First Look, Panasonic AG-AC90 at DVExpo West

The autofocus works as it should work too!! Fast and accurate!! Wow!! put this little camera on a simple rail with a shoulder pad and strap a loupe on the front LCD and you have stability almost at tripod standard but on your shoulder.

These could quite easily replace my HMC82's as they would be smaller, lighter and the OIS just cannot be compared. Despite the slightly smaller chips the image is probably better than the 40 or 80 and the extra wide angle is a great plus factor. 'sigh' if only these had come out last year when I dropped my 130's ..it would have been an instant buy...Panasonic have really outdone themselves this time .... it seem hard to fault this camera in any way!!! Felipe?? I think that the wider lens will be more than enough!!!

Chris
 
ChrisHarding said:
Felipe?? I think that the wider lens will be more than enough!!!
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That is one area where we are still lacking information about this camcorder.

Just how wide is the lens at its widest setting? It looks pretty good in these videos. But it would be awfully nice to know what the 35mm equivalent focal length would be for this lens at max wide angle.

Is this info that I have somehow overlooked here? Or are we still waiting to find this out?
 
Hi Lance

It certainly must be better (wider) than the 80's .. At full wide my cams only get down to an equivalent of 40mm ...which isn't that wide!! An equivalent of 28mm would be awesome but even something a little wider than the current HMC's will be an improvement!!

I'm sure Barry has it figured out already!

Chris
 
Little confused on the batteries. Jan said this uses the same battery as the 170 (CGA-D54). B&H listing shows battery as VW-VBG6. From photos batteries look the same but are they in fact interchangeable? Sitting on a bunch of D54 for my DVX's.
 
BobDiaz said:
Let me address the issues raised here:

(1) LCD: The LCD is about 1.1 mega pixel and is very sharp compared to the HMC-40.

(2) Fixed Lens Hood: This is going to be a trade off of the AC90 vs the HMC40. You would have to reach down into the hood to turn a polarizing filter. As for putting on a wide angle OR telephoto adapter; there was a lot of room to be able to fit one inside the hood. I don't see any problem with adapters not being able to fit inside the hood.

(3) No wave form monitor: Crud! The camera does have a histogram; which is OK, but not as good as a waveform monitor IMHO. I think of all sorts of things to check after I left the building and I'm on the train going home... The HMC40 does have a spot setting with an IRE reading; does the AC90 offer that? I have no idea, but I wish I had asked. IF it has the same IRE reading as the HMC40, that might be a workaround for getting more exact readings.

(4) Different battery: For us, the battery is not the same as the HMC40, but for others it matches the 170. Some win here some lose here.


While I'm at it, the next video showing the rapid auto-focus is uploaded:


Link: https://vimeo.com/49952262


There is going to be some trade-off in selecting an AC90 vs the HMC40. Each has it's strong points and neither model has all the advantages. If I had to start over and chose between the two models, the fantastic image stabilization system, the better viewfinder, the build-in XLR, and the wider angle on the zoom range, would make me pick the AC90 over the HMC40.


Bob Diaz
Click to expand...

Bob and Barry, Thank you for extra time and effort you are putting in to answer forum questions. Bob, you mention AC90 LCD is sharper than HMC40, but what could you say about the EVF--is it any bigger than tiny one on HMC40? Dennis
 
tmuss said:
Little confused on the batteries. Jan said this uses the same battery as the 170 (CGA-D54). B&H listing shows battery as VW-VBG6. From photos batteries look the same but are they in fact interchangeable? Sitting on a bunch of D54 for my DVX's.
Click to expand...
The battery is like is the 170 B&H is wrong, that happens at their website frequently
 
Hi Felipe

It seems they have gone back to the standard CGA series battery which is great news cos they don't need a decoding chip and you can use the same battery essentially as either the HPX170 or even DVX100 batteries. Batteries like the CGA-D54 are also easy to get from quite a few suppliers and you can also get the D54 with a dTAP connection too which is great if you use a video light and need to power from the camera battery!

BTW : the wide angle of the lens is actually 29.5mm (35mm equivalent) so that's a fair bit wider than your current HMC40 at full wide ... nice for weddings too..with the HMC's I have to often move back a bit as it's only a 40.5mm at full wide.

Chris
 
ChrisHarding said:
Hi Felipe

It seems they have gone back to the standard CGA series battery which is great news cos they don't need a decoding chip and you can use the same battery essentially as either the HPX170 or even DVX100 batteries. Batteries like the CGA-D54 are also easy to get from quite a few suppliers and you can also get the D54 with a dTAP connection too which is great if you use a video light and need to power from the camera battery!

BTW : the wide angle of the lens is actually 29.5mm (35mm equivalent) so that's a fair bit wider than your current HMC40 at full wide ... nice for weddings too..with the HMC's I have to often move back a bit as it's only a 40.5mm at full wide.

