Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

It connects directly. The iPad connects to the network the camera USB dongle creates. You could also use it through a router for longer distances. I used the feature during a SDI connected livestream event so I had a way to monitor the camera via direct cable run. The app also lets let's you toggle the on-screen menu overlays on and off easily so you can see what you're doing when rooting around in the settings. Just don't leave them on during a live stream...

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

[QUOTE=Barry Green;1925627]Yes, there is a new firmware update for the UX180 and also one for the UX90.

Hi Barry
Did you try new firmware(UX180), if yes is there some improvement?
Regards

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

It addressed a few relatively minor issues. The release notes say:

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Tnx Barry
Regards

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Barry,

I have the Panny 160A and AC90. What kind of low light improvements can I expect to see with the UX180 & 90? Thanks for everything you do.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

These cameras are pretty much direct successors to those two; the UX90 is the successor to the AC90, and the UX180 is the successor to the AC160.

The UX90 is much more sensitive than the AC90 is. The UX90 is about 250 ISO, whereas the AC90 is more around 40 ISO.

The UX180 is a bit more sensitive than the AC160, but not tremendously so; it's about 500 ISO, whereas the AC160 was about 320 ISO.

But, on the other hand, the lenses on the older cameras were faster; they opened wider than the lens on the new UX cameras. Whereas the AC160 was f/1.6 to 3.0, the UX180 is f/2.8 to 4.5. That means the AC160 can let in about 1.2 to 1.6 stops more light. And the AC90 can let in about 1.5 stops more light.

So in terms of raw sensitivity, the UX90 is about 1 stop faster, and the UX180 is about the same or even slightly behind. But, the UX180 has a "HIGH SENS." mode that doubles the ISO and reduces the grain, so it becomes an effective 1000 ISO, and that puts it 1.5 stops more sensitive than the AC160, so ... at that point, it's a wash, they're equally sensitive.

But, that's not all, because sensitivity is generally figured at an acceptable grain level, and the UX90 and UX180 are substantially cleaner in terms of noise, especially when you need a lot of gain. And most especially when you're shooting HD instead of UHD.

When shooting HD, the cameras gain about 6dB of noise reduction due to the conversion from the UHD sensor down to HD resolution; combining pixels averages out the noise between the pixels, so right off the bat you can add 6dB of gain and have the same noise level as you would have had at 0dB in UHD.

Then, when you turn the gain up, these cameras have newer technology and newer processing, so they can take the gain further.

Finally, these cameras have a user-adjustable noise reduction control, which can have a really substantial impact on the appearance of noise. It ranges from -7 to +7; at -7 you'll see a lot of grain, but at +7 it vacuums up pretty much all of it (at the potential expense of bringing in noise-reduction artifacts, like smudgier high-frequency details and even ghosting on high-contrast edges). So I generally don't use a high NR setting, but -- you can.

When you add it all up, between the lens advantage of the small-chip cameras and the bigger pixels of the big-chip cameras and all that, the new cameras end up being somewhat better in low light than their predecessors, but not dramatically so. The dramatic improvements are in image sharpness, Ultra HD and (on the UX180) Cinema 4K recording, extremely wide angle field of view, long zoom range, image controls, things like dual codec recording, recording bitrate (200 mbps compared to 25 mbps on the older cameras), shallow DOF at equivalent f-stop, etc. There are a lot of substantial advancements in these new cameras, but there aren't huge improvements in low light sensitivity. It's better, but it's not really night and day, because the lens for the giant sensor delivers, generally, about an f/4 over most of its zoom range, and that limits the ultimate sensitivity they can obtain.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

This is so awesome Barry, thanks so much!!!! I know this is a little off the thread, but could you do this same comparison on the AC90 and new AC30 ???

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

I don't have access to an AC30 and don't really know anything about it...

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Barry,

Thanks for the great information. I've looked around but could not find the answer to this question. Does the UX-90 have an i.zoom function? Is it useable in HD mode? Thanks!

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

The Ux90 has izoom in HD.

Barry the UX90 white balance doesn't operate how I'm accustomed to, a three toggle switch: 1 preset and 2 custom balances you create by holding a white card in front of the camera while pressing white balance button.

How do I set a custom white balance for existing lighting?

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Yes as Pete said, it has i.Zoom. It works only in HD, it turns the 15x optical zoom into, effectively, a 25x zoom. And it works extremely well.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

It actually works exactly the same way. The White Bal button takes the place of the white balance switch. It provides three channels (preset, Ach, and Bch). It's not a switch anymore, it's a button, but the same functionality is there and works the same way -- use the button to select Ach (or Bch), fill the screen with a white card, and then press the AWB button on the front of the camera under the lens.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Thanks Barry I didn't realize what that button under the lens was . Now it makes sense.

Panasonic UX90 Playback
 

Barry,

I am sure this is going to be one of those "Duh" moments, but I can't find anyway to playback the video on the UX90. I searched the manual and all of the regular buttons on the camera, to no avail. What am I missing?

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

I was baffled by it too. It's not very intuitive. On the top front of the camera near the lcd there is a button called "Thumbnails". Then use the touch screen to select and play a clip. I actually find the touchscreen to be a good interface for playback. Although it's difficult to find and reach the thumbnails button when the camera is on a tripod.

This is one of many things I've notice that Panasonic interface is a bit odd.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Thanks. I actually just figured it out. It was the only button I hadn't pushed yet!

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Incorrect re the HIGH SENS mode. The HIGH SENS mode, called EXTENDED on JVC cameras, is basically 6db of RAW GAIN added to whatever normal gain number you see on the VF/EVF. The noise increases as if you simply added 6db of gain to whatever gain setting you select. The first application of this was on the HPX2000. They had a setting you could assign to a user button to activate the "6db boost" feature.

