Traverse City, MI filmmaker Mark Eiden recently purchased the Panasonic AG-UX180 4K camcorder to use as his “A” camera on a reality television initiative of his owner/operated production company, Reel Incredible.
Eiden is drawing upon his background as a professional investigator to power an “on the road” reality series that will find him traveling from town to town in search of unusual and unsolved stories.
He has already had the UX180 in the field to shoot background and show openers, and is about to embark on location for the first episode of the series, which is initially slated for digital distribution.
“In most instances, I’ll be the sole crew and also appear in front of the camera, so I was looking for a camera with versatile auto controls,” Eiden said. “The UX180 outperformed other options on the basis of its great auto focus, nice zoom range, exceptional 4K video and IR recording.”
He cited the UX180’s flexible audio controls, impressive image stabilization, and the free AG-ROP app enabling wireless remote control from an iPad as additional standout benefits.
Eiden is recording the reality series in UHD/30P, and will edit in Final Cut Pro X. “The UX180 performed flawlessly throughout all the preliminary shoots,” he noted. “The footage achieves the desired effect of being raw and gritty, and requires minimal editing or color correction.”
About the AG-UX180
The UX180 offers a host of features for the high image quality and advanced functionality required in video production, such as a newly-designed Leica Dicomar 4K compact lens with a wide 24mm angle (the industry’s widest for an integrated lens camcorder), Optical Image Stabilization (O.I.S.), Intelligent Auto Focus (AF), and relay and simultaneous recording with a dual SD memory card slot. Other premium assets include a high-powered 20x optical zoom, 4K/24p, UHD/60p and FHD/60p multi-format recording, FHD super-slow motion 120fps recording, infrared shooting in darkness (0 lux) and 3G-SDI/HDMI output. The camcorder incorporates a 1.0-type (effective size) MOS sensor, and supports versatile and easy-to-use MOV (QuickTime), MP4 and AVCHD file formats.
