My day with the AF100...

Thanks for this, Leo; frankly I'm a little surprised your test came out so well. Like others, I was pretty un-impressed with the original posted footage, and was leaning toward the Sony F3. I'll sit on the sidelines for awhile, till a side by side test can be arranged. I do this work for a living; either of these cameras will pay for themselves in a few months. Exciting times.
 
Leo - maybe I missed it, but were you recording directly in cam or to a external recorder? And, how many stops is this guy capable of just guessing on your short experience with the camera? Thank you. (Oh, tell Paula I say hi, we went to college together).
 
Homunculus said:
leo, we all know that red one will be better but the real question on everone's minds is HOW much better? Is Red on a whole new level and worth the 20k$ extra in cash or does the AF100 stand up reasonably well in some circumstances? Or is it just no comparison whatsoever...2 completely different classes of camera?
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When is All Y'alls going to get it through your heads that the "20K extra in cash" for a Red , isn't really 20K but actually much more. That 20 K takes into account the price of the camera body, and in the case of Red, no drives , no lenses, no franken rig crap that you need to hang batteries or drives from, and I don't think Red owners are going to be buying Class 6 or Class 10 SDHC cards anytime soon and bitching about the prices of said cards. Think about batteries for a Red for just a minute.... and what they cost.

I still don't get why people are talking about Red and AF 100 as something even comparable or one as a replacement for the other. The Red is a 4k camera and the AF is a 1080 HD camera. That said, most of the people I know with Reds shoot 4k and 'deliver' 1080 which kind of makes Red an oversampled 1080 HD camera for the moment in one respect. However with a Red there is room to go above 1080 and with an AF 1080 is the best you'll ever get.
Of course I'll bet that the AF doesn't take a minute to boot up or have the world of bugs that inhabit the RED operating software. As an Af owner you will probably never have to do a software build upgrade ( or downgrade) to your camera while on location in the midst of a shoot :-)
 
CraigM said:
Leo - maybe I missed it, but were you recording directly in cam or to a external recorder? And, how many stops is this guy capable of just guessing on your short experience with the camera? Thank you. (Oh, tell Paula I say hi, we went to college together).
Click to expand...

Recorded on board to the SD cards in PH quality all shot at 1080.
 
ken37 said:
Thanks for this, Leo; frankly I'm a little surprised your test came out so well. Like others, I was pretty un-impressed with the original posted footage, and was leaning toward the Sony F3. I'll sit on the sidelines for awhile, till a side by side test can be arranged. I do this work for a living; either of these cameras will pay for themselves in a few months. Exciting times.
Click to expand...

Hi Ken, I would be very surprised if the Sony F3 does not outperform the AF100; at about three times the price, it should. I should expect that in relatively short order you will be able to test the two cameras side by side to decide for yourself which is right for you.

I might add that for sheer marketing value alone, the Sony might be the better choice for those whose clients care about such things.

Good shooting and best regards,

Leo
 
Thomas Church said:
The real question is, how comparable are they at 1080p?

Surely the RED will be better, but how better?

That's the big question.
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The real question is how important to you and your clients is the difference between the Red and the AF100. There is a difference, an observable difference, but it's a difference between "wow, that's very good," and "wow, that's very, very good." If you can make a profit with the Red's higher cost of ownership, the decision is easy. If you can't, it's just as easy.

Good shooting and best regards,

Leo
 
Mark Smith said:
When is All Y'alls going to get it through your heads that the "20K extra in cash" for a Red , isn't really 20K but actually much more. That 20 K takes into account the price of the camera body, and in the case of Red, no drives , no lenses, no franken rig crap that you need to hang batteries or drives from, and I don't think Red owners are going to be buying Class 6 or Class 10 SDHC cards anytime soon and bitching about the prices of said cards. Think about batteries for a Red for just a minute.... and what they cost.

I still don't get why people are talking about Red and AF 100 as something even comparable or one as a replacement for the other. The Red is a 4k camera and the AF is a 1080 HD camera. That said, most of the people I know with Reds shoot 4k and 'deliver' 1080 which kind of makes Red an oversampled 1080 HD camera for the moment in one respect. However with a Red there is room to go above 1080 and with an AF 1080 is the best you'll ever get.
Of course I'll bet that the AF doesn't take a minute to boot up or have the world of bugs that inhabit the RED operating software. As an Af owner you will probably never have to do a software build upgrade ( or downgrade) to your camera while on location in the midst of a shoot :-)
Click to expand...

How many of you are actually delivering 1080 content as TV shows or TV spots? I always deliver spots as 1080 now. But we still always deliver a letterboxed Digital BetaSP SD as well. And most of the clients are only running spots as SD because of the cost. For smaller markets HD may not even be an option. And Blu-Ray?? Never happened in any big way in the corporate world. I deliver more HD content as tradeshows videos than anything else. And I use those little Western Digital HD players that can play HD off of a USB thumb drive. Most of my content is delivered as web video not bigger than 640x360 on most clients websites. And for YouTube I usually deliver a 720p file because 1080 loads so slowly for most people. Yes of course all of this will get bigger & better. By that time RED will have plenty of competition in 4-5K. In the meantime I am waiting for Final Cut to encode a SD DVD I am working on, talk about two steps back...LOL
 
Leo,
I like your style and look forward to seeing your results. I pre-ordered an AF through Rule Broadcast last month and am excited for it's arrival.

I appreciate all the work being done so many of us can pick up our cams and know what some of the optimal setting are.

Thanks,
Benjamin
 
I think a more relevant comparison will be AF100 and an F3, rather than RED, with all variables as equal as possible. But it's very positive to hear these good comments. One thing's for sure. A great firestorm will be unleashed upon this forum when that footage gets posted. It will be the mother of all video camera debate. I hope people play nice this time.
 
I'm sold already, so footages are just something i can point to my friends and say, "see, that's what i'm talking about... YEAH!" ... :)
 
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