DVXUser featured in Panasonic PX270 press release

Barry_Green

Moderator
DVXUser's own "n8ture", Kevin Railsback, is the subject of a press release just issued by Panasonic's PR department!

Press release and photos follow:

NEWARK, NJ (October 21, 2014) – Prominent Director of Photography Kevin Railsback, who specializes in nature and wildlife cinematography, recently invested in Panasonic’s AJ-PX270 P2 HD camcorder as his primary camera. Railsback, whose www.filmmakingnaturally.com website features tutorials in outdoor video production, also owns Panasonic’s AG-HPX250 and AG-HPX170 P2 HD handhelds.


Railback has already shot extensive wildlife footage with the PX270, and has used it as his “A” camera on a shoot with a professional dance team for a DVD release. Future PX270 projects include shooting historical recreations on an upcoming feature for Fourth Wall Films, creating a meditation video, and acquiring diverse material for his stock footage agency.


Having shot for several years with the HPX250 as his workhorse camera, Railsback already has informed observations about the differences between that camcorder and the new PX270. Among advances, he numbers the PX270’s extra low light sensitivity, better codec, 1080/60p capture, electronic level, redundant recording, smaller size and more.


“Nature and wildlife filmmakers are most active at first and last light--that's when you have the most wildlife activity as well as that magic hour of light for landscapes,” Railsback said. “The PX270 pushes deeper into low light country without any additional noise. For example, I was filming a purple coneflower on a tallgrass prairie using the camera’s high sensitivity mode. I looked at the time and it was 17 minutes after sunset. With other cameras I would have been half-way home, but I was just wrapping up in the field.


“As Panasonic pushes their cameras’ low light ability down, they've raised my creativity by allowing me to film in light previously too dim to get usable footage.”


“I've come up through the Panasonic ranks with the HVX200, HPX170, HPX250 and now the PX270—each new camera is a giant leap in image resolution,” he continued. “The PX270 resolves so much more detail that I'm confident when shooting busy nature scenes of, say a tallgrass prairie, that every stem of prairie grass will be incredibly defined and not meld together and be lost with all the surrounding vegetation.”


Regarding the PX270’s 1080/60p format, Railsback added, “When dealing with wildlife, you may only get a fraction of a second to capture something amazing. Slowing down the footage two and a half times real time means you encounter playback as more than just a glimpse.


“I have one user button dedicated to my scene files. I can quickly switch between two scene files that are virtually identical, except one is 24fps and the other is 60fps. If I see a deer come out of the woods, I can quickly switch to 60fps to get some nice slow motion, then switch right back to 24fps to continue filming a prairie flower.”


“I have incredible menu control over the PX270--about the only thing I can't do on this camera is order my lunch,” Railsback said. “I can dial this camera in with superb detail and controls, and get the look I'm after with surgical precision.”


His editing platform is Final Cut Pro X. For more information about Railsback and his work, visit www.filmmakingnaturally.com


About the AJ-HPX270
The AJ-PX270, Panasonic’s first P2 HD handheld camcorder with AVC-ULTRA recording, combines the high quality and incredible efficiency of low bit rate recording and the flexibility of 3G/4G/LTE wireless mobility. The five-pound PX270 provides all the key functionality of Panasonic’s high-end, shoulder-mount camcorder, and features newly-developed high-sensitivity, low-noise 1/3” 3-MOS imagers to produce stunning pictures, even in low light conditions. With its innovative AVC-ULTRA codec, the PX270 features a wide range of recording modes, including high-quality 100Mbps AVC-Intra100, as well as optional 200 Mbps AVC-Intra200. For applications where file size is critical, the camcorder incorporates a choice of AVC-LongG quality levels; for high-speed file exchange, the PX270’s high-resolution AVC-Proxy encodes in parallel with higher bandwidth production formats, enabling fast, efficient offline editing,


For more information about the AJ-PX270 and other Panasonic professional video products, visit [url]www.panasonic.com/broadcast[/URL] or contact Panasonic at 877-803-8492.


Panasonic Solutions for Business
Panasonic delivers reliable business technology solutions that connect data with decision makers to drive better outcomes—for our customers and our customers’ customers. Panasonic engineers reliable products and solutions that help to create, capture and deliver data of all types, where, when and how it is needed. The complete suite of Panasonic professional solutions for government and commercial enterprises of all sizes addresses unified business communications, mobile computing, security and surveillance, retail point-of-sale, office productivity, visual communications (projectors, displays, digital signage) and HD video production. Panasonic solutions for business are delivered by Panasonic System Communications Company of North America, Division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, the principal North American subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation.


All brand and company/product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies. All specifications are subject to change without notice. Information on Panasonic solutions for business can be obtained by calling 877-803-8492 or at us.panasonic.com/business-solutions.


About Panasonic Corporation of North America
Panasonic Corporation of North America provides a broad line of digital and other electronics products and solutions for consumer, business and industrial use. The company is the principal North American subsidiary of Osaka, Japan-based Panasonic Corporation and the hub of Panasonic’s U.S. branding, marketing, sales, service and R&D operations. In Interbrand’s 2014 annual “Best Global Green Brands” report, Panasonic ranked number five overall and the top electronics brand in the report. As part of continuing sustainability efforts, Panasonic Corporation of North America relocated its headquarters to a new facility, built to meet LEED certification standards, adjacent to Newark Penn Station in Newark, NJ. Learn more about Panasonic at www.panasonic.com.

