You rang, Chuck?
+1
My day with the AF100...
- Thread starter Ticheli
- Start date
+1
Barry_Green
Moderator
I was quite impressed with Leo and his gang. I know technicals, but Leo is a fashion photographer and an artist through and through, and as a Red One & Varicam owner and owner of probably the biggest production company in Alabama, he's "the real deal". I wanted him to put the AF100 through its paces so that I could see it as he sees it. And his first reaction was effusive praise. He's toned it down here on the thread, but he frequently said things such as "I'm in love" when referring to the AF100's image.
We pushed it pretty hard, and we shot some fun stuff. He brought in some stunning models, and we shot in pure candlelight (at 400 ISO, and at 800, on a 1.7 lens and a 2.1, so you're just gonna have to imagine how awesome it could have looked if I'd had that voigtlander 0.95 lens -- it'd have been ISO 200, at candlelight, and a stop brighter than what we got!) We shot plenty of slow-mo at 60fps and 36 and 32, fashion walks, champagne popping, lemons squeezing, still lifes, all sorts of things. Leo was gawking over the tonality -- one particular quote, when looking at the shading and tonality on the red peppers, was something on the order of "this looks like how one of the old masters would have painted it."
We played with settings; he really liked the color accuracy of NORM 1 matrix and HD NORM gamma. We brought in the skin tone dtl sometimes (it actually works!) and left it off for others. We juiced chroma saturation on some of the fairer-skinned models and pulled it down on the richer-toned models. We shot up the coring to tame noise, and brought it back down when noise was a non-issue.
This test came about because Leo posted a week or so... "give me a little time with this camera in my studio and we'll see what it can do." Well, like all of you, I was interested in seeing what Leo felt he could draw from it. One thing was -- we really didn't spend that much time profiling it. Right out of the box, both Leo and Joe (the DIT) were impressed by how accurate and spot-on the colors were. I ran through all the settings for them anyway, but they seemed pretty happy with the colorimetry and tonality as-is.
And yes, we pushed the skin tones into overexposure, and yes the rolloff was fine in most cases, and sometimes it was too much and the solution was -- just expose the damn shot properly and it looks friggin' fantastic. And when we encountered one shot where the highlights were getting a bit too hot, I set the knee lower. That's what it's there for, after all. So no, we didn't just point the camera at a torture test and make it bleed, we pointed it at lovely models with great lighting, and exposed it properly, and let it do its thing. Just like every one of you will be doing.
Leo and his team were gracious hosts and consummate professionals and the whole day can be summed up as "a delight." Thanks to a hard-working crew for helping us understand the camera and see what it can do when used properly.
We pushed it pretty hard, and we shot some fun stuff. He brought in some stunning models, and we shot in pure candlelight (at 400 ISO, and at 800, on a 1.7 lens and a 2.1, so you're just gonna have to imagine how awesome it could have looked if I'd had that voigtlander 0.95 lens -- it'd have been ISO 200, at candlelight, and a stop brighter than what we got!) We shot plenty of slow-mo at 60fps and 36 and 32, fashion walks, champagne popping, lemons squeezing, still lifes, all sorts of things. Leo was gawking over the tonality -- one particular quote, when looking at the shading and tonality on the red peppers, was something on the order of "this looks like how one of the old masters would have painted it."
We played with settings; he really liked the color accuracy of NORM 1 matrix and HD NORM gamma. We brought in the skin tone dtl sometimes (it actually works!) and left it off for others. We juiced chroma saturation on some of the fairer-skinned models and pulled it down on the richer-toned models. We shot up the coring to tame noise, and brought it back down when noise was a non-issue.
This test came about because Leo posted a week or so... "give me a little time with this camera in my studio and we'll see what it can do." Well, like all of you, I was interested in seeing what Leo felt he could draw from it. One thing was -- we really didn't spend that much time profiling it. Right out of the box, both Leo and Joe (the DIT) were impressed by how accurate and spot-on the colors were. I ran through all the settings for them anyway, but they seemed pretty happy with the colorimetry and tonality as-is.
And yes, we pushed the skin tones into overexposure, and yes the rolloff was fine in most cases, and sometimes it was too much and the solution was -- just expose the damn shot properly and it looks friggin' fantastic. And when we encountered one shot where the highlights were getting a bit too hot, I set the knee lower. That's what it's there for, after all. So no, we didn't just point the camera at a torture test and make it bleed, we pointed it at lovely models with great lighting, and exposed it properly, and let it do its thing. Just like every one of you will be doing.
