HPX250: Panasonic HPX250 vs AG-AC90 with Ninja Recorder

R

rbship

New member
Hello everyone,

I am a still photographer who expanded into video two years ago and have slowly been building a useable camera system. Currently I am working on a short documentary, several instructional videos, and will probably begin shooting weddings before the end of the year. My cameras include a Panasonic HMC40 as well as an AG-AC90, both equipped with Ninja external recorders. I will need to add a third camcorder soon and am trying to determine if I should add another AG-AC90 with an additional Ninja recorder or pay the additional cost of upgrading to the HPX250. Answers to the following questions will help me make this determination.

Given the improved gain quality in the AG-AC90 is the HPX250 significantly better in low light?

Does the HDMI port on the AG-AC90 put out an 8 bit or 10 bit signal to the Ninja recorder?

Is there a difference in recording quality between the 100 mbps AVC-Intra setting on the HPX250 and the ProRes LT setting on the Atomos Ninja (my editing software is Adobe Premiere CS6)?

The longer zoom range, built in Neutral density filters, and wave form monitor of the HPX 250 will also be important considerations but the bottom line with me will be image quality and editing flexibility.


Any advice I can receive will be greatly appreciated.

Randy
 
1) The HPX250 is natively 320 ISO, the AC90 is natively 40 ISO. So an HPX250 at 0dB is already as bright as an AC90 at 18dB of gain. The HPX250 also has a user-settable PAP filter which, when set on type 1, acts just like the gain in the AC90 -- it's very very clean, makes the image twice as bright again (so at 0dB, the HPX250 would be at the same brightness as an AC90 at 24dB of gain!) PAP 1 can introduce some smear or micro-jitters, which is also what the AC90 does, so -- if you like the AC90, you should love love love the HPX250 on PAP 1.

2) 8-bit

3) Probably not any significant difference. The AVC-Intra will take up less space, but as general codec quality goes they're both intraframe 4:2:2. AVC-Intra should probably be compared to the ProRes HQ, I don't really keep up on ProRes but I believe LT is a lower-quality version and HQ is probably the more comparable version.
 
Hi Barry,

Thanks for the quick reply and the information. Although I have been happy with the AC90, I can use the extra light sensitivity of the HPX250 so I expect to upgrade soon.

By the way, your review on the AC90 was excellent!

Randy
 
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