Stephen Mick
Totally Usable
10.5 if I remember correctly.
AF100 / AF101 - initial report
- Thread starter Barry_Green
- Start date
10.5 if I remember correctly.
Homunculus
Carbonite Member
Thanks yes he got 10.5. But he qualified that by saying it can either go up, stay the same or possibly even go DOWN due to them wanting a lower noise floor and deciding to play it safe and having a lower DR.
Can you tell us which likelihood is more realistic? Do you think the DR will stay about the same or is there a chance it will go down or up?
Barry_Green
Moderator
It uses the same joystick-style menu navigation as the HPX170 and DVX100. However, it does have a wheel for certain functions, such as setting frame rate, shutter speed, and syncro scan shutter speed.
Barry_Green
Moderator
At least. But nothing is safe to assume, because they haven't released the specifications. All they've said is that it's using a properly-engineered OLPF that's been designed to deliver sharp images at video resolutions.
It may very well be 14mp like the GH1, or whatever the still-unannounced GH2 uses. Or it may be some version of that design, using gap transistors or multiple-pixel binning or a larger-block bayer pattern in combination of binning. We don't know.
All we do know is that the images are way sharper than a 7D/5D, with much less aliasing, and more sensitivity and less noise and no fixed-pattern noise from the GH1 or even the hacked GH13.
Barry_Green
Moderator
I've heard numbers of 1.7kg and 3.2 pounds tossed around, but I haven't heard anything definitive.
It doesn't weigh a whole lot. Put the 20mm pancake lens on there and it'll be very light indeed, certainly way less than an HVX200 or even HPX170.
Retrospective
Well-known member
Hey Barry, I guess you'll be working on the AF100 book so it will be released at the same time? 
Barry_Green
Moderator
Yes, sort of, but it's way not finalized. I used it on a few shots and it was making the shadows quite noisy, but that's the nature of an unreleased product. Totally unoptimized. It worked, but it made the shadows very noisy (well, truthfully I only tried it on level 3, which on the HPX170 amounts to adding +18dB of gain in the shadows!) So it's there, and if it was adding 18dB of gain in the shadows then that means it was exposing the shadows at about 3200 ISO, so I guess some noise is to be expected.
But it's not done and I would make no judgements on the DRS based on what I saw. All I can say is that it will be there, and what I saw was comparable to how it works in the HPX170, so it can only get better from here. Even so, in the worst case, it should work like the HPX170's does, which makes it appropriate for some scenes but not something you'd want to leave on at all times.
Ryan Patrick O'Hara
Veteran
That's just a typical sports broadcast camera that uses really long lenses. Image stabilization or rather vibration reduction. For shooting the action ridiculously far away... and, again, for finding hotties in the crowd.
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Barry_Green
Moderator
I'm talking about motorized autofocus, so that the lens's own focus capabilities are used.
Which means, for a lens that's designed to do video-style autofocus (like the GH1's stock 14-140 lens) it'll be seamless and totally usable. But for lenses that were designed strictly for stills autofocus (like the Olympus 14-35 zoom I used) it's not really appropriate for use during shooting video, as the lens is noisy and the autofocus is -- well, it's twitchy. It's designed for stills, so it hunts and locks in. Which, of course, you could use for the AF100 too, if you just want to lock in focus before shooting and then switch to manual during shooting.
What the new adapters should do, is extend that capability to all autofocus lenses that comply with Canon's (or Nikon's) autofocus systems.
Yes all functions.
That's the lens's shortcoming though, not the adapter or the body. If the lens is designed for smooth video-style autofocus, it should be excellent (as I observed on the 14-140 mft lens). If the lens isn't designed for autofocus, it'll be limited by the lens's limitations.
Auto-iris also depends on the lens's iris calibrations. For example, the lens in an HPX170 is calibrated in 1/6-stop increments, so it can easily and smoothly transition the iris. But the GH1's iris is in half-stop increments, so when you use that lens you get chunky iris changes (well, exactly the same iris changes as you get when changing a normal still-camera's lens in half-stop increments).
