Driftwood Hack, AF100 Samurai ADVICE, please

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dtzfilms

Well-known member
Getting closer to shooting my feature and I have quite a few questions. So I need some
serious, serious advice about the GH2 and the AF100. Most of these questions, I'm assuming
the right responses but I need to know definitely.

With the 176mbs Driftwood hack of the GH2. I forked over $795 for a GH2 14-42mm lens combo.

1. I'm assuming 176mbs is AVC Intra????

2. So I'm wondering if the GH2 isn't going to record better footage than my AF100
and create havoc when grading, etc?

{{{On a side note, I do wish someone would hack the AF100. I'm quite sure someone can do it and one
wonders if the anticipated AF??? with possible P2 would even be necessary.}}}

With Driftwood's apparent reluctance to hack the AF100, and as I need a monitor anyway.
I started drifting toward Samurai again.

3. Atmos says, ProRes 422 10 bit. 10bit???
http://atomos.com/samurai/
Where does the extra 2bit come from?
AF100 only records 8bit from HDSDI out, correct?

4. Either way, I'm thinking that combination: Driftwood GH2 and a AF100 + Samurai should
match properly and deliver enough to withstand the rigors of post or should I be lowering the
GH2 mbs to match the AF+Samurai?

5. And finally, (sorry, all my laundry out here) I'm weighing the options of shooting here in LA
or shooting in London. If the GH2 doesn't shoot 25p why should I be making it my B camera?
Is it possible to shoot in 24p and deliver in 25p for European festivals and 24p for American markets?
Thank you.
 
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Why are you shooting with 2 different cameras and making your life so difficult?
(For that matter..why are you even using a "B" camera"?)


5. And finally, (sorry, all my laundry out here) I'm weighing the options of shooting here in LA
or shooting in London. If the GH2 doesn't shoot 25p why should I be making it my B camera?
Is it possible to shoot in 24p and deliver in 25p for European festivals and 24p for American markets?
Thank you.
Click to expand...

This puzzles me. You say you are shooting a feature. What does 25p have to do with that


BTW:

From what I read...the AF100 is not "hackeable"

I do not think the GH2 will record AVC-Intra with the hack. (How could it do that?)

FWIW: If I had an AF100 ...I would not even consider using a DSLR to shoot a "feature". ( Actually I do have an AF102 ...but hopefully you get it anyway)
 
I don't think you understand my confusion at all.

25p PAL, I'll be living in London but I go back and forth between NTSC and PAL countries.
If I'm in London, might as well shoot PAL but the GH2 only shoots NTSC, correct?

Barry recommends the GH2.

There are places in London where I can look just like a tourist while I shoot with the GH2. The AF100 no.

People have shot with this AF-GH2 combination and found it hard to tell the difference between the two at 176mbs and
with that being the case, I'd probably use the GH2 for my moving shots with a cheap glidecam, or stealing shots with
actors in public - that's the logic. AVC Intra is 100mbs, what is AVCHD at 176mbs? Just asking. I don't know. That's my confusion.
Unhackable? They said the same about the GH2, the same about the Nissan GTR 35.
Driftwood apparently can hack the AF100 but is loathe to.
 
Well if you go af/gh-2 combo, make sure to dial your Af100 color to match your base look of the gh2. Mr. Green tried to match the Gh2 to the Af100 and just couldn't match them up from his findings. So why limit a feature to what the Gh2 could provide in color/contrast settings?
176Mbit Gh2 hack is still 4.2.0.. So no grading gain there.
What you need to do is go shoot a test at a couple locations you plan to use and see how your cameras will marry together and along with your workflow if you plan to intermix takes with the 2 cameras.
What Shooter is saying is that you can use 1 camera if the shots are planned out.
 
"3. Atmos says, ProRes 422 10 bit. 10bit??? "

What happens is the output from the AF101 is 10 bit - but only the 8 most significant bits are used in a 10 bit word,
Its a bit like rounding off the cents or pence in a transaction, with a 10 bit cash register you would get the full change including the cents

Full 10 bits gives you $936.45
AF101 - 8 bit gives you $936.00 the most important bigger numbers are there just the change or minor detail is rounded off, this is why banding occurs that fine detail helps you smoothly go from one level to the next
 
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i own both and heres what i think...

maybe you can grade both to look similar but the GH2 is saturated and contrasty from the start compared to the AF100.

