EVA1: Panasonic AU-EVA1! Announcement and latest updates

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Liam Hall said:
It was a fair attempt to show what the camera is capable of, but there were a few shots that should have been pulled from the edit due to underexposure (campfire) and overexposure (clouds). The other short film had a more consistent look and showed the camera is more than capable in low light.

Biggest problem for me is using the short film format for a camera promo film. Shoot a proper promotional film. Say something about the camera. Show what it can do; colour, movement, dynamic range. Dazzle us with it's capabilities. These shorts are only ever going to be good as the script, and 49 times out of 50 they're just a tad lame.
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I love seeing examples of where a camera reaches it's limits. And this camera surpasses most others in one way or another, from the looks of it. It shows in a more real world scenario what color, dynamic range, and movement look like. It is one of my favorite camera demo short films yet.
 
I think they did a fine job with the demo and short films. They demonstrate usage of the EVA1 camera in a variety of scenarios. Sometimes the footage is sublime, sometimes it isn't. But that's life working on real projects with real people, real weather, real budgets and real schedules. Within these demos, I've seen some footage that look good enough for television shows, or even big screen motion pictures. I'll see for myself minus the web compression in Austin next month, but EVA1 looks more and more like a highly capable camera. Can't wait to feel it in my hands: the true test of any camera.
 
Watched Superstition film on Vimeo and YouTube. YouTube has macro blocking and compression problems; vimeo is lower resolution, but doesn't have these problems. Definitely be sure to compare and assess the noise on Superstition using the vimeo version as a reference as well (until/if original 4k files are available for download). Regardless, ISO 2500 noise is extremely disappointing from what I currently see on either of these. It would be disappointing if it was the ISO 2500 setting using the 800 base, but even more disappointing given it's the supposedly equally-clean base ISO 2500. I can't imagine trying to push the camera to ISO 3200!

Superstition shows how the camera handles higher contrast scenarios, and I am impressed with what I see. All is well here. Colors also all look nice.

Sharpness is a problem for me. 5.7k is certainly expected to render a much more detailed image, but unlike some other high resolution sensors, I seem to be seeing what appears to be an overly sharp image (personal preference to my eye!) in the Iceland footage and the Superstition film. This is not present in the Radio 88 film, however, it is obvious in the Radio 88 film that diffusion filters were used. Granted, that is a viable solution, but it is not what I would be hoping for as a requirement to get a smoother, more organic image out of the camera. Are there sharpness settings that can be adjust in the menus? If so, what sharpness setting was Iceland/Superstition filmed at, and what is the effect of reducing sharpening?

I found Radio 88 and Superstition (minus the surprisingly bad campfire scene) to be very well produced, and even entertaining, which is more than I can say for most camera demo films (or even many indie short films in general). So bravo there.

Overall good demos. Radio 88 is the most impressive, but it is also the most heavily produced in terms of artificial lighting and filters in front of the camera. Superstition and Iceland seem to both show the camera more in its natural state, and both display impressive detail, accurate colors, and overall good DR and highlight handling. Both display ISO 2500 performing well below expectation (and not to be a pessimistic patty, but ISO 2500 was also already below expectation as the dual ISO setting... was thinking we'd see at least ISO 3200). With the exception of the heavily diffused Radio 88, these demos also seem to display, to my eye, a more digitized/over sharpened look VS the smoother and more organic image produced by the LT, BMC, and others (maybe this can be adjusted in settings??). Makes me wish they had opted for perhaps a 4.6k sensor to give us bigger photosites and a slightly softer image instead. I realize others may have the exact opposite preference, so this is completely taste here, just my own (limited) take on the very little bit I am seeing so far.

Anyways. Would love to learn a little bit more about the in-camera sharpness settings (Mitch?) and see camera footage in more users hands... including my own! If I can secure a demo unit. Looking forward to seeing and learning more.
 
Please get filmguy123 (or Puredrifting/ Dan) a Demo Unit! I appreciate their thoughts and comments. It would be a smart move from the EVA1 team. Get the camera in the hands of critics (or a few DP's that are on the fence). True test in the hands of a few forum members. Also, give the forum members a link or two to DOWNLOAD some actual footage! By the way, thanks to Mitch, he seems like an HONEST representative of this product and it's great having him available to answer questions!
 
