Panasonic announces UX180 and UX90 pricing & availability

Are you sure those specs are correct ? Looks like the HC-X1 has more recording options than the UX180. I can accept that the UX180 would have the high speed/slow motion record but no AVCHD or SD ?HC-X1 looks like a much better deal for my needs.
 
Ron Evans said:
Are you sure those specs are correct ? Looks like the HC-X1 has more recording options than the UX180. I can accept that the UX180 would have the high speed/slow motion record but no AVCHD or SD ?HC-X1 looks like a much better deal for my needs.
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From UX90 operation manual we can see that it have more recording options than the above image. So something is missing also in UX180.
 
This from the Canadian Panasonic site. http://www.panasonic.com/ca/consumer/cameras-camcorders/hd-camcorders/hc-x1.html Not found this detail on the UX180 but would appear tha the UX180 has 120/100 fps slow motion record but the HC-X1 does not. The Canadian site for UX180 does not have the detail of the consumer site !!!! So my take is the differences are 3G SDI, timecode connections and 120/100fps slow motion record otherwise the HX-X1 and UX180 are essentially the same. Will look for interest when the manuals appear. IF that is the case the HC-X1 will be fine for me. The manual for the UX90 is available but of course it is different than the UX180.
 
Ron Evans said:
This from the Canadian Panasonic site. http://www.panasonic.com/ca/consumer/cameras-camcorders/hd-camcorders/hc-x1.html Not found this detail on the UX180 but would appear tha the UX180 has 120/100 fps slow motion record but the HC-X1 does not. The Canadian site for UX180 does not have the detail of the consumer site !!!! So my take is the differences are 3G SDI, timecode connections and 120/100fps slow motion record otherwise the HX-X1 and UX180 are essentially the same. Will look for interest when the manuals appear. IF that is the case the HC-X1 will be fine for me. The manual for the UX90 is available but of course it is different than the UX180.
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There could be a million differences that won't show up on a spec sheet. The spec sheets show the specs, but they don't show the features. There could be more or different user button functions, or maybe one supports time stamping and the other doesn't, etc. Maybe these differences would be insignificant to you, maybe they would be major -- we just won't know until we see a user manual for the HC-X1 (or I get my hands on an X1 and compare it to the UX180).

All I can really tell you is based on my experience with the UX90 and UX180, and in that case I'd say that the price tag is the best indicator. You really do get what you pay for if you spend the extra for the UX180, over the UX90. The UX90 is a fantastic camera for its price point, yes, but there's a ton more features and power and performance if you step up to the UX180. Example: on the UX90, you can record to both cards simultaneously, or one after the other, but that's pretty much it. On the UX180 you can do both of those, but you also have two more options: background recording, and dual-codec recording. Dual codec might be a pretty important feature to you, and you might be kind of annoyed if you bought a UX90 thinking "it's the same camera" when -- it isn't. The UX90 only records HD at 50mbps, for example... the UX180 does it at 50, 100, and even a 200 mbps all-intra mode. The UX90 just doesn't have those. You get a lot more when you pay for the UX180, in terms of features but also in terms of video performance.

The price tags of the HC-X1 and UX180 are more similar (HC-X1 costs about 91% of what the UX180 does). Most of that is probably explained by the SDI port and the timecode port. But there may be other things missing too, as compared to the UX180. It is PROBABLY a safe bet to say that the UX180 will have everything that the HC-X1 has, and more. It is PROBABLY a safe bet to say that the HC-X1 will have most of the features of the UX180. It is UNLIKELY that the HC-X1 has any features that the UX180 doesn't. But what we don't know is: what are the exact differences? And will those make a difference in one's individual buying decision?
 
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terry and others-

Thank you for making the effort to keep us all informed.

One part of the conversation I feel confident in voicing: I'm REALLY interested in seeing what the footage looks like!

Be well.

