What I've learned so far about the AF100

eddavid

eddavid

Carbonite Member
-shoot at matrix - norm 2. looks the most natural. fluorescent and cine-like are too magenta-y.

-shoot at gamma cine v or b press for interiors
cine d for exteriors

-shoot at no greater than DETAIL = -3 if you don't want artificial sharpening

use DRS - dynamic range stretch) when you're outside if you need to add gain to the shadows. anything above DRS 1 looks noisy. so be careful

you'll get vertical smearing and ghosting and the likes when using cheap filters in front of the lenses

you can set the white balance to VARIABLE - by setting to preset. then set the "function" wheel in the menu system to "INH" - and then you can go up and down on it to adjust the white balance

WHEN YOU FIRST GET THE CAMERA - REMEMBER TO BLACK BALANCE!!!!

do this by putting the camera in white balance A or B and then on the front of the camera - hold down the white balance button and just keep holding it - it will do AWB first then ABB (auto black balance)

try to always shoot at ISO 200!! anything above iso 400 adds noise. but I found that even up to ISO 800 it's a damn clean image!


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Edward C. David / Director of Photography
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eddavid said:
-shoot at matrix - norm 2. looks the most natural. fluorescent and cine-like are too magenta-y.

-shoot at gamma cine v or b press for interiors
cine d for exteriors
-shoot at no greater than DETAIL = -3 if you don't want artificial sharpening
use DRS - dynamic range stretch) when you're outside if you need to add gain to the shadows. anything above DRS 1 looks noisy. so be careful
you'll get vertical smearing and ghosting and the likes when using cheap filters in front of the lenses
you can set the white balance to VARIABLE - by setting to preset. then set the "function" wheel in the menu system to "INH" - and then you can go up and down on it to adjust the white balance
WHEN YOU FIRST GET THE CAMERA - REMEMBER TO BLACK BALANCE!!!!
do this by putting the camera in white balance A or B and then on the front of the camera - hold down the white balance button and just keep holding it - it will do AWB first then ABB (auto black balance)
try to always shoot at ISO 200!! anything above iso 400 adds noise. but I found that even up to ISO 800 it's a damn clean image!
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I do agree you better use Cine V or B.press gamma for lowest noise. Remember that Norm2 matrix has more noise in blue than Fluo or Norm1 has but Norm2 has very little black noise. If you have no problem with a pinch of noise Cine B is flatter looking. So if there's no black or dark grey in the frame (indoors or outdoors) you'll be fine even with Cine B. You then have the option to adjust the curve in post and have a smoother highlight and still be reasonable noise free.

Detail does look best turned down but sometimes I like the bite you get at 0.

I would also like to add that the most sensitive thing is shadow areas and highlights, so setting exposure and lighting properly is very important. Never go above 100% but I'd rather set white at max 85%. Skin tones are also sensitive so take great care in not overexpose.
 
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I do not have the AF-100 but your findings sound like they are in line with every other sub-$20,000 Panasonic camera I have used. Very consistent across the camera models.
 
editman said:
I would also like to add that the most sensitive thing is shadow areas and highlights, so setting exposure and lighting properly is very important. Never go above 100% but I'd rather set white at max 85%. Skin tones are also sensitive so take great care in not overexpose.
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The exposure of highlights varies with gamma and knee setting. Skin tones can be affected by knee compression, this is why I set Zebras at 65% for flesh to be safe.
 
Good thread! Thanks for posting your findings Edward. I have a shoot this weekend with my AF100 so will start to implement this tonight into my scene files.
 
Be very careful of having DRS on at all times. If there is nothing for it to do, it will just make your images noisy. So be careful, more is not better, it a useful tool when trying to get a wide disparity of highlight and shadow under control, but it will turn against you in an average scene.

Best,

Jan
 
I think it's safe to say the the native ISO for the AF100 is 400ASA. I know logic would dictate that a lower ISO is better for quality. In most cases this is true, except when going less than the native ISO. For example, the native ISO for my nikon D3 is 200. On my Nikon you can actually shoot less than the native ISO but it is not recommended. The other thing point is that sensors are typically optimized for specific targets. I bet the AF100 sensor targets are 400, 800, and 1600. On some sensors a higher ISO can look better than lower ones. For example a 800 ISO setting can look better than 640. My recommendation is to stick with 400, 800, and 1600 settings and use ND's or aperture to control the light. Of course, this is just me :)
 
Jan_Crittenden said:
Be very careful of having DRS on at all times. If there is nothing for it to do, it will just make your images noisy. So be careful, more is not better, it a useful tool when trying to get a wide disparity of highlight and shadow under control, but it will turn against you in an average scene.

Best,

Jan
Click to expand...

Yes use this sparingly, but it does have a certain quality to it. It will introduce halos like HDR does and can introduce a little exposer shifting because it works on a frame by frame basis. That said, it can be used to create a funky look.
 
Adam Wilt, Art Adams and I were testing DRS and found a very odd artifact in DRS 3, on a high contrast transition, there was a shadow/halo effect. DRS 3 does weird things to flesh tones with my HPX2700, so best never to use DRS 3 with any Panasonic camera, however, DRS 1 can be useful at times--this was the consensus between the three of us.
 
bgundu said:
I think it's safe to say the the native ISO for the AF100 is 400ASA.
snip
I bet the AF100 sensor targets are 400, 800, and 1600. On some sensors a higher ISO can look better than lower ones. For example a 800 ISO setting can look better than 640. My recommendation is to stick with 400, 800, and 1600 settings and use ND's or aperture to control the light. Of course, this is just me :)
Click to expand...

Agreed, and using ISO 250 or 200 could reduce latitude.
 
Steve Kahn said:
For skin highlights? Do you let any 65 zebra show or do you back off just a bit?
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I play it very conservative with the HPX2700 in Film-Rec, so barely see any zebra on faces, typically. Haven't had enough experience with the AF100, but feel that keeping most of the flesh tone at no more than 65 IRE is prudent, especially with Cine gammas.
 
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based on my tests, the noise linearly goes up.. theres no native ISO
black balance wise, i just do it before i shoot
 
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