AC90: Has anyone compared the AC90 to the NX30? Shoutout to the RX10

L

leoblack9

New member
Right now I'm in a bit of a stretch and need a camera for documentary shooting in a farm next week, so I've narrowed down my choices to the panny ac90 and the sony nx30. I'm also considering the sony rx10 for all the good things I'm hearing about it, mainly with its great video quality and features, another being price point and being a relatively new product in the market may have some future proofing to it. So to my main point:

Has anyone here owned both the nx30 or ac90? or had a chance to compare them? I haven't seen too much comparison videos online so I couldn't decide quote enough. I've made a list of my observations about what I've learned so far on the two cameras. I'm here to ask you guys with the experience of actually having used them to help me decide.

  1. So far I like the bigger form factor of the ac90 and having more control (the 3 rings) over the nx30, although the smaller form factor would make the latter a good stealth shooter.
  2. I've heard great things about the BOSS system on the NX30--how does that compare to Panny's 5-axis stabilization in the ac90?
  3. Both cameras are reputable to be good in low light, but I think the edge is on the NX30 having a bigger sensor than the Ac90
  4. 96GB vs No internal memory
  5. Panny's battery last for an excellent 5-6 hours (or so I've read about it), and Sony's Infolithium battery at a good 3-4 hours.
  6. I like being able to fiddle with more settings in the AC90, Cinegamma etc., I don't think the Sony has those options.
  7. I don't know much about the 3Mos vs Cmos debate, but from what I've seen, the Panny seems to handle blown highlights better.
  8. NX30's tele zoom range is full of CA, while I've seen none on the AC90. This is from judging available footage online.

That's all I could think about now. Thanks much
 
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Chances are that no-one will have detailed experience of both cams. I've had an AC90 for about a year and can say:

1 Yes the larger form factor can be easier to control. Forget stealth - you are still video'ing whatever you use. The AC90 may give you greater credibility just by virtue of its size impressing the uninitiated. But its not so large as to be ENG like. The Sony may work better if you want to appear to be a hobbyist so that you don't get restricted. There is a lot of manual control but auto works well too. Barry Green's book is a great detailed instruction manual on the AC90. I'm not sure if a similar book exists for the Sony.

2 The Panny stabilisation works very well. If you need extra stabilisation and need to move around quickly and unpredictably consider getting a monopod with feet.

3 The AC90 is no dSLR in very low light. However in all but the most demanding of scenarios it works well

4 I would never use an internal memory. If it fails you have to send the entire cam off for goodness knows how long. It should be much more straightforward to recover a failed card. Also you can download a card using a very fast USB3 reader - in cam is usually USB2. I wouldn't pay extra for an internal memory. Three of my B-cams have internal memory of 32gb but I never use it

5 Never tested it to destruction but 3+ hours should be easy depending on what you are actually doing. 3rd party batteries can be quite cheap, and handy to have as a fallback.

6 Yep, lots of manual options readily accessible and customisable

7 Dunno

8 Dunno

Whatever you do decide fast as you'll need top familiarise yourself with the cam in good time for the shoot. Perhaps rent an AC90? You may find you can get by on auto-everything :- )

Don't forget about separate audio unless your cam is to be close to the talent in which case on board may be acceptable.

Pete
 
Thanks a lot Pete, I haven't posted here for days now as I've already have my AC90 in hand! I'm rereading your comments and my experience so far has been quite satisfactory. The problems of low light doesn't bother me much as most of my shoots are done out in the daylight. What troubles me so far is the inability to set a particular white balance (in kelvins). WB is pretty accurate outdoors but I'm not so sure it is indoors, maybe I should carry a white card around with me and auto adjust using A/Bch. How do you deal with the WB? thanks

Leo
 
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I have an AG-AC160A, which is in the same family. It has about 400 hours on it, not a lot, but enough so that I can say I have played with it under many different conditions.