If it was me, Id shoot the GH2 on certain scenes but never on the same scene as both dont look exactly the same.
 
dustylense said:
Well if you go af/gh-2 combo, make sure to dial your Af100 color to match your base look of the gh2. Mr. Green tried to match the Gh2 to the Af100 and just couldn't match them up from his findings. So why limit a feature to what the Gh2 could provide in color/contrast settings?
176Mbit Gh2 hack is still 4.2.0.. So no grading gain there.
What you need to do is go shoot a test at a couple locations you plan to use and see how your cameras will marry together and along with your workflow if you plan to intermix takes with the 2 cameras.
What Shooter is saying is that you can use 1 camera if the shots are planned out.
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Oh. No gain. okay. Alright, forgive me if I sound obtuse, but what is the ProRes 422 coming out of the Samurai - is that 4.2.0 as well?
 
tipota said:
+ 1

And about 24p / 25 p: What will be your end product? That should define it.

About the question of flickers 50/60 Hz grid frequency and frame rate - here it comes once again:

http://www.davidsatz.com/aboutflicker_en.html
http://www.davidsatz.com/flickercalculator_en.html
Click to expand...

I'm trying to make a feature I can sell or use to get funds for a bigger project. I'd rather shoot 24 because even though I'm from London,
I grew up 'film-wise' in Los Angeles. If the buyer is in London and I have a 24p project, no sale, if the buyer is American and I have a 25p
project, I'm screwed. This is my conundrum. I've never pretended to know a great deal about this stuff, just the basics. That flicker chart
is impressive but that's Chinese Physics to me. But thanks for all the answers so far, quite enlightening.
 
dcloud said:
i own both and heres what i think...

maybe you can grade both to look similar but the GH2 is saturated and contrasty from the start compared to the AF100.

If it was me, Id shoot the GH2 on certain scenes but never on the same scene as both dont look exactly the same.
Click to expand...
Very good to know. Cheers mate. What I was planning to do was steal shots on the underground, steal shots at Soho, Trafalgar Square etc
and the GH2 looks so innocuous that I can get away with it. I guess only my outdoor stolen night shots.
 
I personally would shoot on a single AF101 (forget the B-cam) and record internally. Keep it simple and self contained. A single battery can last for 3 hours, a 32GB SD card about the same. Shoot fast, shoot lots.

As you aren't shooting to a delivery spec you don't have to worry about using a Ninja or Samurai. If your film is good the distributor won't care if it was captured with 8bit or 10bit electronics.

If you're shooting in the UK then shoot 25fps. If you sell the film the distributor will pay for it to be converted. Remember to keep you audio ProTools projects because they're going to be needed to be pitch-shifted.
 
dtzfilms said:
But thanks for all the answers so far, quite enlightening.
Click to expand...

The point is: Where will you be shooting? In London or in LA or both? You very probably should not mix 24p and 25 p and check if you can conform what you get in the end to the other frame rate. I can't say because we work only in PAListan. If you buyer will decide if he buys your stuff based on the frame rate you shot with he must be very special....
 
Cheers. As usual, a wealth of knowledge on this forum. Cheers.
It's all beginning to look like I needn't even bother with the GH2.
So for those of you who do have the GH2 as well, what do you use it for?
I'm justifying buying it because I can take it on the underground, Buckingham Palace and
no one would be the wiser. We could shoot in public without permits.
 
That's exactly what I use it for - at times even in TV-Movies: We shot additional documentary material in the midst of the frenzy of the carnival in Mainz with a Canon and a GH13 for a prime-time project. As this material was not directly inter-cut with our other material, we found it it to be "okayish". GH13 and GH2 are now go-betweens, time-lapser and probably one day crash cam.... ;-)
 
The GH2 is great for B-Roll when a larger camera is inappropriate, but as others stated, don't use it on the same scene as an AF.
 
Bern Caughey said:
The GH2 is great for B-Roll when a larger camera is inappropriate, but as others stated, don't use it on the same scene as an AF.
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Cheers, BC - I agree, makes sense. As long I as I don't intercut, I should be alright. I now plan on using it predominantly to steal night time exterior footage.
 
true, but in London, that costs ££££££££! Imagine a permit to shoot at Trafalgar Square or outside Scotland Yard or at the changing of the guards.
 
Don't want to bring you down, but being a London based broadcast producer I can tell you you'll be getting a few phone calls when the film is released and the BFI and BBFC see it, especially if you try and shoot in any of the Royal Parks. Like the one surrounding Buckingham Palace for instance. Your synopsis isn't bad, try and get some more funding and do it right.
 
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Tom, are you serious???? You're not having me on are you? A phone call. Flipping hell, really? Easier to ask for forgiveness notwithstanding, okay, forget about the Royal Parks, what about the underground? Shots of talent exiting the train, then exiting the tube station at the Equinox Leceister Square station or Covent Garden? Shots of a fight in one of those dark alley's in Chinatown and Soho area? I'd still get a call for that? Thing is, I haven't the foggiest idea on how to get funding for something like this. I thought self-fund this first feature for $10K, then with that on my resume push for funding on my SciFi project.

I'm sure you saw ONCE, that Irish Busker film. Shots like that require permits, too?? Those public shots were long lens and hidden mic shots.
 
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