Upcoming hands-on comparison of F3, FS100 and AF100 from Philip Bloom

Phil I have not read all of this or any other threads.

I have a camera that looks great, the 5dmk2

Trouble is it goes funky sometimes

moiree and also gradiations in skies

I think pointing these cameras at a fiver and also some consisitently tonally graduated item (like a side lit roll of smooth paper)

would be helpful too see

also something that gradiates into blown, like that roll of paper outside on a sunny day

S
 
Real word test.

Real word test.

OUT OF THE BOX!! GOT THE CAMERA AND WHEN SHOOTING.
HERE THE AF-100 IN ACTION.
http://vimeo.com/22987327

JUST GIVE A FEW MORE DAYS TO GET USE TO IT.
BTW >>> I TRY ALL THE CAMERAS IN A TEST AT NAB >> NOT EVEN 2 WEEKS AGO.
NOTHING AS SHARP AS THE AF-100 AND TEXTURE...

:)




philip bloom said:
Phew. I was really worried about going onto here and reading the threads. I will stick with this one. Not read any others. You lot are nice. Such a risk putting yourself out there doing a test like this as you just get hammered by some people.

Someone asked me on my blog to shoot just charts as the test would be irrelevant otherwise. As has been said earlier I am not a tech head. I don't want to judge my image on charts. They are often depressing. After all would anyone be shooting video on the 5DmkII if Vincent LaForet had put up video of some charts rather than Reverie? Of course not! The same person said I had to do it scientifically or not at all. Well my well is as close to scientific as I can get with my resources and time. A scientific test takes a lot of time, people and resources. Zacuto have done that with their Epic single chip shootout coming in June. It's SO thorough. I leave that to them . My test is about image but also what features the cameras offer and how they are to shoot with. Neither of which are touched on in the Zacuto test.

Just from my initial findings with the pre-production FS100 I am blown away by the chip. Just disappointed by things it lacks that the AF101 has. Some really basic stuff for me. But then again it still has a s**t load more features than a DSLR and pretty much blows them away in image aspects...So it's going to be an interesting test. Epic for me. Biggest review I have done. But of course at the end of the day it will just be my opinion. Never buy a camera from one person's opinion. Especially one that costs thousands!! Try them out.

Yep. I made a mistake on my first low light test with the AF101. I was too tired and didn't check the shutter. Last night's test fixes that. It's better but still not in same league as the two sony cameras. http://vimeo.com/23022451

I used the Able Cine low noise profile for the AF on this test. I was more concerned about noise that latitude. I could have stretched the latitude with a different profile but then it would have been noisier. I had to chose! Perhaps I should have done both...sure. But there are so many variables. If you go down that route then you end up with hundreds of shots rather than a a couple of dozen and I don't have the time or resources to do this.

I am currently uploading both the low light test and the 3 daytime shots in pro res lt to my drop box. Check my blog for the link later. I am in Belgium and my hotel internet connection says 5 hours to upload. The low light test is over 2.3gb. The other clip around 250mb.

So thanks again for a really great thread. Gives me faith in DVXUser.com. Really intelligent comments. The way it should be.

Oh and are DSLRs dead as the owner of Cinema5D.com bizarrely said when referring to the FS100. Of course not. These are still way more money than DSLRs and we are still in the embryonic stages of DSLRs. I guess what Canon does next is the move we all want to see...

One last thought. I know this is pixel peepers dream but don't over analyse the images too much. I am no expert on any of these new camcorders. Just fumbling blindly in the dark like a teenager :) I am hoping to get them as close as possible. If not please take this into account. Oh yeah. Don't forget it's not the camera... :)

So keep and eye on both my FS100 blog: http://philipbloom.net/2011/04/27/minishootout/
and my comparison blog post: http://philipbloom.net/2011/04/27/minishootout/

I will update them periodically and have the final posts up on Wednesday hopefully!!
Click to expand...
 
philip bloom said:
Phew. I was really worried about going onto here and reading the threads. I will stick with this one. Not read any others. You lot are nice. Such a risk putting yourself out there doing a test like this as you just get hammered by some people.
Click to expand...

Hi Mr. Bloom, nice to see you around here again.

Me and surely many of us, Filmmakers and frustrated Filmmakers as i am, can thank you for your time and efforts to make this little shootout. For me is very informative what do you do here, no many people have access and the encourage to bring this kind of test with this cameras.

I´m a motion graphics guy, and lately have a little battle inside me, between the AF100 and the FS100 cause F3 is wayyy out of my pocket (but damn sure it looks gorgeous!) and this test help me a lot, 2 years ago through his work in "Joshua tree", i decided to buy the GH1 over the 7D(personal preference), and now thanks to your new work, contributes to my decision on which camera to purchase.