Chris
Click to expand...
Hi Chris
Yes the battery is camera's food so is good idea to buy some, However I have 4 large batteries for the HMC40, Now I'll have 4 for the HMC40 and 4 for the AG-AC90, and that is extra US $600. Is money but not a lot, considering
the benefits from the new camera. Under my experience the best idea is buying original Panasonic batteries, Last longer and never give you trouble.
On camera lighting, has work well for me with led compact lights , the first point I look for is AA battery type. In fact actually I'm using a very powerful one AA Battery type.
Usually and when possible I just turn on a Lowel Omni light at some event's corner , so Led is just a fill
The wide angle is a great Plus, I mean is one of the best new features, as well as the steady cam type OIS, is unbelievable . BUT the Panasonic 0.7 wide angle 46 mm I use with adapter for the HMC40 can be used with this
new camera wit a 46 to 49 ring since the lens by it self is much smaller than the filter diameter. and that should give me a gorgeous 21 mm wide angle, great for Landscapes or indoors.
No wave form monitor is something I don't understand, that would no add any cost to the camera and is basically the camera's exposure meter.
Also I don't understand why they haven't implement the White balance in Kelvin since that neither add cost , is build in in many low cost cameras.
With all and all, Panasonic is giving us a lot for very little money, and that has to create loyalty to the brand.
 
ChrisHarding said:
BTW : the wide angle of the lens is actually 29.5mm (35mm equivalent) so that's a fair bit wider than your current HMC40 at full wide ... nice for weddings too..with the HMC's I have to often move back a bit as it's only a 40.5mm at full wide.

Chris
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I agree. That will be a nice improvement for event photography. If one is dealing with a good size crowd, it can often be difficult or even impractical to move back and still be able to get the shot.

This camcorder could become quite a DSLR killer, once word of it spreads.

Of course, depth of field is totally different. But honestly, I've never seen the benefit of having a shallow depth of field for most shooting situations. And just look at all the features and controls you get with the AC90, compared to a DSLR shooting video.
 
BobDiaz said:
(3) No wave form monitor: Crud! The camera does have a histogram; which is OK, but not as good as a waveform monitor IMHO. I think of all sorts of things to check after I left the building and I'm on the train going home... The HMC40 does have a spot setting with an IRE reading; does the AC90 offer that? I have no idea, but I wish I had asked. IF it has the same IRE reading as the HMC40, that might be a workaround for getting more exact readings.
Bob Diaz
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You can program the Histogram to the User buttons and it works very much the same way as a WFM, but without the markers. But I think it is still a viable tool.
 
Jan_Crittenden said:
You can program the Histogram to the User buttons and it works very much the same way as a WFM, but without the markers. But I think it is still a viable tool.
Click to expand...

Why not just a firmware update since the camera hasn't been released yet. ( That is all it takes a firmware update ).
Histogram summarizes values for the entire image: usually luminance values 0-256 horizontally and the relative quantities of pixels with each value vertically. Waveform monitor shows you all of IRE concentrations for each vertical image segment. Completely different pieces of information.
 
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Felipe Henao said:
Why not just a firmware update since the camera hasn't been released yet. ( That is all it takes a firmware update ).
Histogram summarizes values for the entire image: usually luminance values 0-256 horizontally and the relative quantities of pixels with each value vertically. Waveform monitor shows you all of IRE concentrations for each vertical image segment. Completely different pieces of information.
Click to expand...

I have to second Felipe's opinion. Is there a chance that a waveform monitor could be included in the production camera? No WFM is a dealbreaker for me. A histogram just isn't the same thing.
 
Bob and Barry, Thank you for extra time and effort you are putting in to answer forum questions. Bob, you mention AC90 LCD is sharper than HMC40, but what could you say about the EVF--is it any bigger than tiny one on HMC40? Dennis
Click to expand...

The LCD on the AC90 is 8.89cm (3.5 inches) with 1,150,000 dot resolution, on the HMC40 it's 6.86cm (2.7 inches), with Approx. 230,000 pixels. Not only is the LCD on the AC90 bigger (0.8 inches, 2.03cm larger) , but the resolution is slightly above 720p mode; still a tad shy of 1080p, but close enough. I like the fact that it slides safely out of the way when you're not using it.




Bob Diaz
 
One last video to share, here's a walk about the show floor at DV Expo.


It's not my best work, but should give you an idea what the booth part of the show was like.

Shot with an HMC40 with a 0.5x Century Wide Angle Adapter on a mono-pod.



Bob Diaz
 
On the lens field of view, it's listed as a 29.8mm equivalent. So quite wide for a camcorder. About equivalent to an HMC40 using a 0.7x wide angle converter, off the top of my head.

Someone asked about the EVF, it's nothing special, it's maybe the same on the HMC40. The LCD is a VAST improvement but the EVF is still small and low res. mainly useful for during daylight shooting when the LCD might be washed out or glares.
 
Hi Lance

Me neither!! I really cannot see what all the fuss is about..they are hard to use, difficult to use and impossible to zoom with. My buddy Chip in Green Bay organised me a Lumix GH1 and I shot video with it once and that was it!! It's a nice still camera but unless you mount everything on a fancy rig with loupes and follow focus gears, you might as well use the convenience of a proper video camera. For my run 'n gun stuff. Panasonic have kept everything that the 130 had that I liked and changed everything on the 130 that was giving me issues and has put it into a neater casing and called it the AC-90 ... it seems about the right size too!!! Does anyone have actual dimensions yet??? Yes people using the more costly DSLR's will think hard on why they are not using this camera !!!

Chris
 
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