So, the functions are able to be controlled by the camera, but it's up to the lens to provide smooth functionality. The camera can't correct for the lens's design.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Sort of. Not true stills like a DSLR, but it can capture a frame of video and save it as a 1920x1080 "still".
Barry_Green
Moderator
My understanding (and it could be wrong) is electronic aperture control, electronic focus control, and feedback from the lens to the camera regarding zoom position and focus position (on the 00-99 scale).
That's how it worked on the Four Thirds lens I used (Olympus 14-35) when using the Lumix Four Thirds->Micro Four Thirds lens adapter. Auto-iris and auto-focus were enabled, and even in manual mode the camera body's MF00-MF99 and AF00-AF99 and Z00-Z99 scales were being constantly updated to reflect the lens's current status.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Definitely confirmed. Every version of this camera will have 50Hz and 60Hz capability.
Marketing differentiation for which territory each model is sold in, which determines what promotions are done for the product and which territory provides warranty service. AF100 = USA, AF101 = Europe, AF102 = Asia/Aus/NZ, AF104 = (I forget - China? Korea? Vietnam? Not sure) and AF105 = Japan.
Vitaliy Kiselev
Carbonite Member
Most interesting part is to make adapters that make IS or VR work on Canon and Nikon lenses. They are quite antonomous things, and most probebly can work without camera assist.
It'll be huge plus to have such adapters.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Stop hurting, I'm about to give you some Ibuprofen (or, well, morphine really).
The gain control depends on the setting of the VIDEO CAM or FILM CAM menu item.
If you set it to VIDEO CAM, you get the normal L, M, H gain settings of 0, 3dB, 6dB, 9dB, 12dB, etc... don't know what the max is.
But if you set it to FILM CAM, you get ISOs. And the ISOs you can choose from, at least according to the menus I saw, include:
200
250
320
400
500
640
800
1000
1250
1600
2000
3200
At least. There may be more.
Now, when you use the L, M, H switch in FILM CAM, you assign three of those ISOs to live on the dial. For example, on the units at the show, L=400, M=800, and H=1600. But you could configure it to be L=200, M=320, H=3200 if you wanted, or any setup you want.
Vitaliy Kiselev
Carbonite Member
So, we'll see fixed interface languages?
As I don't know how otherwise prevent gray import (and price difference seems to be around $4000 depending on the region).
Barry_Green
Moderator
Well, of course he's gonna promote that, because that's the product that Panasonic sells (the HPG20). But you could just as easily use it with a NanoFlash (which is, by the way, an 8-bit recorder).
Yeah, I think I probably did at least a dozen interviews. The AF100 was <hot> on the show floor. Even made the top headline of the IBC Daily.
Ryan Patrick O'Hara
Veteran
OK Barry... ready for a really crazy question?
Can it use the Cooke/Angeniuex/Red/etc lenses with /i technology? That would be wicked cool! I saw there was a PL mount at IBC, I believe Jan was holding it in an interview but I couldn't see close enough to make out if there was the iconic four i/technology contacts.
Not holding my breath on this! Just thought I'd ask.
Can it use the Cooke/Angeniuex/Red/etc lenses with /i technology? That would be wicked cool! I saw there was a PL mount at IBC, I believe Jan was holding it in an interview but I couldn't see close enough to make out if there was the iconic four i/technology contacts.
Not holding my breath on this! Just thought I'd ask.
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Barry_Green
Moderator
It is quite light. I thought I had heard 1.7kg. With the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens, or a c-mount video lens, it is really quite light. I think it's lighter than an HMC150, but I didn't weigh it.
I had heard numbers bandied about of 3 lbs or 1.7 kg, but I don't know which (or even if either) is accurate.
Of course, if you put a Compact Prime on there, the whole package will become substantially heavier.
Barry_Green
Moderator
You can adapt Nikon lenses to it today.
In the future there will be an electronic adapter, but today you can use a manual/mechanical adapter, and if your Nikon lenses are manual, then that's all you need.