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Reactions: DC
This cam really got me interested with its wireless capabilities,
does anyone know if I could stream live without additional hardware (Vidiu Cube etc) using the HPX270 in conjunction with a Blackmagic ATEM 1ME Production Studio 4K ?
 
Really nice write up. Congrats Kevin.


I've come up through the Panasonic ranks with the HVX200, HPX170, HPX250 and now the PX270—each new camera is a giant leap in image resolution,


Only complaint is saying that there was a resolution increase from the HVX200 to the HPX170. The HPX170 (or HVX200a and HMC150) all have chips that have a less noise & a little more sensitive than the original HVX200, but there was no increase in resolution / detail. Now going from the HPX170 to the HPX250 (or AC130 / AC160), then you get a big step up in resolution & low light sensitivity.
 
I guess what I was trying to say that about resolution is the resolving power of the cameras. I have the 170, 250 and now the 270 and I can see a visible difference with the 270 over the 250. So while the actual pixels may not have increased, I think the codec has been tweaked or something or maybe it's the extensive menu options to tweak the picture. All I know is that I can see a better image quality with the 270 over my 250. Be that less noise or whatever to me, its better resolving ability.

So when I film prairie grass the 270 is gonna show me better detail in the image than the 250. Does that make sense? That's what I was trying to say.
Whether that's accurate or not, Barry would be a better one to say since I know diddle squat about the techie stuff. :)

combatentropy, I always look like a grumpy ass. Guess that's just they way I look when I don't have an expression on my face. But yeah, most people say I looked pissed all the time. I really am a nice guy though! :)

Really love the 270 though. Heading out this afternoon to get some more fall color with it.

[h=5][/h]
 
So when I film prairie grass the 270 is gonna show me better detail in the image than the 250. Does that make sense? That's what I was trying to say.
Whether that's accurate or not, Barry would be a better one to say since I know diddle squat about the techie stuff. :)

My comment was more about HVX200 to HPX170 & how I didn't notice any extra detail increase with the updated chips over the HVX200.

I haven't used the 270 (though I'd like to), but I can believe that it makes a nicer picture than the 250. Even if it didn't make nicer pictures, I still think the 270 is a very nice upgrade over the 250, so I see it as an added bonus.

Again, congrats & enjoy the new camera.

P.S. Any reason you're holding on to the old cameras instead of selling them?
 
Although I rarely use auto focus on our 250, I was wondering if it has been improved in the 270? The 250 was a huge step down in AF over the 170 -- constant hunt when focusing.

Appreciate your impressions on the 250.
 
I can't comment on the 250, but I have found the autofocus to be excellent on the 270. Coming from an XF300 (which has excellent AF as well) I would say the PX270 is as good. Very quick, responsive and smooth without hunting in my experience.
 
AlexNor That's really from the PX270.
I was just lucky in that the dragonfly wasn't too interested in flying away. So, I shot a bit, moved the tripod closer and closer until I was at minimum focusing distance for the camera and this is what I got.
It's how I get a lot of my stuff, I just work towards minimum focusing distance and shoot along the way in case I notice I'm disturbing the subject then I just back off.

I pump up the chroma and drop the master per in camera to get the nice colors. The camera can shoot pretty flat but if you tweak it, it's amazing what it can do!
 
zigital,

I'm holding on to them because I do some work with a local professional dance team and they have a big show every year. I film that for them and I like having different angles.

The 170 doesn't hold a candle to the 250 and the 270 but I use it for fast cutaways that don't stay on screen for very long.

I only take the 270 out in the field unless I'm doing a tutorial then I'll pack up another tripod and the 250 and go out and film myself filming something. :)
 
AlexNor That's really from the PX270.
I was just lucky in that the dragonfly wasn't too interested in flying away. So, I shot a bit, moved the tripod closer and closer until I was at minimum focusing distance for the camera and this is what I got.
It's how I get a lot of my stuff, I just work towards minimum focusing distance and shoot along the way in case I notice I'm disturbing the subject then I just back off.

I pump up the chroma and drop the master per in camera to get the nice colors. The camera can shoot pretty flat but if you tweak it, it's amazing what it can do!

Thank you, n8ture. I'm surprised how it looks more like a still photo then a frame grab, pretty amazing.

What is your experience regarding getting "the look" in camera through picture profiles versus shooting flat and coloring in post with the PX270?
 
AlexNOR,

I shoot everything in camera howi like it to be in the finish product.

I did a comparison on my website showing the difference flat vs my setup.

I had someone comment that their editors were saying the 270 footage was soft and they were ready to turn it back in.
They wanted to know why my footage looked better than what they were getting from their 270.
so I told them to punch up the color and drop the master Ped quite a bit and they couldn't believe the difference in the footage.

Even their editors were blown away.

I know a lot of people say shoot flat so you can grade any look you want in post but I always tweak the camera to give me what I want so that I a focus on the story and not have to deal with drinking around in post.

The dragonfly was one of those things where everything came together perfectly. Other dragonflies I filmed that day looked really good but not as perfect as this one. Being at minimum focusing distance and not stopping the iris down as well as adding more contrast and color in camera make a world of difference from the default settings!
 
Thank you, n8ture. I really appreciate the helpful information.

Refreshing to see something so beautiful coming from the camera instead of post production magic. I will keep an eye out for that comparison on your website.
 
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