AF100 with 14-140 review from b&h site

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Eithcowich

Active member
I got this from a "customer review" at b&h. Overall the reviewer loved the af100 but he ends his review with this:

"BUT A WARNING: I expected to be able to use the AF100 on full auto for those occasional live events and docs and I quickly discovered that won't be the case. Between the terrible auto-focusing (worse than the frustrating HVX!) and the fact that the main Lumix still lens (the 14-140mm) adjusts aperture by jumping entire stops at a time, the picture is often going to be fuzzy and flashing. Panasonic will tell you this camera wasn't meant for for doc style shooting, but I don't see why it has to be so bad at it."

Does this reflect other people's experience when trying to shoot live events? I've just tried the camera with a prime lens at a local rental store and I LOVE the feel of it, and the flexibility, and the fact that it's so light. It's so tempting to get it for the docs I'm making, but if it won't work for shooting while both myself and my characters are moving around, than it won't work..
 
The downside to the AF100's astounding low price is the army of neophytes moving up from Christmas-morning cameras to a camera ill-suited to a small-sensor, full-auto, single-lens-does-everything style of shooting.

Their complaints are predictable and akin to whining that an apple does not taste like an orange; more of noise than signal.

Good shooting and best regards,

Leo
 
This camera is perfect for documentary filmmaking - it has precisely the same feature-set you'd find in Arri 16mm cameras from the 50s through the 90s. There was no auto focus or iris on those. It is only in recent years that people have started using broadcast news cameras in some documentary applications. In the early 2000s, the 1/3" Sony and Panasonics made big inroads into this field. This is especially true of the HVX200, a model that convinced several prominent documentary filmmakers to retire their 16mm cameras forever. And yes, there was a servo lens (of sorts) on that camera.

Panasonic has been very clear that the AF100 is designed toward cinematic / narrative applications. That said, any documentary filmmaker / camera operator worth their salt should be able to make the AF100 their A-Cam for most of their work. Put the camera in manual modes and shoot the way documentarians have for over half a century... or choose one of the many cameras that do provide the automated crutches to aid in creating less precise work.
 
Thanks to its consumer-grade 25 mb/s CODEC, The attainable image quality, as viewed on a Sony critical evaluation monitor (a BVM-L231), is visibly inferior to all of the following cameras:

Canon 5D Mark II (39 mb/s)
Sony PMW-EX1R (35 mb/s)
Sony PMW-EX3 (35 mb/s)
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idiot.
 
Erik Olson said:
That said, any documentary filmmaker / camera operator worth their salt should be able to make the AF100 their A-Cam for most of their work. Put the camera in manual modes and shoot the way documentarians have for over half a century...
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Good stuff!!
 
First: I think it's clear by now that the 14-140 isn't going to make people happy. The Zuikos seem to be getting much better "reviews".

Second. As Tichell intimated, welcome to real world filmmaking... When is the last time you saw an auto focus lens on a Panaflex? I'm a documentary filmmaker, that's how I make my living, and although I really like fooling around with my little Canon HV40 in "auto everything", my past experience is 30 years of shooting 16, 35 and super16 with Elcairs, Arriflexes and Aatons - and the only thing automatic I ever used was cruise-control on my Jeeps.

I dont' mean to be cynical, but this selective-focus/large-sensor craze does come with a price... Skill.
 
Well, those auto-everything cameras allowed people like myself to make films (http://www.amazon.com/Enraged-Eyal-Eithcowich/dp/B002R0EUHU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1296145076&sr=8-2) and get them broadcasted, and screened, and make some positive change, or at least try to. While shooting with my PD170 I realized that the work is indeed not always precise and many times cursed the auto-focus and auto-iris functions -- but didn't yet have the training to turn them off and go full manual. And filming in a demo and getting shot at is probably not the best place to learn.

So I am completely into the af100, and most likely I can learn to make it work manually. But it's not a decision I can do without thinking / listening / consulting.
 
Until Panasonic introduces a camera with the, "Ridley Scott - Joey Cicio," chip, we'll just have to learn to use our tools, including the mind's-eye as well as the hardware.

Good shooting and best regards,

Leo
 
I always use the Primos in auto iris mode because I can only do the F or the I or the Z at one time. It isn't my failing as an AC as much as it is a design flaw in the cinema cameras. Truthfully, I don't like to focus either. And I seem to have constant battles with the operator and DP over having to iris up or down within a shot. People need to get with the 21st century already!
 
Eithcowich said:
I got this from a "customer review" at b&h. Overall the reviewer loved the af100 but he ends his review with this:

"BUT A WARNING: I expected to be able to use the AF100 on full auto for those occasional live events and docs and I quickly discovered that won't be the case. Between the terrible auto-focusing (worse than the frustrating HVX!) and the fact that the main Lumix still lens (the 14-140mm) adjusts aperture by jumping entire stops at a time, the picture is often going to be fuzzy and flashing. Panasonic will tell you this camera wasn't meant for for doc style shooting, but I don't see why it has to be so bad at it."

Does this reflect other people's experience when trying to shoot live events? I've just tried the camera with a prime lens at a local rental store and I LOVE the feel of it, and the flexibility, and the fact that it's so light. It's so tempting to get it for the docs I'm making, but if it won't work for shooting while both myself and my characters are moving around, than it won't work..
Click to expand...

I read this differently... The reviewer spent a lot of money to realize this is no EX-1R with SDOF adaptor...

A bigger question is: Should the AF100 plus 14-140 lens combo at $6500 be capable of the same functions as a consumer TM700 at $750?...

or...

