AF100 LCD screen

Hey, make your decision on whatever factors you want. Buy whatever you want, based on whatever particular requirements you have. I'm just saying that as of the last 8 years of working with these cameras, not one of them has had what I would call a highly-accurate, reference-caliber LCD panel, and I don't know anyone who has ever been concerned about that. It's never been a part of our toolkit, and it may never be.

Now, if you want to petition them to add color balance to the camera line, that's a different discussion. But to declare that it's "faulty" because there's a minor bit of yellow/green in some of the LCDs, seems like a classic case of "overreaction".

Your mileage may, indeed, vary.
 
LOL you think you've got problems? You should see the yellow colour casts on the LCD screen of my Hasselblad H3DII. Now that's a crappy dim old screen, on a £10,000 pound camera! (Medium format cameras are pretty much universally acknowledged to have AWFUL LCD's).

I learnt long ago to rely on the lightmeter and the histogram, and not pay any attention to camera LCD image rendition. Same for video... if it isn't on a calibrated monitor, forget it.

But I'd definitely second the call for some colour adjustments on the AF100's screen, because it would be great to at least be able to do a rough by-eye calibration.

Cheers, Hywel.
 
Just to clarify, I don't think anyone is requesting a 5K LCD on a 5K camera. It never occurred to me to have to adjust an on-camera LCD (aside from brightness), because they were always close enough. Not perfect, but at least the right colors at a glance. I'm not complaining about not having that capability on this camera. But that LCD just looks so off....

Barry, are you saying that based on PaPa's stills you think this is minor thing? I don't mean minor in the context of how great the camera is. I mean minor compared to what you have seen from other LCDs. I'm just asking because my experience is limited. In this price range I have only shot with DVX, HVX, PD-150, XL-1 and XL-2 cameras (that I recall), and I can't even think of seeing a camera that had an LCD with colors that were so far from what a reference monitor shows.
 
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Barry_Green said:
not one of them has had what I would call a highly-accurate, reference-caliber LCD panel, and I don't know anyone who has ever been concerned about that.
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Why would I be interested in what the people you know are concerned about? That's got nothing to do with the images Papa presented.

Barry_Green said:
Now, if you want to petition them to add color balance to the camera line, that's a different discussion.
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That's actually something that would be a part of this discussion.
 
Jim Brennan said:
Barry, are you saying that based on PaPa's stills you think this is minor thing?
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What those pics show would be unacceptable to me. And what those pics show bears no resemblance to any of the AF100's I've used or seen used. A couple of people have mentioned a "minor" yellowish cast, and I wouldn't think that would be anything to get concerned about.

As said before, I pointed Panasonic to this thread so PaPa can get his looked at and figured out. What he is showing is grossly abnormal, compared to any of the other cameras I've used or seen. And I've been around a lot of folks who have shot a lot of footage on the AF100, and nobody has ever said "holy moley this thing's wildly green". So I'm saying that what I'm seeing on his pics is an aberration. There's something wrong there. Whether it's the LCD itself or the shooting scenario or whatever, I don't know. So Panasonic should look at it and determine if it's within spec.

I can't even think of seeing a camera that had an LCD with colors that were so far from what a reference monitor shows.
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I haven't seen any on-camera LCD look that far off either. I'm saying that after having used two, and been with two large groups of folks who used lots of them, and having been to multiple trade shows where they were displayed, that there's nothing wrong IN GENERAL with the AF100's display. Even if it's not perfect, even if it's slightly off, it's only slightly off.

PaPa's pic is unacceptable to me.
 
that shot was under very yellow tungsten lights with tungsten balance. Tried something similar with the production model on demo at my local store, same thing.

so that shot, shows probably with very yellow light the extremety of the greenness. Normally the differenec is a lot more subtle under regular tungsten lamps and daylight, my point is only that i would like LCD color balance to be added in the next firmware.

Yeah barry, this isn't me saying that it's faulty, or if that's whati t sounded like, it's how it concerned me at first, but after finding out its quite normal, now it's turned into more of a petition for me to get panasonic to give us color balance in the next firmware.
 
Barry_Green said:
Panasonic knows about the thread. They're going to see if what they're shipping qualifies as acceptable and within spec. Keep in mind that in the manual they've already addressed it (on page 29 of volume 1 of the owner's manual):


In other words, the LCD on the camera is not some reference-spec broadcast-caliber monitor. It's an on-camera LCD, useful for framing/composition, and vaguely accurate for color. That's the way on-camera LCDs have always been. It's not warranted to be absolutely accurate.

Obviously if it's way out of whack, that'd be a repair issue. But if it's just mildly a tiny bit greenish, then that's nothing to be concerned about and is par for the course -- as Jeff said, Panasonic monitors have always been considered to have a little bit of green in them.
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heavyG said:
I don't want to diminish what people are experiencing with the greenish cast on their LCD - but it really is just for framing and camera info. Any critical colour decisions should be made with a separate properly calibrated broadcast monitor.
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This might make sense and be an acceptable excuse, except for the fact that the GH1 and GH2 have a manual color balance adjustment for the LCD.
 
Barry_Green said:
Panasonic knows about the thread. They're going to see if what they're shipping qualifies as acceptable and within spec.


