AC160 Panasonic Ag AC-90

Lou Bruno said:
As far as the stabilizer: I was walking in 6 inches of snow and even slipping at times while walking and the stabilizer held up fairly well. It can't replace my Glidecams but looks good for 'run and gun' applications.
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So being clear the shot of the trees & snow and the railroad indoors was a purely handheld with OIS on, or was it with OIS off and your stabilizer? Barry Green said he was going to try running his with his stabilizer and OIS on, but he wasn't expecting very good results. Something I am curious about, because I am thinking there may be a lightweight way to supplement the OIS. Like maybe a small tripod or even a small pipe or something.

Lou Bruno said:
This camera is somewhere between a consumer camera and a lower-end Prosumer camera in my opinion.
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Yes I know it lacks the ability for lens replacement, hood is welded on, no HDSDI out and wave form monitor, but honestly what makes it NOT a professional camera? There are plenty of professional cameras with the same limitations. The wave form monitor is possibly available on external devices (yes most name ones are pricey). http://www.ebay.com/itm/280970457828?hlp=false but heres a 5" E-bay one for $499. Yes I know its not a high speed codex either at 28Mbs, but that is what a lot of pro cameras are. Those cameras will have the same issues for the DR too because of the 8 bit codex. Is it the build quality (i.e. it does not feel very durable) because I've not heard that type of comment yet. Or maybe the built in ND? Which again can be compensated for like you are. The SD card can't be an issue because you can record to 2 cards at once and the 128gb ones work (10-12 hours each). What am I missing?
 
Absolutely love this camera. It may not have waveform but it DOES have a histogram and Red Focus Peaking (which my hmc150 lack)! The 3-ring focus/zoom/iris is so smooth too.
 
Thanks for the answers Lou!!

It's great to know that on the Spiderbrace everything sits in a natural position. I'd still like to know if Panasonic are using the HMC audio boards or the 130 ones in the camera... Anyone recorded loud music like a club or DJ using auto??? The AC-130 in this mode gives the waveform a haircut which to me is wrong whilst the HMC cameras apply ALC to the input signal ...Hopefully it's the latter.

Chris
 
Over Head.jpgOperating Hight.jpgFront.jpgBehind.jpg Steve, I have posted pictures on this forum somewhere of my monotripod that I made. This may work for the small tripod or pipe your looking for. It will collapse to just under 3 feet and telescope to just over 6 feet. It is all aluminum and very light. It has a handle and in the 3 feet size can be used as a crude steadycam. It will also stand without holding, but you do not want to walk away from it. I don't go anywhere without it.
jim
 
I am talking much smaller. I saw what you made, but I am doing more run and gun corporate interview/event type stuff so a small Steadicam type device would be great for for long walking shots. Long shots where you walk around with someone showing you stuff (like a business showing you around) and shots where you are close up on items in a room and are moving around from item to item, stuff like that. If its even possible, I would love for something where its closer to a Steadicam look and I am doing a single shot shoulder mounted for like 30 minutes straight. Then edit it out for the best stuff, mix in some tripod shots of a well lit interview and its golden. Folks are seeing so much Steadicam/GoPro shots these days, they assume cameras just do it naturally. Of course we know that's not the case and smooth high quality Steadicam work is rough hard work. The $299 GoPro does it very well, but has too many limitations for this type of work.
 
Well, the monopod is innovative and probably perfect for many, but it would not work for me.

Even holding it ALL of the time is problematic - we have people who push you, trip over you, you name it, they do it. Sometimes you have to bend over to get a new battery etc. I suppose a vest with 100 pockets might solve the bending over scenario.

I have many times thought of carrying around a modified shark cage decorated with razor wire or, better still, electrified, but my insurance would frown on this type of MO.

I have three bags of stuff to carry around so I need an assistant just to watch over these as I move around at events.

I opted for a workhorse 10 pound Manfrotto tripod that goes 7 feet high and requires I bring a kitchen step stool around so I can loom over the TV crews that always shove their way into the best positions 3 minutes before any event.

No matter how early you get to an event, and take pains to find a "good" spot, you get pushed back.

I must say from the side glances I get that they absolutely hate seeing me 8 feet in the air getting a better position then they have (they not only crowd out non-TV videographers, they engage in shoving matches of their own).

Bottom line, none of this event recording activity is easy.
 
kwkeirstead said:
Even holding it ALL of the time is problematic - we have people who push you, trip over you, you name it, they do it.
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Wow for the life of me I can't figure out what type of events a non-TV person would do to and be paid to shoot, while at the same time the TV videographers are already there.
 
