First Look, Panasonic AG-AC90 at DVExpo West

Stands to reason that a new Panasonic camera would incorporate new technology.

Regarding the AG-AC90, personally, I like the LCD that folds out of the handle - this is a really nice enhancement (i.e. getting the LCD out of the way).

The fact that the OIS is better is a plus, increased sharpness is a plus, increased gain performance is a plus, but then we have lack of waveform which is a negative, and the 1/2 second of lost audio when switching from one slot to the other is a second negative. I suppose the partial offset for slot switching is to only use 64GB SDs.

But, the price is a lot less than other Panasonic cameras, so you get technology upgrades with this camera and then you get features that go with the price.

Curiously, no one seems to have commented on ND Filtering - I find it tedious to have to constantly adjust ND settings, so I am wondering if the AC90 has any improvement over the traditional 1/4, 1/16, 1/64 dial in facility.
 
kwkeirstead said:
Curiously, no one seems to have commented on ND Filtering - I find it tedious to have to constantly adjust ND settings, so I am wondering if the AC90 has any improvement over the traditional 1/4, 1/16, 1/64 dial in facility.
Click to expand...

I believe that ND is slaved to the iris, like on the HMC40. On the '40, when you stop down the iris, the aperture only narrows a bit, before the built-in graduated ND filter kicks in. So, the ND is applied very smoothly instead of in steps.
 
Hi Walter and Wesley

Yep it will be an internal auto iris like the HMC 40 and 80! Look at Bob's videos and seem the seamless exposure from normal right up to a roof beam light. That was my major issue on the 130 actually...during a wedding ceremony if a cloud came over I would have to rush to the camera and switch in/out ND's and that creates a flash on the footage (and is hard to watch if you are working solo) I also shoot Real estate (indoors and out) and in a typical room that has 6 windows it meant switching ND's everytime I came to a window!! I was truely concerned that the switch shaft or knob would wear out/break ...on my HMC's now it's seamless and so much more simple!!!

I seldom, if ever have a split file ..even at 24mbps with a 64GB card on this camera you are looking at 5 hours capacity but I seldom shoot more than 4GB per clip anyway...doing choral groups like Walter does, I would always do a stop/start at the end of each song so I have more manageable clips and less chance of having a huge corrupt file ... sorta 6 songs = 6 clips !! I personally never used waveform on the 130's at all!!! Focus assist is good enough and it certainly looks like the 90 has razor sharp auto anyway!!

Chris
 
The AG90 did NOT have any 1/4, 1/16, 1/64 switch for ND, so I strongly believe they use a an ND like the HMC40.

As for the auto switch over when recording, a 32GB SDHC card holds 3 hours of material, a 64 GB SDXC card would hold 6 hours of material, a 128GB SDXC would hold 12 hours of material, and a 256GB SDXC would hold 24 hours of material. I don't see the auto switch being that big a deal with the large cards. However, I do see the dual recording to two cards being VERY important. In the unlikely event that one card fails, the other card has a copy of the video; that's nice.

The list price is $2,250 (US $). If you consider the features / cost, this camera offers a lot of great things for a minimum price.


Bob Diaz
 
Quite correct and the HMC80 also uses the same system which is VERY convenient if you are filming run 'n gun between darkish and bright areas. With the 130's I had to have my hand sorta hovering over the ND switch during shoots. The manual ND is no issues if you shoot theatre performances but becomes very annoying when you need to change venues at a moments notice. Something also important to note is the ND's "ask you" to change fairly often because in autoiris on the 130/160 ONLY the aperture changes whereas on the HMC40 and 80 (and the AC-90 I assume) the iris AND shutter change so apart from iris/ND control you also have an auto shutter range from 1/50 (or 1/60) right up to 1/2000th. Probably not the "pro" way of doing things but it certainly makes for seamless exposure from bright sunlight right into dingy indoor settings ... Just taking weddings as an example I need to follow the bridal party out of a dark Church and staright into Summer sunlight when they exit and seamless exposure in that case is really great!!

BTW: I see B&H has pre-orders listed at $1999.00 !!!


Chris
 
The ND is exactl the same as on the hmc40 & hmc80. Seamless, but also not very strong, so you may still need to up the shutter speed in daylight.
 
