Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts at DVinfo.net

Phil Goetz · August 28th, 2016, 07:16 AM

Checking out the optical image stabilization on the AG-AC30.

Panasonic AG-AC30 Full HD Camcorder with Touch Panel LCD Viewscreen and Built-In LED Light

MFR # AG-AC30PJ

Eugen Brinzoiu · August 29th, 2016, 01:01 AM

I don't know....
Nice colours,sharp but a little bit noisy..
Thanks for sharing

Phil Goetz · August 31st, 2016, 08:11 AM

Here is the manual for the camera. It is 24MB in size.

Make your browser full size and click once and only once. There will be no pop up and you will see the file begin to download at the bottom of your browser window.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/bs...hilipGoetz.pdf

Eugen Brinzoiu · September 1st, 2016, 12:49 AM

Great
Can't wait to see it in stores and real life

Phil Goetz · September 3rd, 2016, 06:59 PM

I've got a couple more videos coming. I shot a house at night that is in the process of being torn out. It's pier and beam and I shot under it using the built in light. Will post soon. I shot it 1080 30fps at 50mb/sec .mov.

Eugen Brinzoiu · September 4th, 2016, 03:24 AM

Can't wait,Phil

Phil Goetz · September 5th, 2016, 07:38 AM

The Panasonic AG-AC30 begins shipping Sept 2016.
What if you had a house you were tearing out and you only had time in the middle of the night to get video of the progress? What if you didn't have an on camera light?

The AGAC30 has a built in light and comes with a diffuser and color temperature orange gel. They just snap over the light. In this video I used the diffuser only.

Auto iris and AGC
1080 30p 50mb/sec .MOV
5600 K
Shutter: 1/30
Some manual focus / some auto focus
Premiere export for youtube was 2 pass VBR 16mb/sec target

Music by Waylon Thornton and is is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

WAYLON THORNTON

Free Music Archive: Waylon Thornton - Paranormal High School

Eugen Brinzoiu · September 6th, 2016, 12:57 AM

I removed it from my shopping cart because of the battery.
They included a tiny battery with the camcorder and I hate that.
Another 200$ on top of that.
My ag AC 90 had a huge 4.5 hours battery..
Cheap......
Panasonic.......you're like everyone else now

Noa Put · September 6th, 2016, 01:10 AM

Quote:

Cheap......Panasonic.......you're like everyone else now

Which other brand sells a comparable camera for 1,449dollar? One thing I agree on is that they are cheap, but in price. Panasonics latest strategy seems to sell their camera's at a very low prices and in order to do that they seem to save on accessories, like with my gx80 which only was 495 euro and it came without a charger. You can always get after market batteries and chargers to save on cost and then you still will have a very cheap camera which other brands just don't offer at a similar price.

Eugen Brinzoiu · September 7th, 2016, 01:24 AM

You're right Noa....
I was disappointed because on my AC 90 which was the same price ,the included battery was huge.

Phil Goetz · September 7th, 2016, 07:09 AM

Included battery is a VW-VBD29 2900 mAh battery. It might be the smallest compatible battery.

Phil Goetz · September 9th, 2016, 06:18 AM

Had the chance to meet up with Austin DP Gary Huff and talk about the AG-AC30. He was able to shoot and edit some things with it. He was looking to set the shutter to degrees and for Cinelike D. You cannot. I realized that there is a UX line of cameras shipping soon that are part of the professional camera line. The AG-AC30 is NOT part of this line. It also may explain why there are a couple different Panasonic handles. @PanasonicProAV would NOT be the handle to use when talking about the AG-AC30.

Panasonic AGAC30 Austin Demo by Gary Huff:

More of Gary's work here:
Rusty Auto

Noa Put · September 9th, 2016, 06:28 AM

Have to say it didn't look good, I saw issues with a hunting autofocus, a out of focus shot at 00:36 where the background was in focus instead of the person and I saw some horrible grain at 01:14. I also noticed the exposure was on auto with the flashing neon light and the same for focus as that was hunting as well during that shot. Not sure if it was the intention of showing the camera at it's worst by using it autofunctions? The camera seems to be able to do all those functions manually.

Gary Huff · September 9th, 2016, 08:16 AM

it was my intent to shoot this camera in challenging situations. I tried to put myself in the mind of someone who would be shooting with this camera in general and present it in the kind of situation that would challenge the camera the most. Therefore, no tripod (for O.I.S.), no lighting (save for the built-in light), and auto where it made sense (focus and gain). Peaking for manual focus works for larger sensor cameras because of the shallower depth-of-field, but here it was hard to read as a lot of background read as in focus. It also took a lot of scrutinziing the LCD to determine the interview subject was not in focus. This is realized quickly, but the early interview segment ended up near the end during editing. I really wish I could have used the onboard light for the interview, but, as per the setup I was going with, audio with a camera-mounted shotgun mic, so I had to be close enough for good audio, but it made the on-board light far too intense.

