Hi All,
Just an update on our AF100's second lease of life as B-cam to our Scarlet. Might be of interest if/when you move on from your AF100: consider keeping it, rather than selling it!
The Scarlet is an extremely fine camera. I've got a small pool of keen but strictly part-time assistants and it is noticeable how much they love shooting with it- a combination of stills-RAW like methodology, good UI design and stunning footage when you see the dailies.
But it is not the horse for every course, and we always take the AF100 along with us to.
The main uses we've found for it:
1) Cutaways. We have found the best approach is for the A-cam to shoot as if it is the only camera, and the B-cam to concentrate on anything that the operator thinks might make a good insert or cutaway shot. Our budgets force us to shoot fast and agile, largely constructing the edit in-camera. We don't have the time to shoot master-plus-coverage. When this goes wrong, having a cutaway ALREADY shot like three seconds before we had to cut (and another three or four from the previous 30 seconds of take) enriches the editing options massively.
2) Covering the reverse. We find this MUCH more limiting than the cutaway cam. But sometimes it pays to shoot the reverse of a conversation or action at the same time in order than something difficult can be done in one take. The limit here becomes matching the footage in post. We've found that a cutaway is easy to match- because they are usually on screen for such a short time, as long as the shots are graded well, the eye doesn't really notice the difference in resolution (I should say our deliverable is 1080p). If you're holding a shot or swapping back and forth between the two cams a lot, you do start to notice all the AF100's limitations (banding, image mush for some stuff that stresses the on-board codec, etc.) So in our experience it is better to use the AF100 selectively, in shots you know are going to be "stand-alone" like a cutaway or even a very wide shot or establishing shot. The key is to avoid juxtaposing and holding similar shots on the two cameras where the image differences show up more noticeably to the eye.
3) Sound recorder. The AF100's sound system is remarkably good for a camera at this price point. We use a single boom mic with a radio transmitter and two receivers, one for the Scarlet and one for the AF100. This gives us the possibility to sync and multitrack in post, but also lets us use the AF100 as a sound recorder if the Scarlet is recording off-speed. Any extra shots we get come for free, and it is easier to deal with a video/audio stream in post than a pure audio stream from our H4N (although sometimes we use that too).
4) Off-speed alternate. Conversely, we can shoot off-speed on the AF100 and normal speed with sound on the Scarlet. We tend to do it the other way around from preference (because the Scarlet's 3K HD slow mo is gorgeous) but it can be useful.
5) Quick grab shot cam. The AF100 is great for grabbing quick establishing shot, or catching some production-value-enhancing stuff in the background. It boots quicker than the Scarlet, and the built-in ND and ability to auto-everything quickly means sometimes we grab a shot we'd otherwise have missed.
6) Ruggedy-cam. The AF100 wasn't very expensive, and in the 12 months we shot with it as our A cam it paid for itself many times over. This means I'm quite sanguine about chucking the AF100 in places I wouldn't dare put the Scarlet. Standing in a swimming pool to get near-water-eye-level, running through the forest with the cam at the bottom of a monopod, balanced precariously on a high bookshelf and so on.
7) Poor-man's steadicam. I can't afford a "real" steadicam rig for the Scarlet. It's fine on the Figrig for a few shots, but for anything more extensive we use the AF100 instead. I do wish one of the two cameras had a really good autofocus system for that, though. The AF100 with 14mm Lumix lens is the best all-around option for crazy running around shots, I've found.
One cam duty we don't feel is well covered by the AF100/Scarlet combo is impromptu interviews/behind the scenes/giving camera to talent and getting them to shoot stuff where having a PROPERLY auto camera is an advantage. This we cover with our one remaining HVX200, where the lack of full HD is just not an issue; frankly we could probably cover that need with our iPhones now.
The only other shortcomings in my cinematographic arsenal of cameras are a go-anywhere cam and a serious slow-mo cam. If one of our writers comes up with a killer idea that will definitely need full go-anywhere capability I'll buy a go-pro. (As if it is that hot an idea, the profits from making the film should surely pay for a go pro!) If anything ever needs more serious slowmo than the AF100/Scarlet I'll hire an Epic for a day, similarly.
So… although the AF100 and I bashed head on many occasions in the grading suite when it was my A-cam, it has properly found its niche in our productions as the B-Cam.
Incidentally the grading issues are less severe with the new usage, too. That's partially because we tend to use the AF100 footage in short snatches, and we have the Scarlet's gorgeous images to grade to as a reference which helps more than I'd expected. I think because it removes most of the arbitrary decision-making from the grade. if the blue colours on the star's ballgown don't match from cam to cam, you KNOW you need to pull a secondary on the AF100 shot and correct it to look like the graded Scarlet. It is much harder to decide to pull that secondary "from a blank sheet of paper" when it was my A-cam and I'd have to pull it on dozens and dozens of shots.
I do find the AF100 needs pulling and pushing more to make an attractive look that I like whereas the stills-RAW-like controls on the Scarlet get me there with a one-light colour correction 90% of the time. Especially since REDColor3 was released, which improves skin tone rendition A LOT. So getting a Scarlet was absolutely the right decision for us, but keeping the AF100 also turns out to have been a very smart move.