What's the sensor size for this camera? I swear a lot of the "smudginess" of the HMC150 comes from the upscaling to 1080p in-camera. The AG-130 has full 1080 chips and gives a much cleaner image. What's the story with the 90?

It's not always a huge deal (it can really make it hard to pull keys with the 150 though...) but sometimes the image just looks off to me in editing - for web stuff I downscale everything to 720 and edit at that size, which looks a lot snappier to me.
 
Michael Carter said:
What's the sensor size for this camera? I swear a lot of the "smudginess" of the HMC150 comes from the upscaling to 1080p in-camera. The AG-130 has full 1080 chips and gives a much cleaner image. What's the story with the 90?

It's not always a huge deal (it can really make it hard to pull keys with the 150 though...) but sometimes the image just looks off to me in editing - for web stuff I downscale everything to 720 and edit at that size, which looks a lot snappier to me.
Click to expand...

The chips are 1/4.7". According to Barry, the AC90 is VERY sharp and may actually out-resolve the chips in the AC130 by a bit.
 
Jan_Crittenden said:
Really? You don't understand how the firmware inside of a camera works? You make it sound so simple. It isn't.

Jan
Click to expand...

Any way ! You are the boss, So pretty, So cheap, Is mine. In fact two will be nice since they are so light one in my right and one in my left hand
Will be nice if in the future Firmware updates could be implemented not only for this gem but for the HMC40 increasing bit rate etc.
Just a few lines of code and some graphs . The guys at Osaka can make it
Another suggestion, How about White balance measured in kelvin in 100 steps from 2000 K to 8000 K that can go in the firmware also, besides a vectorscope.
Is not a lot I'm asking for since a 4:2:2 color space is just a little more color.
You see simple but cool things.
Love Panasonic, so much that despite not having all I wish , I'll have 3 gems
You are more than kind Jan
Felipe

It is something like this
class WaveformMonitor{

[TD="class: content"] PImage inputImage;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int sizeX;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int sizeY;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int outputTotalPixels;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int inputTotalPixels;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] PImage outputImage;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] WaveformMonitor(PImage pInputImage){[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] inputImage=pInputImage;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] sizeX=pInputImage.width;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] sizeY=255;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] outputImage= createImage(sizeX,sizeY+1,RGB);[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] }[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] void update(){[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] outputImage.loadPixels();[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] inputImage.loadPixels();[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] for(int i=0;i<outputImage.pixels.length;i++){[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] outputImage.pixels =0;[/TD]



[TD="class: content"] }[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] for(int i=0;i<inputImage.pixels.length;i++){[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] //int luminance=(int)brightness(inputImage.pixels );[/TD]



[TD="class: content"] //el brightness de P5[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int luminance=(int)luminance(inputImage.pixels );[/TD]



[TD="class: content"] //Mi luminancia (promediando :P, como debe ser)[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] //outputImage.pixels[constrain(i%inputImage.width+(256-luminance)*inputImage.width,0,outputImage.pixels.length-1)]=luminanceDivider(inputImage.pixels ,1);[/TD]



[TD="class: content"] //waveform Con Color del pedazo (horrible por la luminancia)[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] outputImage.pixels[constrain(i%inputImage.width+(256-luminance)*inputImage.width,0,outputImage.pixels.length-1)]=[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] luminanceSum(outputImage.pixels[constrain((i%inputImage.width)+((256-luminance)*inputImage.width),0,outputImage.pixels.length-1)],luminanceDivider(inputImage.pixels ,6));[/TD]



[TD="class: content"] //Waveform Coloreado [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] //outputImage.pixels[constrain(i%inputImage.width+(486-int(luminance*0.7))*inputImage.width,0,outputImage.pixels.length-1)]=[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] //luminanceSum(outputImage.pixels[constrain((i%inputImage.width)+((486-int(luminance*0.7))*inputImage.width),0,outputImage.pixels.length-1)],luminanceDivider(inputImage.pixels ,2));[/TD]



