Video production company Ethos Media, serving the Dallas and Fort Worth markets, recently purchased three Panasonic AG-UX180 4K camcorders for live event coverage. While a primary assignment for the UX180s has been recording weekly services at the Stonebriar Community Church (Frisco, TX), the camcorders have also been used on a variety of theatrical, concert and corporate projects.

“These cameras are our go-to solution for any shoots where lengthy continuous recording is nec-essary,” said Ethos Media principal Devin Connelly. “Often we record internally while also sending out a feed for a live-edit.”

“The first and foremost reason we chose the UX180 is that we needed a camera with as long an optical zoom range as possible without breaking the bank. Our recurring work capturing Sunday-morning sermons at Stonebriar mandates that we have long zooming to get proper framing,” Connelly continued.  “The ability to easily hook up external attachments such as a zoom control-ler or external monitor, as well as having more external controls, was also important.”

Connelly cited the UX180’s 4K recording, large sensor, image stabilization and long battery life as additional compelling benefits.

“We wanted to ensure that our camera purchase was future-proofed with 4K recording,” he not-ed. “Having come off similar cameras whose recording bit rate maxed out at 24Mbps, we were likewise impressed by the UX180’s ability to more than double that in a 1080 format, which pro-vides us with consistently sharper-looking footage with everything we use it on.

“The fact that the camcorder has a larger sensor than most equivalent models was definitely ap-pealing, as event lighting is not always ideal. The UX180’s low-light sensitivity is better than most camcorders I've used, especially in high sensitivity mode.”

Connelly said he alternatively records 1080 and 4K formats contingent on the project, choosing .mp4 as “it’s friendly with virtually any OS and editing/playback software.” He edits in Adobe Premiere Pro.