TimTheFoolMan
Well-known member
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PANASONIC AF100 Impovements / Wishlist
- Thread starter mediaplexx
- Start date
William_Robinette
Shallow Member
Don't have an AF100.., but yes.
Stu Siegal
Well-known member
You must not shoot much run & gun or doc material. Here's an example: you've just run from point A to point B in pursuit of a fast-breaking shot, and point B has much less light than point A, but you couldn't have know this in advance, you're following a live event. In this situation, ISO is a legitimate and necessary tool to adjust exposure. So, you want to boost ISO as little as possible so as to get the cleanest image, and you must do it fast, or you'll miss the shot. If you had the ISO wheel, you could quickly gain up only as much as needed, watch the evf and/or the zebras to see when you've hit the lowest increase to get the shot, and still have time to capture whatever actuality is about to happen. Right now, you either have to waste time digging into menus to re-set your ISO - unlikely since you'll miss your shot - or use a hammer and go from 800 to, say, 3200, which you've set high to cover your butt, only in this instance you only needed to go to 1600, but you couldn't get there quick enough. And what if the next spot you chase your subject to is bright light, and you want to quickly scoot down to 200, but your low is set at 400? Bottom line - there's a legitimate style of shooting that could really use this feature. And please, please don't tell me that's not what this camera is for, lots of people will shoot great doc material with it, and it's a hell of an improvement in countless ways over a CP16 or an Eclair.
Shooter
Veteran
You are absolutely correct... I dont shoot much run and gun but I do understand a requirement when working in variable lighting conditions and working quickly.
It just seems to me that the base assumption is that as a run and gunner... you are always shooting wide open and that is why you need to tweak the ISO to get an exposure in and under the wide open stop. Not the entire range on the lens. Now that just seems weird to me.
The ISO setups work for ALL the stops in a lens. eg f2 thru f16 (for the purpose of this discussion).
Thats 7 whole stops. Each stop is light transmission factor of 2 so that is an incredible range of exposure control just on the aperture and forgetting the other exposure controls available on the camera ( ND wheel, shutter angle, shutter speed, frame speed)
If one manages (chooses) the 3 preset ISO settings intelligently with consideration of lighting likelihoods...that permits a minimum of 21 stops of instantly accessible exposure control without even going near ND wheel, shutter angle, shutter speed, frame speed.
Thats why I dont get it.
It just seems to me that the base assumption is that as a run and gunner... you are always shooting wide open and that is why you need to tweak the ISO to get an exposure in and under the wide open stop. Not the entire range on the lens. Now that just seems weird to me.
The ISO setups work for ALL the stops in a lens. eg f2 thru f16 (for the purpose of this discussion).
Thats 7 whole stops. Each stop is light transmission factor of 2 so that is an incredible range of exposure control just on the aperture and forgetting the other exposure controls available on the camera ( ND wheel, shutter angle, shutter speed, frame speed)
If one manages (chooses) the 3 preset ISO settings intelligently with consideration of lighting likelihoods...that permits a minimum of 21 stops of instantly accessible exposure control without even going near ND wheel, shutter angle, shutter speed, frame speed.
Thats why I dont get it.
lennywood
Well-known member
instead of killing the headphone or the level bars on VFR, just put the letters VFR in red on the screen wherever we are on VFR. the reason it is a good thing that the levels still show is because on your sdi output you do have audio even on VFR (which saved my a_s on a commercial i shot when i forgot to switch back to normal after a slow motion scene) . but something to alert us would be great. i suggest big red VFR letters and the audio bars switch to red.
Id put my hand up for higher bitrate, but thats about it.
lennywood
Well-known member
one more big thing. when i use an external viewfinder i have to turn on the display info on the hdmi/sdi out so i can see all my info on the viewfinder. but if at the same time i am recording onto a p2 deck mounted on the back of the camera (which is my setup) i have to turn off the display, and then i have no idea if i am recording when i hit record. i would like panasonic to do a software upgrade that separates the hdmi from the sdi on this option, so you can switch them individually.
I think the EVF's optical magnification and distortion is terribly bad. It is much worse than on the GH1 andf GH2. Obviously the lens used is cheap, giving insufficient magnification and lot of distortion on par with cheapo cams. Based on a comparison with, e.g. the Sony EX1, even the old Sony Z1 /FX1, and shoulder cams, I think the optical part of the EVF needs serious improvement, aka replacement.
Probably solutions will come from companies such as Zacuto, offering a replacement with greater magnification and no distortion. This adds to the cost of the cam., however.
Actually it would have been better not to have this protruding, easy to damage EVF tubular module and have it replaced with an extra HDMI port allowing to place a Redrock or Zacuto viewfinder in a more frontal position.
In this case, more (EVF) is less, and slightly less (no EVF but a port) would be more.
