Panasonic's new AG-CX350 camcorder

I've found no reviews of the CX-350 other than Barry's comment here, Brian Hallett's review (somewhat abbreviated as another post noted), and the aforementioned slashcam.de article. Their low-light comments were interesting and I may ask a native German speaker to clarify them for me... it seems, ultimately, their image with the high sens setting was actually quite good. I, too, would like to see a comparison to e.g. a GH5s shooting say with an Olympus 12-100 f/4. Perhaps Panasonic could ship a copy to Adam Wilt, too -

Has anyone heard (apologies if this was covered) if there is a BSI sensor? (there is speculation). Does anyone know if the f2.8>4.5 transition happens quickly near the wide angle limit as I understand is true for the DVX200? I'm wondering how quickly it stops down.

Count me interested.
 
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I have not heard about it being a BSI sensor, Mitch may be able to comment.

The lens ramps less quickly than the DVX200 and UX180 do. It's f/2.8 from 8.8mm to about 10mm, it ramps down to 1/2 stop slower (f/3.4) at 16.6mm, it ramps down to 1 full stop slower (f/4) at 41mm, and it ramps down its most (1.3 f-stops, f/4.5) at 112 mm. Total zoom range is 20x optical, 24x with i.Zoom in UHD, 32x with i.Zoom in FHD.

The following transition points are approximate:
2.8: 8.8 to 9.9 mm
2.9: 10 mm
3.0: 10.8 mm
3.1: 11.6 mm
3.2: 13 mm
3.3: 14.3 mm
3.4: 16.6 mm
3.5: 19.5 mm
3.6: 21.2 mm
3.7: 25.7 mm
3.8: 30.5 mm
3.9: 34 mm
4.0: 41 mm
4.1: 45 mm
4.2: 56 mm
4.3: 64 mm
4.4: 88 mm
4.5: 112 mm to 176mm (or 211mm equiv in UHD i.Zoom, or 282mm equiv in FHD i.Zoom)
 
Is there any lag on the SDI or HDMI outputs like there is with the UX180? None of the reviews I've found have mentioned it, but it's also not something likely to come up in early reviews.
 
PX270 owner here. For quite some time, I have waited for a 4k Panny Handycam, and the 180 wasn't it. While many things about this new cam sound great, there isn't much to go on yet. I'll be curious how this shakes out after the cam is the wild for a bit. Though Panny has the handycam form factor pretty well sorted, this cam isn't much of a risk except for the 4k implementation. And Canon shouldn't like this new Panny at all. In my limited use in corporate work, I haven't yet been asked to deliver in 4k and the 270 has really met all my needs and much more. So I'll have to rationalize in some fashion a new 350. Help me out here, given that 4k isn't my most important need; is this camera more sensitive, better menus, improved scene file and image control (the 270 is a standout here), viewfinder or flip out, better media or codec, improved whatever over the 270....sell me, help me spend my money, I'm all ears.

TIA
Grant
 
Chmiola said:
Is there any lag on the SDI or HDMI outputs like there is with the UX180? None of the reviews I've found have mentioned it, but it's also not something likely to come up in early reviews.
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I have not noticed any, I mean, there has to be a frame but I doubt it's any more than that, but I would have to devise a way to test

One thing I can say is that recent Panasonic cameras have had a menu item that lets you delay the audio in the headphones to sync with the video output. This camera doesn't even offer that option, likely because the output isn't delayed.
 
ggrantly said:
PX270 owner here. For quite some time, I have waited for a 4k Panny Handycam, and the 180 wasn't it. While many things about this new cam sound great, there isn't much to go on yet. I'll be curious how this shakes out after the cam is the wild for a bit. Though Panny has the handycam form factor pretty well sorted, this cam isn't much of a risk except for the 4k implementation. And Canon shouldn't like this new Panny at all. In my limited use in corporate work, I haven't yet been asked to deliver in 4k and the 270 has really met all my needs and much more. So I'll have to rationalize in some fashion a new 350. Help me out here, given that 4k isn't my most important need; is this camera more sensitive, better menus, improved scene file and image control (the 270 is a standout here), viewfinder or flip out, better media or codec, improved whatever over the 270....sell me, help me spend my money, I'm all ears.

TIA
Grant
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I'm not in sales so you'd have to consult someone like one of our sponsor retailers. What I can say is the PX270 was the most complete, best handheld camera Panasonic made, and the CX350 has everything the PX270 had and even more. It's a UHD PX270 with live streaming and NDI|HX integration. I don't have a PX270 to compare against so I can't give you image quality comparisons, but it does seem to be a lot of camera for not a lot of price. The major reasons to consider a CX350 over a PX270 would be UHD, live streaming and live production integration, and SD card recording.
 
