XH A1S or AC 90

[Matthew Chambers]

Which should I get is the AC90 worth the extra £500 the fact that the A1 takes tapes does not bother me at all.

[Noa Put]

I'd get the ac90, eventhough the xh-a1 once was a fantastic camera (I had one) it has been surpassed by newer and better technology. The xh-a1 was a bad low light performer, one area I expect the ac90 to be better in, it will probably be sharper as well.

[Allan Black]

The A1S while outdated is still a great camera and it depends on what you're going to use it for eg: Sunday shooting only?
And what's your budget for accessories?

If you see an A1S for sale in your area and you can check it, you'll probably save a lot more than 500.

Cheers.

[Glen Vandermolen]

Get the AC90, no question. Newer technology, and tapeless is way better than tape.
Unless you have a client that still wants HDV.

[Matthew Chambers]

Thanks for the responses is there any better camera I could get used for the £1500 and AC90 will cost me?

[Noa Put]

For that price your choice would be limited, what do you plan to shoot with the camera?

[Chris Harding]

You could also go the DSLR route..that way you have a great stills camera and a pretty good video camera too. It's not my cup of tea as I simply don't like the form factor but they do shoot pretty impressive video and Noa also uses them as well as his video cameras. You can pick up a used Canon or Panny probably for a lot less than an AC-90 if you don't mind the smaller form.

As Noa says it also depends a lot on what you plan to use the camera for!

Chris

[Allan Black]

Looks like the AC90s XLR mic inputs will only run in manual, not auto. That's a trap for newbies and probably a deal breaker
for many new prospective owners who can't figure or handle a workaround.

Cheers.

[Chris Harding]

Hey Allan

That was the deal breaker for me too so I went with the Sony EA-50's and they are brilliant but, of course, twice the price of the AC-90. What amazes me is the HMC series had brilliant audio circuitry and then Panny "re-designed" them!! I suspect that the AC series are made for Panasonic under licence as the entire series seem to be nothing like the HMC cameras ...I did have two AC-130's for 3 short months and the audio was really terrible yet even the little HMC40 has brilliant audio circuitry and performance.

Then again if you shooting "baby on the lawn" then probably the internal mic system would be more than adequate.

Chris

[Allan Black]

Yep Chris. It's a trap for newbie prospective owners who probably can't yet figure out when or even if, they might want auto audio.
And eventually when they come to sell the AC90? That might have killed it by then.

It would have cost Pana about $2 per to include the auto circuitry, but over a run of say 100.000 AC90s, the Pana bean counters
probably gave it the thumbs down :( That's bean done before :)

Who'd be in the Pana DV camera marketing dept. these days, it must be a right nightmare.

Cheers.

[Matthew Chambers]

I shoot events and weddings, already have a DSLR, so is the AC90 the best bet for £1500 better than an hmc151?

[James Manford]

AC90 wins this comparison.

I was about to buy this, but then saved up another £1500, to get the Sony EA50 instead.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Matthew Chambers

I shoot events and weddings, already have a DSLR, so is the AC90 the best bet for £1500 better than an hmc151?

The hmc151 would be a more complete camera in terms of functionality but it also will output a less sharp image compared to the ac90, lowlight performance should be comparable from what I have seen where the ac90 might be cleaner at higher gains.

One thing to consider though is what dslr you are using, if it's a canon dslr, like a 550d, 7d then the image from the ac90 will be a lot sharper, so combining them in a same shoot could be a issue. If that would be the case a hmc151 would match better.

[Matthew Chambers]

Ill be shooting along side two HMC151's from time to time what functionality is it lacking apart from the ND filters. Thanks

[Noa Put]

Compared to the ac90 you mean?