Cheers, Hywel
Just an update on our AF100's second lease of life as B-cam to our Scarlet. Might be of interest if/when you move on from your AF100: consider keeping it, rather than selling it!
The Scarlet is an extremely fine camera. I've got a small pool of keen but strictly part-time assistants and it is noticeable how much they love shooting with it- a combination of stills-RAW like methodology, good UI design and stunning footage when you see the dailies.
But it is not the horse for every course, and we always take the AF100 along with us to.
The main uses we've found for it:
1) Cutaways. We have found the best approach is for the A-cam to shoot as if it is the only camera, and the B-cam to concentrate on anything that the operator thinks might make a good insert or cutaway shot. Our budgets force us to shoot fast and agile, largely constructing the edit in-camera. We don't have the time to shoot master-plus-coverage. When this goes wrong, having a cutaway ALREADY shot like three seconds before we had to cut (and another three or four from the previous 30 seconds of take) enriches the editing options massively.
2) Covering the reverse. We find this MUCH more limiting than the cutaway cam. But sometimes it pays to shoot the reverse of a conversation or action at the same time in order than something difficult can be done in one take. The limit here becomes matching the footage in post. We've found that a cutaway is easy to match- because they are usually on screen for such a short time, as long as the shots are graded well, the eye doesn't really notice the difference in resolution (I should say our deliverable is 1080p). If you're holding a shot or swapping back and forth between the two cams a lot, you do start to notice all the AF100's limitations (banding, image mush for some stuff that stresses the on-board codec, etc.) So in our experience it is better to use the AF100 selectively, in shots you know are going to be "stand-alone" like a cutaway or even a very wide shot or establishing shot. The key is to avoid juxtaposing and holding similar shots on the two cameras where the image differences show up more noticeably to the eye.
3) Sound recorder. The AF100's sound system is remarkably good for a camera at this price point. We use a single boom mic with a radio transmitter and two receivers, one for the Scarlet and one for the AF100. This gives us the possibility to sync and multitrack in post, but also lets us use the AF100 as a sound recorder if the Scarlet is recording off-speed. Any extra shots we get come for free, and it is easier to deal with a video/audio stream in post than a pure audio stream from our H4N (although sometimes we use that too).
4) Off-speed alternate. Conversely, we can shoot off-speed on the AF100 and normal speed with sound on the Scarlet. We tend to do it the other way around from preference (because the Scarlet's 3K HD slow mo is gorgeous) but it can be useful.
5) Quick grab shot cam. The AF100 is great for grabbing quick establishing shot, or catching some production-value-enhancing stuff in the background. It boots quicker than the Scarlet, and the built-in ND and ability to auto-everything quickly means sometimes we grab a shot we'd otherwise have missed.
6) Ruggedy-cam. The AF100 wasn't very expensive, and in the 12 months we shot with it as our A cam it paid for itself many times over. This means I'm quite sanguine about chucking the AF100 in places I wouldn't dare put the Scarlet. Standing in a swimming pool to get near-water-eye-level, running through the forest with the cam at the bottom of a monopod, balanced precariously on a high bookshelf and so on.
7) Poor-man's steadicam. I can't afford a "real" steadicam rig for the Scarlet. It's fine on the Figrig for a few shots, but for anything more extensive we use the AF100 instead. I do wish one of the two cameras had a really good autofocus system for that, though. The AF100 with 14mm Lumix lens is the best all-around option for crazy running around shots, I've found.
One cam duty we don't feel is well covered by the AF100/Scarlet combo is impromptu interviews/behind the scenes/giving camera to talent and getting them to shoot stuff where having a PROPERLY auto camera is an advantage. This we cover with our one remaining HVX200, where the lack of full HD is just not an issue; frankly we could probably cover that need with our iPhones now.
The only other shortcomings in my cinematographic arsenal of cameras are a go-anywhere cam and a serious slow-mo cam. If one of our writers comes up with a killer idea that will definitely need full go-anywhere capability I'll buy a go-pro. (As if it is that hot an idea, the profits from making the film should surely pay for a go pro!) If anything ever needs more serious slowmo than the AF100/Scarlet I'll hire an Epic for a day, similarly.
So… although the AF100 and I bashed head on many occasions in the grading suite when it was my A-cam, it has properly found its niche in our productions as the B-Cam.
Incidentally the grading issues are less severe with the new usage, too. That's partially because we tend to use the AF100 footage in short snatches, and we have the Scarlet's gorgeous images to grade to as a reference which helps more than I'd expected. I think because it removes most of the arbitrary decision-making from the grade. if the blue colours on the star's ballgown don't match from cam to cam, you KNOW you need to pull a secondary on the AF100 shot and correct it to look like the graded Scarlet. It is much harder to decide to pull that secondary "from a blank sheet of paper" when it was my A-cam and I'd have to pull it on dozens and dozens of shots.
I do find the AF100 needs pulling and pushing more to make an attractive look that I like whereas the stills-RAW-like controls on the Scarlet get me there with a one-light colour correction 90% of the time. Especially since REDColor3 was released, which improves skin tone rendition A LOT. So getting a Scarlet was absolutely the right decision for us, but keeping the AF100 also turns out to have been a very smart move.
Cheers, Hywel
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