Having received my AJ-PX270 last Friday I have had a roller-coaster weekend getting to know the camcorder with some surprising results.
The camera is heavier than I was expecting which is a good thing…well built and well thought out ergonomically, finally we get an automatic lens hood getting away from the dangling lens cap seen on the AC8.
My good friend Alister films theatre shows all over Scotland with two Sony EX3 cameras into a Panasonic switcher ending up onto a Sony EX30 digital SxS recorder.
Alister is hoping to upgrade this year and is looking at two Panasonic PX270 camcorders as a replacement for his second 2 camera kit, Sony NX5 camcorders.
The Panasonic PX270’s 10bit 422 via Long GOP 50 onto SDXC cards is very tempting in fact he discovered his switcher is already 10bit and has a HyperDeck Studio which is 10bit 422 giving him a clear 10bit 422 pathway from camera to recorder.
I recorded some footage to include in the review and tomorrow we are going to see how the camera matches up to the Sony EX3 and NX5.
One final major game changer surprise is that the Panasonic PX270 has a far better………….? Oh dear have I missed out something, the major surprise will be exclusively revealed on the video review coming fairly soon.
I say fairly because Long GOP 50 is not yet available in FCPX 10.1.1 and I am hoping Apple will include this codec in the NAB update due soon.
If you film 720p you can ingest your footage via the HDMI socket into Blackmagic Media Express, its a laborious way to capture footage so I may sit tight till the new update arrives for FCPX.
Hi Philip,
I will be very interested in your upcoming review of the AJ-PX270. I’ve been using the AG-AC160 and find it’s a great solid camera. I love the lens and I think its the same on both cameras. It does only have servo focus/iris rings but there is little or no lag and focus in manual mode never changes through the zoom. Unfortunately the iris drops down 1.5 stops from wide angle to telephoto. I will be interested if Panasonic has improve there ugly video noise or gain. The video noise makes the images look dirty and it isn’t the poor AVCHD codec because it can be also be seen from it’s live SDI output. Near the end of this video
Panasonic’s Jan Crittenden Livingston talks about the AJ-PX270 and also the GH4 which has a better looking video noise.
I was always persuaded that the PX270 with “Avc Ultra” was 4K or “ultra-high” definition.
So even if it will be a formidable 10 bit 422 1080P50 and probably beat the Sony PMW 200 or PMW 300, these three cameras will probably be considered ass “outdated” in one year.
For reference – how do the shots captured by the PX270 compare with the GH4 (I currently use a HMC81 and AF101 and cut between them on certain projects)because the PX/GH combination may make a suitable upgrade path.
It will be interesting to see how the PX270 functions on auto-focus.
I did a fair amount of focus testing on the AG-AC160A and found that depending on the arc you choose going from near objects to far objects (and back), there were significant differences in the focus lock in time.
http://youtu.be/5r_QPIA4tsY
Others ran tests on fast-moving objects (i.e. horse running toward you / away from you) – the observed focus lock in times in those tests were as much as 30 seconds.