I've just spent the last few hours with the camera. Whilst this may sound repetitive of what you've heard so far I can't say a great deal unfortunately. Not enough time really to give much solidification to most things.
What I can say:
- menu structure is simple and if you've used the varicams before there's a lot of things that look very familiar.
- Light? Well that's an understatement. The body feels solid, yet there's not a lot of weight to it. See my mini mode photo. Stripped down it's even lighter.
- There are a couple of things I will provide some feedback on, not related to build and at this point, not related to image either.
- I didn't get much time to throughly investigate many things but I had a close look at highlight roll off on a 4K monitor. Clean, no colour shifts, detail retention looks really positive.
- Colour - can't say anything because where I had the camera was a mix of about 5 different temp. tungsten sources, daylight, dodgy white LED's etc etc.
That's about it for now. Will have it all day tomorrow. No, unfortunately can't share shots, but I will take it through a couple of light set ups to see how it fares. All in all I've had a very positive experience so far.
some iPhone pics.
DAY 2
Had the chance to get out and about. Shoot some big wides etc. Then back to get the camera shooting some lights. (rest copied from FB).
Remember how when the C300 MK1 came out, it just worked? Yeah, I'm feeling that at the moment.
Big, crisp images. Person with me (un named non Pana person), whilst looking on my 60" colour grading screen - "wow, that looks amazing".
Side by side with my Varicam under light: shot to onboard codec 150mbps (which we know will be updated to the 422 10 bit Intra codec in FW update), recorded to Atomos Inferno and side by side with Varicam LT. Needless to say the 422 10bit on the inferno was better than onboard LongGOP, but not in any big way. But those shots recorded to the inferno... damn. So far pretty damned impressed.
EDIT TO ADD: My opinions are my own and Im not receiving any payment whatsoever from Panasonic.
This is with house lights - not lighting we shot to.
Additional Notes to answer questions Ive come across.
- The highlight retention actually surprised me. I would love to post an image of an RGB parade of a shot of direct sunlight and another shot directly into some lights so you can see. Actually will ask about that.
- I have no empirical evidence to support this other than what I can see on my screen, but some of the shots I took were to roughly test dynamic range. Think large buildings on a sunny day with sky and sun streaming between them, so deep deep shadows in some areas with bright sunlight hitting concrete in others. Really solid usable dynamic range.
- The LCD itself is a standard LCD, not a HDR screen or high bright screen. It comes with a pop out sun hood. Personally Im looking toward options to monitor images - evfs / loupe etc.
- The Panasonic line is that this camera is made to match Varicam (don't quote me on that, just whats in my memory now from what I have read), and Id say that's what they've achieved. Side by side with the LT and a straight V709 LUT in FCPX or resolve gives a very similar image. Tungsten reads, if not exactly, very close to exactly the same on skin as compared on a vectorscope and the waveforms are very very close on exposure and the way highlights are handled.
- Shot into the Shogun inferno to prores HQ 422. All working and playing nicely, albeit it seems the inferno is flattening the image a tad more, but in post matches the internal LongGOP with minor tweaks.
- Internal 422 LongGOP 150mbps codec didn't show evidence of banding in the shots I took. Would work well for long form recording when data might be an issue in the field.
- Shooting to 800ISO or 2500ISO. I took one shot at 800ISO then switched to 2500. I reduced light by the exact same number of stops to account for ISO increase and found there was no additional noise evident at all.
I'll probably remember more throughout the day but feel free to ask me anything I've missed. Keep in mind, I am not Panasonic so ask Mitch questions about specs etc, but I have used the camera.
What I can say:
- menu structure is simple and if you've used the varicams before there's a lot of things that look very familiar.
- Light? Well that's an understatement. The body feels solid, yet there's not a lot of weight to it. See my mini mode photo. Stripped down it's even lighter.
- There are a couple of things I will provide some feedback on, not related to build and at this point, not related to image either.
- I didn't get much time to throughly investigate many things but I had a close look at highlight roll off on a 4K monitor. Clean, no colour shifts, detail retention looks really positive.
- Colour - can't say anything because where I had the camera was a mix of about 5 different temp. tungsten sources, daylight, dodgy white LED's etc etc.
That's about it for now. Will have it all day tomorrow. No, unfortunately can't share shots, but I will take it through a couple of light set ups to see how it fares. All in all I've had a very positive experience so far.
some iPhone pics.
DAY 2
Had the chance to get out and about. Shoot some big wides etc. Then back to get the camera shooting some lights. (rest copied from FB).
Remember how when the C300 MK1 came out, it just worked? Yeah, I'm feeling that at the moment.
Big, crisp images. Person with me (un named non Pana person), whilst looking on my 60" colour grading screen - "wow, that looks amazing".
Side by side with my Varicam under light: shot to onboard codec 150mbps (which we know will be updated to the 422 10 bit Intra codec in FW update), recorded to Atomos Inferno and side by side with Varicam LT. Needless to say the 422 10bit on the inferno was better than onboard LongGOP, but not in any big way. But those shots recorded to the inferno... damn. So far pretty damned impressed.
EDIT TO ADD: My opinions are my own and Im not receiving any payment whatsoever from Panasonic.
This is with house lights - not lighting we shot to.
Additional Notes to answer questions Ive come across.
- The highlight retention actually surprised me. I would love to post an image of an RGB parade of a shot of direct sunlight and another shot directly into some lights so you can see. Actually will ask about that.
- I have no empirical evidence to support this other than what I can see on my screen, but some of the shots I took were to roughly test dynamic range. Think large buildings on a sunny day with sky and sun streaming between them, so deep deep shadows in some areas with bright sunlight hitting concrete in others. Really solid usable dynamic range.
- The LCD itself is a standard LCD, not a HDR screen or high bright screen. It comes with a pop out sun hood. Personally Im looking toward options to monitor images - evfs / loupe etc.
- The Panasonic line is that this camera is made to match Varicam (don't quote me on that, just whats in my memory now from what I have read), and Id say that's what they've achieved. Side by side with the LT and a straight V709 LUT in FCPX or resolve gives a very similar image. Tungsten reads, if not exactly, very close to exactly the same on skin as compared on a vectorscope and the waveforms are very very close on exposure and the way highlights are handled.
- Shot into the Shogun inferno to prores HQ 422. All working and playing nicely, albeit it seems the inferno is flattening the image a tad more, but in post matches the internal LongGOP with minor tweaks.
- Internal 422 LongGOP 150mbps codec didn't show evidence of banding in the shots I took. Would work well for long form recording when data might be an issue in the field.
- Shooting to 800ISO or 2500ISO. I took one shot at 800ISO then switched to 2500. I reduced light by the exact same number of stops to account for ISO increase and found there was no additional noise evident at all.
I'll probably remember more throughout the day but feel free to ask me anything I've missed. Keep in mind, I am not Panasonic so ask Mitch questions about specs etc, but I have used the camera.
