Panasonic Rep at the Atlanta Videographers Association

[Jan_Crittenden]

If it were anyone else but you Barry, I'd stick to what the Panny rep said. However, I don't know if this rep has even held the thing himself, whereas I've seen your videos holding - and almost dropping - the AF100, so I'm confident that you are correct.

There have been very few people in Panasonic that has held one, including this rep as there are only 3 in the entire world.

Best,

Jan

 

[scapsinger]

It is mechanical. You can see it roll over the image. It is not Electrical. Take another look at the pictures of the camera. It is the knob over the lens on the front of the camera.

Best,

Jan

Hi Jan, thanks for clarifying again.

I did see the knob, and of course my initial assumption was that it was mechanical since it wasn't just a button on the side of the camera (and since that wouldn't be in line with the other features of this camcorder). My confusion arose when I was told by a company representative that it was electronic. I'm sure you understand why I bothered to point it out here.

And I'm not one to unnecessarily stir a pot...if I'd heard this from some random blogger or word-of-mouth, it wouldn't have even come up.

I don't really understand why the Panasonic rep for this region said it if it wasn't true, but of course, that is exactly what happened. A very random part of the camera to have such confusion on as well.

He did spend about 30 seconds talking about the HMC80, but it was well before any discussion about the AF100. To make matters more confusing, he was using a laser pointer on the projection screen to indicate the ND knob as he talked about it be electronic and not mechanical.

Again, thanks for clarifying it once and for all.

 

[groveChuck]

Nice! Back to the classic filter wheel. No more of the silly sliding clunking filters.

 

[Michael Y Wong]

Thank you so much Alpine Steez!

my quick thoughts on this subject.

ultimately its not even about shallow dof i would say that its about sensor size especially for event/wedding work as ultimately run and gun will take you into the realm of poorly, dimly, non light environment that pose a unsurmountable challenge for smaller sensor cameras. i have no idea what the sensor size of the af100 is but from what i know, even to this day the 5k range of video cameras do not surpass 1/2 inch chips. my ex1 was to me the king of HD low light (1 lux) back in 2008/2009 but it is simple terrible in comparson to what a canon 5d can do coupled with relatively fast f1.4/f1.2 lenses.

shallow dof and cinema-esque image quality, control + lens flexibility is of course the biggest advantage (and revolution in the history of digital video) but that is a totally different discussion.

- myw

I'd say shallow DOF looks pretty damn good for a wedding video.

Michael Y Wong is a beast though........

http://vimeo.com/12014034

http://vimeo.com/13816473

http://vimeo.com/7513018