Panasonic's new AG-CX350 camcorder

Yes this looks like an updated UX-180, same body. Which means the zoom isn’t mechanical. Major bummer. I miss my snap zoom lenses from the DVX/HVX days. It really is the one thing keeping this cam from being perfect right now.
 
The zoom on the ux180 can do fast (almost crash) zoom. Not quite as fast as you can yank a true disengaged mechanical zoom, true. But those mechanical zooms can't feather in and out consistently like the 180 can either or crawl and ramp up smoothly. I am a big fan of the manual zooms too but the ux180 zoom is so good I don't miss it. So maybe the 350 is just as good or better.
 
The CX350 is not the same body as the UX180, it's actually a bit smaller. But it's true it doesn't have the mechanical zoom.
 
I don't understand why they are going away from the dual remote control ports. This mono LANC port is bummer IMHO. I really like using a zoom on one handle and the focus/iris control on the other one.

Is there a way to do the same thing right now?
 
SPrimeau said:
I don't understand why they are going away from the dual remote control ports. This mono LANC port is bummer IMHO. I really like using a zoom on one handle and the focus/iris control on the other one.

Is there a way to do the same thing right now?
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You can probably buy two fiz lanc hand units and link them with 3.5mm Y cable and put one on each hand.
 
Jarek Zabczynski said:
You can probably buy two fiz lanc hand units and link them with 3.5mm Y cable and put one on each hand.
Click to expand...

You could try a passive splitter/Y-cable with two controllers (note that LANC is actually a 2.5mm rather than 3.5mm connector), although I'm not sure how well this would work in practice.

LANC is actually a bi-directional digital protocol (http://www.boehmel.de/lanc.htm). So the controller sends digital commands to the camera and the camera sends back responses to the controller. So with a Y-cable, if both controllers were to send commands at the same time, I'd assume things would get mangled and the camera would not be able to process the incoming messages. But if the commands from the controllers are interleaved perhaps the camera would recognize them.

Manfrotto used to sell a LANC splitter box (model 521SB) that allowed use of two separate controllers and presumably took care of managing this command interleaving. Unfortunately, it seems to have been discontinued:
http://www.manfrotto.com.br/remote-control-splitter-box.html
 
dcloud said:
Dvx200 mk ii with gh5s sensor is still a good idea, panny XD. I hope they dont get too late to that party
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Yes yes yes ... multi-aspect BSI sensor for even better performance in low light ... would be great. As it is, this is a very interesting camera and I look forward to some real-world tests when Panasonic is past the engineering sample prototypes and has something more like the final product for folks to test.

I'm just glad Panasonic is making camcorders on this level again ... but, like dcloud, something with a few more bells and whistles would be most welcome. Low light was my main concern which kept me from buying the DVX200, so I hope the new sensor - with the high(er) sensitivity mode - can cover enough of that, even (apparently) without dual ISO.
 
I was mostly unhappy with the low bitrate 8bit recording. The cx350 seems to solve most of my issues with Panasonic’s 4k camcorder line.
 
I need to find a way forward with the LANC port as I have been using rear zoom and iris controls forever. Can't believe Panasonic sort of left us out in the cold on this one.
 
Bassman2003 said:
I need to find a way forward with the LANC port as I have been using rear zoom and iris controls forever. Can't believe Panasonic sort of left us out in the cold on this one.
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In Panasonic's CX350 brochure https://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/sales_o/broch_pdf/ag-cx350.pdf it states:

"Cabled/Wireless Remote Control Capability
The remote terminal (2.5-mm super mini jack) enables the control of the focus, zoom and iris using a remote controller (third-party product)."

If the CX350 is a success as it appears it will be, I'm sure Varizoom and/or other remote controller manufacturers will make a compatible controller.
Keep your fingers crossed.
 
Yes, they might, as I stated before though, it does no good to have everything on one controller. If a connector cable could tie two together then that might work but then we have to buy two or three sets of new controllers for multicam jobs? Its a rug being yanked out at $150-$200 a pop.
 
Interested in getting some sample download footage from the cx350. Lots of things to like.
I see the ux180 just dropped to $2695 new, which makes the choice harder for some between the two cameras now
 
I have an opposite opinion. The day I tested a DVC-200 I thought its lens was nothing special. It had way more distortion on the wide end than the PX270. I have always found the PX270 to be sharp all the way to the end of the zoom range wide open. With cameras today, I would not expect the lens on the CX350 to hold it back.
 
As I recall, the lens in the 270 wasn’t parfocal. It did some weird servo focus thing to mimic it. When you did a snap zoom it would go out of focus for a split sec and back in. It was definitely a head scratcher.
 
There are definitely a lot of things going on in these cameras that were not in the past. I do not snap zoom very often, so I did not encounter that issue.
 
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