AF100 / AF101 - initial report

Wow! It's going to be even more awesome than I thought! I can't wait to get my hands on one of these.

Keep up the good work Barry!
 
with L/R in there, makes me believe it's gonna have something to do with 3d. Trying to wrap my head on what and how though, if they are in side by side configuration, or beam splitter, you'd have 2 separate sdi for your left and right anyway. maybe it's for a feature not yet annouced?
 
I am really happy about the 1080/60P, thats fantastic.

hunter richards said:
If its 10-bit HDSDI out then we may have winner with this:

New Aja ki-pro mini 10-bit 4:2:2 recorder (Under $2k!): http://www.aja.com/news/index_article.php?id=125
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And with the above theres the solution. My spidey senses tell me the HD-SDI out will only be 8bit 4:2:2, though I hope I'm wrong.

mcgeedigital said:
I will take 2!

Thanks for the report Barry.
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I think I'll do the same.

One thing I am wondering about though.

Recording format: AVCHD PH (21 Mbps *Max.24Mbps), HA (17Mbps), HE (6Mbps), HA, HE only for 1080i/59, 94 and 1080i/50
Support video format: 1080i/50, 25p, 1080/59, 94i/29, 97p/23, 98p, 720/50p, 25p, 720/59, 94p/29, 97p/23, 98p
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Recording format HE only for 1080/59 and 1080/50 - thats confuses me a little. Does it mean you can only record those formats in HE mode at a measly 6mbps?

And what is 97P/23 etc? Does it mean you can shoot 97 fps into a 23fps recording?
 
Noel Evans said:
And what is 97P/23 etc? Does it mean you can shoot 97 fps into a 23fps recording?
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No. Somebody messed up some periods as commas.

See (if you change some commas to periods):
1080i/50, 25p, 1080/59.94i/29.97p/23.98p, 720/50p, 25p, 720/59.94p/29.97p/23.98p
 
Razz16mm said:
It should become the S16mm of the digital cinema world. Glad to see it coming together so well.
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I know what you're saying, but let's just make sure everyone else doesn't get confused -- the sensor (and the look) that the AF100 has, is 35mm sized, not S16 sized.
 
gal1.jpg


Reminds me of a Mamiya 645 when its all stripped down..
 
mik303 said:
Any waveform monitor in the LCD?
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Yes, there's a waveform monitor in the LCD. And a vectorscope. And two levels of zebras. And the spotmeter.

Will they sell this camera with no lens to keep the price down and make all lenses optional?
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That is the only way it will be sold. All lenses are optional, it's sold as body-only.
 
Has panasonic given an official sensitivity rating yet? 800 is kind of the new standard new with a lot of high end cameras, I wonder if they were able to do that to the af100 as well. 800 iso clean, and up to 2000 iso with a very acceptable noise threshold puts it right up there with a RED MX and Alexa.
 
Mike McNeese said:
I'm thrilled with the specs and features! HD LCD! 1080/60p! Simultaneous HDMI/SDI! 1/4-20 ports! No moire!!!
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I forgot to mention -- the HD-SDI output will also output 1080/24pSF! Don't know how I forgot that one in the initial report, but there are probably lots of things I forgot... :D

Barry, the only thing I would like to hear about is potential jello issues. I'd expect it would be "better" than a DSLR (since it's a different imager), but can we really expect to shoot handheld with the AF100?
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If you can shoot handheld with an EX1 or EX3, then you will be able to shoot handheld with the AF100. Its rolling shutter feels to me to be at least as good as the EX series or the HPX370. But I haven't had a chance or a way to empirically test it against any other camcorder to see how it compares. I do know that it seems very minimal. I have seen a little bit when at 140mm full telephoto.

That said, optical image stabilization does help, and if you're using a lens that doesn't have stabilization, it might be a little trickier to pull off good handheld.

But it's vastly superior to the GH1 or 5D/7D in terms of rolling shutter.
 
agcohn said:
No. Somebody messed up some periods as commas.

See (if you change some commas to periods):
1080i/50, 25p, 1080/59.94i/29.97p/23.98p, 720/50p, 25p, 720/59.94p/29.97p/23.98p
Click to expand...

Hah, I just woke up. But right you are. Cheers.

Havent been able to see one photo of the back. Anyone got one?

And look under the handle hot shoe... another hotshoe and screw mount. Very good.
 
svecher said:
Barry, did Olympus 14-35 autofocus on this body?
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Interesting question -- I tested a lot of lenses, so I have to try to remember this properly...

I think the answer is "yes and no." Yes, you can get the autofocus system to work. But no, it's nothing like the 14-140 lens's autofocus. It's noisy and visibly hunting and slow, and IIRC the only way you could get it to work was by holding down the PUSH AUTO button. I think putting it in full autofocus (using the auto/manual/infinity switch) didn't trigger autofocus. You had to hold the button down.

That's a pretty nice lens though. Very very sharp, nice & wide, and fast at f/2.0. But no manual iris ring, so you have to use the camcorder's wheel, and no image stabilization. Not a big deal at 14mm, but by the time you get to 35mm it'd be nice to have. But, again, this lens wasn't designed for video, so the autofocus isn't really video-appropriate. But it will work in a pinch.
 
I must say I like the removable hand grip and mounting holes. Opens it up to Panavision style side rails, with a custom block the hand grip could be re attached to rails and slid forward to match lens.

will there be a remote port for start stop? A custom cine-style hand grip with record button would be a cool aftermarket accessory.
 
digitalfilmmaker said:
Wow. It's a Red One killer at Scarlet pricing. 1080 60p, uncompressed through HDSDI, no aliasing, etc. How's the CMOS wobble and skew?
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Er, I don't know that I would call it a Red One killer! Especially at only 1/3 the price. The Red One still records 12-bit and raw, and can do smaller-frame slow-mo at up to 120fps.

But it's a lot smaller and more agile than a Red One. And when I say "no aliasing" I mean that it's not an issue. Sure, if you pixel-peep and hunt for it, you can find traces here and there, but you'll never see the big ugly rainbow moire. Then again, you can find at least as much aliasing in the HVX200, so -- as a practical matter, there's no aliasing to worry about.

For wobble and skew, it's minimal. It's not immune, and the same rules apply -- if you use a telephoto lens and move quickly, you'll see more than if you use a wide-angle lens and move slowly. But here's the thing -- it's never something that I ever had to worry about. I forgot about it, basically. You just don't think about it. It's not perfect, obviously, and there may be situations where it's an issue, but basically if you're okay with the EX1/EX3 level of skew, you should be good to go with the AF100.

It may actually be better than the EX1, I don't know -- didn't compare them side by side. But it's a huge improvement over the skew in, say, an HPX300 or HMC40 in 24p mode. It's probably in the same class as the Red/EX1.
 
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