New Panasonic AG-AC90 Featuring 3-1/4.7-inch CMOS sensors. $2,250

carlweston

carlweston

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http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/15/panasonic-ag-ac90-professional-camcorder/

Via: Engadget
While filmakers have gone gaga over huge sensor'd video cameras, there's still a need for smaller chips and pro features -- to that end, Panasonic has just announced the AG-AC90 AVCCAM. Destined for event and corporate users, it features three smallish 1/4.7-inch CMOS sensors ("3MOS" in company-speak), a 12X zoom, native 1,920 x 1,080 at 60p, 60i, 30p and 24p, and a five-axis image stabilizer. As for video quality, there's a new "premium professional" recording mode with 28 Mbps throughput at 60p, on top of 24 Mbps and 17 Mbps modes. With two memory card slots, the camcorder supports Panasonic's proprietary UHS-1 cards, and fortunately works with SDXC and SDHC to boot. It's slated to arrive in "late fall 2012," according to the company, and will ring the register at $2,250. So, if the first thing that pops into your mind is not DOF, but zebras, timecode and XLR inputs, check the PR for all those specs.
 
Things I like: 1080p60; 3 rings (focus, zoom, iris), LCD way up front (vs on the side)

Things I don't like: no gain or white balance toggle switches, 1/4.7" chips (why so small? how much low light performance is lost compared to 1/4" or 1/3" chips?), lens hood isn't self closing (I love this feature on Sony & JVC cameras)

Things I'll wait to see how it works out: Pull out LCD
 
zijital said:
LCD way up front (vs on the side)
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Yeah, that's a change... they've never done that before. It's more Canon-esque than ever, that reminds me more and more of the XHA1. But it makes sense, with such a small camera body, now the LCD doesn't cover up all the space where the buttons go.

Things I don't like: no gain or white balance toggle switches
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The no gain switch makes sense, as it undoubtedly works like the HMC40 did. The HMC40 didn't have separate gain, it was integrated with the iris ring. The more you open up the iris, the brighter things got, until you hit maximum opening -- then the gain would take over, so you could keep "opening the iris" more and more, and it would be adding gain in 1dB increments. Not a bad solution really, I mean, all you really lose is the ability to apply gain when the lens is stopped down, and that seems like a silly thing to do, you only really want gain when you've already exhausted opening up the iris anyway, right? It's different, but on the HMC40 I found it reasonable, and the ability to open up the gain in 1dB increments (instead of 6dB or 3dB chunks) was nice and seamless. I'd still prefer separate controls, but I don't think this is a bad solution, I always found it workable on the HMC40.

As for no white balance switch, the HMC40 didn't have one either, but it did have the same functionality available through pressing the WB button. You had the same functionality as on the bigger cameras, but condensed into fewer buttons to save space. The HMC40 was a tiny camcorder, not a lot of spare space for more switches and buttons, and I presume this AC90 will be no bigger and possibly even smaller than the HMC40 was.

, 1/4.7" chips (why so small? how much low light performance is lost compared to 1/4" or 1/3" chips?)
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No way to know until we test it. Through a combination of newer technology and advanced signal processing, the 1/3" HPX370 delivers more low light performance than the 1/2" Sony EX1, so ... as technology marches on, it improves. The 1/4.7" chips of today may compare quite favorably to the 1/4.1" chips of three years ago. Only testing will reveal the real answers.

lens hood isn't self closing (I love this feature on Sony & JVC cameras)
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Yes, such a simple thing, and yet soooo functional. I wish Panasonic would adopt this obvious feature.
 
Actually, I just found on the CVP blog that the sensors are BSI (back-side illuminated). That's a technology that can substantially increase a chip's sensitivity, but it's only really applicable to little chips, so -- I would guess that the AC90 will probably be at least as sensitive as the prior HMC40/HMC80, and my guess is that it will show a notable improvement in low light sensitivity over the prior cameras, even if its chips are smaller.
 
Hmm, just noticed it also has XLR inputs. That was something that was optional on the HMC40. And the lens is much wider angle, it's a 30mm equiv. vs. the HMC40's 42mm equiv. I really liked the HMC40, it put out a heck of a picture at its price and it was a great size, if the AC90 delivers at least as good on all fronts, for a lower price point, it seems to be sporting some very welcome additional features. They go so far as to say "excellent images even in dimly lit locations", and that is something you definitely couldn't say about the HMC40... so, this looks like it might be a pretty interesting update.
 
