VaricamLT: Panasonic VariCam LT

Status
Not open for further replies.
Well this isn't going to tell you a great deal. If you havent tried the 5000ISO for yourself I suggest doing it.

Saw the comment about the A7S and A7SII. Good luck with getting 14+ stops on it. In addition 5000ISO is really the sweet spot, with correct exposure to get light to the right illumination and enough DOF to work with, street lights aren't blooming and look natural.

Panasonic loaned me a camera and basically said if I can put something together to be included in the Aus roadshows that would be great, I had a full schedule, which meant I had to get some faces, some crew and a location that would be interesting, so I went to one of the busiest events in my city last week and shot. All on a very tight schedule / turnaround. Pre Day 1, camera testing. Production and Post Day 1 shoot, Day 2 Edit, Day 3 Grade and DCP (we did have access to a cinema with a 2k christie for the last part - Thank you backlot studios Melbourne). Watching here does little as well as it was graded for cinema presentation. The roadshows take place on 4k screens.

Gear was limited due to crowd and all but first few shots were on sticks, the rest was on cam op's shoulder. I used a hard circle bounce I made up from foam core as I hate bounce that flops around and a repurposed Dedo Felloni. Stuck a plate on the front gaffed it off, cut plate out leaving a nice circle and then applied some Hollywood frost. All in all pretty basic set up.

We shot from 3pm to 10pm to show all kinds of day / night.

After shoot I ordered an LT. Original 4K export was around 9GB, compressed here to about 400. You can download 4K if you go to vimeo.


 
Noel Evans said:
Well this isn't going to tell you a great deal. If you havent tried the 5000ISO for yourself I suggest doing it.

Saw the comment about the A7S and A7SII. Good luck with getting 14+ stops on it. In addition 5000ISO is really the sweet spot, with correct exposure to get light to the right illumination and enough DOF to work with, street lights aren't blooming and look natural.

Panasonic loaned me a camera and basically said if I can put something together to be included in the Aus roadshows that would be great, I had a full schedule, which meant I had to get some faces, some crew and a location that would be interesting, so I went to one of the busiest events in my city last week and shot. All on a very tight schedule / turnaround. Pre Day 1, camera testing. Production and Post Day 1 shoot, Day 2 Edit, Day 3 Grade and DCP (we did have access to a cinema with a 2k christie for the last part - Thank you backlot studios Melbourne). Watching here does little as well as it was graded for cinema presentation. The roadshows take place on 4k screens.

Gear was limited due to crowd and all but first few shots were on sticks, the rest was on cam op's shoulder. I used a hard circle bounce I made up from foam core as I hate bounce that flops around and a repurposed Dedo Felloni. Stuck a plate on the front gaffed it off, cut plate out leaving a nice circle and then applied some Hollywood frost. All in all pretty basic set up.

We shot from 3pm to 10pm to show all kinds of day / night.

After shoot I ordered an LT. Original 4K export was around 9GB, compressed here to about 400. You can download 4K if you go to vimeo.


Click to expand...
Nice work! Really showcases the versatility of the camera in real world shooting. Thank you.
 
This is a fantastic video showcase Noel. Great content to demo this. IMO it's the most meaningful we've seen yet. Lots of motion, lots of people, lots of diverse natural lighting shooting.

also nice touch @1 min timing the music to the overhead lighting

Noel, what were your opinions on run'n'gun shooting with this? Ergos? And any thoughts/comparisons to the C300?

For future stuff, everyone is stoked to showcase the 5000 ISO which is well and good. Would also love to see a demo just like this (variety of natural shooting conditions) at the 800 base ISO, and also utilizing some more slow motion, etc.
 
Bravo Mate.
Finally something with 800 iso (based on most of what We've seen you'd think the varicam LT only worked at night, LOL). Did you shoot V-log or the new V-Look?
one thing that Panasonic has not been talking is the fact that the Varicams are the only cameras (at least as far as I know, other than dedicated high speed cameras) that offer variable speed ramping while recording.
I'm looking forward to owning this camera. April can't get here soon enough
 
sean007davis said:
one thing that Panasonic has not been talking is the fact that the Varicams are the only cameras (at least as far as I know, other than dedicated high speed cameras) that offer variable speed ramping while recording.
Click to expand...

Sony F35 does ramping in camera since 2008.
 
More interesting V35 projects to see what's possible, since the LT will carry the same sensor:

V35 x Kowa

Good skin tones, has it's own look compared to Alexa, though I don't know if this was graded with 'film' or Kodak as the overall goal.
 
Last edited:
If it's like the previous generations, you should be able to set it to a fixed speed or angle/degree. But if you're ramping the frame rate, you want your shutter to stay at a fixed speed so that your exposure stays the same.
 
sean007davis said:
Bravo Mate.
Finally something with 800 iso (based on most of what We've seen you'd think the varicam LT only worked at night, LOL). Did you shoot V-log or the new V-Look?
Click to expand...

All shot V-log, though am interested to try the v-Look as well. Soon.
 
Run&Gun said:
If it's like the previous generations, you should be able to set it to a fixed speed or angle/degree. But if you're ramping the frame rate, you want your shutter to stay at a fixed speed so that your exposure stays the same.
Click to expand...
I suppose you could ride the iris, ISO, or a variable ND to counter the shutter speed change.

If say you start a shot out at 240 frames per second at 1/480 shutter, and then ramp the frame rate down to 24 frames per second, then your shutter speed is now 20 times your frame rate, so you'll be getting the juttery Saving Private Ryan look, correct?

So then what is the advantage of variable frame rate during a take as opposed to shooting the whole take at 240 frames per second if the shutter speed remains the same throughout the take?


Also, can the variable speed ramping while recording be controlled wirelessly?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top