Having 3 rings is HUGE. I never touch them because I use a remote mounted on the tripod arm. Would not leave the house without this.

Here are 3 mini clips from last nite, done at 65 feet 1080/24p. This cam has a 22x zoom. I went to 4.0 to get detail on the white dresses. As a result the blacks are perhaps a bit soft but seemingly to me at least tolerable.

Let me know how they look. Someone just told me I need to boost the brightness a bit. I tried in this shoot to keep the meter at 22% on faces, maybe I should have tried for 28-32%.


All have the password


Cole22


Cole and Co 22 March 1st number
https://vimeo.com/89819609


Cole and Co 22 March 2nd number
https://vimeo.com/89819608


Cole and Co 22 March 3rd number
https://vimeo.com/89819610


The battery lasts 2 hours 30 mins. I don't think it has deteriorated over the 24 months I have been using it.


My cam (older) does not have the 4 axis stabilization. I would love to have that.
 
I'm not the person to ask about white balance. The AC90 is one of the cams I use for a high volume of weddings and anything other than an accurate auto-white balance is often impractical. Thats because time is always in short supply plus the colour temperature can change frequently inside in e.g. a church depending on whether sunlight is a significant source of ambient light or being intermittently obscured by clouds, whether you recompose and have a strong tungsten source in frame, whether you change physical shooting locations, strong colour from heaters etc. So I tend to adjust and match the white balance in post.

You may be able to put some of your own presents into the custom functions and then just call them up when in the manual mode, I'm not sure.

I guess we'll all be shooting RAW before long and white balance will be largely irrelevant just as it is with stills. But for now I am happy enough to rely on the AC90 followed by tweaking if necessary in Vegas Pro12. Years ago for stills we all used to mess around with white cards grey cards expo-discs etc. Happy days (not).

Pete
 
I can see the value of auto white balance outdoors. Inside, you can, of course, get great variations if you are moving around but for a stage event, it is essential to do a proper white balance and then leave it for the entire event.

I don't find in Vegas Pro 12 that "Brightness and Contrast" does much of anything. You can go from 1.000 to 1.0500 and it immediately washes out color. Moving the contrast helps a bit but the range of operation is very limited. Maybe I am not using the right app?
 
Hey Walter

Never use that plug in!! Much better to use the main Color Corrector then you have Saturation, Gamma, Gain and Offset
 
I shoot events with an AC 90 and overall simply love it.
Battery life is good, make sure you have at least two.
IOS 5 axis is brilliant. Use a tripod where practical and switch IOS off when on the pod.

White balance can be selected between a bunch of pre-sets and two customizables. As I recall tweakable by 1 kelvin increments if required.

There is a lot to like with this cam and very little to complain about.

Your point 7.
I not sure about what you wish to expand on ??
Cmos usually refers to one sensor whereas 3MOS or 3 CMOS refer to the RGB light split by a prism.
3 chips/MOS are always going to be better, all things being equal.

Al
 
kwkeirstead
Nice videos, what were your settings? Did you use autofocus? And for white balance, was it on auto or did you set it up. I thought the video was nice and sharp and well lit.
thanks for sharing.
About once a year I have to film an event like this.
 
Thanks,

Nothing on auto.

0ne white balance done at the start under full lighting.


IRIS between 3 and 5; mini.'stereo' effect with 1 channel connected to a 30-year old soundboard, the other an on- camera Rode Videomic (60 feet away); Lighting by others (they did an excellent job).

I do 10 of these a year. Comments are always appreciated and ftn help me to improve.
 
I have also been comparing the AC90 and NX30. They're very close in price so I'm surprised there are not more side-by-side reviews on the net.

I just spent the afternoon watching a bunch of Vimeo videos shot with each cam and wow, the AC90 really stands out as having a better image. In some videos it looks as good as DSLR footage! A lot of the NX30 footage looked kind of flat, although the image stabilization looked nicer. Next I'll be checking the clips on this forum and on YouTube.
 
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