Philip Bloom's "Hirano San"

[HKO]

Waiting is wise. Looks like saturation was rather high as well as contrast. I bet if they were lower the footage would be more pleasing. It's not a bad camera at all guys.....not at all. It needs the option of shooting a low contrast flat image. That would be really good and I am sure that Pana has a Cine mode like the Canons.

 

[kylekmd]

...hmmm, isn't he that cat from SNL that lost a ****-on of weight?

 

[LightMast]

And how much is Scarlet S35 going to cost? Has that even been finalized?

 

[Barry_Green]

If we whine I bet this goes on to Barry and the boys and then to Panasonic so that hopefully the AF100 will be even better. It's not a bad camera but the last pieces has to fall into place.

The problem with that philosophy is that whining is the one tactic that isn't going to work, at least with me. I am instead far more likely to say that hey, there's a whole lot of whining going on, and I sure don't need that in my life, so -- forget posting more stuff, why ask for agony and grief?" In other words, too much whining = killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

But... dammit... at least Philip is out there making films. Which is a lot more than I can say for the recent trends on this site! Despite a massive surge in membership in the last year or two, and despite the "democratizing" of filmmaking that the DSLR has brought -- our ThrillFest had far and away the lowest participation of any of our October fests. More members, more whining, and fewer filmmakers. What's up with that?

Folks, seems to me like more of you need to show us what you can do. Get out of the stands and on the field. With all the DSLR empowerment going on, we should have had 150+ entries in ThrillFest. I see lots of complaining in this thread, so I know you folks are out there. But let's quit taking jabs and complaining, and instead show us what you can do. I and everyone else would be far more inclined to listen to complaints from actual filmmakers who are using the product, than I would from whiners taking jabs from the safety of the Internet.

Look at the comments on vimeo, they're roundly positive. Then look at the comments on this thread, they're roundly negative. What's wrong with this picture?

 

[LightMast]

Waiting is wise. Looks like saturation was rather high as well as contrast. I bet if they were lower the footage would be more pleasing. It's not a bad camera at all guys.....not at all. It needs the option of shooting a low contrast flat image. That would be really good and I am sure that Pana has a Cine mode like the Canons.

It looked like the "Spark" mode on the hvx200.

 

[PaPa]

Another positive thing.

the tight profile shot of the man driving, notice the lens is probably somewhere between 20-24mm, reasonably tight on his face, look outside at he passing vertical lines and notice how LITTLE skew is present as compared to something like the 7D. This is very reassuring.

 

[Gary Baker]

Everybody needs to take a chill pill here. Go look at the "Crews.TV" footage and the "Alfa Romeo" footage. I thought most of the shots on Phillip's short were very good. Was it his best film ever? No. Can one man make a spectacular film every time he goes out to shoot? We are talking about a $4,700 (List) camera here. I had the HPX300 a year ago and this thing would blow it out of the water and it cost me $9,000. Look at the posts on Vimeo by people who are just looking at the film for film's sake, they are all loving it. They didn't stop on frame 1072 and magnify it 20x to see if there might be mud.

I'm sure Sony is working hard on a camera that will be awesome as well, but from what I'm seeing, this camera has great features and a great image and ships in December.

 

[Paul Vicente]

One common thing I noticed in the few AF-100 clips floating around (Alfa Romeo, Crews.tv, the Bloom clips) is how harsh is the transition between really bright and fully clipped. We've been spoiled by DSLRs and now we expect that rolloff to be smooth or "film like". Doesn't mean more dynamic range necessarily. Just a more elegant curve in the highlights.

(I know... pre-production models... yadda yadda yadda...)

--Xavier

I don't think it has anything to do with pre-production anything. I don't even believe it is the camera. I am of the opinion that it is the AVC codec. My HMC150 tends to have the same clipping in the highlights, which never happened with my HVX200 and DVCPRO. I do find however that I can always fix it in post.

Perhaps this is why the AVCCAM products offer DRS, precisely because the codec may have an issue with the bright areas.

I am not a technician or engineer. Just basing this on my experience with several AVCHD and AVCCAM products.

Perhaps Jan can comment on this. The codec handles compression and detail nicely.... but might there be an issue with the upper range (highlights)?

 

[Barry_Green]

Here's a request can we have the guys from the alfa romeo clip have a go at it or are there more clips coming out ?

The guy from the Alfa Romeo clip was here with us. And he has something and will be posting it. And, given the response to Philip's work, I guess we'll be in for another round of savage attacking -- even though I saw Filippo's work projected on a 25-foot screen and it looked absolutely awesome.

I don't know when he will be posting it. But for those vultures who want to descend and ridicule, you'll have your chance when he updates his vimeo page. of course, given the reception to Philip's work, I wouldn't blame Filippo if he didn't exactly rush to post something. He might just instead say "to hell with that, who needs that grief?" Wouldn't blame him at all.

 

[Alpha Beta Omega]

DID ANYONE NOTICE THAT THIS SAMPLE FOOTAGE IS DOWN REZZED?!?!?!?

This will make a big difference in things. The footage download at vimeo says, "1280x540, 331.86MB". Barry said earlier that everyone was shooting at 1920x1080 and no one was shooting 720. People are getting their panties in a twist based off a rushed edit from Bloom, making quick decisions on their upcoming equipment and livelyhood is foolish. Gimmie a break.