Rob
Smalltalk.Production
 
Camera Expert,
does the UX90 seem to be working out pretty well as a finished product and not another camera that users will have to go through months of Panasonic updates and tweaking trying to get it where it needs to be?
 
firehawk said:
Camera Expert,
does the UX90 seem to be working out pretty well as a finished product and not another camera that users will have to go through months of Panasonic updates and tweaking trying to get it where it needs to be?
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I'm not who you asked, but I can offer a different perspective that may be of use - the UX90 hasn't had ANY of the developmental issues that the DVX200 had. The launch was buttery smooth. There were many, many, many changes to the DVX200 over the course of its development, but on the UX90 I think I only saw one firmware change before the final product was released.
 
Hello Barry. How does the UX90 and UX180 compare in low light situations? I bought the UX90 yesterday and just started testing it indoors but wanted to learn your expert opinion on what you discovered.
 
The UX90 is much better than the previous "90" camera, the AC90; the UX90 is about 250 ISO so it's as sensitive at 0dB as an AC90 was when it was set to about 12dB (understanding that the lens iris would be different too).

The UX180 has pixels that are twice as large as the UX90, so it's about a full f-stop more sensitive than the UX90; my initial tests peg it at about ISO 450. The UX180 seems about on par with the DVX200 in that respect.

The UX90 is surprisingly good for its price point; the UX180 costs about 1.7x as much but you do get more performance if you spend that money.
 
Barry_Green said:
The UX90 is much better than the previous "90" camera, the AC90; the UX90 is about 250 ISO so it's as sensitive at 0dB as an AC90 was when it was set to about 12dB (understanding that the lens iris would be different too).

The UX180 has pixels that are twice as large as the UX90, so it's about a full f-stop more sensitive than the UX90; my initial tests peg it at about ISO 450. The UX180 seems about on par with the DVX200 in that respect.

The UX90 is surprisingly good for its price point; the UX180 costs about 1.7x as much but you do get more performance if you spend that money.
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Thanks . I'm going do more indoor sports shooting today with the UX90 and test more things out.. My primary reason for purchasing this camera is shooting sporting events. My clients love the quality that my GH4 w/ Tamron 24-70 produces while shooting sports, so I've been on the prowl for months trying to find a camcorder to produce similar results.
 
If your clients love what you're doing now (the GH4 look), try using Scene File 4 in the UX90 - it employs a GH4-style color matrix and GH4-style gamma to give footage that looks somewhat comparable to the look of GH4 footage.
 
Barry_Green said:
I'm not who you asked, but I can offer a different perspective that may be of use - the UX90 hasn't had ANY of the developmental issues that the DVX200 had. The launch was buttery smooth. There were many, many, many changes to the DVX200 over the course of its development, but on the UX90 I think I only saw one firmware change before the final product was released.
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Thank you Barry. That's good news. Any idea if the ux180 or hcx1 have been going through a similar smooth development?
 
Barry_Green said:
The UX90 is much better than the previous "90" camera, the AC90; the UX90 is about 250 ISO so it's as sensitive at 0dB as an AC90 was when it was set to about 12dB (understanding that the lens iris would be different too).

The UX180 has pixels that are twice as large as the UX90, so it's about a full f-stop more sensitive than the UX90; my initial tests peg it at about ISO 450. The UX180 seems about on par with the DVX200 in that respect.
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So..the HMC150 I believe was about 500 ISO. So does that mean the ux180 could shoot 4k with higher gain and then you downscale to HD thus making it better in low light than the 150 if HD or even SD was your deliverable?
 
firehawk said:
Thank you Barry. That's good news. Any idea if the ux180 or hcx1 have been going through a similar smooth development?
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I know nothing of the HC-X1. The UX180 I'm using is a preproduction unit and has been quite reliable and has only had one or two firmware updates since I've had it.

This launch feels nothing like the DVX200 launch. I think a ton of lessons were learned and were applied to the UX cameras early on.
 
firehawk said:
So..the HMC150 I believe was about 500 ISO. So does that mean the ux180 could shoot 4k with higher gain and then you downscale to HD thus making it better in low light than the 150 if HD or even SD was your deliverable?
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Certainly. If shooting UHD and converting down to SD, I would think you'd pick up probably about 12dB of averaged noise reduction, since going HD to SD usually results in about 6dB's worth, and UHD->HD is about6dB's worth. Obviously that would need to be verified with actual testing. I don't have an HMC150 anymore to compare against.
 
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