In conclusion, this bastard is...

M

monks19

Active member
on it's death row now with the happening of the Lumix GH3 & GH4K coming soon. What do you think about it ? Almost dead as a doornail or ready for a worthy replacement (if any) ?

Thanks to share your thoughts about it.
 
Hell nah dude. My AF100 ain't going quietly into the night. I got a ton of jobs lined up with it as my A-cam. Corporate, music videos, narrative. It's a damn fine cam.
 
If by "dead as a doornail" you mean "increasingly affordable and readily available used", then sure. But I guarantee you many folk will still be using them well after the arrival of the GH4K.
 
Ummm, ok. All AF100 cameras are on death row now? Posts like these are a bit silly, there are people still turning out great stuff from the original DVX- a standard def minidv cam. If you like it, use it- if you don't then don't. The lack of any successor, or GH progress have no real impact on the viability of this camera.
 
It really is a silly post. Every camera available is already obsolete. How fast can you recoup $100K vs. $4k? My AF100 has made around $200K since new a couple years ago and will probably do another $75K this year. The market
knows when it's time to upgrade, and the AF100 isn't there yet. There is still A LOT of bang left for the buck in my opinion.
 
Well, sorry for the sarcasm. What I was trying to say is (or ask, more acurately) now with GH3 & GH4, is there there even a ghost of a chance that Panasonic FINALLY do a real update with this camera, or even, is there even a chance for this cinema camera to get a good & worthwhile successor (aside of the two Lumixes mentioned above), especially for competing with the Canon eos c100 or Sony F3 while retaining a low price ?

The af100 is a good camera, I do agree with that. But It hasen't been updated much since 2011 (with the af100a) and have some serious problem with it's low light performances or dynamic range (among others). What came up for a update later was a pay firmware or a zoom assist function.

So, that's what I'm asking, do you think that Pany will finally make a move toward this ?
 
I kind of doubt it - got a feeling the AF may end up as a one off (I hope not)
The Micro 4/3 format just didn't catch on in the video market as the super 35 did.
To fire up peoples imagination and interest in a new video camera it would have to be 4K capable, do super slo mo, be great at low light, have an awesome dynamic range and sell for $4,000 - that's a big ask.
 
id love to see an AF100 with a better image, not 4k but deep wide DR 1080, it could be a killer cam.

I think it is time they upgraded the internals..

S
 
For crying out loud!! Get your head Around this.The right tool for the job is what matters. I do not shoot film stock or war of the worlds stuff so the AF100 (02) is the perfect weapon for me. The camera is 10% if that, of the entertainment value - the rest is down to you as the creator of imagery and the structure of the story----see strapline..
Cheeers and a happy new year!
Rod
 
monks19 said:
on it's death row now with the happening of the Lumix GH3 & GH4K coming soon. What do you think about it ?.
Click to expand...

I think that the AF100 and the GH3 are completely different cameras, each offering a different tool set.

And the GH4? You can't shoot with a rumor.
 
Rowy said:
...The Micro 4/3 format just didn't catch on in the video market as the super 35 did...
Click to expand...

I don't know... given how many people are shooting on GH cameras proffesionaly, I think there is a decent market for MFT cameras. They fill a segment of the market nicely that S35 doesn't. I think part of the problem is that Panasonic Pro is so focused on their bread and butter... the broadcast market... that the AF100 became the red headed step-child as it was marketed as cinama camera, not recognizing that a MFT camera could easily be a viable broadcast camera for certain applications (case in point, my old TV station uses one for some commercial spots).

I still say put an updated sensor in there (which they now have available) and give it the AVC-LongG codecs, (or even P2/microP2 in the fashion the new PX270 is) and this thing would kill the competition in the segment of the broadcast market that's using cameras like the C100.
 
MFT is in theory and intelligent size, lenses can be manageable and the sensor is large enough to be sensitive to light and offer a thing DOF, it is also small enough that focus is reasonably do-able. Shame there are no grown up zooms in that format.
 
Don't forget that GH users have, ummm... some "issues". The focus on Canon all these years has made them take to the forums to post about sharpness and frame rates and stuff. They're militant people, I tell ya. They'll say anything. They're angry. They can't believe someone would shoot on RED when you can buy a GH and hack it and... etc.

I'm kidding of course (mostly)... Seriously, a good operator/DP can make a decent camera great. But for some time, GH footage tends to be my least favorite unless it came from someone very skilled. But I too am curious about a 4K RAW cam with add-on XLR and SDI box for $2k, per the rumors.
 
If Panasonic doesn't update the AF100, that would be a big mistake. There's nothing else like it on the market (at its price point, and yes I'm well aware of the FS100 when I make this statement) but it is getting a tad long in the tooth and could use some real updating to remain competitive.

Of course, Panasonic's been making a number of mistakes recently (such as betting the company on 3-D, which I told 'em from day one was a bad, bad idea) so we will see whether they've learned their lessons or not.

