Panasonic reveals more details of AG-AF100

I would like to see this camera combined with the AG-HPG20 recorder. Wished it was cheaper but probably will make an excellent combination. Though cheap/expensive is quite relative. An 11 or 12 K package that could be considered PRO might work for quite a couple of people.
 
I never got it.

For me, any compression was always a PITA and a foul compromise.
The prices for hard disks are falling. So why compress at all?
Whenever possible I work uncompressed since years and love it.


Best possible quality, easy on the cpu, cheap available media, even as solid disc.

Otis with his little company can do it even in camera (where I still have to schlep my computer to the set) so why can´t the big companies just make a camera with a slot for -off the shelf - sata disks and end all this compression bullsh...t?

Frank
 
Gabriel Berube said:
They may be expensive but worth every dollar you pay. I'd personnally rather shoot on a rugged and dependable storage device that never fails during a critical shooting like P2 than a flimsy plastic media like SD. Heard too many horror stories out there.

Can't wait to try the AF100 though, I really hope all the features Barry's mentioned end up in it!
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For the record regarding SD cards --

We deployed the HMC150 between 60 and 90 days after it was released -- so, without getting out the calendar -- I'm guessing that means over a year and a half of use.

Based on my photography experience I bought the best possible SDHC cards available at the time -- the Sandisk Extreme 3 "30MB/s Edition"

In all this time no one has experienced a single card failure of any kind. Not one single failure.

The only reason I know the words "Card Check" is because I read them on this forum.

In all seriousness -- the not-cheap SDHC cards have been exactly as reliable as our two P2 cards -- the two P2 cards that have spent most of the past year and a half in a box with the HPX170 because the HMC150 was ideal for most things for a range of reasons.

The difference between me and the "horror stories" -- I didn't try to save a few dollars on the recording media.

SO -- for the SDHC card thing on this new AF-100 -- 1) the HD-SDI means you don't need to record to SDHC, and 2) if you invest properly in your recording media -- you really, really, really will have a wonderful experience with AVCCAM that makes life easier on the capture end and the archive space end.

Again -- year and a half of rather heavy use -- not one single SDHC problem. Not one single problem.
 
In all seriousness -- the not-cheap SDHC cards have been exactly as reliable as our two P2 cards -- the two P2 cards that have spent most of the past year and a half in a box with the HPX170 because the HMC150 was ideal for most things for a range of reasons.
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Not to get off topic but can I ask why you chose to use the HMC150 over an available HPX170 when you did? Are there any advantages other than being able to record longer in the field and being able to archive smaller footage? Granted these are big advantages for myself, I'm just curious if there are any other pro's to the HMC150 over HPX170.
 
Not to be a dead horse... but the SDHC cards have been extremely reliable for me for 3 years. I shot a ton of P2 cards but don't miss a single day of media offloading. I have 12 SDHC cards now and I can shoot for days and have never had a single issue with any of it. So much of this stuff comes down to purchasing the right card and also user issue.

I think that with all of this... it's funny How the Sizzle and Buzz for the Scarlett has lead so much of this, but yet they haven't delivered bubkiss.... If they don't do it soon, then everyone else will be eating their lower priced lunch.... and personally, checking out their announcements which detail other announcments is tantamount to bait and switching.... I know things change, but it's friggin crazy how little tangible details you get from them... Next year about this time I'm shoooting a feature on the best camera that I can buy....
 
The biggest unknown is whether Panasonic will offer a zoom lens with the 100, and if so how fast, how wide, how long, and how much. I believe they will offer a lens as they always have in the past.

As a 150 user I have never lost any footage due to card failure and I've been using reasonably priced Kingston cards. If the AF-100 will record redundantly to both card slots that should eliminate any card failure issues.
 
Redundant Recording to both flash cards

Redundant Recording to both flash cards

If the AF-100 will record redundantly to both card slots that should eliminate any card failure issues.
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I think this is an important feature, and something we should make sure Panasonic knows we want. If it can redundantly record to both cards simultaneously then you can buy two 64gb SDXC cards and be pretty close to the reliability of a 64GB P2 card. A P2 card, as I understand it, has two solidstate hard drives in it in RAID-0, so if one dies you have a backup.

The likelyhood of two SDXC cards dying within minutes of each other is very very low unless the camcorder itself frys them. P2 cards are also more reliable with regards to temperature/moisture etc. but for most users two SDXC cards redundantly recording will be enough reliability. This is one of the big selling points of the new Sony HXR-NX5U.

Of course this doesn't change the AVCHD vs DVCPROHD/AVCINTRA codec debate but for many users redundant 64gb SDXC cards with high bitrate AVCHD is a very attractive option + pricepoint.
 
Nityananda_SCSMath said:
Not to get off topic but can I ask why you chose to use the HMC150 over an available HPX170 when you did? Are there any advantages other than being able to record longer in the field and being able to archive smaller footage? Granted these are big advantages for myself, I'm just curious if there are any other pro's to the HMC150 over HPX170.
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I'm guessing this is relevant in the context of 200/170 users who are now, for the first time, contemplating an AVCCAM format camera. So, I'll briefly respond in that context.

Sending a kid out with a four thousand dollar camera and over five thousand in recording media is, well, uncomfortable. You're more paranoid about the recording media (easier to lose or be stolen) than the camera.

Four of those Sandisk Extreme 3 "30MB/s Edition" SDHC cards gives me six hours of full raster 1920 by 1080 or 720/60P recording. Six hours gives you freedom -- freedom to be creative. Six hours of recording capacity that fits in my pocket.

Do the math on six hours of A or E series P2. And if you can't afford that, then factor in that whole "offloading" hobby.

