AF104 (AF100) Fashion shoot in Moscow

[Oleg Kalyan]

Last night shot in the studio with little light, mostly modeling light, with my custom settings, overall quite liked it, just watched for exposure, pretty much no color correction here.

Fashion shoot today with stylist Eva Vostroknutova on Vimeo

Few shots took with Canon 5dm2, totally different picture.

[Noa Put]

Looks great, is the make up part done with the 5d? When you say totally different picture, is that when using the same lens and is the difference in the fact that the 5d gives more saturation?

[Buba Kastorski]

Originally Posted by Oleg Kalyan

Few shots took with Canon 5dm2, totally different picture.

oh yeah, and not in favour of AF, 21Mbps AVCHD is a high price to pay for a large sensor camcorder :)

[Noa Put]

21Mbps AVCHD is a high price to pay for a large sensor camcorder

Do you mean that 45mbs from a dslr is better? considering the resolution a dslr actually resolves that is a ridiculously high bitrate, probably to compensate for that. My guess was that only the make up part was done with the 5d and all the rest with the af100. If that would be the case I much prefer the look of the af100.

[Guy McLoughlin]

...I don't know if it was intentional or not, but with many of your shots the color-balance looks like it has 20-40 CC of too much cyan. ( I am guessing that the "yellow" footage is from the Canon 5D MK2, which looks very yellow )

Both of these color-casts are easy to fix with your NLE, unless this is the look that you intended for the footage.

[Mike Connolly]

A real lesson in what can be made with this camera, rather than the snipping and technical comparisons and camera faceoffs that many seem to be getting caught up in.

Some really beautiful images.

[Buba Kastorski]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Do you mean that 45mbs from a dslr is better?

I can't say if it's better, I'll rather use your terminology and say I much prefer look of DSLR, to me it even looks 'better' than 35Mbps from XDCAM EX, and that is a very good camcorder;

Originally Posted by Noa Put

I much prefer the look of the af100.

than it's your lucky day, AF100 is for sale right now; I'm saying lucky because I would prefer to use camcorder instead of photo camera, but to my eye only RED and up look better than DSLRs;

[Guy McLoughlin]

Originally Posted by Buba Kastorski

I can't say if it's better, I'll rather use your terminology and say I much prefer look of DSLR, to me it even looks 'better' than 35Mbps from XDCAM EX, and that is a very good camcorder

Buba,

Can you define what you mean when you say it "looks better" ?

- Is it the tonal range ?
- Is it the color rendition ?
- Is it the shallow depth-of-field ?

I'm asking because I've seen many people say they like one camera over another, when what they really meant is "I like the camera-person's choices when they made this film", because most videos can be tweaked to look almost any way you like, either with camera settings or when editing in post.

Having owned both the Canon 60D camera ( which I sold last month ) and the Panasonic GH-2 camera, I think some people are reacting to the the sharpness of the GH-2 / AF-100 compared to the softer image of the Canon DSLRs. The GH-2/AF-100 can look a little harsh for portrait-style interviews if you don't soften up the lighting or soften up the image when you are editing in post. ( It's like the Canon DSLRs have a bit of that old 1950's Hollywood soft-focus filter built-in, which can make things appear smoother )

There are a few technical problems that effect some cameras more than others, things like aliasing/moire problems with the Canon DSLRs, or things like limited exposure range with the Panasonic GH-2 ( your exposure has to be dead-on to get the best results )

[Noa Put]

to my eye only RED and up look better than DSLRs

You do know that the AF100 can look through the same lenzes as a dslr but with a lot less aliasing and moire issues?

[Sanjin Svajger]

The AF101 looks more video-ish then let's say a 7D.

AF100 came to the market as a "dslr killer" but in my opinion it failed in the "image feel" department. It handles highlights like a video cam and it's dynamic range isn't as good compared with 7D or 5D... These are the two things I like most in this DSLRs... Don't really care about DOF that much. In my opinion it's OVER USED...:)

[Oleg Kalyan]

thanks everyone, what I meant by АF100 better/different than 5dmk2, total DD, level of detail, tonal range. Most important, I struggled for 3 years with my 5dmk2 (had 2 of them at some point, still have one and 7D) with the "dirt" in gradual shadows, and easily obtainable chronic chroma clipping on skin areas, (same can say about ЕХ1, unpredictable highlights and chroma clipping), I feel more comfortable with AF100 in this regard.

Soon I will post some footage, shot on both AF100 and 5dmk2, David Perry, prominent US videographer and I had a seminar recently in Kiev and shot something together in the same conditions, you will be able see what I am talking about.
and to me: the answer is:
- Is it the tonal range ? Yes
- Is it the color rendition ? Yes
- Is it the shallow depth-of-field ? No. but I prefer AF100 DOF better, more 35mm film like.

Even GH1 with the hack, which I used in December (not being able to get AF100) looks better in all regards than any Canon DSLR

Synergy, Russian sailing team promo from Miami RC44 Cup. on Vimeo

[Steve Rosen]

Oleg: It's nice to see footage from someone who actually moves the camera - so much of what has been posted looks like still screen-savers with a corny rack focus in the middle...

Having raced catamarans for many years (20 years ago), I know how difficult that must have been to do the sailing piece, it's a great ad for the G-1.

How do you rate the AF100 compared to the Gs?

Although having ordered an AF in December, I've held it off because I haven't been too impressed with most of what I've seen. I'm a social-issue documentary filmmaker, so the DSLRs are out of the question for me.

But I do want to explore the possibilities of the larger sensor... Are you generally pleased? Any reservations?

[Buba Kastorski]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

You do know that the AF100 can look through the same lenzes as a dslr but with a lot less aliasing and moire issues?

A lot of different cameras can look through the same lenses, but it doesn't mean they can produce the same quality footage; it's just too bad, but to me AF footage looks about the same as VG10

[Oleg Kalyan]

Steve, good to hear from the fellow catamaran racer :)

it's GH not G different animals! ( and the GH1 I own, allows to set up higher bit rate recording)
I still own GH1, GH2, AF104 (100), as well as Canon DSLRs, able to compare directly!

AF series camcorders have much more settings for chroma, pedestal, etc. in addition to cinegamma, that really matters, imo.

From the serious production standpoint having vectorscope and 80, 100% zebra is crucial for not guessing the exposure, unless one uses a light meter

Buba I have not tried the Sony camcorder, all I can tell, the AF100 much more preferable to any Canon DSLRs when it comes to video, IMHO off course! To me AF104 is a perfect camera for a documentary, or event videography, thanks to AF feature. A year ago I 've shot similar sailing promo, on Canon DSLR, there was much more unusable footage, due to bad focusing.There more tests should be done, to make final conclusions.

[Buba Kastorski]

Originally Posted by Oleg Kalyan

Buba I have not tried the Sony camcorder, all I can tell, the AF100 much more preferable to any Canon DSLRs when it comes to video, IMHO off course! To me AF104 is a perfect camera for a documentary, or event videography ...

Oleg,
i love your work and respect your opinion, but i also have my own :)
So far i haven't seen a single piece shot with AF that looks more appealing (to me) than 1/5/7D footage, as soon as it'll be available from Vistek for rent I'll get it for a week and will side-by-side it with all cameras that I have, maybe i'll love it after that, but not likely :)
I also don't understand how camcorder without power zoon and image stabilization (very limited number of fast lenses supporting IS feature ) can be perfect for event video, wedding highlights is just a beginning of the work, but very limited number of people will see the final product, i don't have to explain all that to you, you know that.
call me stupid, but I'm still waiting for Scarlet, and if I'm lucky - Epic