Probably solutions will come from companies such as Zacuto, offering a replacement with greater magnification and no distortion. This adds to the cost of the cam., however.
Actually it would have been better not to have this protruding, easy to damage EVF tubular module and have it replaced with an extra HDMI port allowing to place a Redrock or Zacuto viewfinder in a more frontal position.
In this case, more (EVF) is less, and slightly less (no EVF but a port) would be more.
antonyoung
Active member
Regardless of whether or not you get it, what would the downside be to having the option to switch ISO on the rear dial? And what advantage is there to having to go through several levels of menus as you currently do?
Stu Siegal
Well-known member
Not so. You want to be at 4 or better lots of times, because you can't always predict where your subject will move and you want reasonably deep focus. Imagine standing on the deck of a boat in bright sunlight, you want to give the ISO preference as a tool for exposure so as to limit noise, so you're at 200 with the ND to get to a stop you like. The next minute you're below deck and are at 400 and you want to stay at at least a 4, but what if it's too dark? You open all the way up and the guy in the background talking to your subject is soft. Or, you go to 800, because you can't get to 500 or 600 which would have done the trick with less noise without digging into menus. A minute later you're in the hold and want to be at 1200 to have a stop you like, but your next preset is 1600.
It's not about not being intelligent enough to wisely choose your 3 preset ISO's, it's about wanting to have options on the fly when you're constantly having to make snap decisions and quickly balance in the moment. What I don't think you're getting is that this type of shooting is a constant juggling act, and with the current wheel configuration one of the balls is always just beyond reach. The ND's are a tool, but why give me a huge range of ISO increments with no fast access to them? Shutter is not a useful tool to adjust exposure in a run & gun situation, or any situation really. I can't think of a single instance when I wanted fast access to shutter speed, but I can think of scores of times when I wanted to roll the wheel fast to poke around between ISO, stop & ND to get to a shot I like.
I respect the guys who shoot in controlled locations, wouldn't tell them what tools they do or don't need to do their jobs, think you have to give the guys the who do this day in and out the benefit of the doubt that they know what they're asking for.
Agreed. Hey at least for me the GH1 has got auto ISO. Auto ISO with override will be even better!
You should be able to scroll through all available ISOs as you should be able to scroll through all available color temperatures (100 degree increments). In theory, you should rate your current set-up at say, "800" and then stick with it. It would be best to not have to go into a menu to select another choice. It's like having a three position gain where -3, +6 and hypergain are the only easy-to-access choices. Just put it on a dial - the three position switch for ISO is an odd choice.
Maybe the proper configuration for ISO on toggle mimics the white balance toggle (e.g., Preset A 400; Preset B 800; Position Three, Variable).
Stu Siegal
Well-known member
That would be awesome. Variable white balance is my favorite new feature on this camera. In the past, in fast-moving situations you had 4 choices or manual wb, frequently not an option when run & gunning. This usually meant keep rolling, get close, get the shot, and fix it in post. Now, I can very quickly set a variable wb and hardly miss a beat.
One feature my EX-1 has that I absolutely love and would address what a lot of you are talking about is.. On the back of the camera there's a function/menu button/dial, sort of like the wheel on the AF. If you push it in, all of the popular settings that appear on your LCD screen go 'live'. Meaning you can now scroll through about 6 of the most commonly changed settings, when you get to the one you want to change you push the wheel in again and that settings options appear. All of this is done while not losing the image in the LCD that your composed on. The AF does have a limited version of this, but if the setting can appear on the screen, how about making it adjustable with the wheel. Like the EX, this allows you to keep your image, not dig through menu's, not fumble with switches, etc.
Rick Burnett
Section Moderator
1. Focus Zoom 1:1
2. Dialing through all ISO values, not just 3 at a time.
Those are really my only 2 real issues I have shooting on my AF100. While I'd like some of the other things mentioned, these two aggravate me EVERY time I shoot. I don't want to change my Iris when I have the DoF I am looking for. And the combination between ND and 3 ISO values is a pain in the neck trying to dial in perfect when I really just want to bump the ISO a tiny bit.
2. Dialing through all ISO values, not just 3 at a time.
Those are really my only 2 real issues I have shooting on my AF100. While I'd like some of the other things mentioned, these two aggravate me EVERY time I shoot. I don't want to change my Iris when I have the DoF I am looking for. And the combination between ND and 3 ISO values is a pain in the neck trying to dial in perfect when I really just want to bump the ISO a tiny bit.
jdesignhi
Well-known member
Amen, brother!
Im not going to weigh into the debate about should the ISO's be more easily switched, if real world users want it... - just a FYI, plugging the AF100 into a Pana Pro Plasma through HD-SDI and testing all the ISO settings I found through all exposure levels that 800ISO was cleaner than 500 or 640.