[TD="class: content"] //coloreado full size[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] //outputImage.pixels[constrain(i%inputImage.width+(256-luminance)*inputImage.width,0,outputImage.pixels.length-1)]+=0x050505;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] //Waveform Normalito[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] }[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] inputImage.updatePixels();[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] outputImage.updatePixels();[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] }[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] PImage display(){[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] return outputImage;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] }[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] color luminanceSum(color pColor1, color pColor2){[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int r=constrain((pColor1 >>16 & 0xFF)+(pColor2 >> 16 & 0xFF),0,0xFF);[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int g=constrain((pColor1 >>8 & 0xFF)+(pColor2 >> 8 & 0xFF),0,0xFF);[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int b=constrain((pColor1 & 0xFF)+(pColor2 & 0xFF),0,0xFF);[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] r=r<<16;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] g=g<<8;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] color outColor=r|g|b;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] return outColor;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] }[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] color luminanceSub(color pColor1, color pColor2){[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int r=constrain((pColor1 >>16 & 0xFF)-(pColor2 >> 16 & 0xFF),0,0xFF);[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int g=constrain((pColor1 >>8 & 0xFF)-(pColor2 >> 8 & 0xFF),0,0xFF);[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int b=constrain((pColor1 & 0xFF)-(pColor2 & 0xFF),0,0xFF);[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] r=r<<16;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] g=g<<8;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] color outColor=r|g|b;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] return outColor;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] }[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] color luminanceDivider(color pColor,int pDivider){[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int r=( pColor >>16 &0xFF )/pDivider;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int g=( pColor >>8 &0xFF)/pDivider;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int b=( pColor & 0xFF )/pDivider;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] r=r<<16;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] g=g<<8;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] color outColor=r|g|b;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] return outColor;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] }[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] color luminanceMultiplier(color pColor,int pDivider){[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int r=constrain(( pColor >>16 &0xFF )*pDivider,0,0xFF);[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int g=constrain( (pColor >>8 &0xFF)*pDivider,0,0xFF);[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int b=constrain(( pColor & 0xFF )*pDivider,0,0xFF);[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] r=r<<16;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] g=g<<8;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] color outColor=r|g|b;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] return outColor;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] }[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] color luminance(color pColor){[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] int l=constrain(((pColor >>16 & 0xFF)+(pColor >> 8 & 0xFF)+(pColor & 0xFF))/3,0,0xFF);[/TD]


[TD="class: content"]// int l=constrain(((pColor >>16 & 0xFF)+(pColor >> 8 & 0xFF)+(pColor & 0xFF)),0,0xFF*3);[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] //full size[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] return l;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"] // return l;[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] }[/TD]


[TD="class: content"] [/TD]


[TD="class: content"]}[/TD]
 
Last edited:
Michael Carter said:
AG-130 has full 1080 chips and gives a much cleaner image. What's the story with the 90?
Click to expand...
As said, the chips are smaller, but are even higher res. if you like the look of an hmc150 downrezzed to 720p, you should love the AC90's sharpness. It uses three over-HD chips (I think 2.3k-ish) and then uses spatial offset to turn that into a 4K image, which then gets downconverted to 1080P upon recording. It is super sharp, super crisp, and super clean. The shots I recorded out to a Nano show incredibly clean pure alias-free resolution with a true solid 4:2:2.

It's not always a huge deal (it can really make it hard to pull keys with the 150 though...) but sometimes the image just looks off to me in editing - for web stuff I downscale everything to 720 and edit at that size, which looks a lot snappier to me.
Click to expand...
With enough light, and a 4:2:2 recorder, I would predict that you will pull some of the best keys you've ever tried, from the AC90. It's not perfect in every way (nor, at this price, should it be) but one thing they got really, really right is crisp sharp true HD imaging with a pristine 4:2:2 output on the HDMI.
 
Barry_Green said:
I'd have to get Jan's permission first, and I'd have to shoot something worthy of posting second, other than test footage! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks. If and when you do it, I would really like to see some people shots with good flesh tones. We know this camera has detail in spades, but I want to get a fair assessment of how it handles human faces.
 
This whole business about no wfm seems pretty strange. It is such a great feature, it was simple enough to include on the 40. if I went with this cam, it would be really missed. We got a wfm on the hmc40 along with a dreadfull vf and flipout. Now we get a probably great flipout a no wfm. Panny giveth and also taketh away.

On another topic, Does anyone know the lens thread size?

Grant
 
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