I'm a bit confused. Is it three sensors or one? The press release headline says "With 3MOS Sensor" which I thought was some tricky marketing talk for what was really a single sensor, but the Engadget review says multiple sensors.
 
capt chuck said:
I'm a bit confused. Is it three sensors or one? The press release headline says "With 3MOS Sensor" which I thought was some tricky marketing talk for what was really a single sensor, but the Engadget review says multiple sensors.
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"3MOS" is just Panasonic's marketing name for 3-chip cmos. It's a 3 sensor camera.
 
i would be very interested if the chips were bigger, the new bsi sounds nice on paper, but ill wait to see some real world examples
 
Barry_Green said:
The HMC40 didn't have separate gain, it was integrated with the iris ring. The more you open up the iris, the brighter things got, until you hit maximum opening -- then the gain would take over, so you could keep "opening the iris" more and more, and it would be adding gain in 1dB increments. Not a bad solution really...
Click to expand...

I agree not a bad solution, but I'd like dedicated controls. I'd think there would be times that I might start gaining up inadventenally when might be able to adjust shutter or ND. Again, nice concept, I'd just prefer to stay old school & keep them separate.

Barry_Green said:
The 1/4.7" chips of today may compare quite favorably to the 1/4.1" chips of three years ago. Only testing will reveal the real answers.
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Yeah, I'll look forward to seeing some testing. 1/4 vs 1/4.1 vs 1/4.7 chips isn't that much of difference, except when you look at the picture, signal & noise. If 1/4.7" chips can do the same as 1/4.1" chips from 3 years ago, acceptable but still a little disappointing b/c then it would probably mean if the chips were a little larger, they'd be better than chips from a couple years ago.

If the 1/4.7" chips can perform better than the 1/4.1" chips, then this point is moot & shouldn't be of concern to anyone.

Barry_Green said:
Yes, such a simple thing, and yet soooo functional. I wish Panasonic would adopt this obvious feature.
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I really wish all cameras in this size came with this. Canon & Panasonic, please, please, please take note. Or at least if that third party accessory makers would come out with lens hoods for the cameras missing this great feature.


Wesley Byram said:
"3MOS" is just Panasonic's marketing name for 3-chip cmos. It's a 3 sensor camera.
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It isn't 3 CMOS it is 3 MOS, heard the explaination from Panasonic between the two, but can't remember. I think it has something to do with the way the chip is set up so that MOS chips have more light sensitive area than CMOS chips. If someone has more detail, please post link.
 
Gillvane said:
These days it's just not really exciting unless it's Full Frame, or Raw.
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To some people, for cinematic uses. But there are still tons of folks who make their living with a video camera, and to whom raw is a pain in the butt, and full frame is useless because you can't get a video style lens and you can't keep anything in focus...
 
So let me get this straight. 3 Full raster 2 megapixel 1920x1080p chips pixel shifted to achieve 4 times the resolution (3840x2160) and then down converted for the cleanest 1080p recording possible. I am trying not to spread any rumors but this is how I interpret the press release. Am I wrong?
 
I wouldn't read too much into the press release. Undoubtedly more info will be coming later. My guess is that the spatial offset is designed to maximize the stills photo resolution, but can also contribute to sharper video. But doubling is something not reasonable to expect from spatial offset. A more reasonable maximum would be 1.5x, and a more practical goal would be the sq root of 2, for a 1.41x boost in resolved detail.
 
I would like to have seen ProRes or DNxHD at 4:2:2 and/or 4:4:4 as an option. Otherwise this looks pretty nice.
 
I wonder how the image will compare to an HMC-150? I use the HMC-150 for a lot of special uses which often involve cranes, high stands etc... with a wide shot. Not the strong point of the HMC. If this camera has at least equal light gathering ability and noise it might be a great upgrade as I would bet it will be sharper!
 
1/4.7'' chips.... umm...
I dread to think how that would fair in low light. Also, I assume the occasional shallow DOF shots at long focal lengths like i can just about get with my current video cam are out of the question?
 
The Panasonic Z10000 does In fact claim 4K2K video image processing obtained by pixel shifting for the
Cleanest 1080p picture possible so there would be no reason why the ac90 would not also have this same technology.
 
Bassman2003 said:
I wonder how the image will compare to an HMC-150?
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The HMC40 was vastly sharper and cleaner (in daylight) than the HMC150. The HMC150 blew away the HMC40 in low light conditions.
The AC90 should be (SHOULD be) at least as sharp and clear and clean as an HMC40, and with presumably much better low light performance according to the press release.
 
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