I think it's fair to ask for opinions and/or why someone has twitched cameras. I am sure there are LOTS of people on the fence with both cameras. Being you are dropping $5k, one likes to try and make sure they are getting what they need. The problem, which this and many posts show, is there is no clear *winner*. It's circumstantial.
. I found this whole exercise to be very informative. I wanted to hear all the good and bad things I could about the AF100, while voicing some of my own concerns about the FS, as I believe (as Rick points out), "there are LOTS of people on the fence with both cameras." Perhaps others will find this thread helpful.
Well, you are indeed right about the tabs being open SplitFieldDiopter. Good grief you've got me pegged there.
Barry: Not having a rental option here, I am largely at the mercy of my own research and intuition—which frankly sucks. I have lots of guys I know out here using Nikon and Canon pro gear out here shooting stills, but an AF or FS100? Forget about it. So, I admit I am a serial researcher.
In spite of all that, I screw up. For example: I just bought a SD 702T because I read (and had drummed into me) that cheaping out on audio was a BIG no no. I thought the quality recorder would be a smart, core piece of equipment, and I had a line on one that was $$$ off retail. So I "just made the decision". Then I watched Barry's DVD (over and again) and read some more, asked some more. It was only then I realized how important other aspects were, such as proximity of mic, etc., and that this was too much machine for me. I am now stuck trying to sell it before it even gets here!!! As I am not a sound engineer, but have to (by virtue of limited means) wear that hats, I wanted to do right in terms of gear and blundered.
There is no way for me to tell someone my own impressions when comparing a Linhoff and a Sinar, or a Rodenstock or a Schneider, but if someone asked, I would try. I cold shoot what I want with each. I am confident it their 'build quality' and their 'specs'. Once I commit, I'll make the camera work for me.
Rick: I read your comments—all of them from ll threads—and they were super-helpful as they always have been this past month. Many thanks.
I am the opposite of many of you here. I tell stories in print. Visuals are still. I have been making magazines for 31 years. Now my industry is slowly dying. I need to learn a new craft. I am in my infancy stage and have used cheaper cameras (camcorders) the past two years trying to learn what I can and this is my next step. (If anyone here has ever been a one-person publishing company and cranked out 200-page issues of annual-report-quality work, they'd know it is as brutal and (in its own way) as challenging as a short film might be.) I'm only spending this month doing this. Next month I'll be in another section of this site haunting others about techniques
I know how to get it done, and once I start, don't have time to go back and worry about my purchasing decisons. But at this stage, never having had my still lenses on a video camera, never having to 'pull focus' or worry about DOF, or trying to hold focus while zooming, or dealing with the jerkiness of moving a zoom while shooting, I just want to get it as right as I can.
Thanks all for your help and input. I will try to do the same for others and perhaps my ignorance here is a good thing in that others like me will benefit from what I've been exposed to here....
