AF100 Firmware Upgrade to 1080 60p Equivalent to AF100a?

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Benjobe

Well-known member
It seems that if you have a PAL AF100 then you can purchase a "software" upgrade (firmware?) from Panasonic through B&H Photo Video to allow your AF100 to shoot 1080 50p. Here's the link:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/856552-REG/Panasonic_AG_SFU100G_Software_Upgrade_for.html

Am I mistaken or is this something new? And if so, will there be a similar upgrade available soon for the NTSC AF100 to have 1080 60p? And I may be reaching here, but could it be possible that this upgrade includes all the new features associated with the soon-to-be-released AF100a, like focus peaking and 10-bit 4:2:2 out through the HD-SDI?

I must be mistaken because if that's true then why would any current AF100 owners buy the new AF100a when they could simply upgrade their firmware?
 
That upgrade has been available for a while now for all flavours of AF100, what I am interested in is that the new camera has the same form factor and size ands it's price has not soared so it's reasonable to assume the internals - the circuit boards etc may not have changed. So what did Panasonic do, is it a new chipset, is the video processing inside in a serial format hence no new circuit board for 10 bit. Can older cams be updated hardware or firmware ...questions questions.
 
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That's a let down. But thanks for the clarification. Looks like we'll just have to wait and see when the new AF100a is released in the US.
 
There is some different hardware in the AF100A. The differences between a software-upgraded AF100, and an AF100A, are that the 100A has 10-bit output on the SDI, and magnified focus assist. It can also output 60p over its HDMI (albeit at 8-bit); I don't know if the software-upgraded AF100 outputs 60p over its HDMI or not.
 
Barry_Green said:
The differences between a software-upgraded AF100, and an AF100A, are that the 100A has 10-bit output on the SDI, and magnified focus assist.
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Except that, according to Jan, the output of the AF100A is actually "enhanced" 8-bit 4:2:2 data, dithered out to 10 bits.
 
Ah..they are dithering the 2 LSB or least significant bits, Well from my understanding I dont think you will see much of an image difference except banding will disappear. All HD SDI is 10 bit or 1024 levels for anything you have sampled. And the standard SDI output from a AF100 is 10 bit, But what do they mean when they say the AF100 is an 8 bit camera, well in that 10 bit output only the 8 most significant bits are used.
A bit like buying a car and one garage says the price is $34,278.56 (10 bit includes the 56 cents) and another garage says $34,278.00 we will forget the cents (8 bit). the AF and other cameras do this this ignore the LSB least significant bits or cents

Thats why you get banding as the Af100 ignores the 2 LSB or cents as the luminance goes from one level to another you see the jump. Dithering the 2 LSB or least significant bits means they are waggling or randomly flipping these to eliminate the banding issue.
Back in the day in post production on a 8 bit system, if banding occurred you just added some very fine random noise to the image, the banding disappeared. Its not the only camera to do this - lots of others do it as well and quietly say .."yes are cams are 10 bit".

Not to take away from the AF100 i still think its a cracking good camera and delivers well for the price, its interesting to keep an eye on some of the threads concerning the cameras sharpness or lack of it, i was recently reading about a new Sony camera that a certain English/Scottish DoP took out to evaluate, he said he had to turn the sharpness down as the number of artifacts were very noticeable, he really had to dial down the detail until he had an acceptable image, so I guess he is back to AF100 territory then.
 
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A used F3 would be a better purchase IMHO over new AF100a
get an extra $1000 (beg, borrow, steal..etc) you would find yourself in a better world w slog and real 10bit outputs.
 
Yeah, the used F3s are twice the price of an AF100A. I'm really curious to see some footage and hear what people who have gotten it say, especially anyone who has an AF100 now.
 
hscully said:
Yeah, the used F3s are twice the price of an AF100A. I'm really curious to see some footage and hear what people who have gotten it say, especially anyone who has an AF100 now.
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Twice??? Noooooo
be little more optimistic. Check it out
you willmsee these prices more when new sony f series hit on the market.
 
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