Panasonic AF101 Footage

[trez]

1. If the uncompressed data from HDMI port is recorded by an external pro-res recorder with higher data rate greater than 200 mb/sec to get 1080p frames, will the visuals have less moire.

No.

2. In the current recorders such as Aja ki pro is the codec better than AVCHD?

Much better. Higher bitrate plus 4:2:2 color. It can simplify your workflow, too (especially if you use FCP)

2. Dont have the budget to use zeiss cine lenses so how good the lumix lenses say Lumix G Vario 14-140mm is, say compared to the L series lenses. Offcourse it won't match the cine lenses.

It's sharp. The auto-focus works in video mode along with face detection (the only lens that can do that). But it's slow. If you need shallow DOF or better low-light capability, you might want to look for different lenses. You can mount just about everything on your AF100.

3. Any suggestions for good lenses in the price range comparable to Canon L-series.

Old ones. If you wanna buy primes, old Nikon glass can be good. Or zeiss glass for Contax/Yashica mount (cheaper than other mounts). There's M42, Lomo, Voigtlander... However, if you wanna have something that's comparable to Canon L-series lenses get.... Canon L-series glass! Not current EF models, but older Canon FD L-lenses. They are really inexpensive, optically superb (it's L) and pleasure to work with (very precise focus rings with long throw, manual aperture control). However, I would think twice before going L-route. Some of those L-lenses are quite heavy and breath more than their (slightly) slower non-L equivalents.

 

[Danielvilliers]

You can search for the link yourself, it's here on the forum. Multiple people have done so, one of whom was Vitaly himself the expert engineer who reverse-engineered the GH1 to turn it into the GH13. I won't do the work for you only because I'm very busy at the moment preparing for a 14 hour shoot tomorrow but like I said multiple sources have tested and shown Gh13 to be superior to GH2 in several ways already based on original in-camera files and knowledge of the sensor/codec.

People have been impressed by Polish test you said? Which test is that? To my knowledge recently Panasonic sponsored a Polish group to shoot a short with GH1 to my knowledge not GH2 and people were fawning over it. Perhaps you are confused, unless I am, but I clearly recall it being a GH1 polish video, so once again that would be more notches on GH1's belt.

http://optyczne.pl/3388-nowość-Panasonic_Lumix_DMC-GH2_-_zdjęcia_i_filmy_przykładowe.html

Above is the polish test, you can find a 24p mts file and some comment here http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?223622-GH2-official-discussion-thread/page81 on the files. There is another blog which discuss it but it is banned here.

If you don't want to read many numbers and words here is my short verdict (for today) :
It is best movie VDSLR, period. If you are shooting using small cameras, go and buy it as soon as possible.
Having some quirks it is definitely very good product.

These are the first word of Vitaly in the gh2 official thread here http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?223622-GH2-official-discussion-thread

You can read the whole thing and his has been very suportive of the GH2.

Now, now, now ... you have been bashing a camera which has not even come out in many post. But when you are asked to support your findings you don' t have the time!!! You start your argument with some assumption and belief that you end as facts... period. As you can see above with the link to the post, the " Vitaly himself the expert engineer who reverse-engineered the GH1 to turn it into the GH13 " argument is completely false. In fact his point of view is more bias towards the value of the GH2 was a winner towards the AF-100, many coming out to defend the many proper camera feature of the latter beyond just image quality.

I come on this site to learn and share and I find it terrible for people to come here and give instantiate info on a subject or hardware they don' t even have. For their ego to say I always said that, you will see I am always right...

For sure the GH13 could give a better image quality that the GH2, but does it make the GH2 a dud. For what has come out it seems to be the best dslr, and if inferior to the gh13 by a very small margin. It brings many more advantages as live hdmi output for at least monitoring, much better low light, faster AF, better viewfinder. From base the 24p footage seems to be very good and we never know, it could be hacked in the future.

So talking like you, I would say that you don' t seem to have 1 but 1 truckload of gh13 which is d evaluating by the day period... It is easy to say anything on things you can' t support.

 

[RieniO]

I won't do the work for you only because I'm very busy at the moment preparing for a 14 hour shoot tomorrow (..) People have been impressed by Polish test you said? Which test is that?

This is bad, you keep bashing the GH2, claiming you have seen all the videos and know all the facts, now you say you are not so well informed after all and you don't have time to look things up because you're too busy? Very bad... I was taking you seriously for a while... . Everybody who is following the GH2 thread has seen that Polish video, it's a raw 24fps cinema mode .mts and it looks great.

