AF100 Article by Art Adams

Dino

Dino

Veteran
How do you feel about the highlight issue Jeff? Is it indeed an issue? If so would it be possible to fix some of the highlight handling characteristics via firmware updates?
 
Jeff, Hows that Alura lens? Art seems reasonably impressed.

Also I think this is a very fair article. Theres no dogs in the race for the writer, just going by his own experience. The only area I might give a slight tilt of the head is regarding green screen. The technology is improving all the time on the software / hardware side. Im also convinced that a 4:2:2 recording would solve any issue.
 
Steve,

I find highlight handling with the AF100 to be much the same as an HPX170, HVX200A, HPX500. He shot with HD Norm-Low gamma, which wouldn't be my first choice for exterior high contrast environments. There is no question that exposure must be very accurate with this camera(like all Panasonic and Sony palmcorders), similar to the difference between exposing a 35mm motion picture camera stock vs. 16mm vs. Super 8mm. I prefer shooting with our HPX2700 P2 Varicam in high contrast scenes, but that's due to a 32-bit DSP vs. 18-bit and a codec that offers additional latitude(AVC-Intra 100).

Noel,

Art will have shot three projects for a total of 5 days with our AF100/Alura setup. He likes the combination, for sure.

One of our AF100's just came back from a corporate shoot. DP is pretty high-end, as is the AC(ex-ILM for the latter). DP said he would select the AF100 over his 5D2 for most shoots, AC and DP were very happy with the lens. They were going to use an Angenieux 15-40mm originally, at more than twice the rental rate, and said the Arri Alura was the better choice for twice the reach and made for a more efficient shoot day while looking very good to them.

They were also very impressed with the new TV Logic WFM-056WP 5.6" on-board monitor, which is the perfect form factor for the AF100.
 
thanks for that, i was waiting for a report like this on the camera; it seemed unbiased and rational for using it for the day. i too have noticed highlight issues, exposure is key with the camera. i am not sure if this is the same scenario but often i have had a halo effect on white clipping objects. could be my settings but i will have to check into it. after using the af100 i will agree that some spots seem like it just fell too short for me, that they could have added in more (which i gladly would have paid for) but possibly for a later model. i noticed in the article there was a great deal of explanation in gamma curve; would you be able to expand on the usage of curves in the af100 (more than what is written by panasonics basic explanation) or point where one would learn more. great article, thanks again.
 
Great and honest review. After many tests I discovered this camera is not a point and shoot camera. You have to know where the limits are and stay within them. Then it looks great. If you don't it sure can look ugly.
 
Great article firmly anchored in field experience and common sense.

Well ...Good or bad cam ? It's all about control and environment (well.. uhh.. both , indeed, are related)

Look at the bright side of life: e.g., look at poor-lucky me living in rainy, overcast, low contrast, post-puritan western Norway with endless subboreal winter darkness,3W 2lux sun.... I løøøøve the AF100, since I have almost never have the physical opportunity to be able to blow highlights outdoors (we could try hard, but can't normally). So no need to stretching the lower midtones ands grays, since everything is gray, already fully stretched.... the sky, the forests, the lakes,.... our lives and memories :-), little difference between RGB and B&W (colour you said?), no need for light bouncers, diffusers since everything around is desperately bouncing the few available photons....

To use a Panasonic metaphor, we happen to live in an eternal Cine-D gamma environment. So the contrasty AF100 is perfect.

The only Kierkegaardian dilemma is: "How much ISO?, How much noise?".

PS. Sorry for ye all in sunny California, Sahara and Oman. Watch your highlights.
 
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Dino said:
Here is a view of the AF100 camera from a high-end DP:

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/aadams/story/panasonic_af-100_the_good_the_bad_and_the_ugly/

Just a note, while I can't directly speak to some of the things I'd like to in this article at this time, I will just say that the footage looks very nice, and everyone, including the director, is happy with the camera. The only regret I have is shooting at 1/60th vs. 1/48th, as the motion is not filmic enough to my eye.
Click to expand...

If you turn "Shutter" off it will shoot half your frame rate. 25p 1/50 and 24p 1/48.
 
danielc said:
i noticed in the article there was a great deal of explanation in gamma curve; would you be able to expand on the usage of curves in the af100 (more than what is written by panasonics basic explanation) or point where one would learn more. great article, thanks again.
Click to expand...

Barry Greens book goes into great depth on how to best use the AF100 settings. I would say it's a must have for any af100 owner.
 