In other words, the LCD on the camera is not some reference-spec broadcast-caliber monitor. It's an on-camera LCD, useful for framing/composition, and vaguely accurate for color. That's the way on-camera LCDs have always been. It's not warranted to be absolutely accurate.

Obviously if it's way out of whack, that'd be a repair issue. But if it's just mildly a tiny bit greenish, then that's nothing to be concerned about and is par for the course -- as Jeff said, Panasonic monitors have always been considered to have a little bit of green in them.
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It's green. It's outside the bounds of acceptability period. These cameras should not have left the factory looking this way. The producer will get his nice monitor but the idea that I will have to sit and endure this green goblin whenever I use the camera is depressing. Makes me feel like I've been snookered. In the end if this qualifies as acceptable and within Panasonic specs then I won't purchase any more of their products. End of story.
 
I hate green tinted images in general but I don't see anything that's green tinted. If I compare how our HVX200 looks it's always green and I end up doing colour correction in post and it goes away. My AF101 is much better. Sometimes I think some of us expects to much from this camera. I see the LCD screen not being spot on but it's okay and I can trust AWB to look good. I love the images I get from the camera.
 
editman said:
I hate green tinted images in general but I don't see anything that's green tinted. If I compare how our HVX200 looks it's always green and I end up doing colour correction in post and it goes away. My AF101 is much better. Sometimes I think some of us expects to much from this camera. I see the LCD screen not being spot on but it's okay and I can trust AWB to look good. I love the images I get from the camera.
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I don't think we're expecting too much from the camera when you can adjust the color balance on a camera (GH1 and GH2) that's a fifth of the price from the same manufacturer. This is a professional camera so there's no reason why it shouldn't have a professional feature of being able to adjust the color balance of the LCD.
 
I'm going to have to agree. If it is that the af100 has issues with the simple LCD, it really turns me off about picking one up at this point in time. It's 2011 and the technology is there. No excuses...
 
dustylense said:
I'm going to have to agree. If it is that the af100 has issues with the simple LCD, it really turns me off about picking one up at this point in time. It's 2011 and the technology is there. No excuses...
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I guess I don't understand this. It has been made abundantly clear that this is most likely an anomaly. No company has a 0.0% error in manufacturing. You seem to be assuming that Panasonic has weighed in and said this was okay.

Nearly everyone who is reporting out on their production cameras loves them.
 
Mike@AF said:
I don't think we're expecting too much from the camera when you can adjust the color balance on a camera (GH1 and GH2) that's a fifth of the price from the same manufacturer.
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There are lots of things that the GH2 can do that the AF100 doesn't. Stills, for example. AFC mode, for another. Color balance on the LCD. Touchscreen. Lots of things. And the GH2 has about as much relevance to the AF100, as a fish does to a stone.

I agree that having more control is better and I'd love to see it added. But to say that "the GH2 has it" is, unfortunately, irrelevant. The GH2 isn't from the same company even. It's from Panasonic Consumer. The AF100 is from Panasonic Solutions Company (formerly Panasonic Broadcast). I understand folks won't like that explanation, but that doesn't change the truth of the explanation. If you're expecting the AF100 to be a GH2 with added features, then you don't understand the difference between the consumer and broadcast companies.
 
Is the consensus here that this is a something that all AF-100s exhibit, or just some?

Seems to me that not everyone has this issue, so I'm wondering if a small amount of cameras left the factory with the LCD color balance out of whack?
 
jaypass said:
Is the consensus here that this is a something that all AF-100s exhibit, or just some?

Seems to me that not everyone has this issue, so I'm wondering if a small amount of cameras left the factory with the LCD color balance out of whack?
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It seems to be just some, to the extent of the green tint.
 
no, really it's all of them. The image i posted is really if you are shooting under VERY YELLOW tungsten light, with 3200 preset on, it exaggerates the amount of green/yellow on the lcd. If you shoot daylight, it's really difficult to tell a difference, but the more yellow your image, the more you will see it. I think we can confirm this by now.

But please guys, let's not bring this thread into a "this is unacceptable and irresponsible of pansonic... im not going to buy one now... " This is really only here to serve a purpose, and that purpose should now be to get Panasonic's attention and hope that they release a firmware that gives the user the ability to do a little color balance on the lcd. Simple as that. It's not the end of the world ;)

Just to reiterate Barry's comment, photo cameras really need accurate color information more so than video. Think of the professional use of LCD screens to a professional photographer. They generally use only the camera and it is not as common to have both an LCD screen, EVF, external monitor, etc... So yeah.
 
Stephen Mick said:
I can see no such green tint in the LCD of my AF-100.
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Stephen, go turn on some very old tungsten lamps, preferably kitchen lights, or even fluorescent lights, put your preset to 3200 k, and compare. I'm positive you will notice a difference. It may be acceptable to you, but it should be there. And if not, lucky you!
 
I'm prepping Ljung's AF100 for an overnight tonight and it most definitely has a green tint to the LCD, which to me seems to be unacceptable, but I haven't tested in the field yet. The Demo model I saw last month at Cinequipt also had the green LCD. So out of the two I've seen they both had the problem. I won't get my AF100 until next week, so I am hoping these are isolated cases, but I don't think they are.
 
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