I agree that a top spec HD camera may be a theoretically better thing for most HD delivery event work than the 350 but..

Does the PX270 or any other HD cam corder have..

10bit
24mm eFOV
HDR/Log
120p (or more) HD
100mb (or more) codec
1in (or more) chip for 'some' shallow DOF
EX1 (or better) feel on the lens rings

Because to me those are the cirtical specs and it seems the 350 is the only camera in the handycam form that offers them ?
 
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morgan_moore said:
Because to me those are the cirtical specs and it seems the 350 is the only camera in the handycam form that offers them ?
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The camera has excellent specs, it's a very good move from Panasonic. I hope we'll see some tests soon, because for now very few videos are on the web. If the autofocus is good enough this camera will sell more than XF705 at half the price.
 
Danilo Del Tufo said:
The camera has excellent specs,
Click to expand...

To me on paper it has some critical and apparently unique (to the handycam world) specs.. basically without 24 eFOV- I wont buy a handycam.. well not one costing more than $500.

I cant imagine buying a Z280 and just thinking 'the lens is not wide enough, I want my FS7 back!' - it would be a depressing use of $7g
 
The lens rings are not the same as the PX270, specifically the zoom ring. The manual zoom rings on the older Panasonic were wonderful for manual control, but the power zoom suffered. On the older cameras with true manual zoom, the power zoom was limited to three fixed speeds. On the CX350 the power zoom is exquisite; in fast zoom mode it can zoom from wide angle to 20x telephoto in about two seconds flat. The handle zoom can be programmed to any of 100 different speeds. The power zoom is fantastic, but the manual zoom suffers in comparison to the true manual zoom; I doubt I would use the manual zoom much.
 
morgan_moore said:
I agree that a top spec HD camera may be a theoretically better thing for most HD delivery event work than the 350 but..

Does the PX270 or any other HD cam corder have..

10bit
24mm eFOV
HDR/Log
120p (or more) HD
100mb (or more) codec
1in (or more) chip for 'some' shallow DOF
EX1 (or better) feel on the lens rings

Because to me those are the cirtical specs and it seems the 350 is the only camera in the handycam form that offers them ?
Click to expand...
The PX270 does have 10-bit 4:2:2, yes, but only in HD as it doesn't do UHD. And it does more than 100mb. But I don't recall how wide it's lens was, I don't think it's nearly as wide.
 
Unless I missed it, the cx350 cannot do the dual codec recording like the ux180, right?
That is a neat feature, though a bit limited since you can't do it in 60p.
 
morgan_moore said:
I agree that a top spec HD camera may be a theoretically better thing for most HD delivery event work than the 350 but..

Does the PX270 or any other HD cam corder have..

10bit
24mm eFOV
HDR/Log
120p (or more) HD
100mb (or more) codec
1in (or more) chip for 'some' shallow DOF
EX1 (or better) feel on the lens rings
Because to me those are the cirtical specs and it seems the 350 is the only camera in the handycam form that offers them ?
Click to expand...


270 has 10bit 422
No log on the 270 but it does have endless options for baked in color ala the PX5000 cam (same brain). Though the 270 lacks log, it can shoot a very flat color profile.
270 has 28mm eFOV so not as good, but it does have a little more reach @ 22x
270 has 1080/60 max
270 can go 200 mb/s, but 100mb/s on the I-frame codec is the sweet spot. It also has a couple of nice long gop codecs for long form.
DOF 270 lacks here, but is that the point of a handycam?
270 lens rings are very good, and the servo-zoom is excellent.

Though some may think I'm crazy, but still like full size P2 and consider it an advantage.
A side by side would be the best way to judge, but on paper the VF and flip-out have better specs on the 270 which is important to me
 
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Got mine and used it on a shoot yesterday.

Feels solid. Image looks nice. Did some testing with HEVC but had some issues playing it back on my system. Will hold off on using that feature till I upgrade my edit system.

Menu is so much better than the UX180.

So far my main complaint is the lens ring zoom is very laggy and zoom motor is pretty loud. There’s a pretty noticeable delay from when you turn the zoom ring till it actually moves the lens.

More to come.
 
Cool. Looking forward to your experiences. In a week or two I should have some time to maybe try one out and compare to the PX270.
 
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