AC160 Soft picture at wide side of the zoom range

B

Bo Sundvall

Active member
Hi

I think I have a problem that perhaps someone here on DVXuser can help me with.
I find the picture from my AG-AC160 soft on the wide side of the zoom range. I've tried a lot of different
settings but still, the picture is not as sharp as I expected from this camcorder. I have had it sent in for a
warranty repair where they adjusted back focus according to the documentation that came back with the camcorder
after service.

As I wrote above, I find the picture soft at the wide end. I am also concerned about the distorted picture in the
upper corners of the picture, and also in the lover corner to some extent. Below are links to four files. The
distorted picture is best visible in clip 1.m2t and 3.m2t, where the leafs are very fuzzy, and in clip 4.m2t where
the details on the tree is smeard out. Both sides are affected the same way but the right side is best visible on
these clips.

All files are filmed with 50p and rendered as a 25i BluRay compatible file.
When zommed in, the picture gets sharper. Zoomed in a bit, I have nothing to complain about

If someone reading this and have some spare time, please feel free to download the files and comment if you find
the pictures out of focus or if they are as sharp as one can expect. The files are between 50MB and 67MB.

The files and settings for each file was (all other settings default):

1.m2t https://secure2.storegate.com/Shares/Home.aspx?ShareID=d88968b4-e90c-48f5-9fb8-3e4deabba295

DETAIL LEVEL +2
V DETAIL LEVEL +1
DETAIL CORING 0
CHROMA LEVEL +5
MASTER PED -2
GAMMA HD NORM
KNEE LOW
MATRIX NORM1
APERTURE F1.6
SHUTTER 1/120
FOCUS 19m

2.m2t https://secure2.storegate.com/Shares/Home.aspx?ShareID=52ebfae5-b101-4eb6-ac7b-e0bd8a1bd14e

DETAIL LEVEL +4
V DETAIL LEVEL +1
DETAIL CORING -2
CHROMA LEVEL +4
MASTER PED -2
GAMMA B.PRESS
KNEE LOW
MATRIX NORM1
APERTURE F2.0
SHUTTER 1/250
FOCUS 28m

3.m2t https://secure2.storegate.com/Shares/Home.aspx?ShareID=598ceda7-fb8a-44a0-9dc2-1e85a8fea48f

DETAIL LEVEL +2
V DETAIL LEVEL +1
DETAIL CORING -2
CHROMA LEVEL +4
MASTER PED -2
GAMMA B.PRESS
KNEE LOW
MATRIX NORM1
APERTURE F1.6
SHUTTER 1/500
FOCUS On the house

4.m2t https://secure2.storegate.com/Shares/Home.aspx?ShareID=ec9bf276-0ae6-4a20-b027-8f992b3903c7

DETAIL LEVEL +2
V DETAIL LEVEL +1
DETAIL CORING -2
CHROMA LEVEL +1
MASTER PED -2
GAMMA B.PRESS
KNEE LOW
MATRIX NORM1
APERTURE F2.8
SHUTTER 1/60
FOCUS 19m

Is the sharpness as one can expect or do you think that there is something weird with the camcorder. I've read a
lot of tests before buing, and most of them says that the lens is very good, so that's why I find the soft focus
and the distorted corners wery odd.

Regards,

/Bo
 
I can't open on my I-pad the attachments. I believe someone reported the same issue and sent the camera to the factory for repair. The issue may be related to the lens and the chip alignment.
 
Thanks Lou for trying. I doubt that the problems I describe is visible on an iPad though, but I might be wrong, I don't own one myself.


It might be me that reported that issue before. I did it about two months ago and the camcorder was sent in for warranty service. Became a little better but not as expected.


Perhaps someone have an example that I can download to see if the picture differs from mine. A wide shot with small details in the corners, as leafs or branches from a tree. So I can compare images from another camcorder. The examples I find on YouTube are often compressed so it's hard to judge the quality.


Regards,


/Bo
 
I haven't shot my 130 (Can't imagine the lens & imager is any different than the 160) in months but had an event monday.

Didn't shoot any charts, but did a lot of stuff wide open at full wide indoors. Frame-by-frame in a 1080 window, I'm not seeing any issues - image is very sharp, corners look great, no significant CA and just a normal amount of wide distortion. I don't do a lot of events , and that's 90% of what I got the 130 for but footage looks great.
 
Bo,
Did you do your own back focus check to see if that may still be the problem? Try setting up a focus chart about 10 feet from the camera, set focus to manual, open the lens to it's largest aperture (f/1.6-2.0), zoom in (yes, the lens will ramp down to about f/3.4 but you can still focus) to the telephoto end, focus on the chart, then zoom out slowly. If the picture is sharp at the long end and goes out of focus as you go wide, then you still have a back focus issue. If the repair station did a software alignment and you still have a problem, the lens assembly itself may be defective. I'd send the camera in again before the warranty runs out!
Hope this helps.
Ken
 
Hi


About my camcorder: I sent it for repair as I wasn't satisfied with the behavior of the lens. Panasonic claims that there will be distorsion in the corners at the wide end of the lens, it's the nature of wide lenses. They also recommend to keep the aperture in the range F6 to F10, something I really don't agree with them about. With these small apertures there will be diffraction effects which softens the picture. The hot spot for the lens is, in my opinion of course, between F4.0 and F5.6. They blame the soft focus in the corners on over exposure, but the phenomenon is always there.

Anyway, Panasonic service replaced the whole lens and I received the camcorder about two weeks ago. The weekend thereafter I took the camcorder to a small lake and did some shooting. At home I started to check the clips and most of them looked good. I then saw something strange again. Fully zoomed in, the right upper 1/3 of the picture is out of focus. I checked the clips and on every clip at full or near full zoom the same thing was present. I also did some test shots at home on different distances and every clip was the same. The upper right 1/3 of the picture is out of focus.

I attach links to two pictures. One picture from before the lens replacement and one from after the lens replacement. The one from before is sharp everywhere. On the one from after replacement the focus problem is clearly visible. The grass on the left and right side is at the same distance and so are the trees at the left and right side of the picture. The right side is out of focus while the middle and left side is in focus.

Before service: https://secure2.storegate.com/Shares/Home.aspx?ShareID=8d032576-6a97-4dee-8e36-6e1d45d70b26

After service: https://secure2.storegate.com/Shares/Home.aspx?ShareID=ce2ce801-efe2-4f05-bf63-0990929ca546

I have now sent the camcorder for repair for the third time. I'm starting to get really tired of this now. I want a camccorder that I can trust. I don't want to spend a weekend shooting and come home and realise that the footage is unusable because of an unreliable device. I hope they fix it this time!



Regards,


/Bo
 
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