is, there is going to be a 2 hour break for lunch so that should give me enough time to roll off the morning set. I have 8 of the Panasonic 16GB UHS-I cards and they are extremely fast offloading (maybe 2 minutes or so on a full card). The rest of the cards are a mix of standard Panasonic gold SDHC and a couple of Transcend that I still keep in the kit just in case.

In short, I need all the cards I can get because I only get the 16GB cards (don't like to put too many of my eggs in one basket....don't really have to either with dual card slots). For you, if you are able to roll footage off as you go along, you can usually get by with just 2 or three cards.
 
I am a Apple person and I will be editing on Final Cut X, how fast will a full card be when offloading I got a new iMac last year

3,4GHz Intel Quad Core i7
16gig 1333 MHz DDR3 Ram
AMD Radeon HD 6970 2048 MB
 
What I do is to copy my entire SDHC card to my Mac’s hard drive. This just takes a few minutes (more or less). Then you can review and select the footage you want using FCPX’s function “Import from Camera” on the subdirectory you created when you copied the entire card’s data onto the hard drive.
 
Hey Lars

The camera adapts nicely to a shoulder mount ... I just made my own and use a Hoodman loupe on the LCD and it works really well. You can see my one if you go back to the older posts here. If you want to just buy a shoulder mount kit ready-made then take a look at the ones from CineCity in India...they are inexpensive and work pretty well.

Chris
 
LarsN said:
I am a Apple person and I will be editing on Final Cut X, how fast will a full card be when offloading I got a new iMac last year

3,4GHz Intel Quad Core i7
16gig 1333 MHz DDR3 Ram
AMD Radeon HD 6970 2048 MB
Click to expand...

Final Cut and AVCHD? Offloading will be least of your time-consuming workflow. Does FCX even support AVCHD ingestion?
 
LarsN said:
Yes Final cut does import AVCHD and converts it in the background, but you can start editing right away
Click to expand...

Fcpx is so fast that one can turn off the background conversion and still have fluid realtime editing with avchd. That is what I do when my freelancers send me avchd footage to chomp on. ;)

Greg
 
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