 

[tflak]

Hey guys...there's a whole forum devoted to the GH1/13/2. That said, I think a quick comparison of the old lens compatibility chart for the GH1 with the new one for the GH2 is informative. The GH2 offers increased compatibility. And I only mention it here because it probably has implications for the AF100 as well.

http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/connect/g1.html
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/connect/gh2.html

 

[Michael Olsen]

So, this is getting pretty far off topic, I guess, but...

The first real world in depth use and video publication of the GH2 is...by a guy who uses it to take a number of <10 second handheld shakycam clips of random objects while doing stuttery zooms? Flattering...maybe I do not understand.

 

[manjeet singh]

Old ones. If you wanna buy primes, old Nikon glass can be good. Or zeiss glass for Contax/Yashica mount (cheaper than other mounts). There's M42, Lomo, Voigtlander... However, if you wanna have something that's comparable to Canon L-series lenses get.... Canon L-series glass! Not current EF models, but older Canon FD L-lenses. They are really inexpensive, optically superb (it's L) and pleasure to work with (very precise focus rings with long throw, manual aperture control). However, I would think twice before going L-route. Some of those L-lenses are quite heavy and breath more than their (slightly) slower non-L equivalents.

An adapter would be needed for other kind of mounts, which might eat up few stops. Any advice on different adapters.
Where can one buy Canon FD L-Lenses? I guess they have to be second hand/used.
Also heard a lot about 11-16 lens by Tokina. Wish they had a mount for Panasonic.

 

[LoganMackay]

An adapter would be needed for other kind of mounts, which might eat up few stops. Any advice on different adapters.
Where can one buy Canon FD L-Lenses? I guess they have to be second hand/used.
Also heard a lot about 11-16 lens by Tokina. Wish they had a mount for Panasonic.

No light loss, the adapter is mechanical only. Check out ciecio7 on Ebay.

 

[RieniO]

ciecio7 is not a good adapter, it's not light tight and screwed up a few of my shots. I have three different Nikor/MFT adapters and the only one that works allright is the Novoflex.

 

[carlweston]

The Panasonic AF-100 with rented Ultra Primes would be a nice shooting kit!

Ultra Prime 8mm (35mm FOV 16mm) , Ultra Prime 12mm (35mm FOV 24mm), Ultra Prime 24mm (35mm FOV 48mm), Ultra Prime 40mm (35mm FOV 80mm)

 

[Michael Olsen]

Thing is, depending on where you rent from a set of UPs will run from about $600 to about $1000. A day.

Not saying they are impractical, just wondering how many shoots with a $5000 camera will really benefit from using ~$50,000 worth of lenses. Especially considering that is higher than some people's entire daily budget.

 

[tflak]

ciecio7 is not a good adapter, it's not light tight and screwed up a few of my shots. I have three different Nikor/MFT adapters and the only one that works allright is the Novoflex.

I've had good success too with the Novoflex MFT/NIK. But it's expensive. Think Barry Green was getting a Voightlander so it will be interesting to see what he thinks about that one.

 

[Yves Simard]

Good point Michael, have you seen the photos of these lenses on 5Ds? people do it.. What I love about what we did is that there was no monkeying around, we had the adapter and did it and started shooting. For the right project, I would. Imaging putting your money in lenses rather than a camera. This shows you can do it.

 

[Barry_Green]

Think Barry Green was getting a Voightlander so it will be interesting to see what he thinks about that one.

It's arrived. It's solid. It's good. It's expensive compared to the other adapters, but ... considering the ZFs I'm using cost about 10x as much (EACH!) as the one adapter does, it's really a no-brainer. The Voigtlander is a great adapter. And I can finally leave the adapter on the camera and swap lenses, because the locking knob just works right. So put the voigtlander on the m43 body, and from then on, you've got a Nikon-mount camera that you can easily attach/remove lenses. With the fotodiox, I had to remove the adapter from the camera body, then pull it off the lens, then re-mount it onto the next lens and then onto the camera body. Tomfoolery, I say.

I'm happy with the Voigtlander. Part of me says "doh! other adapters are only $30!" but the other part of me says "I'm tired of fooling around with flaky adapters, I want something that just works." The Voigtlander just works. We'll see how it holds up after several weeks, but for the first few days I can say it's definitely a step up from the fotodiox I had before. I also have ordered a rainbowimaging off ebay, but it hasn't shown up yet.