Another issue is archive space.

Image quality is essentially indistinguishable from DVCPROHD, and Jan Crittendon reported that AVCCAM looked fine along side AVC-INTRA on some big screen display.

Last, as NLE software has progressed, so too has the quality of editing/encoding Long GOP formats like AVCCAM. The rules aren't exactly the same as they were four years ago. Actually, they're not the same as they were three months ago.

So -- the answer to your question is above (cost, convenience, recording time, and archive space at far less of an image quality expense than people think) -- but in a larger sense the bottom line is that AVCCAM really doesn't suck -- and will actually be a rather pleasant surprise to the people who first encounter it with the new AF-100.
 
AGMedia said:
but in a larger sense the bottom line is that AVCCAM really doesn't suck -- and will actually be a rather pleasant surprise to the people who first encounter it with the new AF-100.
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This I totally agree with. I've been working with AVCCAM in my HMC40 and HMC150, and it's really surprisingly good, all things considered. No, it's not AVC-Intra, and yes I'd rather have AVC-Intra. But AVCCAM is a better, more robust codec that XDCAM-EX and substantially better than XDCAM-HD. It's dramatically better than HDV.
 
With Red's last delay this thing is looking more and more like a 2/3" int. Scarlet killer! Can't wait.
 
Awesome. Can anybody tell me what that lens is on there? It's much clearer to see in the .PDF posted in the beginning of the thread. On the creativevideo site they say "(shown with optional Zeiss DigiPrime lens)". I wonder if this means that perhaps Panasonic is working out a deal with Zeiss to include a discounted kit lens with the camera?

But what lens is that in the photo, is it available on the market now, and how much does it cost?

In the .pdf you can see it says on it:
Carl Zeiss Distagon 1.7 / 32 T*
ARRI ULTRA PRIME

I think it's the one you can see on this bottom of this Zeiss .pdf
But I can't find a price for it anywhere..
 
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Nityananda_SCSMath said:
I think it's the one you can see on this bottom of this Zeiss .pdf
But I can't find a price for it anywhere..
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Heh. There's an old saying that goes "If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it."

Ultra Primes are about $900 for a set of six.

To rent.

For ONE DAY. :)

I didn't find a buy price for Ultra Primes either, I could only find rental prices. Consider, though, that buying Compact Primes (their super-budget line of movie lenses) will run you about $5,000 per lens. And that the Cooke Panchro, their "budget" line, is about $7400 per lens.

The closest I could find is the Cooke 5/i 32mm, it costs $20,700. I would have to believe the Ultra Prime is going to be somewhere in that ballpark.

So... yeah, you don't buy Ultra Primes. Rental houses buy Ultra Primes, and you rent them from the rental house when you need 'em.

The lenses people are going to buy for the AF100 are going to be the m4/3 lenses (like the 20mm f/1.7 or the 14-140 f/4); those are more in the range of $300 to $1000.

Or, if you want inexpensive cinema-quality lenses, the Zeiss ZFs range from about $600 to $1500 each, and they're the exact same glass as the Compact Primes.
 
lyrov said:
She is getting closer...and closer...and she is beautiful....!!!
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Interesting -- they list a date of December 1st on there. Wonder where they got that date... if they're just guessing, or if they've actually been told that by Panasonic Europe?
 
And.....!!!!

And.....!!!!

Hoooo boy. I just love this list of "And"s!
When I read it aloud, my voice gradually rises in volume until I reach Howard Dean levels of hysterical shouting.

Barry_Green said:
And variable frame rates
And HDMI output
And a headphone jack
And audio outputs
And live monitoring while recording
And timecode(!)
And metadata
And two card slots
And 7 different gamma curves
And Dynamic Range Stretching
And complete image control instead of limited consumer image tweaks
And 1080/60i and 1080/50i (for those who want it)
And focus assist that can be used while recording
And zebras
And a waveform monitor
And a vectorscope
And a spotmeter "marker"
And manual audio level control
And the ability to disable all Audio Gain
And higher-quality audio pre-amps
And color-matched with the other Panasonic pro cameras like the VariCams
And 48KHz uncompressed audio recording
And built-in optical neutral density filters
And Pre-record
And an intervalometer
And different aspect ratio markings in the viewfinder/LCD
And much cleaner/sharper images with the elimination of all aliasing and moire
And peaking for easier manual focus
And (as said before) a much more robust recording format (AVCCAM PH mode)
And variable shutter angles from 1 to 360 degrees
And syncro-scan shutter in video mode (infinitely-settable shutter from 1/24.0 to 1/250.0)
And manual black balance capability
And selectable color matrices
And adjustable knee point and master pedestal controls
And the ability to assign index points within clips
And the ability to mark clips "good" or "no good"
And the ability to delete the last clip you just shot
And maybe the ability to time-stamp your footage if needed
And a 90% "safety zone" for making sure your framing will be visible on all TVs
And the ability to take much larger batteries
And the ability to assign user clip names to the clips that get shot
And the ability to use a wireless infrared remote controller
And the ability to generate color bars
And maybe the ability to take remote zoom/iris/focus/stop/start controllers
And the ability to save and exchange scene files, for instant/easy matching between multiple cameras
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My birthday is December 6, so this could work out nicely if any of you guys haven't decided what to get me..... : )
Happy Birthday, indeed.
 
very clever move from panny to give the interchangeable lens affecionados a better cam! I totally agree with this policy and hope others will follow. after all the interchangeable lenses make a big difference! lets hope its stays in a reasonable price range, 5k$ is NOT reasonable IMO.
I paid alomst 1.5 k for my GH1 and invested in a nice collection of glass, so the move is good if the price is right!
 
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