Panasonic AG-AC30 Full HD Camcorder: Built-In LED Light and More

Building an LED light into the front of a camcorder seems obvious, and you can expect more cameras to follow suit, but it is a bit revolutionary—similar to building a mic into the camcorder’s top handle. The Panasonic AG-AC30 Full HD Camcorder captures and records Full HD at up to 60i/p, as well as 23.98. This camcorder is well suited for ENG, houses of worship, and even independent products. The 20x zoom lens features electronically linked zoom, focus, and iris rings that provide manual control when desired. The lens also incorporates 5-axis Hybrid image stabilization, which means it can compensate for small movements in the roll axis, shakes in the pan and tilt axis, as well as up/down and lateral movement. This can be very useful for handheld shooting.

The touch panel LCD view screen follows Panasonic’s recent design trend and pulls out from above the camera instead of opening from the body; this allows you access to the camcorder’s hard controls without obscuring the view screen. The 3" touch panel provides generous real estate for menu navigation and composing your frames. In addition to the standard frame rates, a super slow-motion mode allows you to shoot FHD at 1920 x 1080 at 120 fps. The camera records in either MP4, MOV, AVCHD, or AVCHD Progressive and uses a BSI-style sensor that moves the circuitry normally found in front of the photosites to the back of the sensor's substrate. This allows more photons to strike the photosites for improved low-light performance. Packed with innovation and performance, Panasonic’s AG-AC30 is a worthy choice for your next small-format professional camcorder.