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ntouched said:
Please get filmguy123 (or Puredrifting/ Dan) a Demo Unit! I appreciate their thoughts and comments. It would be a smart move from the EVA1 team. Get the camera in the hands of critics (or a few DP's that are on the fence). True test in the hands of a few forum members. Also, give the forum members a link or two to DOWNLOAD some actual footage! By the way, thanks to Mitch, he seems like an HONEST representative of this product and it's great having him available to answer questions!
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In a month or so, we'll see tons of footage when the camera is in the hands of a multitude of folks.

One has to look at the EVA not in terms of an Arri Alexa or a VariCam, but it its competition, the FS7 and the C200. I'm happy with the color and how it handles normal lighting situations. It think it compares favorably with other cameras in its price range. From my 99% perspective, meaning I'm never going to own an Alexa or a VariCam, the quality of footage I can shoot is going to be just fine for me.

It's the story and the acting that makes a film, anyway. I'd rather see Al Pacino doing Shakespeare on an iPhone than me doing the same on Imax.
 
Scottfs, never say NEVER. You may one day own an Alexa or a VariCam! Life has many GREAT surprises. That VariCam or Alexa could be just around the corner!!!
 
ntouched said:
Scottfs, never say NEVER. You may one day own an Alexa or a VariCam! Life has many GREAT surprises. That VariCam or Alexa could be just around the corner!!!
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My first VariCam was over $45K, now you can find them for less than $1K ~ a decade later... The Alexa is ~7 years old and you can already find copies for as low as ~$10K.
 
I went to the road show in SF tonight and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the EVA-1 footage. Very good dynamic range, with attractive highlight roll off. Projected, the videos looked significantly better and more cinematic than the YouTube/Vimeo renders. I found the noise pattern in the footage to be very attractive and organic...almost like film stock. Colors, skin tone were great. I appreciated the couple of shots in the campfire that pushed the envelope too far for the boundary they revealed, and was pretty impressed with the campfire shots that worked. My Red Epic-Dragon couldn't touch that level of sensitivity without horrible noise.

I wasn't impressed with the build quality of the little LCD display. It felt very cheap and it's mount was loose and seems likely to fall victim to a bump or inadvertent hit by an arm. And it's too small. I would only operate this with a larger display like a 7" Small HD.

Overall I think the EVA -1 is a hell of a lot of camera for $7500. I'm probably going to get a Varicam LT as my new A-Cam, but this would make a great B-Cam to live in my Movi.
 
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Hey Mitch,
Nice presentation last night at Adobe. I'm mostly looking at the LT, but after last night could see plenty of great uses for the EVA-1 as a BCam. Particularly, for just stripping it down and leaving it in my Movi Pro. I know its early in the roll-out process, but, might Panasonic consider packaging it as a totally stripped down version of the EVA-1 : body only, no LCD, no handle, no mic mount, etc at a slightly reduced price for those of us who would mostly only use it on a gimbal rig or drone?
 
I think once you put the EVA1 5.7K footage next to 4K Varicam LT footage on your timeline, you will then decide which is your "A-camera."
 
I have some LT footage I shot from a demo unit here, waiting to do just that when my local shop has the EVA-1! (not because I have/will get the LT - just because I want an LT that weighs like the EVA-1 :)). I am skeptical it can compare, despite how close some are saying it looks.

None of the EVA-1 demos have impressed me as much as this LT initial demo, which looks "absolutely cinematic" even in the hyper challenging scenario it was demoed in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dPQ00Qf6Zg

The way it renders the image is just gorgeous. I know it's 2x+ the cost, but, point is, I am wondering how for myself how similar the EVA-1 will look/feel in terms of IQ. I was under the impression it may be 80%-90% of the IQ, minus all the losses in feature parity (dual ISO @ 50%, much lower codecs and FPS, no PL, etc. etc.) but to my eye the EVA-1, while great colors and DR, *seems* at first impressions to have a more artificially sharp, less organic image.

Can't wait to see more, and praying I am wrong.
 
That LT demo is one of my favorite as well, except for the strong aliasing on the window frame at 00:46 (which is really odd and probably some sort of uploading problem). You will have a hard time matching the noise, color, and DR performance of the LT: it has a noise pattern that looks like 35mm film grain. The LT VLOG files are also incredibly flat, so the grading possibilities are endless.

However, I disagree with the idea that the EVA1 appears too sharp. I would distinguish between sharpness and detail, and from what I've seen it looks like the EVA1 just resolves more detail than the LT.

Some people were saying that the EVA1 image looks too flat and lacks depth. There are a few places where I could see that in the footage, but most of the EVA1 footage we have seen has been recorded internally using LongGOP (interframe) compression, and that really doesn't help its case in such instances.
 
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