Is it better than a TM700 and GH2 combo for event videography? I think not...
BUT for it's intended purpose, the AF100 is a ridiculously good product for 2010, but still leaves us wanting a little more...

Are you not interested in improvements for 2011 and providing critical feedback?

ASAP in 2011, I think Panasonic needs to further imorove the CODEC, give us 50Mb/s option whether we need it or not, give us audio at 60fps,
and partner or provide authorized lens options with better auto functions instead of referring us to Voightlander, Leica, Zeiss and Olympus...

My 2 cents and short list of things we all could use now, as 2012 is just 11 months off...
 
Mac said:
First: I think it's clear by now that the 14-140 isn't going to make people happy. The Zuikos seem to be getting much better "reviews".
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Because the Zuikos cost 3x as much. Each. To cover the range of the $750 14-140, you'd have to buy both the $2300 Zuiko 14-35 and the $2500 35-100. So, yeah, $4800 worth of glass does beat $750 worth of glass, that really shouldn't surprise anyone.

The 14-140 autofocuses better than any SLR lens, period. Its iris is awful, the iris response is clunky and very very slow. Its OIS is excellent -- and neither of the Zuikos has any manner of OIS. It's slow. And I still think that it's flexible enough and convenient enough that it's on my list of must-have accessories for the AF100, for anyone who wants to press the cinema camera into being a facsimile of a conventional video camera, at a reasonable price.
 
J Bellari said:
I read this differently... The reviewer spent a lot of money to realize this is no EX-1R with SDOF adaptor...

A bigger question is: Should the AF100 plus 14-140 lens combo at $6500 be capable of the same functions as a consumer TM700 at $750?...

or...

Is it better than a TM700 and GH2 combo for event videography? I think not...
BUT for it's intended purpose, the AF100 is a ridiculously good product for 2010, but still leaves us wanting a little more...

A
Click to expand...

Are you saying youd rather have the GH2 and TM700 over the AF100?
 
Erik Olson said:
...That said, any documentary filmmaker / camera operator worth their salt should be able to make the AF100 their A-Cam for most of their work. Put the camera in manual modes and shoot the way documentarians have for over half a century... or choose one of the many cameras that do provide the automated crutches to aid in creating less precise work.
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Well said. AF is a beast yet to be tamed.... Pretty soon those Christmas camera people will want to touch the LCD screen of a pro camera and expect it to focus... scary, it may happen sooner then later.
 
MadHMC150 said:
Pretty soon those Christmas camera people will want to touch the LCD screen of a pro camera and expect it to focus... scary, it may happen sooner then later.
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Already has -- the HMC40 is from the pro division, it has a touch LCD, and you can point to the area of the screen that you want it to autofocus on.

And, the AF100 can almost do that -- it doesn't have a touchscreen, but you can drive the function knob around the screen and use that to tell it where you want it to autofocus...
 
My question is: Do the Pana 14-140mm or Zuiko 14-35 & 35-100 only have 1-stop aperture/iris incremental steps, like all/most DSLR still lenses? Or do you have the smooth transitioning at 1/6 or 1/3 of a stop for any of those lenses?

Barry_Green said:
Because the Zuikos cost 3x as much. Each. To cover the range of the $750 14-140, you'd have to buy both the $2300 Zuiko 14-35 and the $2500 35-100. So, yeah, $4800 worth of glass does beat $750 worth of glass, that really shouldn't surprise anyone.

The 14-140 autofocuses better than any SLR lens, period. Its iris is awful, the iris response is clunky and very very slow. Its OIS is excellent -- and neither of the Zuikos has any manner of OIS. It's slow. And I still think that it's flexible enough and convenient enough that it's on my list of must-have accessories for the AF100, for anyone who wants to press the cinema camera into being a facsimile of a conventional video camera, at a reasonable price.
Click to expand...
 
It's an obvious case of someone not doing enough homework before buying. THe features he has concerns about would come as no surprise to anyone who had done enough research. I appreciate the fact that he reiterates it in his review to stop other people from having similar false expectations. But he seems to sell it as though he was hoodwinked a bit, which is unfair.

I'm coming from the same position. Nearly all of my camera operation experience comes from the DVX/HVX/XL-2 world. It's an adjustment to move to this camera. But none of that was a secret. Not even close.
 
whatever happened to you know, just focusing you're camera manually? auto iris can be usefull in run and gun situations, but letting the camera decide what should and shouldn't be in focus always seemed a step to far; how to manually focus a camera properly should be the first thing you learn and is pretty much the basis of all videography/cinematography. why buy a 4-5 grand pro camera if you're incapable of using it properly?
 
obonin said:
My question is: Do the Pana 14-140mm or Zuiko 14-35 & 35-100 only have 1-stop aperture/iris incremental steps, like all/most DSLR still lenses? Or do you have the smooth transitioning at 1/6 or 1/3 of a stop for any of those lenses?
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The 14-140 has many steps inbetween the full steps. But it doesn't adjust smoothly. It's clunky. The iris response is really, really slow, and it moves in visible steps. Which is annoying.
 
obonin said:
My question is: Do the Pana 14-140mm or Zuiko 14-35 & 35-100 only have 1-stop aperture/iris incremental steps, like all/most DSLR still lenses? Or do you have the smooth transitioning at 1/6 or 1/3 of a stop for any of those lenses?
Click to expand...
The Olympus 35-100mm and 14-35mm f2 lenses allow you to adjust the aperture in 1/3-stop increments via camera controls. Neither of these lenses has a manual aperture ring.
 
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