Sweet! enjoy your cameras you guys!!!
The official "I got my AF100" thread
- Thread starter Barry_Green
- Start date
Andy, does it look like you will have regular stock from here on out?
You need a 15/19mm Studio Rod setup my friend.
mkfotos.com
Well-known member
Although I totally agree that it's ideal in a situation where either the body hangs off a lens (like above), or the lens hangs off the body (ok, with any significant lens it's a necessity), I've wondered if the body, without accessories, weighing almost exactly what the recommended maximum lens mount capacity is, would be ok (like above). For the record, I have several over-capacity lenses and have yet to hang the body off them.
Thoughts?
First Impressions reportage
First Impressions reportage
Please watch my first impressions movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8DaKgDTBw0
I am looking forward to your comments!
David de Jongh, filmmaker in The Netherlands.
www.daviddejongh.nl
First Impressions reportage
Please watch my first impressions movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8DaKgDTBw0
I am looking forward to your comments!
David de Jongh, filmmaker in The Netherlands.
www.daviddejongh.nl
Quite a realistic test made by David and his cameraman chap.
Peeling off all the hype from this tin box I bought 2 weeks ago: lousy horizontal resolution, terrible ergonomy, no in cam stab etc, great vectorscope and waveform tool, terrible highlight clipping. A mixed bag of candies and worms. The 700 line resolution of the AF100 (and not the advertised 800 lines) shows clearly in the 20mm landscape shots. This is a disappointing issue, meaning that the AF100 may be good only for CUs and MCUs and not for wide landscape shots (my GH13 is way better actually).
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Barry_Green
Moderator
Well, danap, your opinion is your opinion and you're certainly entitled to it. I find it to have fine resolution, certainly much much sharper than any DSLR. Excellent ergonomics. No in-camera stabilization, that's true -- just like every Nikon and Canon and professional video camera with interchangeable lenses, there is no in-camera stabilization on any of them, so it's not a big deal. And there is not "terrible highlight clipping" -- that's just a case of someone not knowing how to work with the camera. There's a whole thread here on "chroma clipping" that explains exactly what's going on and how to control it and get smooth rolloff.
"a mixed bag"? Certainly -- because it's $4700. If it was $13,300 they would have had more room to cram more stuff in. All engineering is a series of tradeoffs, as to what you can put in, under the ultimate ceiling of the selling price. Many of us feel the AF100 is a pretty ideal mix of features, performance, and price tag.
I'm happy enough with it that I just bought a second one.
"a mixed bag"? Certainly -- because it's $4700. If it was $13,300 they would have had more room to cram more stuff in. All engineering is a series of tradeoffs, as to what you can put in, under the ultimate ceiling of the selling price. Many of us feel the AF100 is a pretty ideal mix of features, performance, and price tag.
I'm happy enough with it that I just bought a second one.
heavyG
Underwater Giraffe Member
Kind of felt like you wanted shallow depth of field, AND a point and shoot handheld - whip it out and shoot - camera. This is definitely not that kind of instrument. Play with it for a while, and get yourself some great manual (even manual cine) lenses. I think for interviews you'll have a great camera.
Wild shots handheld out the window of a moving train with an auto lens… maybe not so much. If you want a shoulder mount ENG cam, then buy one; this isn't for you.
I'm using a two af100 setup to shoot advertising and a cooking show; works great for me. However when I'm in Hong kong next month to shoot a constantly moving doc, I''l be using something diffrent.
I find it laughable that you say how wonderful the dynamic range is with your other camera when you shoot going down the highway on a overcast day. Then you shoot from a train on a bright sunny day with no snow and are not happy with the dynamic range of the AF-101.
The sunny day you shot on would even push film over the ends of dynamic range. Totally a un-scientific and un-fair comparison.
Swap the cameras and your review on dynamic range would be a swap 180 degrees also.
Shoot under the same conditions on the same day, time and then report.
The sunny day you shot on would even push film over the ends of dynamic range. Totally a un-scientific and un-fair comparison.
Swap the cameras and your review on dynamic range would be a swap 180 degrees also.
Shoot under the same conditions on the same day, time and then report.
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Well, Barry, actually I have done all my home and field work of getting known with the camera and I have got reasonably well acquainted with e.g., the unbalanced chroma clipping issue, the workarounds to ensure a nice roll off, the noise issue, with good support from your excellent book etc. I understand also perfectly the need to adapt my work habits to this new baby. So, actually (again), I know how to work with the cam and feel quite capable to extract some tasty juice out of it.
However, I find that all the fine-tuning procedures that knowledgeable or pro users will learn and practice, are essentially work-arounds erroneous design and implementation. I cannot see, just to mention this example, that the chroma clipping issue is motivated primarily by cost cutting urges. I my view it is just bad engineering. Not to speak about ergonomy (Scandinavian obsession) and my future AF100-related tendinitis-es.
This is why find David's test and opinions quite pertinent. I will, though, have to live with my new tin box and make it sing.
Bon, j'arrête.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Well, I guess there's room for all opinions. You may call it "bad engineering", but from my perspective it does exactly what it does, the way that they've been doing it for the last eight years, and been getting praise for, for years. Panasonic's never had the sharpest chipsets, but what they have always had a big edge in, is color. They do what they do. Sony may have "better highlight rolloff" (I don't know if they do or not) but Sony has a typically clinical/sterile look. Is that the tradeoff? I don't know. I like the balance the way Panasonic has it, it looks frickin' lovely, and the only thing is that you as a shooter have to make sure you don't overexpose. But that's always been the rule with video -- don't overexpose.
The chroma clipping isn't "motivated by cost-cutting urges", it's just how their particular color science works. How would you expect it to perform differently? You have to maintain the ratio of red to green to blue, or it will change the color balance on you (which is, of course, what happens when one channel clips). You cannot prevent it, it's impossible. The closest you could come is to just make everything go gray at the extreme hottest levels, but is that really any better?
The chroma clipping isn't "motivated by cost-cutting urges", it's just how their particular color science works. How would you expect it to perform differently? You have to maintain the ratio of red to green to blue, or it will change the color balance on you (which is, of course, what happens when one channel clips). You cannot prevent it, it's impossible. The closest you could come is to just make everything go gray at the extreme hottest levels, but is that really any better?
pulpfiction007
Veteran
He just recently shot a music video with it. It's on his website. The video looks very good (like most of his work). I think he's been very busy with workshops and timelapses! (there's some AF work on the timelapses as well.)
Im not sure what Philip uses in his day to day kit at home, I imagine he picks the right tool for the job. I can say that he's just been over here hanging with us Aussies for a month.
And had 4 cameras with him at all times.
Ok, is this the right setup? ...or did I misunderstand the thing with using your 35mm lenses? :happy:
View attachment 30800
It's a little clumsy but if you but it on your shoulder or better a tripod it works like a charm
Now thats read to shoot - a canonball maybe but still.
astigmatic
Well-known member
Along with chroma level, I also found you can nudge the chroma phase up 2-3 notches(any higher makes reds too magenta) to help with the red clipping.