If you want to test this out, take any of these cameras, set them to normal mode 18db, shoot a clip, then switch to HIGH SENS/EXTENDED and shoot a clip at 12db. Compare side by side, you will see they are identical. The most use I can find for this is that you can change one menu setting instead of changing three gain values if you move into a dark situation for ENG. :-)

Paul

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

For UX90 and UX180 owners, Panasonic is now offering a free download of my latest book, "A Guide To The UX90 And UX180 Camcorders". You can get your copy here from Panasonic's website:
http://info.panasonic.com/ux-series-e-book.html

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Just downloaded it. Looks good Barry! It's also nice how Panasonic offers this for free (I certainly hope YOU were paid well for your hard work!)

I really like how the guide does in depth with the settings and features. This document is going to be a great way to train operators, and much of the information is useful for more than just the UX90/180.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Thanks Barry. I'm going to download it. I would like to learn more about the image control menu. Specifically I'd like to crush the blacks a bit. For theatrical work I find I need to darken the blacks for the non stage areas.

Btw, I was re reading that post about the light sensitivity. Which out of the three cameras performs the best in low light?

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Which three - UX90, UX180, and HC-X1? Or UX90, UX180, and DVX200?

Actually, I guess it doesn't matter, as the answer is all the same -- they're all about the same except for the UX90, which is one f-stop less sensitive than the others, and doesn't offer the HIGH SENS option.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Isn't the higher sensitivity setting just a software enhancement (additional gain with higher noise reduction)? Why isn't the ux180/x1 a stop faster in normal mode?

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

They are. The UX90 has a base ISO of about 250, the UX180/HC-X1 have a base ISO of about 500. Then you also have the HIGH SENS option, which pushes the UX180/HC-X1 effective ISO to about 1000.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Thanks Barry, very helpful book. But I have one question - after download I tried to check pictures from scene files setings (I'm talking about videos for demonstration) and after clicking inside of mentioned video I still have white frame, nothing shows up, could you be so kind and check it?
I read your previous book - guide to DVX200 (I own one) and all videos for demonstration are working great.

Regards

Janusz

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

I would say to check which program you're using to view the PDF in. I found that when on an Apple Mac, the "Preview" app would display the pages but wouldn't play the videos; when using Adobe's Reader app, the videos played fine.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

I'm using Windows 7 and latest version of Acrobat Reader DC. I have both your guides: DVX200 and UX90/180.
In guide for DVX200 videos are playing perfect, but in guideUX90/180 still no luck - just a empty white frame.
I checked it in three comps - desktop (Win7) notebook Sony Vaio (Win7) and netbook SONY Vaio (Win10) - no luck.
Link to screenshots below:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...3M?usp=sharing

Regards

Janusz

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

I'm not sure what to tell you... it was created in the exact same program as the DVX200 Book was, the videos are incorporated in the same way, and I tested it on both Mac and Windows before sending it in... Perhaps try re-downloading it in case something was corrupted during the download?

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

I compared size of downloaded content of both guides. Both have almost the same number of pages: DVX200 Guide - 279 pages, UX90/180 Guide 269 pages and number of included videos is almost the same.
But DVX200 Guide has 20,0 MB and UX90/180 Guide only 11,6 MB (lack of embeded videos?)

Maybe somebody from win7 users can check if videos from UX90/180 Guide ale playing correct?
Regards
Janusz

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Excellent initiative, Barry. Unfortunately I'm having the same experience here on WIN10 Pro - the DVX200 guide behaves as expected, the UX90/180 just blank, and not linking. FWIW the guide was DLed on 03.06.2017.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Same problem here with missing videos. Downloaded on 3-6-17.
Ken

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Not quite the same but mine will not unzip in either my WIN7 PC or the WIN10 PC !!! I have downloaded twice so far.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Well, that's certainly odd, because the book as I sent it to them is 75 megabytes. I don't know how it became 11.6 megabytes unless they somehow recompressed it, and perhaps in that process the videos became disabled? I don't know, but I will raise the question with them to see if they can fix it.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Okay folks, I believe the issue is resolved. When they recompressed the book, some features I had installed (like the videos and hotlinks) didn't survive that process.

They have re-posted it in a much better form that, while being much larger, it better represents the book as I wrote it. I encourage all who have downloaded the old version, to download the new version as a replacement. The download is much larger, but I believe you'll be better served by the higher-res pictures, the active linking between articles and the table of contents, and by the videos.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Downloaded the new version (62.3MB).
I can see the pictures, but no video links.
Using Firefox to view the PDF.

Ken

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Tried again with my email and got no reply. Tried from my wifes computer with her name and got the download !!! I too have the pictures now but no video. File is 64M compared with 11M before.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Please try viewing it using the Adobe Acrobat Reader. I verified that the videos do work in that reader.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

I now have the videos working.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Downloaded Reader. No luck here. I assume the video links are the topics in outlines/rectangles.
Anyway, the content is just as valuable with or without the videos.
Ken

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

Some of the pictures are videos but not all.

Re: Panasonic UX90 & UX180 Q&A
 

There are words in rectangles, those are hyperlinks that will jump to that topic.

The videos are in pictures. Some of the still pictures are actually videos; I believe they all should have a little text box below them that say "click the picture above to see a video that describes this" or something along those lines. An example is the picture for the knee point and knee slope; that is actually an embedded video.

And please make sure you're using the 62-megabyte version of the book; the 11-megabyte version definitely doesn't have the videos.