EVA1: Panasonic AU-EVA1! Announcement and latest updates

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I watched it on my 55" 4k OLED(built-in YouTube app that said it was 4K, but I have no way of verifying it when watching on the TV app) and I didn't notice it, BUT I wasn't looking for it, either. When I get a chance, I'll watch it again and see if I do see it.

FWIW: I watched all three shorts on it. I know we are talking about streaming content on YouTube from pre-production cameras and everything should be taken with a (big)grain of salt, but I was not impressed with the image quality from the "fire side" scenes in "Near to Superstition". It would have been completely acceptable in a "doc" type situation, but not up to snuff for narrative, IMO.
 
robotfist said:
The old Zacuto test done back in the day showed us how important it is that a DP be familiar with his camera. In that test the kid with the GH2, that knew his camera inside and out, did an amazing job and beat out a lot of the bigger cameras. Francis Ford Copolla even chose the GH2 footage over the Arri and the Sony. If that isn't a testimate to the power of knowing your camera, I don't know what is. So, we can't take these films as the final word on the EVA1.
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Hi Robofist, it wasn't just Francis- an overwhelming number of viewers on the web and at many of the live screenings picked the GH2 as the best looking camera when shown right along side cameras costing as much as 65x it's $1300 price.

5-years ago I was the shadowy mentor to the GH2 team for that Zacuto project. I supplied the collimated PL mount, did the camera hack and prepped Colt and Jonny on how to "beat" their competitors camera systems. The "kids" were great students, but all I really did was give them a proverbial 'rock' so David could slay the Goliaths. I had no doubt that they would.

A lot of people think that during the Zacuto test the GH2 must have had a really long post/color schedule, they didn't. Not half as long as some of the others. There was a chart that was shown at the Hollywood screening but I don't think it made it in to the final on-line release which showed exactly how much time was spent (wasted?) in post for every camera. The dirty secret is knowing what you can do in camera, what you can do in post- and how to do both so that you don't slow down your set lighting or your color correction. Sound obvious right? It's not.

Colt, who constantly flatters me by referring to himself as "my apprentice," (kiss ass) learned as many other Hot Rod Cameras clients have learned over the past 8-years how to beat this "system." Anyone willing to put in the hours can do it. This is in no way a knock on any of the very talented shooters who shot the other cameras, many of them friends of mine, but I guarantee you that if Zacuto gave the GH2 to anyone else, no one on that entire stage, would have (or could have) achieved the same result as Colt with the GH2, no matter how well they believed they knew the camera.

The EVA1 completely blows away the GH2, this is a fact. If you (and by you, I mean anyone) believe that the "Zacuto Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout" which blindly pit a GH2 against the Alexa, Red Epic, Sony F65...etc has any relevance today- you (and by you, I mean anyone) thinking of buying an EV1 should have zero reservations about the technical performance of the camera. Especially if the source of your concern comes from noise levels in short films from folks who got to do ZERO testing with a camera before shooting with it- never mind the fact that it was a NON-FINAL prototype.
 
Illya Friedman said:
If you (and by you, I mean anyone) believe that the "Zacuto Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout" ... has any relevance today ... [those of you] thinking of buying an EV1 should have zero reservations about the technical performance of the camera. Especially if the source of your concern comes from noise levels in short films from folks who got to do ZERO testing with a camera before shooting with it- never mind the fact that it was a NON-FINAL prototype.
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Exactly.

This is precisely why I am attending the roadshow in October: to view the demo films the way they were intended, and to hold EVA1 in my hands. That’s how you buy a camera. You pick it up in your hands and you see if you meld with it. That’s how I have bought all my cameras up to DVX200. It just felt right in my hands.

As an owner/operator it’s the most important part next to post workflow requirements, then image quality, then support requirements (from batteries and recording media to tripod systems), then price, and then the rest of the specs. I become an extension of the camera when I operate, especially on narrative work...where camera is blocked with talent. The stuff I’ve seen from this particular camera “seems legit” to me. The colors, noise, contrast, and cadence look terrific. Cadence is usually what I have a huge problem with. Arri and Varicam seem to get it right, though. Eva1 has Varicam’s soul and you can see it in its analog-like cadence. It looks like a movie.