Leo and his team were gracious hosts and consummate professionals and the whole day can be summed up as "a delight." Thanks to a hard-working crew for helping us understand the camera and see what it can do when used properly.
Steve Kahn
Well-known member
Wow. I remember when Leo posted that. I thought I'd have to wait until next year to see his results. Thanks Barry. Great idea!
Nicely done, Barry; that's thinking outside of the box. I for one, don't really need to see the footage; Leo is the consummate professional camera dude. After decades of working with the very finest film and video cameras, his word is pretty much golden for me. I'm not necessarily going to buy this camera, but it just jumped a huge hurdle in my mind.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Yeah, I wanted to see what he thought of it NOW. I wanted a totally different take on it, to see how someone with a strictly artistic eye would view it. Especially before I go into the next big production with the AF100, which is soon.
Dino
Veteran
Barry,
When you set the knee lower, I assume this was HD Norm Gamma, not Cine D or V, because knee point is locked out in the Cine gammas, is it not?
Steve Kahn
Well-known member
Great for you... and us. Learning from your tests will really help us get up and running quickly. Thanks again!
Barry_Green
Moderator
Yep. I walked through the various gammas and Leo and his DIT were both wanting to stick with HD NORM, so the knee was therefore available.
Cant wait to see dis footage. Barry, are u already prep-in for your AF100 book?
Thomas Church
Active member
When will this footage be uploaded again?
Very excited to see controled lighting.
Very excited to see controled lighting.
Barry_Green
Moderator
A lot further along than that. Have been working on it since the first prototype showed up in my hands in September... :thumbsup:
mikkowilson
Steadi-Guru
Three Questions, and one request:
1. Was it shot with a complete, production version of the camera, as it will be sold?
2. What frame rate was used, aside from over and undercrank? 23.976?
3. Will Jan or someone from Panasonic be approving the footage before you post?
Request: Please provide the full-resolution clip for download, preferably in the mp4 format. (As Philip Bloom has done with his test footage. This makes displaying the clip on a monitor through a playback device like PS3 possible without re-encoding.)
Thanks for your informative posts!
1. Was it shot with a complete, production version of the camera, as it will be sold?
2. What frame rate was used, aside from over and undercrank? 23.976?
3. Will Jan or someone from Panasonic be approving the footage before you post?
Request: Please provide the full-resolution clip for download, preferably in the mp4 format. (As Philip Bloom has done with his test footage. This makes displaying the clip on a monitor through a playback device like PS3 possible without re-encoding.)
Thanks for your informative posts!
Ticheli
Well-known member
It's not easy being green, or forgetful...
It's not easy being green, or forgetful...
Here's the green screen set, lit with two Kino Flo Image 85s with green tubes.
Can't believe I omitted Tommy King, our chief editor, from my thank-you list; Tommy helped us with evaluation and pitched in on the crew. Tommy and I have worked together for about 30 years.
I highly recommend using green tubes, by the way; very even and they make a monster difference in pulling keys. Even the buzz-bomb 5D makes a pretty good key when the screen is so perfect.
The model is the lovely Mara Misanthropy, and despite the name, she's a joy to work with.
Good shooting and best regards,
Leo
It's not easy being green, or forgetful...
Here's the green screen set, lit with two Kino Flo Image 85s with green tubes.
Can't believe I omitted Tommy King, our chief editor, from my thank-you list; Tommy helped us with evaluation and pitched in on the crew. Tommy and I have worked together for about 30 years.
I highly recommend using green tubes, by the way; very even and they make a monster difference in pulling keys. Even the buzz-bomb 5D makes a pretty good key when the screen is so perfect.
The model is the lovely Mara Misanthropy, and despite the name, she's a joy to work with.
Good shooting and best regards,
Leo
Attachments
Seamus McFlannel
Well-known member
You mentioned you worked with a number of different lenses. Did you notice much difference in image quality between them?
Might you give us an evaluation and/or comparisons of the different lenses on the AF-100?
Thanks.
Might you give us an evaluation and/or comparisons of the different lenses on the AF-100?
Thanks.
