Panasonic announces UX180 and UX90 pricing & availability

[Barry_Green]

since the dvx200 has a 4/3" sensor and is faster at 500 iso and the ux180 has "only" a 1" sensor and is "within spitting distance" at 450-480 iso, i'm surprised that the larger sensor hasn't produced that much of a difference, maybe .5 of a stop.

The UX180 is a year newer, which may give it some sort of technological advantage, but the biggest difference is in the pixels used. The DVX200 uses around 13 million pixels for its UHD image, but the UX180 uses around 8.3 million. So the DVX200 sensor is literally twice the size of the UX180's, but it's using nearly twice as many pixels, so -- each pixel is close to the same size, between the two cameras, and that leads to the light-gathering being about comparable.

 

[Barry_Green]

Barry, how well will the UX180/HC-X1 match with the FZ2500 for indoor shooting? Do the profiles match at all?

Never used an FZ2500, so I don't know. However, I did just complete a set of scene files for the UX180 that match my DVX200 GH4 scene files, and it was a piece of cake to get them to match extremely similarly, so -- I have no doubt that the UX180 would be capable of being painted to match an FZ2500, but it would take someone with some charts and a scope to dial it in exactly.

And what is your opinion of the UX180 for shooting indoor events without stage lighting, just normal office lights.

Well, the same as any other modern camera in a similar scenario -- it's less than ideal, so your results will be less than ideal, but it should be competitive with other modern cameras.

Even though the base ISO is roughly the same as the DVX200 has the NR improved?

Only in that it's adjustable, which it wasn't in the first firmwares for the DVX200. You can dial in more or less NR on the UX180; in the latest version of the DVX200 it has that same capability.

And finally, any sign of the face banding and chalkiness that was in the DVX200 at launch?

I haven't noticed anything like that.

 

[Jase]

The interview on Newshooter http://www.newsshooter.com/with Holden rep and Panasonic rep state clearly the HC-X1 and UX180 are the same camera other than the SDI and Timecode connections. Have not talked to local Panasonic dealers yet so cannot answer any of your queries but I have Vistek and Henrys in town that I will ask now.

Ron, Just heard back from yet a different Vancouver dealer than I had previously been in touch with. Thought you might want to know that they quoted the HC X1 at 4199, so a little cheaper than Vistek. No promos as far as they knew. They expect delivery at the end of this month so "realistically, early in the new year".

 

[Ron Evans]

Good to know. Thanks

 

[Camera Expert]

Video I did in the afternoon. Shot in 4K 30p.

Started right before it got dark and then toward the end of the video, it's at night.

 

[firehawk]

I like the look of that! Thanks Camera Expert

 

[Camera Expert]

Thanks. That was taken on the 27th. I wasn't so sure I wanted to go out and shoot with a tripod on that day since I had to go to work the next day. On the other hand, I'm supposed to put the camera in the mail on the 28th so I figured I might as well go out and get some more outdoor scenes before I send the camera back. I wish I had decided to go out earlier though since the colors would have been a little better. Ah well.

Video of a Tuba concert at the Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston that I shot on the 26th of November.

4K 30p
Please excuse the crappy pans.

 

[Harry Pallenberg]

for what it's worth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G6ZVMT6VEM

as is it almost the same camera as the 180... still cant wait

 

[Benjobe]

That looks pretty good for a fixed lens, long zoom, "small" chip camera. If its color can be easily matched to my GH4 then I'm very interested.

I've been using an AC130 for a few years now and while I love its 22x zoom I've always been disappointed with how its 1080p image compares to my GH4. The HC-X1 could disappear that disappointment.

 

[Ron Evans]

On the Newshooter interview Holden rep says that there is a " still " setting that is intended to match the GH4. Not sure how true this is and maybe Barry can comment. Does this scene file match GH4 and FZ2500 for instance.

 

[Phil vG]

I've been using an AC130 for a few years now and while I love its 22x zoom I've always been disappointed with how its 1080p image compares to my GH4. The HC-X1 could disappear that disappointment.

Probably don't need to say this, but I will anyway. If you downscale from 4k to 1080 then you can use a 20x zoom to a greater advantage than a 22x in only HD.

 

[Nate Haustein]

I ran a UX90 at a live stream the other day next to a FS5 and a C100mk2. (Weird mix) It did pretty well. I used it as my wide shot in a cathedral. I was able to run the gain up quite a bit, I think +20 or so and I was still happy with the image. There are a lot of color profile controls I'm not familiar with yet (Sony and Canon user here), but I thInk I could match the camera to just about anything. I even think it did almost as well as the FS5 in the dark noise-wise, but it couldn't touch the C100 of course. Based on what Barry is saying, I have a feeling I could use the Ux180 for the better front end, though for the price, I was impressed with the $2k UX90. It's really very nice for grab and go type shooting.