This article corroborates some of my observations.
AF100 is an affordable drama production camera for light-controlled environments.
The AVCHD codec is sufficient for most situations (but not greenscreen/FX).
I have to disagree with the assumption that a 10-bit output would help--the camera head does not provide clean enough output IMHO, but in fact I do not know its noise figures.
Whether the outboard recording to a 422 hi-bitrate ProRes is much of an improvement remains to be seen--I'll wait for the authors' findings.
My hypothesis is that AVCHD converted to ProRes on ingestion into editing should be enough in almost all circumstances.
Especially those within a drama production environment (with basic grading, but not greenscreen/FX; codec-breaking tests not included).
 
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I just got some feedback from a a VFX guy at a large NYC ad agency regarding green screen. I had shot a small green screen shoot for the agency last week with the AF as an experiment of sorts. The feed back was generally very positive about pulling the key without much effort. Several people who saw the footage really liked the overall quality of the image compared to other things they see on a regular basis.
Last year I shot a large GS project for the same agency with an HPX3000 full raster AVC i 1080. While the compositor said that the AF 100 footage compared favorably in many ways to the AVC I material from the large project, he still gave the edge to the AVC I 100 by a small margin.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the feedback on the green screen ..... I was expecting much worse. This particular agency does a lot of complex motion graphics work with green screen material and they really know their stuff.
 
after reading the article, i played around with my af100 again,
id have to agree about the over exposed colors. this could also be another reason why some people dont like the highlights and the article pretty much sums it up.
 
was it done with the AVCHD internal codec?

Mark Smith said:
I just got some feedback from a a VFX guy at a large NYC ad agency regarding green screen. I had shot a small green screen shoot for the agency last week with the AF as an experiment of sorts. The feed back was generally very positive about pulling the key without much effort. Several people who saw the footage really liked the overall quality of the image compared to other things they see on a regular basis.
Last year I shot a large GS project for the same agency with an HPX3000 full raster AVC i 1080. While the compositor said that the AF 100 footage compared favorably in many ways to the AVC I material from the large project, he still gave the edge to the AVC I 100 by a small margin.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the feedback on the green screen ..... I was expecting much worse. This particular agency does a lot of complex motion graphics work with green screen material and they really know their stuff.
Click to expand...
 
nugat said:
was it done with the AVCHD internal codec?
Click to expand...

Yes the key was pulled from AVCHD converted to pro res inside FCP. No external recorder.

if there was an implementation of AVCHD 50 mbs with 4:2:2 color sampling, it would probably be a killer codec, based on efficiency & quality.
 
Thanks. This is a great article. The section on clipped skin highlights and accommodations made in post with filters is extremely helpful.
 
This is an excellent article, just another confirmation to watch exposures oh so carefully. Hope the last sentence makes its way through to Panasonic and it's addressed if possible, for both their sake and ours.
 
danap said:
great article firmly anchored in field experience and common sense.

Well ...good or bad cam ? It's all about control and environment (well.. Uhh.. Both , indeed, are related)

look at the bright side of life: E.g., look at poor-lucky me living in rainy, overcast, low contrast, post-puritan western norway with endless subboreal winter darkness,3w 2lux sun.... I løøøøve the af100, since i have almost never have the physical opportunity to be able to blow highlights outdoors (we could try hard, but can't normally). So no need to stretching the lower midtones ands grays, since everything is gray, already fully stretched.... The sky, the forests, the lakes,.... Our lives and memories :-), little difference between rgb and b&w (colour you said?), no need for light bouncers, diffusers since everything around is desperately bouncing the few available photons....

To use a panasonic metaphor, we happen to live in an eternal cine-d gamma environment. So the contrasty af100 is perfect.

The only kierkegaardian dilemma is: "how much iso?, how much noise?".

Ps. Sorry for ye all in sunny california, sahara and oman. Watch your highlights.
Click to expand...

Hahahaha... :D
 
Mark Smith said:
I just got some feedback from a a VFX guy at a large NYC ad agency regarding green screen. I had shot a small green screen shoot for the agency last week with the AF as an experiment of sorts. The feed back was generally very positive about pulling the key without much effort. Several people who saw the footage really liked the overall quality of the image compared to other things they see on a regular basis.
Last year I shot a large GS project for the same agency with an HPX3000 full raster AVC i 1080. While the compositor said that the AF 100 footage compared favorably in many ways to the AVC I material from the large project, he still gave the edge to the AVC I 100 by a small margin.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the feedback on the green screen ..... I was expecting much worse. This particular agency does a lot of complex motion graphics work with green screen material and they really know their stuff.
Click to expand...

Mark thanks for adding the real world info.
 
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