AF100 / AF101 - initial report

Well, I'll give you one good reason -- because if you shoot 1080/30p @ 60fps, and then brought the footage into Cinema Tools and "conformed" it to 60fps, then you'd have -- tada! - 1080/60p footage. Native 1080/60p.

But with no audio recorded, it kind of defeats the purpose... meh.

Other than that, yeah, there's not a whole lot of reason to do it.

Although, of course, you can record audio with the 170 while doing variable frame rate stuff; you just have to use the 720p mode instead of the 720pN mode.
 
Okay, another new thing figured out -- the camera has face detection autofocus in it. So when you're using autofocus (with, presumably, the GH1 kit lens), you can tell it to detect and focus on faces. It'll find a primary face and focus on it. So, if the person moves closer or further away, autofocus will compensate to track with that face. Sort of a built-in, no-budget, sorta bogus focus puller!

Didn't try it to see how well it worked, but -- when the DOF is as shallow as it's gonna be, well, I imagine some folks might find this kind of useful.
 
Barry_Green said:
Other than that, yeah, there's not a whole lot of reason to do it.
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Well it would be very useful in post if you're doing the old boom or lavs right into the camera because otherwise you have to foley the entire scene.

Sometimes with your slo-mo effect you want "record player on wrong speed" voices, booming footsteps etc, and sometimes you need the normal speed sound of the gun clacking too the ground to make the slo-mo more of an invisible story telling tool

Yes real films do everything like that in post anyway, but few indies do, and the location sound is often pretty good for it, the most organic / honest feeling thing, and - here's the most unequivocal reason - it's a great reference for your foley person.
 
Well, I agree, I really can't see any reason NOT to allow it, other than it might confuse unknowing users who thought they were somehow going to magically get usable audio that transcends the limitations of time and space. And I have lobbied them for this exact feature. I figure it doesn't hurt to have more options.

I doubt many would use it, but ... I would rather have it available, than not.
 
Barry I love how you stayed tried and true to Panasonic, even as they went kind of in the wrong direction with the HPX300, and was there as this whole Canon DSLR phase was reaching a boiling point, pointing out the logic and insanity behind it. And as your reward, you help create this amazing camera. You really changed the face of low budget filmmaking. You are a part of history. I really mean it. I hope other people say that. Thank you Barry Greene for being you.
 
A cold shower

I want to add some negative comments to overly positive thread.
And I'll make it from two sides - business side and technoligical side.

First. Techno side.
1) We have AVCHD with it's absurd specification, limited framerates, etc. It looks really stupid, because Panasonic pro division treats customers like dummies. Simple switch that allow undocumented framerates and bitrates in AVCHD could solve the problem completely. As it is the way to move standards forward.
2) Return to prosumer camcorder ideology (all-in-one and instantly usable) is generally a move in wrong direction strategically. Companies still did not solved VDSLR mystery. But solution is very simple. People like to try things out, like component approach, build rig that they like (same thing with high level home audio) and use things differently. You need to shoot at very limited space with huge number of people - get bare body with small lens and here you go, no one really notices you. And if you shoot you documentary you have body mounted on rails, with matte box, attached recorder and monitor, all this on big tripod resting on dolly with track :-)
3) So, generally future in this segment will belong to modular solutions, ala VDSLR with audio extension ports, video LVDS compatible extension ports, body mounting options etc.
4) About sensor. It is GH2 sensor. It can't be any other sensor, as you can't make sensor of this size in small quantities for any reasonable cost (AF-100 will be sold in very small quantities compared to any VDSLR).

From business side.
1) Back to VDSL mystery. Key point here is low starting price. Yes, you need dedicated recorder, yes you need shoulder mount (AF-100 also needs it :-) ), etc. Most people do not buy any of this. They are just experimenting, shooting their children. But some people start to move further with time. This is why it is called revolution. It is not because you can shoot super film for $800 now. It is because other kind of people come to do things at same quality level (and similar zeroes in budgets). They just had other way.
2) So, releasing AF-100 they made very big archivement, but they made even bigger mistake. Instead of going down to their customer and lead him to the top they made very good and large poster filled with bunch of light on top of the mountain with saying "You can be here, just be patient and the day will come!". Problem is, too many people are sceptical about such things today :-)
 
Here is a chart from Abel Cine showing relative sensor sizes to a S35 frame.

35mm-Digital-Sensors-Chart_FINAL_1125.jpg
 
Vitaliy Kiselev said:
A cold shower


2) So, releasing AF-100 they made very big archivement, but they made even bigger mistake. Instead of going down to their customer and lead him to the top they made very good and large poster filled with bunch of light on top of the mountain with saying "You can be here, just be patient and the day will come!". Problem is, too many people are sceptical about such things today :-)
Click to expand...

Gee is the glass half full for you or what?

Panasonic hasn't gotten to where they are by NOT giving the end user what they want.

I predict the AF-100 will make record sales.
 
Thats a great comparison chart, but I think they copied the published m4/3 4:3 spec and made a 16:9 extraction from inside that for the gh1/af100- in reality, the GH1 sensor is quite a bit larger than m4/3 and uses a full image circle for 16x9 mode is a bit larger than what is shown:

image38.gif


If your curious, put a t2i/7d in live view and look down into the camera at the size of the sensor compared to the GH1 side by side, they are almost identical in size.

With all that rambling; we should see a spec of the GH1 image at about 20mm wide, a lot closer to the Red one's fov in 4k 16:9.

This could be all new on the af100, just trying to set the record strait on the gh1 (again), I guess we will just have to wait and see what the fov on the af100 is like.
 
ah, thanks for the find. I wonder where the internal mic is located? maybe near where the removable handle detaches?
 
combatentropy said:
I'm sorry, this sounds like a nonsensical statement. What do you mean?
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I mean that the recording/playback format is 1080/30p. But the frame rate is 60fps. So you're recording footage for playback at 1080/30p, but imaging at 60p, resulting in 2:1 slow mo playback.

However, it means that you also do have sixty unique frames recorded per second. So just speed the footage up (by "conforming" it so that instead of telling the computer to play it back at 30fps, you instruct the computer to play it back at 60fps) and there you go -- recorded "live" 1080/60p.
 
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