AF100 / AF101 - initial report

Barry_Green said:
Ryan, on the "face autofocus" question -- I don't think you understood what he was asking. He was asking "okay, so seeing as very little on a face might be in focus, what would AUTOFOCUS choose to make the in-focus part?" I think he understood that only the nose, or only the eyes, or only the ears might be in focus (at f/1.4). The question (AIUI) is: would autofocus be of any value in a scenario like that? Is it "smart" enough to know to focus on the eyes?

And that, I don't know the answer to.
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Totally. :laugh:

I've shoved my foot in my mouth for the day. Time to go drink that taste away. Apologies to the original poster.
 
Barry, how did the camera feel? I realize its a sub 20k body, but I think I am not alone in preferring the rock solid feeling of a Red, 435, or D21 body... granted no one wants to lug that around on their shoulder, and while I love my 170, I know it feels even more plasticky than I would prefer... I have an incredible 28-70 L, but my 30 year old Zeiss 180 2.8 is still a better weapon when it comes to impact, the thing feels like a nice piece of cold hard steel.... So how did the camera feel?

Also, any word that it might a few raw images from that lovely sensor in there? It'd be a nice bonus for the investment :)
 
grimrebes said:
Barry, how did the camera feel? I realize its a sub 20k body, but I think I am not alone in preferring the rock solid feeling of a Red, 435, or D21 body... granted no one wants to lug that around on their shoulder, and while I love my 170, I know it feels even more plasticky than I would prefer... I have an incredible 28-70 L, but my 30 year old Zeiss 180 2.8 is still a better weapon when it comes to impact, the thing feels like a nice piece of cold hard steel.... So how did the camera feel?

Also, any word that it might a few raw images from that lovely sensor in there? It'd be a nice bonus for the investment :)
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GREAT question!

what does it fee like? solid dense? light hollow, etc... the HVX/EX1 feel heavy and dense to me. ( which is good) and the HPX170 feel as bt light and airy, like a DVX100...
 
Homunculus said:
Barry, have you ever tested GH13 dynamic range just curious because I don't put stock in Zacuto shootout since a lot of people said GH1 was on crap (not optimal) settings so I have no idea how accurate their findings were. What would you say GH1 DR is roughly from your experience?
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I used a calibrated Stouffer backlit chart to test the original GH1, and it came out to 8.3 stops. Which is about the same as I got on the Canon, and the same that Art Adams got on the Canon. I don't know what the Zacuto guys got or did.

I haven't tested the GH13, but I would be surprised if it made any difference in dynamic range.
 
grimrebes said:
Barry, how did the camera feel? I realize its a sub 20k body, but I think I am not alone in preferring the rock solid feeling of a Red, 435, or D21 body... granted no one wants to lug that around on their shoulder, and while I love my 170, I know it feels even more plasticky than I would prefer... I have an incredible 28-70 L, but my 30 year old Zeiss 180 2.8 is still a better weapon when it comes to impact, the thing feels like a nice piece of cold hard steel.... So how did the camera feel?
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It felt like a prototype. In other words, way too early to judge. These guys are hand-building these things, after all. This isn't coming off a factory line, they're hand-assembling it. :)

Also, any word that it might a few raw images from that lovely sensor in there? It'd be a nice bonus for the investment :)
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Not sure what you're asking. Will it have raw recording? Probably not. Will it take stills at the raw resolution of the sensor? Definitely not.
 
TimurCivan said:
GREAT question!

what does it fee like? solid dense? light hollow, etc... the HVX/EX1 feel heavy and dense to me. ( which is good) and the HPX170 feel as bt light and airy, like a DVX100...
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It's a prototype. That said, it's more like the 170. To me the HVX feels like it's made out of lead, and the 170 feels much lighter because it's big but lighter per the size. The AF100 is not heavy. It's not insubstantial, but it doesn't feel like it's made of lead.
 
Barry_Green said:
I used a calibrated Stouffer backlit chart to test the original GH1, and it came out to 8.3 stops. Which is about the same as I got on the Canon, and the same that Art Adams got on the Canon. I don't know what the Zacuto guys got or did.

I haven't tested the GH13, but I would be surprised if it made any difference in dynamic range.
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thanks..interesting that's higher than I thought. Thought gh1 was about 7.5. When you say "The Canon" you talking aboug 5dmkii or 7d or both or what?
Yes I don't see how hacked gh1 would have any higher DR unless you discounted certain bottom end stops of the gh1 DR due to noise and gh13 cleared that noise up a bit and made one more stop usable or something along those lines. But hey 2 stops of DR ain't bad. In fact that's how much the MX sensor did and costs the same as AF100. 5k$+ for DR from 11+ to 13+ for the red MX so we go from 8+ to 10+ hopefully with AF100
 
Homunculus said:
When you say "The Canon" you talking aboug 5dmkii or 7d or both or what?
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I'm talking about the 7D, and Art is talking about the 5D.

But hey 2 stops of DR ain't bad. In fact that's how much the MX sensor did and costs the same as AF100. 5k$+ for DR from 11+ to 13+ for the red MX so we go from 8+ to 10+ hopefully with AF100
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Hah! That's funny, but yeah... :)
 
Barry can you push them to at least release some better more official footage asap to wipe the nasty taste from our mouth of that amateur duck shoot that german tv thing released?
 
I have impression that they fired all their marketing department and want to hire Barry instead :-)
Lauch seems quite strange from marketing POV.

Plus I still can't get how you can get 70% prototype if shipping is December.
Firmware can be different, but all hardware must be fixed already.
 
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yeah the 70% thing is pure balogney no offense. Well either that or the December launch date. Maybe only 70% of the features were TURNED ON in the prototype but they have to be there and implemented already, probably just not tweaked to 100% their satisfaction just yet.

But yes, Panasonic needs to hire Barry in marketing and hire Vitaliy in engineering department. Then we'll be set. :bath:
 
Steve Kahn said:
They sidestepped charts and moire/aliasing issues altogether.

When I asked Bloom why he said they had been "well documented elsewhere"
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yes but I'm pretty sure they shot a DR chart in Zacuto did they not? Unless I'm misunderstanding your meaning of 'sidestepped'. It's just they achieved very strange results. 11+ stops of DR for Canon 7d in video mode? That's a laugh. 7 stops for GH1, again a laugh. No idea how they came up with this stuff or if I am remembering the results wrong.
 
keep in mind they were just using step charts, the amount of usable dynamic range and actual dynamic range are different things. Usable wise, even FILM has varying results. The gh1 has mudding issues which is why it might have lost a considerable amount on the bottom end. They can claim 11 stop out of a 7d, but the top end and bottom end might be completely unusable by most people standards, making it a 8-9 stop camera. Which is average on the HD camera spectrum.
 
Homunculus said:
Barry can you push them to at least release some better more official footage asap to wipe the nasty taste from our mouth of that amateur duck shoot that german tv thing released?
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Probably not, because this prototype is really early and isn't going to make representative footage that is truly what it's capable of.

That said, I have pushed them to release the theater/play stage stuff that they showed at the press conference, as that looked pretty good.
 
Homunculus said:
yes but I'm pretty sure they shot a DR chart in Zacuto did they not? Unless I'm misunderstanding your meaning of 'sidestepped'. It's just they achieved very strange results. 11+ stops of DR for Canon 7d in video mode? That's a laugh. 7 stops for GH1, again a laugh. No idea how they came up with this stuff or if I am remembering the results wrong.
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How is that a laugh? The 7D and GH1 both have huge sensors. The 7D easily has 11 stops... Compression only effects latitude, not DR. Do you not understand how light and sensors work?
 
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