VaricamLT: Panasonic VariCam LT

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Grug said:
I'm not sure we're watching the same videos then. I've tried looping the Amira footage, but the only thing I can see moving is the rise and fall of her chest and a bit of noise dancing about, I can't spot any moire patterns on the Amira footage.
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Are you watching it at 1:1 pixel ratio ?

I can post a few AMIRA 4K 1:1 pixel crops if you want to see the AMIRA moire move.

Also, why would the seams only be visible in one small section of the AMIRA footage ?

...And why would the Varicam footage show NO seams in the same area of the image but show moire in a lower section of her shirt ?

When I loop both sections I am seeing monochromatic moire for both cameras.
 
OK, I've made two videos ( one for the AMIRA and one for the Varicam ) of the 4K UHD footage in 1:1 pixel mode, and cropped them down to a 720p image area to make these video easy to watch in 1:1 pixel mode on your system's player app. ( just make sure you watch these with your player set to 1:1 pixel mode )

4K UHD 1:1 Pixel with 720p crop (15 MB ZIP File)

It's pretty obvious to me that you can see the moire around her neck-line in the AMIRA footage, but the Varicam footage shows "taller" moire that is positioned lower on her shirt with a "clean" neck-line.
 
TheDingo said:
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It's pretty obvious to me that you can see the moire around her neck-line in the AMIRA footage, but the Varicam footage shows "taller" moire that is positioned lower on her shirt with a "clean" neck-line.
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agreed, it looks like a banding pattern on the Varicam
 
You guys are looking a little too closely IMO. The Amira and Varicam LT, both have very minor moire issues. On the VariCam 35 and LT Im yet to see anything in real world.

filmguy123 said:
where? Slightly on the edges of the sun in a couple early clips... it seemed nice to me elsewhere, but maybe I don't have the eye for it. At what times/clips and what is an example of a better roll off or look?
I thought it all looked quite nice.
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I ran VariCam footage through Aces on resolve and there was a major clipping issue. This was not due to bad dr from the camera, it was a workflow problem. I suspect I have found the root cause of why this occurs using ACES in resolve but requires a little more testing.
 
TheDingo said:
OK, I've made two videos ( one for the AMIRA and one for the Varicam ) of the 4K UHD footage in 1:1 pixel mode, and cropped them down to a 720p image area to make these video easy to watch in 1:1 pixel mode on your system's player app. ( just make sure you watch these with your player set to 1:1 pixel mode )

4K UHD 1:1 Pixel with 720p crop (15 MB ZIP File)

It's pretty obvious to me that you can see the moire around her neck-line in the AMIRA footage, but the Varicam footage shows "taller" moire that is positioned lower on her shirt with a "clean" neck-line.
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Thanks for doing that Dingo. But I'm still not seeing moire patterns emerging on the Amira footage near her neckline. Looking at it at 1:1 I'm seeing the faint outline of the weave of her top move up and down as she breathes, and I'm seeing the faint outline of that weave disappear in and out of the image noise (so it's faintly resolved in some frames but not in others) - but that's all I'm seeing, the pattern of the weave fade in and out as it's either resolved or not, not any moire patterning.

If you scroll through it frame by frame, you can see that the only thing moving that pattern, is the rise and fall of her chest as she breathes, it's not breaking down into dancing moire patterns at any point.
 
Grug said:
Thanks for doing that Dingo. But I'm still not seeing moire patterns emerging on the Amira footage near her neckline. Looking at it at 1:1 I'm seeing the faint outline of the weave of her top move up and down as she breathes, and I'm seeing the faint outline of that weave disappear in and out of the image noise (so it's faintly resolved in some frames but not in others) - but that's all I'm seeing, the pattern of the weave fade in and out as it's either resolved or not, not any moire patterning.
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We'll have to disagree on this one, as this does not look like any kind of weave to me. It looks like a fine monochromatic moire pattern that moves independently of the woman's shirt.

And again I am not seeing the same thing at all with the Varicam footage, which shows no pattern or "weave" around the neck-line but it does show a larger, thicker, taller moire like pattern in a lower section of her shirt.
 
Noel Evans said:
You guys are looking a little too closely IMO.
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Yes, I totally agree with this. I am sure this would be a rare thing in real world shooting, and something that is easy to fix if you check your shot in 1:1 pixel mode before shooting.