 

[robfilms]

I ran a UX90 at a live stream the other day next to a FS5 and a C100mk2. (Weird mix) It did pretty well. I used it as my wide shot in a cathedral. I was able to run the gain up quite a bit, I think +20 or so and I was still happy with the image. There are a lot of color profile controls I'm not familiar with yet (Sony and Canon user here), but I thInk I could match the camera to just about anything. I even think it did almost as well as the FS5 in the dark noise-wise, but it couldn't touch the C100 of course. Based on what Barry is saying, I have a feeling I could use the Ux180 for the better front end, though for the price, I was impressed with the $2k UX90. It's really very nice for grab and go type shooting.

nate-

thanks for the insight.

helpful.

were you shooting 4k with the ux90?

be well.

rob
smalltalk.productions

 

[Barry_Green]

That looks pretty good for a fixed lens, long zoom, "small" chip camera. If its color can be easily matched to my GH4 then I'm very interested.

The sensor isn't exactly small; I know you used quotation marks but just to spell it out, the 1" sensor is twice the size of a 2/3" camera's sensor. So it's really rather huge, as far as a video camera is concerned.

I've been using an AC130 for a few years now and while I love its 22x zoom I've always been disappointed with how its 1080p image compares to my GH4. The HC-X1 could disappear that disappointment.

In comparison to the sensor in an AC130, the HC-X1/UX180 sensor is about 8x as large, and it still retains a 20x optical zoom. In 1080p, the i.Zoom extends that to an effective 30x. And the camera's even a little smaller than the AC130/AC160/HPX250. I'm pretty impressed with the UX180 I've been testing.

 

[Barry_Green]

On the Newshooter interview Holden rep says that there is a " still " setting that is intended to match the GH4. Not sure how true this is and maybe Barry can comment. Does this scene file match GH4 and FZ2500 for instance.

There is a new color matrix option and a new gamma option in the UX90/UX180. I don't know about the X1 but I would assume it's there. This gamma and matrix are pretty good matches to a GH4 in Standard mode. In the UX180 you can use the color correction function to paint the image even further to get it to emulate the GH4's other modes. Or, you could wait a while and I'll be releasing GH4-matching scene files for the UX180, and as-close-as-I-could-reasonably-get-them-matching scene files for the UX90. The UX90 doesn't have the 16-pole color matrix so I couldn't fine-tune the scene files to the same degree as I could in the UX180.

 

[PlanB]

Probably don't need to say this, but I will anyway. If you downscale from 4k to 1080 then you can use a 20x zoom to a greater advantage than a 22x in only HD.

I have an ac160a that I'm looking to upgrade from, does anyone think the HCx1 or ux180 would be better in low light? Of course I'm talking about shooting HD in both cams. If so how much better and worse in low light would these cameras be? Anyone have any comparisons?

 

[Barry_Green]

I have a feeling I could use the Ux180 for the better front end, though for the price, I was impressed with the $2k UX90. It's really very nice for grab and go type shooting.

The UX180 definitely has more power, but for the price the UX90 is a hell of a lot of camera. I was comparing the upgrades from the prior Panasonic $2,000 camera (the AC90A) and it's astonishing how much more camera you get, for the same price. I loved my AC90, but the UX90 takes a wrecking ball to it. The UX180 is totally in a league above the UX90 of course, but then again so is the price, $3500-ish vs. $2000-ish.

 

[Benjobe]

If you downscale from 4k to 1080 then you can use a 20x zoom to a greater advantage than a 22x in only HD.

Do you mean to say "crop" instead of "downscale"? I take it to mean that if I shoot UHD footage with a 20x zoom and then crop the image to 1080 then the zoom becomes effectively a 40x.

Sometimes I do this with my GH4 footage, but most often I shoot the framing I want and then downscale the UHD footage to a 1080 timeline. This produces a fantastically sharp and vivid 1080 image.

 

[Benjobe]

In comparison to the sensor in an AC130, the HC-X1/UX180 sensor is about 8x as large.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the AC130A a 3-chip camera? The tech specs on B&H say "3x 1/3-type progressive 2.2 MP CMOS
Prism color separation". This would mean that the total chip area collecting light would be 3x 1/3" or approx. 1". This would be important to know for light sensitivity and may also affect overall sharpness (as the three RGB 1080 images are combined).

Are the UX180 or HC-X1 3-chip cameras?

 

[Barry_Green]

I have an ac160a that I'm looking to upgrade from, does anyone think the HCx1 or ux180 would be better in low light? Of course I'm talking about shooting HD in both cams. If so how much better and worse in low light would these cameras be? Anyone have any comparisons?

I don't have access to an AC130 or AC160, but I do have an HPX250, which is the same camera front end (same lens and sensors). It's not the same internal processing, so I would imagine that the HPX250 may be performing better than the AC130/AC160 would, so the difference may be even greater than what I'm showing here, but here's an example of the HPX250 vs. the UX180 in extreme low light, with both cameras at +18dB of gain.