ProVideo Coalition.com: Stunning Good Looks by Art Adams

The Panasonic AF-100 is getting a lot of buzz as a possible HDSLR killer. We used it in the real world in place of an HDSLR, and now we know. And soon, so will you. Read on…

The two cameras that get the most buzz at the moment are the Panasonic AF-100 and the Sony F3. In particular, the AF-100 seems to be Panasonic’s response to the HDSLR craze, and for that reason it has been widely anticipated: the industry wants 35mm depth of field for the price of an HDSLR but in the form factor of a traditional video camera. HDSLRs have been great tools for the price, but as they aren’t designed to be video cameras they fall short in a number of areas.

There’s a lot of money riding on the projects that we shoot, and traditional video cameras acknowledge that fact. They offer us tools with which to judge focus and exposure, and they allow us to tweak the camera so that it responds optimally to the shooting environment and reflects the look we want our footage to have. HDSLRs have, over time, come to offer some of those options, but they don’t do any of them particularly quickly or well. The industry has been eagerly awaiting cameras that offer the HDSLR look but with video camera speed and functionality.

The AF-100 does all that. It’s basically an HVX-200 with a larger sensor, which is both good and bad.

Recently director Ian McCamey landed a spot about which I can say nothing as it’s not finished yet. (I hope to show the completed piece in a week or so when it’s been cut and approved.) The budget was not a healthy one, and initially there was talk of shooting with a 5D or 7D. While I can make very pretty pictures with those cameras they do slow me down a bit, and the location we shot at offered limited prospect in daylight. Speed was of the essence, and we managed to get a brand new AF-100, from Shooting Star Video, on the job, along with a brand new Arri Alura 18-80 T2.6 zoom.

The AF-100 can be configured with a number of different lens mounts. Jeff Regan (owner of Shooting Star Video) opted for a PL mount in order to show off his new Arri Alura zoom, a “low cost” lens for 35mm sensor cameras. (He also offers the camera with Nikon mount and primes.) Although I’ve heard reports of pin cushioning from one person, I haven’t checked the lens on a chart to confirm or deny whether that issue exists and I didn’t notice anything during filming. It handles very smoothly and has a nice solid feel to it, and we had zero issues with back focus. (The Alura, like most film-style lenses, does not have a user operated back focus control.)

While the AF-100 can be configured for use with still lenses, those lenses aren’t very camera assistant friendly. The focus markings aren’t accurate and the distance markings are too close, so if the assistant wanted to quickly throw focus to 8’9” they couldn’t find the proper spot on the lens, and even if they could find it the focus wouldn’t fall at 8’9”. The Alura is a proper film-style lens with a big lens barrel and large, nicely spaced and accurate markings that’s great for action and drama, where we’re constantly following people and objects around. Still lenses are great for interviews and doc-style projects where the operator has to find their own focus, but that wasn’t the kind of project we were shooting.

While I can’t show you moving images from the spot until it’s finished (except for one short clip) and I can’t tell you what the concept is, I can show you stills from the shoot and give you a rough idea of the story. I hope to be able to publish the final spot within the next couple of weeks.

Let’s take a look at some images, both in front of and behind the camera, on the next page…

The Best of Stunning Good Looks

Art Adams | 08/30

A directory of my best articles, sorted by topic.

This entry is a guide to my best articles, sorted by topic. Enjoy!

The ‪ARRI M40‬ Outshines the Competition at NAB 2012

Jeremiah Karpowicz | 05/25

See why this light is in such high demand

We asked John Gresch, ARRI Vice President of Lighting Products, to tell us more about the products ARRI had to show at NAB 2012 and he gave us some details about the ARRI M40. It…

NAB 2012: Assorted Snapshots

Adam Wilt | 05/08

A few cool things I saw at the show that didn’t fit into any other articles.

NAB is too big a show in too short a time to see more than a fraction of it. I’ve covered a few things in some depth (as have other PVC folks), but there’s plenty more that slips by without proper coverage. Here, I have a few photos…

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As to the lens issue: Jeff had the camera, the lens, and the Hot Rod Cameras PL mount, an E.T. universal bridge plate with both 19mm and 15mm studio rod fittings, and a 15mm lens support fitting for the Alura. I had our Arri MB20 matte box and FF5 follow-focus rig, but only 19mm rods (that is, between us, we only had long-enough rods in 19mm size; the MB20 and FF5 can work with either rod size, but at Meets The Eye we’re set up with 19mm rods only). We didn’t have a prep day, so we jury-rigged on location, winding up with the 19mm support system running from the camera to the matte box, and then 15mm rods running back from the matte box to support the lens. The vertical alignment wasn’t perfect so it’s likely we were putting some torque on the camera’s front plate; I recall thinking that the lens seemed to be tilted up a bit more than I’d like. My guess is that our hasty rigging stressed the AF100 a bit, and that’s why we saw the poor thing capping intermittently.

The preceding Thursday, we had the lens properly supported on a 15mm rod system with no capping issues, but the PL adapter in that rig had flange-depth issues, and the 15mm rods didn’t extend far enough for a matte box. Jeff had only had the AF100 for a few days and hadn’t had time to assemble a full support kit, hence our last-minute cobbling with the MTE-supplied support kit and the attendant issues.

The moral? No matter how low-budget the spot, no matter how pressing the schedule, you give up your prep day at your peril.

Highlight handling: On that Thursday test day, I had my GH1 along, and looked at its highlight handling alongside the AF100. The GH1 handled overexposure on saturated colors much more naturally than the AF100 did, which surprised me—both cameras are made by the same company; couldn’t the vid-side folks see what the stills-side folks were up to?