Thank you, Mr. Bloom, and all that as you contribute greatly to this great community.

Keep trying!
 
philip bloom said:
Phew. I was really worried about going onto here and reading the threads. I will stick with this one. Not read any others. You lot are nice. Such a risk putting yourself out there doing a test like this as you just get hammered by some people.
Click to expand...

Phil -- want you to know that you are appreciated for all that you do for this community. Given the resources and time that you are able to put into these reviews, they are terrific -- and every member of your family deserves a medal for allowing you to use them as test subjects!

I personally look forward to the full review -- I know that it will be practical, down-to-earth and readable. I'll make my final decision after I rent the cameras, but your opinion will weigh heavily.

Cheers,

Bill
 
Phillip: thank you so much for posting. Your anonymized test was fantastic for getting people (including me) to really look at the footage. Your reviews have a great mix of real-world common sense combined with brilliant style. Thanks also for posting as you go. This stuff is great fodder for some of us. I look forward to seeing the final results.

To others, on my proposal of image flatness: I figured it would be controversial. I'll take it onto a different thread sometime. It might be related to oversharpening.
 
besides the low-light comparison (greatly appreciated!) the organic look of the sony's are amazing. some where in this community suggested that panasonic needs to change their stock scene settings. they are way over-saturated. personally loved the look of the flesh tones of the FS100.
will purchase whenever it will be available.
kudos to Mr. Bloom
 
Berk that's easily fixed by simply knowing your camera and changing the scene file settings (properly lighting, white balance, etc. helps too LOL). I can assure you the skin tones on the AF100 aren't over-saturated and look very natural. The standard scene file settings on the camera look great as well, so I don't know what you mean.

Sorry to keep jumping in to defend the AF100 here but the things people say about cameras are irrational and misinformed (I'm guilty of it too!).
 
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Berk said:
besides the low-light comparison (greatly appreciated!) the organic look of the sony's are amazing. some where in this community suggested that panasonic needs to change their stock scene settings. they are way over-saturated. personally loved the look of the flesh tones of the FS100.
will purchase whenever it will be available.
kudos to Mr. Bloom
Click to expand...
footage?
based on the tests by philip which i thought was the f3 was actually the af100.
 
I have a hard time seeing how any of these cameras in the hands of a competent shooter... who knows his/her camera... can not turn out gorgeous footage. The AF100 been available to the public for a while, and given it's price point, you are obviously going to have less competent people who are posting stuff on Vimeo. I fully expect the same when the FS100 has been out as long... right now only select pros have been able to play with it. The F3 is in it's own league in terms of who would use it, so you're not going to see less than stellar footage from it.

It really is going to come down to what you need to use it for, and what's important to you. Is the ridicules low-light of the FS that important? Are the extra features or ND filters of the AF? Is S35 vs m4/3 a big deal to you? Form factor? I really don't think one can make a case of one camera being superior to the other beyond what your own needs/wants/desires are.

It still blows my mind what you get for ~$5k USD. Thanks Philip for putting yourself out there and doing all this for the benefit of the community. I look forward to reading/watching the full review (and hopefully picking one of these beauties up before the end of the year).
 
Hey Phillip!

How did you feel about the size of the FS100? Coming from a DSLR background, the only complaint I have had with my AF100 is the physical size of the body. I really like a small camera because of my shooting styles and my support gear. I'm looking to try out the FS100 and see if I am happier with the size of the camera.

I generally ran my 7D on a Blackbird Stabilizer and recently on a shoulder rig that lets me undersling the 7D. I am 6'4" so having the camera at my head height is NOT needed :)

I never use the AF100 handheld, by itself, so that aspect of the AF100 has been lost on me. In addition, I don't really use the built in LCD either, I use a smallHD. With the LCD down on the FS100, how easy was it to use the controls that are still left revealed near it?

Lastly, has anyone talked to Sony about offering negative gains in the FS100?

In any case, thanks so much for your work and your reviews. Most appreciated!

Rick
 
Why does the F3 look A LOT sharper than the FS100? Don't they have the same sensor and the FS100 a "better" codec? Seems like they did it on purpose...the GH2 could be maybe as sharp as the f3 :)
 
Nigel did measure the FS100 at around 780ish lines and Alister measured the F3 at around 950+ish lines. We know the F3 is sharper.
 
Does anyone have a mirror for the prores downloads on Philip Bloom's blog? The dropbox seems to have reached capacity.
 
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