I used Auto Gain Control because the lens ramps down in aperture as you zoom in, and I wanted to avoid that. There are two ways, set it to the smallest aperture allowed at telephoto and leave it there (which would be f/3.6), or use AGC. I also wanted to see the noise profile, so AGC it was. I found 0dB to not be very sensitive. I don't know the official number, but I felt like it was slightly less 320 ISO, probably around 200-250.

Also, like Phil mentioned, there is no Cinelike profiles on here, just ones like "Landscape", "Portrait", "Sports", etc. Unfortunately, activating any of these profiles makes the camera go into auto mode. Likewise, running manual Gain and Shutter would cause it to immediately revert to auto mode whenever you used the controls to adjust it (for instance, going to 1/120 for the 59.97 base to 1/240 for 120 fps mode, pushing the Shutter button would first reset the shutter to Auto Shutter, then you have to dial it back up to 240, very annoying). Oddly enough, 120 fps mode with a 59.97 timebase doesn'tt seem to work at all. I should get half-speed playback for a 60p project, but when the 120 mode was activated, I get neither 120 frames in the video, nor a conformed half-speed clip.

The zoom lens is crazy, and not something I am used to since when I left fixed-lens cameras, 13x was the law of the land, and now I'm routinely on 18-35 and 70-200 zooms. Not at all like you can do with this. However, O.I.S. doesn't do any significant shake countering at full telephoto. It was really hard to keep a steady image at full telephoto with O.I.S. on and handheld.

The camera itself was nicely lightwight and I had no trouble hauling it around. Zoom rocker was a little touchy, and it took me a few attempts each time to have a consistant speed zoom.

Phil Goetz · September 9th, 2016, 08:39 AM

Thanks for the input here guys.

I post videos of my dogs and kid in the back yard, seafood restaurants and a house at night being torn out. 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. This forum, to me, is about being very generous about what we have access to - BOTH equipment and knowledge / skill level. Of course there are always time constraints and if you are getting paid or not and what brand(s) you represent.

August 28th, 2016, 07:16 AM	#1
Phil Goetz Austinite Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Austin Posts: 550	Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts Checking out the optical image stabilization on the AG-AC30. Panasonic AG-AC30 Full HD Camcorder with Touch Panel LCD Viewscreen and Built-In LED Light MFR # AG-AC30PJ YouTube (Short URL)

August 29th, 2016, 01:01 AM	#2
Eugen Brinzoiu Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Laval, Quebec Posts: 87	Re: Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts I don't know.... Nice colours,sharp but a little bit noisy.. Thanks for sharing __________________ Geani66

August 31st, 2016, 08:11 AM	#3
Phil Goetz Austinite Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Austin Posts: 550	Re: Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts Here is the manual for the camera. It is 24MB in size. Make your browser full size and click once and only once. There will be no pop up and you will see the file begin to download at the bottom of your browser window. http://www.mediafire.com/download/bs...hilipGoetz.pdf

September 1st, 2016, 12:49 AM	#4
Eugen Brinzoiu Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Laval, Quebec Posts: 87	Re: Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts Great Can't wait to see it in stores and real life __________________ Geani66

September 3rd, 2016, 06:59 PM	#5
Phil Goetz Austinite Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Austin Posts: 550	Re: Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts I've got a couple more videos coming. I shot a house at night that is in the process of being torn out. It's pier and beam and I shot under it using the built in light. Will post soon. I shot it 1080 30fps at 50mb/sec .mov.

September 4th, 2016, 03:24 AM	#6
Eugen Brinzoiu Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Laval, Quebec Posts: 87	Re: Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts Can't wait,Phil __________________ Geani66

September 5th, 2016, 07:38 AM	#7
Phil Goetz Austinite Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Austin Posts: 550	Re: Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts YouTube (Short URL) The Panasonic AG-AC30 begins shipping Sept 2016. What if you had a house you were tearing out and you only had time in the middle of the night to get video of the progress? What if you didn't have an on camera light? The AGAC30 has a built in light and comes with a diffuser and color temperature orange gel. They just snap over the light. In this video I used the diffuser only. Auto iris and AGC 1080 30p 50mb/sec .MOV 5600 K Shutter: 1/30 Some manual focus / some auto focus Premiere export for youtube was 2 pass VBR 16mb/sec target Music by Waylon Thornton and is is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. WAYLON THORNTON Free Music Archive: Waylon Thornton - Paranormal High School

September 6th, 2016, 12:57 AM	#8
Eugen Brinzoiu Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Laval, Quebec Posts: 87	Re: Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts I removed it from my shopping cart because of the battery. They included a tiny battery with the camcorder and I hate that. Another 200$ on top of that. My ag AC 90 had a huge 4.5 hours battery.. Cheap...... Panasonic.......you're like everyone else now __________________ Geani66

September 7th, 2016, 01:24 AM	#10
Eugen Brinzoiu Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Laval, Quebec Posts: 87	Re: Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts You're right Noa.... I was disappointed because on my AC 90 which was the same price ,the included battery was huge. __________________ Geani66

September 7th, 2016, 07:09 AM	#11
Phil Goetz Austinite Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Austin Posts: 550	Re: Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts Included battery is a VW-VBD29 2900 mAh battery. It might be the smallest compatible battery.

