Panasonic announces UX180 and UX90 pricing & availability

Interesting, I didn't know that :). Unfortunately here in Europe UK have 20% VAT and in my country (Greece) 24% :(. Thanks
 
It decided to come during the time I need to finish editing a video gig. I'll want to get some of it done before I get to play with this new toy which is why I only took a picture of the box. I have it until November 28 anyway so more than enough time. I got my AC90 handy to compare it to and theirs some events coming up that I'd like to use the camera on. We'll see what kind of other testings I'll be doing. It'll all be going on YouTube. Anyone live around the Boston area and have a double head stabilizer that I can borrow for a day? Basically something that would allow me to walk and use 2 camcorders at the same time.

Hopefully I'll be able to also test the UX180.

P1010448.jpg
 
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I look forward with some eagerness to reports from the field. In the meantime, slashcam is out with a review of the UX180. (I wonder if there's a more appropriate venue than an announcement thread?)
The 12lux shot in 25fps is interesting and perhaps somewhat disappointing to anyone hoping to capture 4k in low-light and blow-up in post. The specs indicate a limit of .2lux in 2fps using 18db at 2.8 (rather than the F4 and 12db that the test shots were taken at). Maybe, but not without limitations. The 12lux shot in 48fps from their DVX200 review makes for an interesting comparison (visibly dimmer with more noise), though it's clearly not an apples-apples comparison.
The described aperture ramp seems to be shallower with a slightly earlier start (if I'm translating correctly). 3.6 at 50mm and 4.0 at 90mm is very different from the DVX200's of 55 and 65 respectively.
Resolving appears to be similar to the DVX200 in 4k60p mode, although how similar is difficult to tell. It is quite clearly not as good as the -200 is at resolving in 24p (nor would I expect it to be).
 
dnavas said:
I wonder if there's a more appropriate venue than an announcement thread?
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I do think it's time to do a special section for the UX90, UX180 and HC-X1 camcorders just like the section for the AC90, AC130 and AC160 camcorders. The UX90 is already out while it wont be too long until the UX180 and HC-X1 comes out.
 
I finally got to try it a little bit. Compared to my AC90, it has a built in lens cap, strong ND filters (AC90 has them but would still need an extra ND filter for outdoor shooting or the shutter would be a bit on the high side), longer zoom lens and obviously shoots in 4K 24p and 30p.

It has a 1" chip and so that would in theory make the auto focusing worse than professional cameras with smaller chips but with the brief moments I had with it, it's actually pretty decent. I've only tried with inside the house and a tiny bit outside the house. Soon I'll be taking videos of indoor and outdoor events. With the AC90, the auto focusing is extremely good in that in many situations, you don't need to manual focus. We'll see how the UX90 does.

It has a hybrid stabilizer but unfortunately that only works with the HD modes. With the 4K mode, it's just an optical stabilizer. Maybe it'll work with the UX180 or HC-X1 because it supposedly uses more of the pixels in the chip for 4K.

I'll try to get some low light comparison samples against my AC90 up either today or tomorrow. I have yet to shoot anything.
 
2 questions.
How long can the battery of the UX90 last with the screen open?
The battery that came with the AC90 fits in the UX90. Would it be safe to use it?
I'll be shooting a video of a long event in a few days and I want to know if I'll have enough juice.
 
First video finally online. Just did it tonight. It compares the low light abilities of the AC90 and the UX90. 90 of the past compared to the 90 of the present. Both camcorders shot at 1080p60. I'll be posting future videos in 4K.

Could have posted videos earlier but I needed to do some editing on a big video gig I recently did the day before I received the camera. I didn't even open the box on the first 2 day because of that. I didn't want to get distracted.

 
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Camera Expert said:
First video [...] compares the low light abilities of the AC90 and the UX90.
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It looks like some of those shots were paused to pad their lengths, which makes looking for noise trickier, but that looks like the UX90 is about a stop faster, maybe a hair more?
4k would definitely be appreciated, as youtube seems to do less compression on it.
Also, if you're having trouble shaking a UX180 out of Panny's tree (and I see B&H is now saying end of December for the delivery :sigh: ), maybe ask the 'other' side of the company for the HC-X1?
 
Camera Expert said:
2 questions.
How long can the battery of the UX90 last with the screen open?
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A pretty long time. The UX90 draws little power, especially as compared to the UX180. Should last about 7 hours, I think.

The battery that came with the AC90 fits in the UX90. Would it be safe to use it?
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Have you tried it? I don't know what battery came with the AC90, but it's likely that it won't actually fit. If it fits, it should work.
 
dnavas said:
It looks like some of those shots were paused to pad their lengths, which makes looking for noise trickier, but that looks like the UX90 is about a stop faster, maybe a hair more?
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In my initial evaluation, I'd put the UX90 at 250 ISO. The AC90 is about 50 ISO. So that makes the UX90 about 2.25 stops faster than the AC90.
 
Yes I did try using the AC90's battery and it attached perfectly. It was also able to turn the camera on. With that said, even 5 hours might be all I'll most likely need and so 7 hours would be perfect.
 
Camera Expert said:
Yes I did try using the AC90's battery and it attached perfectly. It was also able to turn the camera on. With that said, even 5 hours might be all I'll most likely need and so 7 hours would be perfect.
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Wow! Dont the UX180 and HC-X1 use the same batteries as the UX90, and therefore can use the old batteries?
Sure would be nice not to have to buy yet another type (and more expensive) of Panasonic battery when I have several of the old kinds still.
 
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dnavas said:
It looks like some of those shots were paused to pad their lengths, which makes looking for noise trickier, but that looks like the UX90 is about a stop faster, maybe a hair more?
4k would definitely be appreciated, as youtube seems to do less compression on it.
Also, if you're having trouble shaking a UX180 out of Panny's tree (and I see B&H is now saying end of December for the delivery :sigh: ), maybe ask the 'other' side of the company for the HC-X1?
Click to expand...

Yeah I wanted to keep each shot to 5 seconds each. I basically adjusted the gain to what I wanted and hit record, take it off record to adjust and hit record again. This way I'd be able to have many clips and make it easier to edit.

Some of my future videos will be in 4K.

I actually did try to get either the HC-X1 as well. I contacted people dealing with both cameras but didn't have much luck and then I figured I might as well test something and they agreed to let me get the UX90. I had some good ideas for 4K60p. Still, since the cameras that are out are pre-production models, you never know what might happen during a shoot. I still can't complain since even being allowed to borrow the UX90 is a big deal. That alone is not an easy task. We'll see if I'll get lucky next month.
 
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Because on YouTube you can't understand noise on low light, maybe if it's possible to share somewhere small raw mp4 files (1-2sec each, without edit). To see real noise. Even on 100Mbps it will be 12.5-25mb per file.
 
Very interesting, as I expected it have some noise, but I think that it's more than I expected :). Of course it was on low light conditions, and something is better from nothing, maybe on normal lighting it has less noise.

Thank you, it was very helpful for me.
 
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