8am Thursday morning while browsing the internet I came upon the Daily Records web site and a picture of a plane. The Emirates A380 was arriving at Glasgow Airport today.
Costing £241 million, the double decker Airbus A380 was making its maiden journey to Glasgow as Emirates Airline celebrated their ten year connection with the airport.
An airport bus arrived to take us to a fantastic vantage point, the bus was full of media from television to snappers.
The beast came right over our heads and it was later I discovered the big red Emirates sticker on the belly of the plane.
This was a great chance to finally put my Panasonic PX270 to the test, recording at 1280 x 720 50p 10bit 422 50Mbps this was as good if not better as any of the professionally used camcorders around me.
We had a birds eye view and the 22x lens coped very well indeed, out of a full days filming the lens went out of focus once…top marks for Panasonic engineers.
NOTE : As with most professionals I don’t usually use AF but when you are testing a camera you have to let the rains out, if the camera had “hunted” too often AF would have been disengaged but to give Panasonic credit this AF is as good as it gets in my opinion.
Picture above supplied by my friend Stewart McKenzie…fantastic
My good buddy Allen was also filming the plane with his new Sony NX3, one of Allen’s passions is aeroplanes, there is nothing he does not know about aeroplanes, once again soothing times like this take his mind off his sore foot.
The BBC were covering this event with a live feed back to the studio from what looked like a LiveU streaming box in a bag.
Everyone has an LCD screen to watch films and the beautiful young air hostesses make the journey a bit more bearable.
First class the only way to travel, this was a plane and a half, the airport staff were brilliant and the security was spot on.
The Panasonic PX270 was brilliant with a viewfinder to die for this was an easy job and a lot less weight than a conventional shoulder mount.
STV reporter Karen Greenshield’s an old friend from my freelancing days at STV.
My thanks to my son Scott for taking all these pictures and helping me in general…it was a great news story and a fantastic insert for my Panasonic PX270 review…coming soon. My thanks also to William Henshaw of the Rutherglen Reformer for getting us this gig.
How does this camera sit with you in comparison to what’s currently on the market? Be interested to get your take on the px270 vs the new AJA and BM cameras at NAB.
Mike
HDW : Hi Mike, the Panasonic PX270 is your major run and gun camcorder (2.6Kg), used on the whole on every shoot. This is the majority of the type of work that I film, from events, corporate to news.
The Blackmagic URSA is too heavy (7.5Kg) to lug around an airport for 3 hours it would break your back, this camera is poised at the drama, interviews using a tripod and crew members.
The AJA CION is 3.4Kg a wee bit heavier than the PX270 but its an unknown and like the BM so far untested, also has it got a lens servo plug if not the last thing you want to turn up to a news story is with a camera that has no servo zoom, most photographic zoom lenses are either wide with short telephoto or not wide enough so your stuck with static framing.
At the airport yesterday a young student had the Panasonic AF101 with a 14-140 lens and he told me the Canon XF305 was already taken so he was stuck with second choice and a camera not fit for yesterdays type of filming. The lad was stuck with a (35mm) focal length of 28-280mm while I was filming with 28mm-616mm servo zoom.
“Out of a full days filming the lens went out of focus once”. Do you prefer to use autofocus all the time on this kind of shoot?
HDW : Sorry I have now updated the post to explain, no is the answer you can’t beat MF but to test a camera you have to give the camera some leeway and Panasonic have done a fantastic job with this lens. I got to a stage that I forgot it was on AF though I did have a peek at the AF/MF switch every so often to remind myself.
Hi Philip,
first of all I am a big fan of your blog, you are doing great job. Now on the PX 270, whats your opinion ? I was interrested into he PMW 200, but the PX 270 is more flexible in terms of codec and memory cards, right? The JVC HM 600 is also improved with the new 50 Mbs/ H 264 firmware.
So whats your conclusion?
Best regards from Croatia
Igor
HDW : Hi Igor its all down to the 10bit 422 it is so superior to 8bit 420, no kidding you see the difference and its to die for.
Hey Philip, recently found your website. Like it very much. Right now we shoot with a AC160, wondering if we should update to the PX270. Would YOU? Is the lens the same on both cams – meaning the lens is still servo driven with not actuall start and stop point for focus? Additionally, is 10 bit also recorded on SD cards or just on the P2?
Thanks for your advice!
HDW : The lens mechanism is the same…but this is definitely a far superior camera to the AC160, the noise is a lot better for a start and 10bit 422 is so good you won’t go back to 8bit 420 and yes it records 10bit onto SDHC/SDXC cards as well.
Philip,
You mentioned that the noise performance is “a lot better” than the AC160 so I’m assuming the overall low light is better too. Do you have comparison samples to show this? Also, you’ve mentioned several times that the 10bit 422 is noticeably better than 8bit 420…while that all makes sense, it would be great to see that comparison as well.
Looking forward to your review…one day. 😉
Thanks for that Philip…and your thoughts regarding the PX270 (I couldn’t find a single video review from NAB) vs JVC HM650/850?
Best
Mike
HDW : Its now online