Panasonic AC 90 what am I doing wrong?

[Steve Stryker]

I must be missing something...I see all this great footage from the AC90; but mine never looks that good.
That clean and sharp.
I know it's something I am doing wrong.

What settings are you using? What scene file are you using?
I am still learning the camera and any advise will help.

Thanks

[Tim Akin]

Hi Steve

It might be best if you post what settings your using and maybe someone can help. I really an't imagine the 90 shooting bad footage at all....in good lighting at least. You are shooting 1080 right?

[Gary Randall]

Steve, did you ever find out how to fix the problem? I have the same problem with my AC 90. The video just do not look clean at all. Almost a little blurry

Gary

[Noa Put]

When your video is blurry, what is the f-stop at that particular moment?

[Chris Harding]

I think the first thing I would do is shoot just a short clip in the back garden in FULL AUTO and let the camera decide what exposure and focus to use. Play the clip back on your computer without modifying it at all (VLC media player plays MTS files directly from the card) and see if there is an issue? If it's still blurry then you have a lens issue so get the camera back to your dealer ..By shooting in auto you at least can make sure the camera has no mechanical issues and you know that you haven't added any human error to the mix.

Noa? I doubt if there would be any DOF issues on the camera as it has tiny 1/5th chips and the iris limits to around F5.6 as it has integrated ND filters to avoid any degradation of the image.

I have seen a couple of complaints about lens issues on the AC series ... they stopped using the stunning Leica lenses after the HMC series and these are just labelled as "Panasonic" ... the focus barrel scale and internal readout also has a few issues (like reading 24' when the focus is infinity) that's why I suggested a full auto test.

Chris

[Anthony Lelli]

Originally Posted by Steve Stryker

I must be missing something...I see all this great footage from the AC90; but mine never looks that good.
That clean and sharp.
I know it's something I am doing wrong.

What settings are you using? What scene file are you using?
I am still learning the camera and any advise will help.

Thanks

the AC90 is soft if left at the standard settings. , for example in vegas just adjust the sharpness (just that) and look what a difference. Play with the details in the camera but frankly I'd rather do it in post .
So you are right: the AC90 is one of the most conservative cameras Ive ever seen. It just needs sharpness and contrast. not even levels, just sharpness mostly.

[Noa Put]

When Barry Green @ dvxuser tested the camera he said it produced one of the sharpest images he had seen, a lack of sharpness in smaller sensor camera's is often a wrong f-stop which is causing diffraction and a resulting blurry image, therefore it's very important to try to keep the f-stop at the camera's 'sweet spot". Especially avoid closing down the Iris too much, use the nd filter when needed and even add a additional nd filter for very bright sunny conditions.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Noa

I have an idea that the AC-90 has a face smoothing preset on it as well and if it's set on, the image goes quite soft indeed. Might be worthwhile to check that it's off! It also has quite aggressive smoothing at high gain values ..it has been noted that hair on people's heads often looks "spray painted" if you allow the gain to run too high! That also could be seen as "soft"

Yeo you are also right about the ND's not coping ..Barry Green has mentioned that an ND on the front to help the integrated ND's in bright sun is essential too! I know on my HMC cameras I never allowed the iris stopped down any further than F5.6 ....with the tiny sensors you will get degradation from F8 onwards and the built in ND's might allow the aperture to get there if the light is bright!

Chris

[Tom Roper]

Turn detail coring to -7