 

[PaPa]

Barry, I assume the Voightlander adapter doesn't allow for aperture control on electronic lenses? Via knob or anything..

 

[Barry_Green]

No, it's strictly manual.

 

[Michael Olsen]

Good point Michael, have you seen the photos of these lenses on 5Ds? people do it.. What I love about what we did is that there was no monkeying around, we had the adapter and did it and started shooting. For the right project, I would. Imaging putting your money in lenses rather than a camera. This shows you can do it.

Yep - definitely a good option to have for when the opportunity comes along. Of course, turning the "opportunity" of shooting on cinema primes into a daily affair is definitely a goal of mine


Voightlander...I absolutely love that name. Pretty lenses, too...

 

[RieniO]

"doh! other adapters are only $30!"

Yeah I thought that too and tried out those cheap adapters, only to screw up $$$$$ shoots. When you have a lot of light coming on the camera from the left side, aparently there is a small gap between adapter and body, allowing through a bit of light that falls directly on the sensor causing a nice mess, this is what I meant by "not light tight". Better stay away from this cheap home made junk. Like you say, what's the point of trying to save some money on cheap adapters if you're paying a lot for lenses and camera etc. You always get what you pay for.

 

[tflak]

I thought maybe the Voightlander did allow for aperture control on electronic lenses. Since it doesn't, my Novoflex purchase is looking better because it does. And it has a built-in ring instead of the protruding knob that some of the less expensive adapters had at the time I bought the Novoflex. Back then, those were the only other choice. I paid $290 for the Novoflex only because I didn't want to be reaching around to find a knob, and a ring seemed a more fluid adjustment method, plus the knobbed version just looked like it might be prone to problems. Haven't kept up with what might be available these days so I can't say the Novoflex would still be my choice. But I tend to go with brands where I rarely get burned. Can't say that's always the case, but in general, it has served me well.

"The bitterness over poor quality lingers after the sweetness of a cheap price is long forgotten."

 

[Rolf Silber]

Voightlander...I absolutely love that name. Pretty lenses, too...

Wait for this one to arrive coming week or the next and hope to find the time to test it and tell you what the test tells me.

Already own a Voigtländer Nokton 50 mm f 1.1 and it appears an optically nice and mechanically sturdy lens you can throw at an advancing tank and it may survive. And it is a rather good and much lighter and rather more in-expensive surrogate for a Zeiss prime - with some reservations about focussing and setting of f-stops that is more constructed for a stills lens.

My guess is that Voigtländer (an Austrian/German company at their high time on par with Leica) did - when the brand was bought by Japanese lens manufacturer Cosina - still hold lots of licenses and patents from Carl Zeiss and Schneider/Kreuznach and Rollei.

The 25mm f 0.95 may be an offspring of an older Schneider c-mount lens design with 0.95. But that's pure speculation on my part at this time.

Let's hope for next week.... ;-)

poststcriptum

My theory over they years - coming from "old school" filmmaking - has been that you buy yourself a "family" of lenses you keep and at time the adequate camera for it that you sell when a better one comes around. Highly intelligent as I am, I sold years ago a wonderful set of Olympus and Vivatar Series 1 lenses.... will not happen again!

 

[RieniO]

I thought maybe the Voightlander did allow for aperture control on electronic lenses. Since it doesn't, my Novoflex purchase is looking better because it does. And it has a built-in ring instead of the protruding knob that some of the less expensive adapters had at the time I bought the Novoflex. Back then, those were the only other choice. I paid $290 for the Novoflex only because I didn't want to be reaching around to find a knob, and a ring seemed a more fluid adjustment method, plus the knobbed version just looked like it might be prone to problems. Haven't kept up with what might be available these days so I can't say the Novoflex would still be my choice. But I tend to go with brands where I rarely get burned. Can't say that's always the case, but in general, it has served me well.

I bought it from Novoflex in Germany directly for 180 euro which is about $257. The ring control works very well, I agree. One of the other two I have has the knob which sticks out at the bottom of the camera and gets in the way for larger mounting plates. The other cheap one I have also has a ring but is not light tight, as described in previous post. In the GH2 though another upcoming adapter is being discussed which should allow electronic control, when I find it I'll direct you to it. I must admit that I would prefer aperture control from the camera itself, when operating the camera you can't see the control ring on the Novoflex so you control it without seeing it and sometimes this is a bit clumsy, also there is no feedback from the Novoflex so you don't know what aperture you're shooting with and I would prefer knowing that.