I am still curious to see if 4K DCI eliminates all moire with the Varicam.
 
Have got my LT which is currently sitting on a shelf. Trick for me now is to get people to believe in it as I do so I can get it out there more. I am going to put some demo pieces down for different people I shoot for to show it off, so should have some stuff to share soon.
 
Noel Evans said:
Have got my LT which is currently sitting on a shelf. Trick for me now is to get people to believe in it as I do so I can get it out there more.
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I've had mine a couple of weeks and the biggest issue for me is lack of media. In Australia anyway there wasn't any media for the delivered cameras. I have one demo card from Panasonic and for next weeks 2 x LT shoot I have had to hire cards at very high rates just to be able to put the camera on a job. Hopefully some stock arrives soon.
 
Mark Broadbent said:
I've had mine a couple of weeks and the biggest issue for me is lack of media. In Australia anyway there wasn't any media for the delivered cameras. I have one demo card from Panasonic and for next weeks 2 x LT shoot I have had to hire cards at very high rates just to be able to put the camera on a job. Hopefully some stock arrives soon.
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Yeah have the same issue at the moment. Theres a few components moving slowly as a result of the Kumamoto earthquake. Sony had taken the brunt of it.
 
Thanks for the heads up Sean, however these seem to be moving now.

Just a heads up also to everyone we now have a dedicated forum for the Varicam35 and LT. Please use it everyone.
 
Hi all, thought I'd check in and report back.

About to start my 7th week with the V35. It's been performing quite well for us. Rating the camera at ISO 2000 down from native 5000 for stage work has worked out beautifully. We've been able to maximize our lighting package by a significant magnitude, the images are clean and I feel that we are able to move faster and better than at ISO 800. We've done a few night shoots and the high ISO's really came in handy. Two nights on city streets were primarily lit by streetlights and existing practicals on buildings at 4000 or 5000, with a few LED instruments added to clean up foregrounds (and a certain amount of grip gear to knock out or soften streetlights above or in front of the actors).

The moire issues that I saw in prep (detailed in posts above) have not been a huge concern, although I have experienced moire issues at times that I feel were a little more exaggerated than I would have with an Alexa also shooting at 1080. In those instances I've switched the camera to 4K to improve things. Mostly they are typically tight lines like matchsticks blinds or stripes on shirts. I haven't seen anything as surprising as the pattern on the blue top from my tests, thankfully.

There are a few little issues and wishes that we hope to see addressed in firmware updates. And a few things I have learned that the V35 has over the LT. One is that the LT doesn't have a lookaround area in the viewfinder, which is a real shame. Apparently this feature was removed to keep the price down on the camera. I consider this to be a critical aspect for narrative work, as it is a big help for the sound department to be able to see when the boom is approaching the frameline, and for the operators to keep "dangerous" elements like flags right outside the image area. It's also helpful as we can imprint the camera's data into the lookaround area, which helps the script super (timecode) and the AC's keep an eye on their various concerns. For a one-man band or doc situation this probably isn't as much of a concern, but the paradigm of the LT being a lighter B camera to the V35 is a little less attractive conceptually without this feature for a full blown production environment.
 
I'm interested in buying one. Any idea where I can buy a demo/display copy to save costs? I'm most likely going to ignore all the panasonic camera support products since this camera is a tad out of my budget but from what I've seen, this is the camera that I want.
 
edmelvins said:
I'm interested in buying one. Any idea where I can buy a demo/display copy to save costs? I'm most likely going to ignore all the panasonic camera support products since this camera is a tad out of my budget but from what I've seen, this is the camera that I want.
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Since it's more or less just hit the street, I'm guessing it may be a while before there are any b-stock units available.
 
Run&Gun said:
Since it's more or less just hit the street, I'm guessing it may be a while before there are any b-stock units available.
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True.

We actually keep the Varicam V35 and LT cameras/accessories in stock and have demo units. There's a demo kit that will be sold and replaced with a new one near the end of September @ Hot Rod Cameras.

Unlike the previously mentioned box house HRC will also teach you how to operate the equipment, no extra charge.
 
Hi guys. Going to close down this thread. We have the Varicam 35 and LT forum now, so please start new threads for questions, info, footage etc.
 
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