My First Impressions

[Zak Forsman]

Just took ownership of the camera and am ecstatic. Here's a few initial thoughts/discoveries.

1. MASTER PED - Had the camera going into FCP and I brought up the scopes. The Waveform monitor didn't hit 0 IRE (black) until Master Ped was set at -3. I might even go to -4.

2. Green LCD - Mine has the tiniest, tiniest green cast when compared to my calibrated broadcast monitor. They are nearly identical and I would not hesitate in using the on-board LCD to approximate color. I also have a Lilliput 7" monitor that it noticeably different. Not going green, but in the opposite direction. Kind of surprised by this overall as I expected to have the extreme green issues others have seen. But I don't.

3. ISO - okay, maybe I need to read the manual but is there a faster way to set an ISO other than assigning it to L/M/H ??

4. The onboard waveform is mismatched to my waveform in FCP. 100IRE in FCP (which seems accurate judging by what i'm seeing on the monitor) is represented well below the 100IRE line on the LCD's waveform monitor. Have to dig deeper on this one because having the on-board WFM will be essential to identify overexposure that otherwise "looks" okay. Using this so far has helped me avoid clipped skin tones, etc.

5. Last thing i learned is that this new (used) Nikon 135mm f/2.0 is going to be a favorite.

Batteries are charging. will take it out on the street soon.

[ustein]

>I need to read the manual but is there a faster way to set an ISO other than assigning it to L/M/H ??

I asked the same and don't think you can.

[Mike@AF]

Just took ownership of the camera and am ecstatic. Here's a few initial thoughts/discoveries.

1. MASTER PED - Had the camera going into FCP and I brought up the scopes. The Waveform monitor didn't hit 0 IRE (black) until Master Ped was set at -3. I might even go to -4.

Congrats! I'm excitedly looking forward to finally doing more with the camera, but I've suspended myself from shooting with it until I finish this feature script. My own punishment for getting behind because I was messing around with my new cameras and rigs too much.

I just ordered the DSC Labs Cambook 4 and will be posting tests of all the different settings and how it affects the grayscale ramping (and color) as soon as I can do those tests. It will be similar to what I posted for the GH2's film modes in a thread in the GH2 section. It think that will help me (and hopefully others) see what settings will give the most and smoothest dynamic range as far as contrast goes.

2. Green LCD - Mine has the tiniest, tiniest green cast when compared to my calibrated broadcast monitor. They are nearly identical and I would not hesitate in using the on-board LCD to approximate color. I also have a Lilliput 7" monitor that it noticeably different. Not going green, but in the opposite direction. Kind of surprised by this overall as I expected to have the extreme green issues others have seen. But I don't.

Pretty much the same here. I don't really see any green cast unless there's CFL lighting present, so maybe that's what's causing it. I don't even notice much difference in color between the LCD and EVF. The EVF just seems washed out and lacking decent contrast and black levels like the old LCD TVs from about 4 years ago.

3. ISO - okay, maybe I need to read the manual but is there a faster way to set an ISO other than assigning it to L/M/H ??

Unfortunately there's not. I wish Panasonic would have put that in the DIAL SELECT on the back of the camera. I would have preferred that over shutter or frame rate. Someone said you're less likely to change the ISO while shooting. I say you're less likely to change your shutter or frame rate than your ISO.

4. The onboard waveform is mismatched to my waveform in FCP. 100IRE in FCP (which seems accurate judging by what i'm seeing on the monitor) is represented well below the 100IRE line on the LCD's waveform monitor. Have to dig deeper on this one because having the on-board WFM will be essential to identify overexposure that otherwise "looks" okay. Using this so far has helped me avoid clipped skin tones, etc.

That's not a good sign. I was planning on relying on the LCD's waveform and vectorscope a little bit for my exposures and saturation. If they're not accurate then they're completely worthless. I'm waiting to do my tests until my DSC Labs Cambook arrives so I won't know until next week if mine is reacting the same.

[Barry_Green]

1. MASTER PED - Had the camera going into FCP and I brought up the scopes. The Waveform monitor didn't hit 0 IRE (black) until Master Ped was set at -3. I might even go to -4.

I normally run at at least -2. You can put the lens cap on and bring up the marker and see what black is at; at zero, the AF100 is usually showing a marker readout of 2%, and that doesn't get down to zero until you put the MP at -2.

2. Green LCD - Mine has the tiniest, tiniest green cast when compared to my calibrated broadcast monitor. They are nearly identical and I would not hesitate in using the on-board LCD to approximate color. I also have a Lilliput 7" monitor that it noticeably different. Not going green, but in the opposite direction. Kind of surprised by this overall as I expected to have the extreme green issues others have seen. But I don't.

The LCD is fine. There is no "extreme" green issue unless someone has an actually defective monitor.

3. ISO - okay, maybe I need to read the manual but is there a faster way to set an ISO other than assigning it to L/M/H ??

No, the ISO is treated the same way as the gain is. Three settings on the switch, for three pre-loaded ISO values.

4. The onboard waveform is mismatched to my waveform in FCP. 100IRE in FCP (which seems accurate judging by what i'm seeing on the monitor) is represented well below the 100IRE line on the LCD's waveform monitor. Have to dig deeper on this one because having the on-board WFM will be essential to identify overexposure that otherwise "looks" okay. Using this so far has helped me avoid clipped skin tones, etc.

Are you sure you were looking at the right line? It's a digital representation and should be exactly accurate.

[Zak Forsman]

Are you sure you were looking at the right line? It's a digital representation and should be exactly accurate.

yeah, I'm fairly certain I was. 100% in the FCP waveform on the same frame was showing around 90% on the AF100 WFM. but I didn't spend much time on it. Will definitely revisit. And I'll take pictures.

[Zak Forsman]

btw, 3200 ISO looks incredible.

and man, time just crawls along when you're waiting for a battery to charge.

[Petros Kolyvas]

If you output colour bars from the camera, do they match up with the FCP waveform targets or are they off as well?

[Barry_Green]

The 100% line is the topmost solid line. Not the dashed line above it. Petros is right, put on the bars and look at it. The white chip (not the white bar, but the white chip below) hits exactly at 100%, just like it should. Piped it out SDI to my BT-LH80, turned on its waveform, and -- yep, hit exactly where it should, right on the 100% line.

If you're having a problem in FCP, well might be the famous gamma shift bug. But the AF100's waveform monitor is exactly right, exactly where it should be.

EDIT -- just to triple check, I recorded bars, brought the footage into Premiere Pro CS5, and ... yep. Waveform shows the 100% chip exactly at 100%, exactly like the on-camera WFM did, exactly like the BT-LH80's WFM did.

Trust the AF100's WFM. If the FCP waveform is varying from the AF100's, then there's something wrong with the FCP waveform or the way you're importing the footage or something, but the AF100's wfm is spot-on accurate.

[Mike@AF]

FCP 5 actually had a problem with the waveform monitor being accurate. I believe the problem only affected the meters during actual playback, and they patched it with an update. So that's not out of the question, but you'd think someone would have noticed a 10% error prior to now.

[Zak Forsman]

Probably bypassing any opportunity for a gamma bug as I'm sending the SDI signal into my Kona 3 card, then bringing up the capture window and scopes in FCP. when looking at a feed from the lens, what seems to hit 100% in the bay, is showing up lower on the AF100.

AF100 LCD


FCP WAVEFORM MONITOR