Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts

[Noa Put]

When there is a new camera released I believe it is best to do as much as possible to get hands on and get the word out among all levels of shooters

It's easy to get a wrong idea about a camera if a video is posted that doesn't have any background info on how it was shot and how the camera was operated and it can give a wrong impression, this is why I commented about it. It's good to know about the limitations of a camera though and in this case I'd say this is a camera you have to be careful with when using it in auto mode.

[Chris Harding]

Noa has been a Panny fan for a long time so his comments always have merit. I looked at this VERY cautiously as I was really disappointed when I switched to the AC-130 cameras a few years back and AF was one issue that put me off ..my AC-130 would lock onto a subject filling 75% of the frame yet it would still drift in and out of focus randomly ... the AC-160 also had an issue loosing focus as you move the camera and the factory never really sorted it out. I cannot understand why the AC series have poor AF ...My FZ1000 cameras are awesome and snap in focus again and again and after over a year of weddings I have yet to see an out of focus shot. It will be interesting to get comments from other people that decide on the AC-30

[Noa Put]

Noa has been a Panny fan for a long time so his comments always have merit.

It would not have made any difference if it was another brand as I just commented based on what I saw :)

[Eugen Brinzoiu]

Nothing to impressive about the quality of the image...
It brings back bad memories about my AG 90...
Weird colours in low light.....
Impossible to focus accurately
Thanks for sharing...
This was helpful

[Chris Harding]

I often wonder if the AC series are maybe made under licence by another factory because they all seem to be a completely different build quality, design and optics. I have owned almost all Panasonic in my 25 years of shooting starting at the M10 VHS cameras and even a WVP Saticon Tube camera. My current FZ cams have good build quality, excellent auto focus, and remarkable Leica optics ... the AC series (I went from the HMC80 to AC-130) just seem to be very plasticky, the AF was terrible as was the audio XLR modules and they seem to be the only series using the tiny BSI sensors whereas the Lumix cameras tend to use chips made by Sony. Sheesh, my FZ1000's shoot decent 4K video and have 1" chips yet cost almost half the price of the AC-30 which has just a much smaller BSI sensor and generic glass not the Leica optics usually used by Panasonic.

I wonder if the AF suffers from the same issues that the AC130 and AC160 have ... move the camera (in auto) from one object fairly close to another a greater distance away and the AF totally loses it ..just a blur until it finally finds focus I used to film speeches at a podium and if the speaker bent down to pick up a dropped paper and stood up again the image was totally lost. Can't see the point of having auto focus unless it works!! I sold my two AC-130's within 3 months and reverted to the cheaper HMC80's again which did a better job!

[Phil Goetz]

Ready for some original media files from the camera?

These are 5-8 second clips and is the original media card zipped up into one folder. I formatted the card before I started shooting. This download is a little over one gig.

Shot 1080 59.94P at 50/mb seconds "FHD".
5600k white balance
All 1/120 on the shutter
OIS turned on for a couple shots, but off for most.

To download these original media clips, make your internet browser full screen and click this link once and only once. You will see it begin to download at the bottom of your screen. If you click more than once it will start downloading multiple times. There is no sort of popup window or anything when you click this Mediafire link.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/pq...msSept2016.zip

You are free to:

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
for any purpose, even commercially.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

[Steven Pam]

Phil & Gary,

Have you tried monitoring audio through headphones while shooting with this camera?

I have just picked up the HC-PV100 (which as far as I can tell is the same camera... maybe for PAL markets?), and I am hearing a significant delay/latency - around 1/4 sec - to the headphone audio. This will take some getting used to when monitoring a live spoken presentation.

Other than that I think it's pretty good for the price! My only other niggle, really, is the lack of ND. In bright outdoor situations you end up with ridiculous shutter speeds, so I'll defintely be carrying a 49mm ND with me.

Cheers,
Steven

[Phil Goetz]

Steve -

Thanks for your question.

There is audio delay in some of the Panasonic cameras. It comes to a head if you are using the camera for live image magnification, that is, sending a live feed to a projector. From what I can tell the minimum camera you want to use for that is this:

Panasonic AJ-PX230 microP2 Handheld AVC-ULTRA HD Camcorder

Also - I recently picked up a Rode Link and it is digital wireless and there is delay to get used to. Like the Sennheiser digital wireless there is delay as well. Audio can be slipped in post, BUT while shooting you might start second guessing yourself.

[Steven Pam]

Thanks Phil,

I have now had a chance to use the camera a couple of times "in anger". For the first job I just got used to the audio delay. I was actually using a RodeLink wireless kit, but I don't find it makes that much difference even with a mic plugged directly into the camera.

The second job was a sync sound situation anyway (with a sound recordist). So it wasn't a concern for me at all.

My only two niggles for now are:

1. With the small sensor, although the low-light performance is adequate for me, at times is would be nice to be able to separate the background a bit more. But it's not enough of an issue that I would pull out a μ43 mirrorless or APS-C DLSR, and deal with all the handling annoyances that go along with that.

2. The lack of built-in ND. This is a real pain in the ### on a mixed indoor-outdoor job.

It's still a great camera for the price. Although there are others that can produce superior IQ in a similar price bracket, as an all-round package it ticks a lot of boxes for me.

[Scott Holt]

I sent mine back. The video quality was too soft for me. My AG-AC90 had much better quality no matter what I did. Panasonic thought it could be a bad codec in the camera. I sent it back and got something else.

[Steven Pam]

Interesting. I have yet to do any comparisons. I haven't even tried shooting in the higher bitrate MOV modes, yet - I have only shot AVCHD, as that was adequate for the jobs in question.