Easy answer, the TV people do clips for news, what I do is archive videos of entire events for the cities/municipalities/clubs that organize or host such events. I do 20-30 of these a year. It possible to lower the cost of these recordings because very little editing is required. You can almost do these as loss leaders because public events like this are attended by all sorts of people, some of whom are business leaders who later on want corporate videos. Works for me, in any case.
 
Here is an extreme low light test video. First, with just a few candles providing illumination. Then, with just a single 50 W Light.



 
I would like to see a side by side footage of a HMC-150 or ac130 with this camera. I want to know if the the footage from a HMC150 would match up close with the 90. Also, for autofocus, what do you see on the screen, is there a box or crosshairs, so I can know my focus boundaries.
So I assume we can use this camera for professional work. And down sides to this camera? I need it to match the low light quality of the HMC150 also.
I do a lot of run and gun type shooting sometimes, so it looks like the auto mode is good.
Also, is Berry going to write a book on this camera?
 
There are no crosshairs or boundaries for the autofocus area.

It's nowhere near as sensitive in terms of raw sensitivity, as compared to an HMC150. The HMC150 is basically 500 ISO, the AC90 is 40 ISO. You'd need about 21dB of gain to get it to the same brightness level as the HMC150 at 0dB. The gain is much cleaner in the AC90 than in the HMC150, so you could maybe do that in a practical scene, but if you rely on 12 or 18db of gain on the HMC150, the AC90 just can't get there.

As a tradeoff, the AC90 image is simply much sharper than the HMC150.

Downsides? Sensitivity is the main one -- if you need more sensitivity, you need a more expensive camera, the AC130 is about $1500 more and is much more sensitive. The AC90 is under $2,000 after all. And there are some things the AC90 just doesn't do -- 720p for example, or variable frame rates, or magnified focus assist. It doesn't have a waveform monitor, it only has a histogram. And its ND filter isn't strong enough, you really need to add a 2-stop or 3-stop ND filter to shoot in broad daylight. But it's under $2,000. $2,000! And it's hyper crisp, the spatial-offset pixel shift from true 1080p chips creates a 4k image that they then down convert to 1080p (including full 1080/60p). It's sharper than many cameras that cost much more. It is a great size, feels great in the hand, its optical image stabilizer is vastly more effective than any camera they've ever produced before, its automatic functions are hugely powerful as compared to any other Panasonic pro camcorder... it's really a bit of a different direction for them in some ways. It's inherited technology that was pioneered in the consumer realm (things like face detection, or scene detection so it knows whether it's looking at a landscape or a portrait, a night scene or a day scene, and can adapt accordingly).

And yes, I'm doing "The AC90 Book", it'll probably be available some time next month.
 
Barry_Green said:
And there are some things the AC90 just doesn't do -- 720p for example, or variable frame rates, or magnified focus assist.
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It actually does have magnified focus assist, you can assign it to one of the programmable switches, and toggle through 2x, 5x and 10x magnifications. Now I had assumed this was for focusing, did not occur to me it might actually record the magnified image. Did not try that.

Edit:

It's call D.ZOOM, and it does record, so I guess it's intent was not as a magnified focus assist primarily, but you can use it that way. Just assign it to one of the programmable switches.
 
Ok , reasonable shots, but what criteria are you using to determine "really promising?" Lighting is good- any decent VC could have taken what I am seeing here in HD. I am also interested in this camera but I am missing the "promising" bit so far. I understand that the tidy resolution is pretty much up there when cranking up gain, but on my screens , what I am seeing here is average.

I must say though, this appears to be terrific value for money and might suit for Steadicam work because of its rapid focus( my interest). No 720/p is a bit of a blow though. I have recently shifted from 1080i to 720p and am really liking the more sort of waxen film-like qualiy- ( and I really didn't think I would!)- ho hum,so many choices!

Cheers!
Rod
 
Hi Rod

It's tough to see a result on an online clip!! The camera seems to do pretty well too in various lighting situations. One thing I found when I had the AC-130's was my video completely lacked any "WOW" factor!! OK I'm using HMC82's but rip the camera to sheds all you like but sheesh it has unbelieveable WOW factor ..the image sparkles and jumps out at you!! I leave my scene files all at default ...every parameter is set to zero yet the colour saturation and depth is outstanding...on the 130 with the default F1 scene file is was so flat and dull that I couldn't believe it!! The end result just didn't do it for me?? The only way I will find out if the AC-90 has the WOW factor that my current cameras have is to buy one!! Sure the exposure and low light on all these clips is impressive but they still don't scream "buy me" at this stage!! What do you call really promising??

Chris
 
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