That western (not really a western, more like a period drama-horror-fantasy-thriiller-ish) is astoundingly good-looking in places... looks good enough for any indie or television show I’ve seen. A lot of it looked JUST FINE and is cinematic enough with the small crews (who figured out the camera and shot with it and turned around the projects FAST) that I know I could put out some killer content that’d make my clients and me very very happy.

I am basically sold. I just need to hold the camera in my hands.
 
J.Brown said:
I remember using both GH1 and AF100 and I liked GH1 image look with hack much more than AF100. Go figure.
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Ha.. me too I was stunned how good a hacked GH1 could look. In fact my B kit for filming in 'suspect' areas in my old Af101 and GH1
 
filmguy123 said:
Hi Mitch, thanks for this. Apologies, but my #1 question here was if there were controls for sharpness?

Would this be detail / skin detail? If so, could you share a little more on those and how those settings may or may not have impacted any of the footage we have seen?
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There are sharpness controls available when shooting with the Scene Files. Detail is an overall adjustment and Skin Detail is only for selected skin tones to remove wrinkles. These functions have been around in cameras for years, and IIRC the guy who invented the Skin Detail function won a Technical Emmy for it (likely voted on by a group of aging actors!).

No such function was utilized in the three EVA1 short films.
 
Danilo Del Tufo said:
When you shot in V-LOG you can have 14 stops of dynamic range, but when you use baked color profile (CINE D or CINE V, are present?) how many stops of dynamic range do you can achieve?
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There are five Scene Files. They all utilize the full 14 stops but emphasize different parts of the curve for different looks. One rolls off the highlights to give as much exposure into the top end (protects highlights in limited control exterior daylight) while another expands upon the data space of the low end (good for lower light shooting).

You can also reprogram the Scene Files as you wish using the camera's paint controls.
 
James0b57 said:
Has anyone heard from the film makers why that was so grainy?
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It was an experiment to see how far the image could be pushed. Perhaps as the supervising Panasonic rep on set I should have said that such underexposure and lifting in post was going too far.

The camera was only a week or two old at that point and the firmware has been updated four times since then, dramatically improving the noise issues.
 
Mitch Gross said:
It was an experiment to see how far the image could be pushed. Perhaps as the supervising Panasonic rep on set I should have said that such underexposure and lifting in post was going too far.

The camera was only a week or two old at that point and the firmware has been updated four times since then, dramatically improving the noise issues.
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Glad you let them push it though. As I said before, it is great to see when a camera is pushed in an actual scene, rather than a person standing in a studio.

Main reason I asked, was because I was wondering if possibly the EVA needs to be switched to native iso2500 mode, and maybe the AC/DP stayed in native 800 mode. (also zero NR)

I think most people over estimate how bright a little fire in a pit is, and how far it can throw light for good exposure. It is generally really harsh light in the wild, as there isn't much to bounce and reflect. The fall-off happens pretty quickly. So, difficult to judge just by watching the short.

Also, doesn't look like the lenses were open more than an F2/T2. Characters eyes are sharp, and ears are fairly in focus. ISO2500, ~T3, and a little fire >5ft away, don't make for the cleanest video. Definitely a good test.

Here the fire is barely casting any light on the subjects:
Screen Shot 2017-09-25 at 11.29.25 PM.jpg

Here the fire is much larger and exposure on the subjects looks much stronger.
Screen Shot 2017-09-25 at 11.22.55 PM.jpg

Anyway, I am not hung up on low light or slo-mo. These shots are what excites me:
eva_white.jpg
So much detail into the highlights, and a smooth roll off.
eva_highlights.jpg

Anyway, the video definitely has my attention. I started out being turned off by some of the early specs floating around this camera, but seems a good tool. Will have to test it out in the next couple months.

Thank you Mitch.
 
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Mitch, is there any chance Panasonic will release an ungraded, ProRes download of select clips?

Would love to play with some of the footage. I understand keeping the high ISO fire scenes in house. But how about a few outdoor + cave shots from Superstition, and a few from iceland? So people can try different grades, softening, etc. and view the footage in their NLE and monitors here? May set to rest some worries.

This was a big positive regarding Luke Neuman's footage samples from GH5 that had a net positive impact.
 
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