AC130: Panasonic ag ac130

Deer Film said:
It would be great if it has center focus. I like think on my Nikon Camera when I am filming deer through many trees.
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Not sure what you mean by center focus, but if you mean that you want to be able to have it only focus on what's in a specific section of the frame, then yes it can do that (through the Function Knob).
 
Hi, by center focus, I meant to be able to focus on a dot in the middle of the screen. And by your answer, I am excited about this. Does the HMC150 have this?
I pre-ordered my camera today. I have to say there are 3 reasons why I bought this camera and my HMC150. This web site, Barry's Book, and it's an awesome camera that I can count on.
 
The 150 doesn't have that, no -- the 150's autofocus is always based around the center of the frame. On the 130/160, it doesn't focus on a center spot, instead it has a rectangle that is, what, maybe 1/16th of the screen area? Maybe 1/20th? Not sure, I don't have a cam in front of me to measure with. But when you put on the "area" function that box comes up, and you can tell it to make all its autofocus or autoiris decisions only on the area within the box. And, you can move that box around the screen, it doesn't have to be in the center. So if you want to compose a shot on the "rule of thirds" and have the subject's eyes on the left third, you can drive the box over there and then compose for it and autofocus and/or auto-exposure will prioritize on that little portion of the screen.

As far as the book goes, Panasonic USA is doing it as a free gift, so -- the first month's orders will have a redemption coupon in the box. Fill that out and mail it in, and the minute the book rolls off the presses we'll mail it out to you.

Show us some footage when you've got it -- 22x deer footage from an AC130 would likely be pretty darn sweet! :thumbsup:
 
Barry, unless I am missing something I have found the only way to use the little rectangle is when the focus is set to "auto". In other words, if one is using manual focus, but wants to grab a quick focus/iris on the bottom left of the frame, you must switch the camera to auto-focus, push the function knob, and then move the rectangle to that area, and push the function knob again to have it focus/iris that area.
 
Correct. The box tells the auto-focus and auto-iris systems what area of the screen to concentrate their efforts on.

If you want to use it for manual focus, about the only thing it offers is that the focus bar will only sample within the "area" box instead of sampling the whole screen, so that remains useful for that purpose.
 
After reading all of this, I'm considering buying a used hmc150. I was dead set on a new ac130, but now I'm not sure. Coming from a DVX, the hmc may suit me just fine.
 
Hate to say it cracker, but that maybe a good choice. I have been waiting for months for my AC160, but I am finding anything Auto on this camera does not work like other cameras. If you are using the camera like run and gun with some auto settings your footage will have white balance, focus, and exposure changing so quickly that some footage becomes kind of unusable. Great camera if you really set up your shots, but if you like shooting some footage with auto setting it may not be the camera for you. Just my finding so far...
 
Dstar said:
Hate to say it cracker, but that maybe a good choice. I have been waiting for months for my AC160, but I am finding anything Auto on this camera does not work like other cameras. If you are using the camera like run and gun with some auto settings your footage will have white balance, focus, and exposure changing so quickly that some footage becomes kind of unusable. Great camera if you really set up your shots, but if you like shooting some footage with auto setting it may not be the camera for you. Just my finding so far...
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Honestly, that's my style 90% of the time. Looks like I'll go for the HMC and maybe buy a HDSLR with the savings.
 
Barry_Green said:
As far as the book goes, Panasonic USA is doing it as a free gift, so -- the first month's orders will have a redemption coupon in the box. Fill that out and mail it in, and the minute the book rolls off the presses we'll mail it out to you.

Show us some footage when you've got it -- 22x deer footage from an AC130 would likely be pretty darn sweet! :thumbsup:
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Barry:

What exactly is this book that you are referring to in your post here? I received my AC130 from the very first batch that Panasonic shipped, and I received no redemption coupon of any kind with it for any sort of book.

I received a printed copy of the Panasonic manual volume 1, but the more detailed and extensive volume 2 was only provided as a PDF on a CD. Other than those two things, the only other printed material I received were two items about the camcorder's warranty.

I would absolutely love to have some additional documentation on using my AC130. I am not at all thrilled with the factory docs, especially since most of it is only provided as a PDF file.
 
As a follow up to my previous post, is the AC130 similar enough to the HMC camcorders, that I would benefit from buying and reading Barry's HMC book??
 
LanceOregon said:
As a follow up to my previous post, is the AC130 similar enough to the HMC camcorders, that I would benefit from buying and reading Barry's HMC book??
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I'm sure there's plenty of material that is applicable between the 2 cameras, but there are a fair amount of new items as well. That being said, you should contact Panasonic (or Jan here on the boards) if you didn't get the book.
 
LanceOregon said:
I received my AC130 from the very first batch that Panasonic shipped, and I received no redemption coupon of any kind with it for any sort of book.
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If you got an official USA-version AC130PJ from an authorized USA dealer, there should be a postcard in the box, pre-stamped, ready to be filled out and mailed in. Look again, and if you don't find it, contact your dealer and ask 'em what's up, because every unit shipped in the USA has that coupon in the box.

If you got it from a gray market seller or have a model other than a PJ, then no, the coupon won't be in the box.
 
LanceOregon said:
As a follow up to my previous post, is the AC130 similar enough to the HMC camcorders, that I would benefit from buying and reading Barry's HMC book??
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Yes, but you shouldn't have to do that, you should be entitled to a free copy of the AC160&AC130 book, presuming that your camera is an official USA-model PJ version, sold and shipped through an authorized USA Panasonic broadcast dealer.
 
I thought I saw here on this sight the .pdf of the owners manual. Did anyone see it. It is the one that comes on the CD with the camera.
thanks for any help.
 
I thought I read someone couldn't find their paper book or CD. So I typed this out.

Below is a picture of what you'll find hidden in the USA box. I think it was hidden under the cardboard tray that holds the remote control and other small things.
1 - Postcard for Barry's book (I think it's Barry's)
2 - Paper manual that points out each item with very little description on how to use each button.
3 - CD which has several pdf files one of which is called manual #2 which gets into better describing the features.
4 - warranty stuff
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Ok,,, when I first turned on my ac130,,,it gave me an error of card door open. I turned it off, took out the card, put it back, turned it on,,, and it was good. Then I was recording and it gave me the error again of card door open. And I have tried everything and every option, but can't record or get the message off. I did record about a half hour of footage before the message came up.
I hope there is a solution to this.

Just to let you know, I tried different sd cards, no sd card, everything. It is not the card, it is the door and the camera thinks its open.
 
Many thanks to ELN614 for solving the mystery of my missing book postcard coupon. I had put the cardboard packaging that the camcorder came in out in my garage. So I brought it back into the house and took a closer look.

Just like ELN614 said, the postcard was completely hidden from view. It was slipped underneath the cardboard tray that other items were in. I do not believe that it was with the CD, nor with anything else either. It was totally separate and hidden from view. If my memory serves me right, I don't believe any of the other items were under the tray. However, I have to admit that my memory is no longer very good, so I could be mistaken about that.

Here is a photo of the box after I brought it back into the house. You can see the tray in the lower part of the box.


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Lifting the tray out then revealed the postcard coupon that was underneath:


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Well, I guess that I am mistaken. I looked at an unboxing video, and it looks like the manual and CD are indeed also packaged under the tray. They were both wrapped, and I guess I must have only managed to grab them when I checked things out, and left the postcard, and then simply forgot about it.

So it was my error. After six decades, my brain is just not as sharp as it used to be. :cry:
 
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