If you look at resolution/aliasing/moire then it's futile since footage is changed in resolution. But you can look at the clip from Barry in 1:1 and that tells something about these things. Colours don't get changed by changing resolution.

 

[vagarob]

edit: removed reference

Look at the comments on vimeo, they're roundly positive. Then look at the comments on this thread, they're roundly negative. What's wrong with this picture?

I 100% agree with you on the filmmaking comment. People are more concerned with technology than the actual process. Have you ever been to a Leica board? it's even worse

In regard to "whats wrong with this picture" is not very fair. PB has a fan club and most of them were commenting on how good his film looked, not the camera. He has posted videos using cheap cameras and people gave the same reaction. this is a thread about the AF100 directly.

 

[kylekmd]

Patience.

Full prod model plus tweaking = AWESOME.

I'm with you Barry! Can't wait to get my hands on this bad boy.

 

[Mark Smith]

I'll ask this again: Since when is vimeo the standard for judging motion picture imagery? Y'all have too much pixel peeping time on your hands. I was also under the impression that Moore's law only applied to silicon chips, not people's expectations.

 

[xbourque]

I am of the opinion that it is the AVC codec.

I disagree. If it was the case, the crews.tv gang and Bloom would have reported "OMG! The footage we got from external recorder is so much flatter and has better hightlight response than what we got on the SD cards!"... turns out they both said: "Looks pretty much the same."

Anyways, everyone who has compressed something for YouTube or Vimeo knows that your highlights do not get clipped as you lower the bitrate.

-X

 

[philip bloom]

Wow... that actually looked awful. Why post stuff like this? Highly compressed and just not any good...

Wow, really? You must be seeing something different to me!

This thread is one of the most negative things I have read in some time. Guys, chill, relax and stop getting your knickers in a twist. I have a lot to learn from the camera in getting the best from it but some of your comments are way over the top.

Personally I was pleased with about 80% of what I shot. My picture profile wasn't right with little time to experiment. We only had one day shooting and a hurried edit.

 

[swanny]

Wow, really? You must be seeing something different to me!

This thread is one of the most negative things I have read in some time. Guys, chill, relax and stop getting your knickers in a twist. I have a lot to learn from the camera in getting the best from it but some of your comments are way over the top.

Personally I was pleased with about 80% of what I shot. My picture profile wasn't right with little time to experiment. We only had one day shooting and a hurried edit.

Agree 100% I don't know why people are getting so fired up. I will for once in this whole thread, thank you Phillip and Barry for your time in posting this footage for us! We all know it takes a few shoots to really figure out what is the best setting to use for each camera. Give these guys a break, jeez.

 

[TheReverend]

For a down-rezzed recompressed Vimeo clip of footage... That stuff is great!
Just watched it 1:1 on a nice 27' iMac, and then again at full screen and it looks really good. The filmic look is there, Philip's clips went for maximum color and high contrast. He tried to pull every bit of exposure out of the camera: see the nighttime city overview shots. The clip would look much better with a tad less exposure.

For all those pissing and moaning about this, that and the other thing: You are complaining out of place, and when all of these testing guys come out with all there positive reviews and we hear that that cam has 10-11 stops of DR, you will realize you are just being ridiculous.

 

[John Caballero]

Wow, really? You must be seeing something different to me!

This thread is one of the most negative things I have read in some time. Guys, chill, relax and stop getting your knickers in a twist. I have a lot to learn from the camera in getting the best from it but some of your comments are way over the top.

Personally I was pleased with about 80% of what I shot. My picture profile wasn't right with little time to experiment. We only had one day shooting and a hurried edit.

Philip, once again, great job. What you hear is the voices of many frustrated individuals who find themselves on the outside looking in. None of them were selected by Panasonic to be part of this camera's development and it shows. The camera in the hands of true pros will shine as usual. Thank you and Barry for all your work. Your piece looks excellent and the quality of your work speaks for itself. Only real professionals would be able to see that. Thanks again.

 

[TheReverend]

Wow, really? You must be seeing something different to me!

This thread is one of the most negative things I have read in some time. Guys, chill, relax and stop getting your knickers in a twist. I have a lot to learn from the camera in getting the best from it but some of your comments are way over the top.

Personally I was pleased with about 80% of what I shot. My picture profile wasn't right with little time to experiment. We only had one day shooting and a hurried edit.

Philip - I applaud you for working so hard to get footage out to people. You turned this around in such a short time, probably late at night being very tired. Thank you. Those of us that aren't being ridiculously negative and unreasonable appreciate getting a look of what we have to look forward to!

 

[Madaspy]

Wow, really? You must be seeing something different to me!

This thread is one of the most negative things I have read in some time. Guys, chill, relax and stop getting your knickers in a twist. I have a lot to learn from the camera in getting the best from it but some of your comments are way over the top.

Personally I was pleased with about 80% of what I shot. My picture profile wasn't right with little time to experiment. We only had one day shooting and a hurried edit.

Philip, Hey man I really like what you shot. It was good stuff. I watched the entire thing and never for a second got board or antsy. I know a lot of people here are hyper sensitive and I for one am too, but at the end of the day we will just have to wait and see how the camera performs in our own hands. But, I for one appreciate your posts on here and on your website about the non technical and astetic things that specs can't give you.