OTHER: Px270 other features timeline

I am using the simple philosophy of waiting for Panasonic to finish developing this camera before I buy one. I am more likely to buy an AG/AF100a than the 270 right now. Upgrades should not have to cost extra when they had already announced these features as being part of the camera. I understand the desire to stay competitive in the market.
 
BillinSC said:
I am using the simple philosophy of waiting for Panasonic to finish developing this camera before I buy one.
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Yep. I'm waiting on the LongGOP CODECs to be completed and supported. Until then, I can't really use the camera, so there's no point in buying one. Sigh... Panasonic, what's the point in making me drool, but then preventing me from giving you money?

Heck, maybe the Sony PXW-X180 will be the camera I buy. Right now, Panasonic has a lock on the market. But if they continue to screw around until September, I'll have a choice. Is that stupid or what? But what do I know? I'm just a guy trying to buy a camera. Sigh...
 
I'm sure Panasonic will have an answer the the upcoming px180/160, hopefully not too late. Else, I'll be tempted to buy the px160. They come out in August.
I don't think the AVC Intra 200 will make much of a difference against the XAVC 10bit 4:2:2 in the Sonys.
 
AVC-Ultra is head to head with XAVC. Both 10bit 4:2:2 long GOP Mp4 based. I do hope Panasonic has some stuff to keep up with the Sony 180. It has 720p120 recording which I could use from time to time. I sent a feature request into the abyss hoping Panasonic can offer this as a firmware upgrade.
 
Bassman2003 said:
I sent a feature request into the abyss hoping Panasonic can offer this as a firmware upgrade.
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And another month without a firmware update for the as yet unfinished AJ-PX270. Panasonic, how hard can it be to finish what you started?

Then we need to talk about keeping up with the competition...

I'm beginning to look forward to the Sony PXW-X180 release. Sigh...
 
This is what Steve Mahrer, Senior Technologist / P2 Prod Mgr. with Panasonic, told me last month. "AVC-I Class 200 will be late 2014. "
 
gkantziper said:
This is what Steve Mahrer, Senior Technologist / P2 Prod Mgr. with Panasonic, told me last month. "AVC-I Class 200 will be late 2014. "
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I'm not worried about that. AVC-I 200 is a paid upgrade, yes? But it doesn't matter to me; I don't need it for what I'm doing anyway. In fact, I need the opposite. I need the LongG50 CODEC to be finished.

Right now LongG50 won't let you shoot in 24/30p. The LongG50 only supports 60i right now, and I don't shoot interlaced for anything or anyone. They have to fix this for me to buy the camera. The AJ-PX270 came out what, four months ago? How much more time do they need to finish the camera?
 
Bruce, that is pretty much where I stand as well. I could care less about AVC-I 200, ever. AVC-I 100 is good enough and likely beyond what the camera can see any benefit from. LongG25/50 at 30P is one of the reasons I bought the camera and from what I'm told it'll be the fourth quarter before we see the new firmware. Consider recording LongG25 at 60P, we have that now. If you don't want the live look just "pull" 30P out of it. The only reason I don't use it always is I occasionally edit my own work and I use FCPX which hasn't even caught up with the new codecs and doesn't recognize any Long G formats yet. I'm holding off selling my 250 'til the new codecs are supported. I will be happy to never have to shoot AVC-I 50 (save record space) every again. I was never happy with AVC-I 50 on the 250.
 
Yes, this is odd behavior for Panasonic. I will say that I am very happy with the image from the camera. My hope is that Panasonic is taking a long time for the firmware in order to catch up on some features the new Sony has like 720p120. The Sony already is cheaper and has more features. If Panasonic is not proactive here they are going to lose some folks.
 
I don't know. Maybe Barry can give some insight... All I know is that 1080p60 and 720p120 have the same bandwidth. I do not know how much of a technical hurdle reading the sensor 120 times a second for prolonged periods of time is. But hey, Sony can do it!
 
It's been three months since this thread was started. Any word yet when, or if, Panasonic is going to "finish" the PX270? What I mean is, when are they going to enable all the frame rates in all the CODECs, from AVC Intra 200 on down to the LongGOP CODECs? It's been so long since the PX270 hit the market that I'm thinking they aren't going to do the update(s) at all, so WYSIWYG applies.
 
The latest PX270 firmware was loaded to the Panasonic Pass site a few days ago (ver 11.31). It features a bug fix and a few improvements but nothing major. I was told the Long G codecs will be out in September/October so I'm guessing the next firmware will contain Long G 24/30p. Maybe someone with more info can give us an update.
 
I was told the OIS fix will be in a firmware update due at the beginning of Oct. I really like shooting with his camera but at the same time my opinion of Panasonic has gone downhill. This camera really is unfinished and it is offensive that Panasonic thinks so little of my professional use of the item to release it from a half baked list of brochure features. A lot of the special features are just plain not active yet or come with a large asterisk.

For example: when I read about dual codec or proxy recording I thought this would be a handy feature for very quick turnaround jobs. You are supposed to be able to record normally and to an SD card using h.264 - great for internet uploads. O.k. I come across a situation where I can use it so I start to do some testing. Seems this feature is only available when the camera is set to 1080i (because when I think of shooting for computer based viewing, I think of interlaced...:8) On top of that, I dig deeper and find this feature only works with full sized P2 cards. I own MicroP2 cards, so this feature does not exist for me?

The Wifi and file transfer are just not active yet and I was told early next year on that stuff. It is sad to see companies just throw away their reputation. Cameras being released unfinished is a recent thing. Yes, improvements are often made over time, but adding stated features six months after release is just consumer level behavior. I do not remember this happening in the past. I guess things are tough all over.

I still really like the image and ergonomics. The camera is like a modern HMC-150. Just wish Panasonic had their act together.
 
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There's the $1,000 rebate offer to trade in another 1/3" cam for the PX270. Not sure if this is a good idea to get rid of the HPX-250 after reading disappointing threads from various users. Definitely market pressures force Panasonic to release a half or 3/4 baked product. If they wait too long to make it near perfect like the Varicam 4K & HS series, I think this camera will probably be semi-obsolete by then. I don't have the PX270 and would like to know can this do spanning seamlessly like the HPX-250's full size P2? From the look of it, it appears that only micro P2 cards can be spanned since there's only a single P2 slot.

Still hanging on to the HPX-250. That camera just simply works for most of my shooting needs and can use the micro P2 adaptor if wanted to.
 
Yes, it will span using the MicroP2 & SD cards. It also has a menu setting to create one clip if you do not want the file breaks for long recordings. Having only one P2 slot steered me away form the larger cards. Strange that some features favor the larger card when the number of recording slots favor the MicroP2 cards. Are they trying to force a purchase or something? I can't figure this one out.

I am neutral on recommending this camera. I want to be for it, but there is enough going on that I am just staying silent until all is fixed. I jumped in on this camera because of the AJ-series distinction and the trust that was built up over the years with Panasonic. They delivered on the image quality, color accuracy, light sensitivity, usability, viewfinder, LCD and the servo motors but kind of dropped the ball on other aspects. The "double menu" thing is just pointless with the first menu really having nothing you want to change. And needing to go into the thumbnail mode just to format your card is stupid imho. Why change stuff when it is not broken? Cameras have had one menu with everything for many years and it works. No idea how the OIS passed quality control/beta testing as the issue going on just smacks you in the face if you have ever used a camera before.

But, without a doubt, this is the cleanest Panasonic camera I have ever come across (which keeps me happy on the thing). Seriously, there is NO noise in the shadows at zero gain. I milestone for Panasonic for sure.
 
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