AF100 - It's amazing what these modern cameras can do for you ;-)

H

Holle

New member
I hope this forum is still alive. I have to say that I still use my AF100 and
still love it. And now that I have read for a long time in this forum, I would
like to share some impressions that I have collected with this little gem. The
occasion is a small commercial that I filmed last autumn with the AF100.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEJTyRs7m8I

This film is currently shown in the biggest cinemas in my home region. It is to
promote a course of study at our local university that focuses on sustainable
energy production. The story of the film is of course inspired by the movie "Back to the
Future".

Besides the camera I use some old OM lenses together with the Speed Booster - a
great combination. I was able to shoot this commercial in one day - essentially
as a one man band. I have access to the Sony FS7 (which is a fantastic camera and
I love to film with it) and it may sound a bit polemical, but I chose the AF100
over the Sony FS7 for this shoot for the following reasons:

- The AF100 is a little smaller and lighter and I can work with it faster. When I
film with her, she feels like an extension of my arm, while the FS7 feels like a
brick, although I also use an ATOMOS recorder on the Pana. However, I have to say
that I filmed almost exclusively from a tripod for this shoot and the time
advantage was therefore not quite as large.
- The image quality is still more than amazing.
- I like the look of the AF100 - especially in combination with the OM lenses.

I bought the AF100 from BandH in August 2016 and had it sent to me in Germany -
about a week before it was set to "sold out". One of the best purchase decisions
of my life! But I have to admit that it took me a while to get the best out of the camera.
At the beginning I was even quite shocked about these nasty highlight color-blowouts,
which i learned to get a grip on and which are no longer an issue for me.

This forum has helped me a lot - thank you for that.
 
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Let's see how many ways we can discourage people from joining. A few more posts should crush Holle to never post again after this first post. C'mon folks, we should be welcoming new members and start with encouragement and support.

Holle, thanks for your post. I want your Volkswagen. I have lots of bottles.
 
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1080p60 was not a standard capability when the camera was released, but was available later as a paid firmware upgrade. The "PH" mode that it added also increased the maximum data rate from 24 Mb/s to 28 Mb/s. So some cameras, including mine, will have it, and some will not.

- Greg
 
Welcome Holle, do not pay attention to the “ nay sayers”. I had an original AF100 upgraded to the 1080 p50/60 PH mode, and later sold it to get a AF100A with the newer video processor, which added 1080p50/60 output via HDMI. The camer fully supports full HD 1080p in addition to 720p and SD. It was one of the first “ higher end” cameras to offer full HD 1080p recording.
It offered many advantages over using a DSLR for Video, in a familiar form factor (similar to ENG cameras) with external control switches foe WB, Gain/ISO and ND filters. It was and still us an amazing camera, which like most pro or higher end cameras, yiu must learn how to use to get the most from it. A point and shoot it is not. Good luck with your project.
Cheers
 
holle-

completion is perfection.

congrats on your film.

and the af100 does look great!

thumbs up.

rob
smalltalk productions/nyc
 
Thank you very much for the many kind comments and welcome.

By the way: I use the AF100A, which records in up to 1080p 60.

@Denny16: Thanks for the question, for the short answer please see below.

The long answer: For this film I used my old Olympus Zuiko OM full-frame lenses. I started collecting these lenses at Ebay/Germany a couple of years ago. The cheapest is a 1:3,5/135 mm used for the opening shot. I bought it for 35 Euro (about 40 US-Dollars). For the most expensive one, a 1:3,5/18mm I paid about 450 Euro which is currently about 530 $ but I didn't use it in the commercial. Some of these lenses are more than 40 years old.

I like these lenses because they are small and light and very robust. The diameter is very small, which allows very fast shift of sharpness. The aperture ring is with a few exceptions on the front of the lenses and the button to unlock the lens from the body is on the lens itself, i.e. the Speed Booster can remain on the camera, allowing lenses to be changed quickly. But most of all I like the extraordinary performance, the sharpness, the high contrasts in backlight situations and the beautiful creamy shades and colors they provide.

In addition to the lenses mentioned above, I also own the following: One 3.5/16mm which shows very strong cushion distortion was used in the film for the trunkshot. A 2.0/24mm which was was used for the close-up of the bottle at the beginning and for the shot through the "funnel" (which was in reality a rolled piece of paper). One 2.8/24mm which can produce the craziest flares you can imagin but was not used in the film. A 2.8/28mm (not used), a 2.0/35mm which was utilized for most other shots. On the Speed Booster it becomes a super-fast normal lens. A 1.4/50mm - used in the film for the close-up of him in the car (on the Speed Booster it becomes - omg). 1.7/50mm (not used), 2.0/85mm for the handshake, 4.0/200 (not used) and a 3.5-4.5/35-70mm macro zoom lens, the only one of said lenses that is made of plastic. I like to use the zoom lens together with an adapter in reverse position, which allows me to do nice details very quickly and easily for example from the fuel gauge of the VW.

The only disadvantage of these lenses, as of course with all full-frame lenses on mft, is that even with the Speed Booster a crop factor of 1.3 to 1.4 remains, which creates a problem if you want to become very wide-angle because the very wide-angle OMs are often quite expensive on Ebay. Oh - and I never use these lenses wide open but instead stop them down at least one or two clicks to get them into their comfort zone.

The short answer: For the film I used a Speed Booster together with the following old Olympus Zuiko OM lenses: 3,5/16mm, 2,0/24mm, 2,0/35mm, 1,4/50mm, 2,0/85mm, 3,5/135mm, 3,5-4,5/35-70mm macro zoom (in reverse position).
 
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Hi rob, thank you very much!
It feels good to get such nice comments from other filmmakers.

In fact the AF100 looks even better but unfortunately youtube broke the sharpness and the contrasts to a large extent. Maybe I will post some comparison pictures later.

Holle
 
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Paul F said:
Let's see how many ways we can discourage people from joining. A few more posts should crush Holle to never post again after this first post. C'mon folks, we should be welcoming new members and start with encouragement and support.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Paul. I'm fortunately hard at taking :-)

Paul F said:
Holle, thanks for your post. I want your Volkswagen. I have lots of bottles.
Click to expand...

The only problem is that if you throw the bottles into the car you won't get your deposit back ;-)
 
Thanks Holle, I also have the AF100A, and used the newer (ish) Zeiss ZF lenses. I had some original Zeiss ContX lenses, which are similar to the Oly OMs excellent lenses. One of my favorites is the Oly FT 14-35 f/2.0 Zoom on the AF100, which is parfocal and has a real manual focus like the OMs.
Cheers.
 
Excellent work

To be honest, if I didn't have clients always asking for 4K these days (which they still usually never utilize), I'd still be rocking the AF100. It got the job done.
 
The AF100 was and is a fantastic camera when used in certain circumstances. If you have total control over lighting it can produce beautiful images that only need minor grading. The camera just can't handle the dynamic range of modern cameras. But the camera has that beautiful, out of the box Cine V mode which is one the nicest looking, baked in looks ever engineered in any camera, in my opinion. Panasonic nailed it long ago and it all started with the DVX100 in small form and then the SDX900 in full size as far as baked in, beautiful looking video. Also, the AF100 form factor is still one of the best ever engineered. I will admit I was a skeptical, late adopter of the AF100, but still have mine these 6+ years later as it get used on multicam jobs along side my AJ-PX270. I also have 2 FS7s, so the Panasonic cameras don't get much use, but in some circumstances they are right for the job. The AF100, under certain circumstances, is the best looking, small form 1080 camera Panasonic has ever made in my opinion.
 
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