And no, I don’t think the issue on your color-correction would be helped much if at all by 10-bit files. The transitions from normal to kneed and then to clipped are so quick, so sudden, that having 4x the tonal resolution would be irrelevant: the transition zones are so abrupt that they go from OK to NG in the space of a pixel or two, and with a very steep slope to the tone curve despite the knee. Whether you’re crashing into clipping at 254 or at 1023, it’s still a hard crash.

The fix here was clearly to have had Luke and his assistant stationed sunward, just out of frame, ready to run across the street with the hero, carrying another 12x12 silk to soften the light. Yes, their shadows would have been visible, but I’m sure Ian could roto them out; he can fix anything in post, or so I hear… [grin].

Looking forward to seeing the completed spot!

Posted by Adam Wilt on 02/08 at 10:16 PM

Nice, thanks Art! Good write up with information I can use if I ever shoot with the AF100. You seem to be the pioneer with the arrows in his back, so now I know where to look out for the dangers. Will you post a link to the finished spot?

Thanks,
-Graham

Posted by Graham Futerfas on 02/09 at 09:44 AM

Guys, you must fix your commenting system. Comments “stick” to a page you were reading, not to a whole article. Comments, made on the first page are not seen on other pages, and vice versa.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/11 at 04:26 PM

The commenting software company has been contacted and they are reviewing code and such to determine what the problem is. As quickly as they get back to me, we will institute a fix.

We’re trying, it’s a code thing from the developer…

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/11 at 04:51 PM

Actually, comments “stick” wherever they darned well feel like, sometimes on the page one comments on, sometimes on a different page (as in my previous comment here, which was posted on page 3), and sometimes—wonder of wonders—on the whole fleeping article!

It’s a vexatious problem with infrastructure of the site, and the site minders are well aware of it. The solution is actively being sought, but it is even more elusive than my Panasonic GH2, which was ordered well over a month ago and has yet to be seen… [grin].

Posted by Adam Wilt on 02/11 at 04:52 PM

I have to say, one of the MAJOR features of the camera, especially as opposed to a vDSLR is the complete lack of junk strapped, attached, jury-rigged and becabled just to make the whole thing work.

If it weren’t for the monitor on top, this’d be the cleanest camera rig we’ve seen in a long, long while.

Personally, I like to attach my monitor to the tripod so it’s easier to see- especially like in that high, tilt-over shot you have there. But even with the monitor on top, this demonstrates the value of a purpose built piece of hardware, as opposed to jury-rigging something that wasn’t meant to do this.

Posted by IEBA on 02/15 at 07:51 PM

Art, great to see you putting this new camera to use. It would be nice to see something from that camera with a “lower cost” lens, perhaps a stock Panasonic? That Alura is still very pricey for most people!
Keep it coming!

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/17 at 10:05 AM

Re: the commenting: Consider a switch to the Disqus commenting system (http://disqus.com). It works great, people comment even more, it’s awesome for mobile devices, etc. Click through my link to see how I have it set up for my Expression Engine site (which I think this site runs also). People don’t have to sign in every time, which is also nice. Many large blogs are running Disqus nowadays.

And having to login to PVC every time just to comment is a royal, frickin’ pain. =)

The benefits were strong, and I just got tired of comment spam and managing each blog individually.

PS Just got to play with an AF100 at a local video show, looked good. Wish you could knee those highlights though.

Posted by Allan W. on 02/22 at 03:32 PM

Allan,

I’ve been eyeing Disqus for some time. My concern was losing all the existing great comments we have.

Would love to talk offline. Feel free to email me: sgentry (at) provideocoalition (dot) com.

Thanks!

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/22 at 03:41 PM

I will not use Disqus simply because I want to use different accounts - and hats - on different forums. Google already has enough info on me, I do not want Disqus to have as much or even more. No, thanks. But my comments are not of any real importance so why you guys should care?

P.S. I do not login every time to PVC, I have a cookie.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/22 at 04:54 PM

Art / Wilt,
Great info - thanks. We are considering the AF-100 to replace our HVX-200 for our lo/no projects. Would like to get your opinion.
1. You comment that the AF-100 is basically an HVX with a larger sensor. Do you feel that it is on par with HVX in regard to the recorded image, or were you more refering to the functionality?
2. I am curious as to how the the Ki Pro footage you recorded compares to the footage recorded natively to the camera. We are considering a nonoflash, so I am a bit bummed that that HDSDI tap is 8 bit instead of 10. However, if the Ki Pro footage compares favorably against the native footage, it might still be worth our while.
Thanks,
Brent

Posted by particleman on 04/05 at 04:37 PM

It’s on par with HVX-200 image quality, but unfortunately when it comes to highlights that’s not saying much. Both suffer horrible-looking clipping around highlights, especially saturated highlights.

I haven’t looked at the KiPro footage, to be honest with you. The fact that it’s 8-bit as well has just left me cold. It’s amazing what you can do with an EX1 or EX3 by recording the HD-SDI out and it’s very disappointing that Panasonic doesn’t offer a 10-bit output. This may be because it was a way to cut costs or maybe they don’t want to cut into sales of the impending single-sensor Varicam.

Posted by Art Adams on 04/05 at 05:56 PM

Thanks for the feedback.
I suspect you are correct in both assumptions: Cutting costs and cutting into Varicam profit

I think might still go with it as we are familiar with the HVX and it’s limitations. Additionally, we can adapt a lot more of our lenses to it than it’s Sony peer. So I guess we will go for the depth of field option and forgo the 10 bit option. It’s always a trade off isn’t it?

Posted by particleman on 04/06 at 05:54 PM

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Panasonic AF-100: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly