AC160 Video Review of the Panasonic AG-AC160

I think you nailed the review. I just spent an hour with it and loved it. I couldn't defeat the auto focus, even pointing at a dark glass cabinet in the showroom, it still managed to show me peaking on the equipment inside.

Out in the carpark, fully zoomed in on a building sign 70 ft away, I did a snap pan down to the car 5 feet away, and the peaking was on instantly, it was excellent.

And for the 1st time in the HD scene, I got to use a camera with a proper viewfinder, I could actually find focus with it (and peaking). Wonderful!

Cheers,

Vaughan
 
This info, while helpful, is more surface level stuff, at least to me. Do you have opinions/detailed info on the deeper features of the cam (menus, waveforms, histograms, peaking, quality of flip out LCD, etc.)?
 
Thank you for spending the time. I'm pretty sure folks would love to see some source footage for pixel peeping!
 
I agree with the earlier compliments. This is easily the best review of the camcorder that I have seen so far. It is the main reason why I am now very interested in this camcorder.

The football video clips were most impressive. And I appreciated you going into little details like the quality of the digital zoom options, and how smoothly the zoom rocker works.

I would also be interested in seeing some full 1080 HD video from the camcorder uploaded, as that would further help with judging image quality.

This was a fantastic job on your part. You are a real credit to the videographer community.
 
OCH ayye! love your accent - i lived in Aberdeen for 4 years when i was a "wee lad"



Jan Livingston bears a VERY strong resemblance to a Certain Jan Crittenden - or did she get married recently ?

seriously - thanks for putting up this review - i am looking at updating from my 3 year old HVX200 to either the 160 or the 250 - this review certainly helped alot.

That digital zoom expose was very handy - sounds like the 2x digi zoom at 22 is very useable.

would i be correct is assuming that the digi zoom would work best on 1080 settings?


great to hear about practical useage of the auto iris on cloudy days

is everyone happy with the codec / bit rate ? - i am not a pixel peeper -just double checking - the footage certainly looked nice enough
 
Excellent review! Thank you for posting. You addressed quite a few questions I had. Three minor things...

1. Your video looks great but why was it uploaded in SD? Would be great to see all that footage in HD. Vimeo is a great place to upload HD content and the 'hd' toggle was not available on your video. Just a thought.

2. Those action shots would be MUCH more impressive with a higher shutter speed.

3. That mail audio effect killed! Every time that ding hits it is 200x louder than your narration. Just something to consider for the future. Same with the music.

Aside from that, thank you for delving into the camera! Well done!!
 
That was a great review!
I was impressed with several aspects.
However, regarding the awesome zoom long zoom and 2X performance which is great, it unfortunately appears as though this camera may suffer from the same start/stop zoom like the dvx100b. Meaning when you try to start a slow dramatic zoom, it starts too abruptly like a consumer camera, bringing notice to the zoom. If I'm wrong, please correct. I guess I got spoiled on the AG dvc60 because it zooms absolutely beautifully. Slow dramatic creep with super smooth start/stop and fast if needed. I don't understand why the more expensive pro-Sumer cameras have never had that like the dvc60. Only the even more expensive cameras seem to incorporate that. O suppose one could add a zoom controller but that's extra hassle.
Anyway. Great review!
 
Mike Warren said:
Here's a direct link: http://www.hdwarrior.co.uk/2011/10/19/panasonic-ag-ac160-video-review/

That's a great review. Thanks Philip.
Click to expand...

Can someone please clear my doubts...

In the review, one scene says "During VFR there is no sound recorded"... There is also an email section where Jan mentioned the AC160 cannot record sound? and it needs an external recorder? Is it really the case or is she refering to some other stuffs? (scenes recorded with no sound? How could that be!!!)

Thanks in advance.
 
BlitzWerkz said:
Can someone please clear my doubts...

In the review, one scene says "During VFR there is no sound recorded"... There is also an email section where Jan mentioned the AC160 cannot record sound? and it needs an external recorder? Is it really the case or is she refering to some other stuffs? (scenes recorded with no sound? How could that be!!!)

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

VFR recording presumes that you are over/undercranking and the final playback will be at a different speed. So if audio WAS recorded with VFR, it would either sound sllllloooooooowwwww, or ITWOULDSOUNDFASTANDHIGHPITCHEDLIKETHECHIPMUNKSSINGINGCHRISTMASCAROLS.

Sorry for the overly technical explanation. At any rate, point being that the audio, as synced with the video in VFR mode, would be useless. So if you ARE shooting something in VFR mode, and you NEED audio during those recorded segments, the advice is to use a separate audio recorder.

But for all the standard recording modes, audio IS recorded.
 
firehawk said:
I don't understand why the more expensive pro-Sumer cameras have never had that like the dvc60. Only the even more expensive cameras seem to incorporate that. O suppose one could add a zoom controller but that's extra hassle.
Click to expand...

Might have to do with the fact that many prosumer and professional cameras use a fully mechanical zoom as opposed to a purely servo-driven zoom. So the mechanical linkages don't engage/disengage in the same way as a consumer camcorder (which never ever ever has an actual zoom ring because of this difference).

The more expensive high-end zoom lenses for 2/3" camcorder and the like...well, they cost a fortune and so there is a lot more intelligent "stuff" built into those to allow the smooth roll off into zoom land.

I'm not an engineer and so take what I say here for what it's worth...a very simplistic explanation for why you see what you see.
 
scapsinger said:
VFR recording presumes that you are over/undercranking and the final playback will be at a different speed. So if audio WAS recorded with VFR, it would either sound sllllloooooooowwwww, or ITWOULDSOUNDFASTANDHIGHPITCHEDLIKETHECHIPMUNKSSINGINGCHRISTMASCAROLS.

Sorry for the overly technical explanation. At any rate, point being that the audio, as synced with the video in VFR mode, would be useless. So if you ARE shooting something in VFR mode, and you NEED audio during those recorded segments, the advice is to use a separate audio recorder.

But for all the standard recording modes, audio IS recorded.
Click to expand...

Ahhh... I see. So no audio is recorded for over cranking and under cranking!

Won't it be sensible to record the scene as normal frame rate first then use editing software to make that particular scene fast or slow?

Cheers
 
BlitzWerkz said:
Ahhh... I see. So no audio is recorded for over cranking and under cranking!

Won't it be sensible to record the scene as normal frame rate first then use editing software to make that particular scene fast or slow?

Cheers
Click to expand...

Possibly....if you are speeding footage up in post, there's usually no problem with that. However, if you are doing something like a timelapse and you know for certain you'll be ditching 1/3 of the frames in post, then you would save a fair amount of storage space by not recording them in the first place.

Now for slow motion post, you'll be creating frames in your editor that weren't there before, and that can look pretty ugly. If you double or triple your frame rate, you have more frames and can reduce the speed without affecting the quality of the playback. Makes sense?
 
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