September 9th, 2016, 06:18 AM	#12
Phil Goetz Austinite Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Austin Posts: 550	Re: Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts Had the chance to meet up with Austin DP Gary Huff and talk about the AG-AC30. He was able to shoot and edit some things with it. He was looking to set the shutter to degrees and for Cinelike D. You cannot. I realized that there is a UX line of cameras shipping soon that are part of the professional camera line. The AG-AC30 is NOT part of this line. It also may explain why there are a couple different Panasonic handles. @PanasonicProAV would NOT be the handle to use when talking about the AG-AC30. Panasonic AGAC30 Austin Demo by Gary Huff: YouTube (Short URL) More of Gary's work here: Rusty Auto

September 9th, 2016, 06:28 AM	#13
Noa Put Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 9,509	Re: Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts Have to say it didn't look good, I saw issues with a hunting autofocus, a out of focus shot at 00:36 where the background was in focus instead of the person and I saw some horrible grain at 01:14. I also noticed the exposure was on auto with the flashing neon light and the same for focus as that was hunting as well during that shot. Not sure if it was the intention of showing the camera at it's worst by using it autofunctions? The camera seems to be able to do all those functions manually.

September 9th, 2016, 08:16 AM	#14
Gary Huff Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Austin, Texas Posts: 2,006	Re: Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts it was my intent to shoot this camera in challenging situations. I tried to put myself in the mind of someone who would be shooting with this camera in general and present it in the kind of situation that would challenge the camera the most. Therefore, no tripod (for O.I.S.), no lighting (save for the built-in light), and auto where it made sense (focus and gain). Peaking for manual focus works for larger sensor cameras because of the shallower depth-of-field, but here it was hard to read as a lot of background read as in focus. It also took a lot of scrutinziing the LCD to determine the interview subject was not in focus. This is realized quickly, but the early interview segment ended up near the end during editing. I really wish I could have used the onboard light for the interview, but, as per the setup I was going with, audio with a camera-mounted shotgun mic, so I had to be close enough for good audio, but it made the on-board light far too intense. I used Auto Gain Control because the lens ramps down in aperture as you zoom in, and I wanted to avoid that. There are two ways, set it to the smallest aperture allowed at telephoto and leave it there (which would be f/3.6), or use AGC. I also wanted to see the noise profile, so AGC it was. I found 0dB to not be very sensitive. I don't know the official number, but I felt like it was slightly less 320 ISO, probably around 200-250. Also, like Phil mentioned, there is no Cinelike profiles on here, just ones like "Landscape", "Portrait", "Sports", etc. Unfortunately, activating any of these profiles makes the camera go into auto mode. Likewise, running manual Gain and Shutter would cause it to immediately revert to auto mode whenever you used the controls to adjust it (for instance, going to 1/120 for the 59.97 base to 1/240 for 120 fps mode, pushing the Shutter button would first reset the shutter to Auto Shutter, then you have to dial it back up to 240, very annoying). Oddly enough, 120 fps mode with a 59.97 timebase doesn'tt seem to work at all. I should get half-speed playback for a 60p project, but when the 120 mode was activated, I get neither 120 frames in the video, nor a conformed half-speed clip. The zoom lens is crazy, and not something I am used to since when I left fixed-lens cameras, 13x was the law of the land, and now I'm routinely on 18-35 and 70-200 zooms. Not at all like you can do with this. However, O.I.S. doesn't do any significant shake countering at full telephoto. It was really hard to keep a steady image at full telephoto with O.I.S. on and handheld. The camera itself was nicely lightwight and I had no trouble hauling it around. Zoom rocker was a little touchy, and it took me a few attempts each time to have a consistant speed zoom.

September 9th, 2016, 08:39 AM	#15
Phil Goetz Austinite Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Austin Posts: 550	Re: Panasonic AG-AC30 first thoughts Thanks for the input here guys. I post videos of my dogs and kid in the back yard, seafood restaurants and a house at night being torn out. 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. This forum, to me, is about being very generous about what we have access to - BOTH equipment and knowledge / skill level. Of course there are always time constraints and if you are getting paid or not and what brand(s) you represent.