The What: Panasonic is now shipping the AW-UE150 4K/60p pan/tilt/zoom camera and its companion AW-RP150 remote controller.
The What Else: The UE150 features UHD 60p output and a wide horizontal viewing angle of 75.1 degrees, plus a 20x optical zoom/32x intelligent zoom (in HD mode). This next-generation PTZ supports high-quality video production in stadiums, lecture halls, churches, and other venues, and is ideal for reality television production. The UE150 is equipped with a large 1” MOS sensor and various 4K interfaces including 12G-SDI, HDMI, optical fiber and IP connectivity.
The UE150 simultaneously outputs 4K and HD, allowing for versatility in current and future production systems, and achieves extremely smooth video moves, even in live sports and other environments containing rapid movement. The 4K video can be downconverted to HD directly within the camera. Also, images shot in 4K can be output full frame while simultaneously outputting cropped parts of those images.
The large MOS sensor enables high sensitivity shooting with low noise. The sensor boasts a light-capturing area (approximately four times larger than that of a 1/2.3-type sensor) to guarantee a wide dynamic range. Adding “i zoom” to the optical 20x zoom maintains high resolution while enabling ultra-high resolution 32x zoom in HD mode and 24x zoom in 4K mode, allowing distant subjects to be captured clearly. The UE150’s 75.1° horizontal wide-angle shooting captures the entire area, even when installation space is limited.
The camera supports High Dynamic Range (HDR) to prevent blown-out highlights and blocked-up shadows, and still deliver picture contrast closer to that of the naked eye. An Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS) ensures that vibrations of the mounted surface caused by doors opening and closing, audio systems and other installed equipment are automatically corrected. The UE150 is equipped with Night Mode for infrared shooting, affording acquisition in situations that would normally be difficult, such as when capturing wildlife.
The AW-RP150 touchscreen camera controller features a 7” GUI LCD screen for monitoring and menu settings. The controller offers intuitive, single-hand operability with a joystick (with a seesaw lever for zoom or focus control). The built-in touch display allows for easy and quick operation of all essential camera functions. The RP150 adds an SDI input to the LCD panel for camera monitoring.
The touch panel GUI monitor supports camera image display during shooting as well as a variety of operations. The panel is equipped only with buttons that are frequently used, with menu and camera switching operations, indicators and other functions consolidated in the touch panel. The focus is quickly aligned to the area touched by tapping the screen. In addition, the Focus in Red display assists with aligning focus by framing the part that is in-focus in red.
The Bottom Line: The AW-UE150 is available in both black and white, with a suggested list price of $11,400.
The AW-RP150 remote controller (also compatible with Panasonic’s higher-end PTZs and other remote cameras) is available at a suggested list price $4,700.