There's only so many times that the crowd can clamor "stuff the GH2/GH3 in an AF100 body with a proper OLPF and micro-P2" before we have to wonder -- are they even listening to us at all anymore?

That said, I use the AF100 nearly every day. It works. It may not have quite as many pixels as an F55, but it delivers good images and is a breeze to work with, so I'm not screaming and clawing for an update. But I have been tempted by the FS700; if it wasn't in that FS form factor that I dislike so much, I may already have gotten one... if Sony introduces a more EX-shaped camera with FS700 guts in it, that would be pretty hard to resist.

So, for their sake, I hope they do an update to the AF100 and introduce the painfully obvious upgrades, a new higher-dynamic-range sharper sensor and micro-P2 recording 10-bit 4:2:2. It's glaringly obvious. I told them that was the camera to build back before the first AF100 was even released. Are they finally listening? We'll see, time will tell.
 
Barry_Green said:
If Panasonic doesn't update the AF100, that would be a big mistake. There's nothing else like it on the market (at its price point, and yes I'm well aware of the FS100 when I make this statement) but it is getting a tad long in the tooth and could use some real updating to remain competitive.

Of course, Panasonic's been making a number of mistakes recently (such as betting the company on 3-D, which I told 'em from day one was a bad, bad idea) so we will see whether they've learned their lessons or not.

There's only so many times that the crowd can clamor "stuff the GH2/GH3 in an AF100 body with a proper OLPF and micro-P2" before we have to wonder -- are they even listening to us at all anymore?

That said, I use the AF100 nearly every day. It works. It may not have quite as many pixels as an F55, but it delivers good images and is a breeze to work with, so I'm not screaming and clawing for an update. But I have been tempted by the FS700; if it wasn't in that FS form factor that I dislike so much, I may already have gotten one... if Sony introduces a more EX-shaped camera with FS700 guts in it, that would be pretty hard to resist.

So, for their sake, I hope they do an update to the AF100 and introduce the painfully obvious upgrades, a new higher-dynamic-range sharper sensor and micro-P2 recording 10-bit 4:2:2. It's glaringly obvious. I told them that was the camera to build back before the first AF100 was even released. Are they finally listening? We'll see, time will tell.
Click to expand...
But now that they've picked up the "4K only" mantra and sort-of announced the GH4, wouldn't it logically also have to be 4K? I mean, if the sub-$2K GH4 is 4K, wouldn't a $5-6K 1080p so-called digital-cinema camera be a hard sell?
 
The rumors about the GH4K make it sound like an awkward mashup of specs: 4K resolution in a little mirrorless DSLR with a 16Mpix sensor for $2K? That's a semi-pro price for a hybrid camera that's neither a pro DSLR nor a pro videocam. Yes, I'm being a curmudgeon on 4K, but with HD, the consumer Blu-ray players and HDTV's were in living rooms years before the 5D Mk2 arrived. A 4K version of the AF100 at $4K would make way more sense to me, but the marketing appeal of bigger numbers in smaller boxes continues to amaze.
 
Tzedekh said:
But now that they've picked up the "4K only" mantra and sort-of announced the GH4, wouldn't it logically also have to be 4K? I mean, if the sub-$2K GH4 is 4K, wouldn't a $5-6K 1080p so-called digital-cinema camera be a hard sell?
Click to expand...
Depends on what their target customer wants. Contrary to a lot of perception, there's an awful lot of 1080p cameras being sold right now. But who knows, such a proposed AF (maybe "AF400"?) could be 4K; AVC-Ultra has provisions for 4K. Even if it wasn't 4K, is that THAT bad? The FS700 isn't 4K until you've spent $11,000 on it and an O7Q or $14,000 on it and the Sony recorder, so something at $4000-$5000 that's not 4K doesn't sound like a death knell to me. At least not initially, but given that it should be designed to last and remain current in the marketplace for at least 3-4 years, then maybe it should be 4K from the get-go...
 
Is it possible to do 4k via a standard SDI port? If so, call it the AF-4k. It only sends 4k out the SDI port though to save money. Everything else is recorded internally to microP2 or SDXC cards (and so, it only contains the appropriate codecs those cards support). Sell it for $5,000-$6,000. This way, it doesn't cannibalize sales of the Varicam, but it has a huge differentiation with the GH-4k. It competes quite well with the FS100, FS700, and C100. And it specifically targets their core broadcast market.

And the only people mad are the folks who don't understand why it doesn't include Raw and cost less than $3,000.

I know, I know, I can dream...
 
It is not possible to do 4K via a standard SDI port. HD-SDI supports only up to 1080/60i or 720/60p. You need 3G-SDI to go to 1080/60p. You'd need dual 6G-SDI ports, or even a 12G-SDI port, to do live 4K on SDI.

However, HDMI 1.4 can handle 4K, so you might see 4K support implemented by (ugh) HDMI.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top