AG-AF100 vs. GH2 final round

[Brian Walstad]

I hear on this forum, and in others, people constantly saying one is better than the other. I personally own both and am willing to do a test. It might be a week or two before I'll have time to do it, but I will do it, preferably with advice from people on this forum and others.

I ask, is there any links you can post of people that already have done a test with these two camera's? I'd like to see what others have done before I do mine.

I want to test only image quality. That seems to be what people are always bickering about. We all know the benefits of SDI, price, ND, smaller size, and which camera has each benefit. It's the image in question.

All tests will be done with the same lenses. I think 5 different camera configurations are needed to do the test correctly. Here are the 5 I'm thinking.
1. AF100, 24p, with Abel's "RANGE" settings, AVCHD.
2. AF100, 24p, with Abel's "RANGE" settings, ProRes via external recorder.
3. GH2, 24p, best high latitude settings, stock.
4. GH2, 24p, best high latitude settings, highest quality yet reliable long GOP hack.
5. GH2, 24p, best high latitude settings, highest quality yet reliable I-frame only hack.

What are the preferred high latitude settings for the GH2? As for what hack settings to use, I'm open for suggestions as well. I'm leaning toward cbrandins 66mbps AQ2 and Driftwoods latest 176mbps version.

[Lee Mullen]

Where is the tests then?

[John Vincent]

Ditto...

Although the reality seems to be that GH2 hacks are blowing the AF100 away - many threads about that over at DVX.

And with new hacks seeming coming down the pike every day, that's not going to change without either an upgrade to the AF100, or a totally new camera (which I predict will be announced before the end of the year).

[Kevin McRoberts]

I wouldn't say "blowing away"... I have both a hacked GH2 and a AF100, and there are some situations (ie, movement) where the GH simply can't compete due to its far greater skew. They do match well and make a wonderful combo.

[John Vincent]

That must be a lot of skew... Considering the $4000 price difference, even it they're even remotely close in terms of quality, I'd say the GH2 is "blowing it out of the water..."

More and more shooters are now saying that hack is clearly, objectively better. There are many examples of the hack "crushing" the AF100 in quality (at least to my eyes), the Philip Bloom's Christmas Shootout being the most recent example.

Of course, it is a subjective topic and I acknowledge that there are other views.

A nice, new, example of the hack in action:
Episode 4: Hacked GH2 - YouTube

[Kevin McRoberts]

Yes, it can be quite a lot of skew, as in completely unuseable footage type jello skew. I'm shooting more and more super macro and telephoto material, which amplifies that issue in the GH series. Granted, the GH is much better than other DSLR's I've tried, but the AF handles it much much much better.

So depending upon the job, that's maybe $2000 worth of skew. The other $2000 or so comes from XLR inputs, a smidge less noise across ISOs, clean HDMI, HDSDI, built in ND's, incremental VFR, worthwhile 1080i and 720p60 modes, red peaking, dual card slots, waveforms, discretely adjustable scene files, long-life batteries, and an unvoided warranty... to name a few.

[Sanjin Svajger]

It would be nice if somebody hacked the AF101 so that we could get a nice internal codec:)

[Luke Watson]

Kevin, can you recommend some settings to match the two?

I've recently picked up a GH2 to complement my AF101 and I seem to be in the minority, but I prefer the image from my AF101, find the GH2 a bit too contrasty

[Sanjin Svajger]

Originally Posted by Luke Watson

...I prefer the image from my AF101, find the GH2 a bit too contrasty

Has someone measured the DR from the GH2 or compared it to the AF101? Luke: did you? Does the GH2 clip the blacks where the AF101 doesn't?

[Luke Watson]

the blacks aren't clipping when I check the waveform - is that what you mean?
How would I measure the DR?

*I know the original aim of this thread hasn't been met, I'm happy to shoot some outdoor comparisons - but I don't have time to spend all day on it,
I'm willing to shoot tests of two diff patches on the GH2 alongside the AF101 - I'm not a big pixel peeper so I'll need some direction on how to approach this

[Kevin McRoberts]

Originally Posted by Luke Watson

Kevin, can you recommend some settings to match the two?

Sure...

It's still not "perfect," but it's OK.

- GH2 (TerraQuake) - probably won't change significantly in other hack flavors
Nostalgic, -2x4
+5 magenta in white balance

- AF100
DTL -4
VDTL -4
CORE -2
CHLV -7
CHPH +7
MPED -2
DRS 1
GAMM B-PRESS
KNEE LOW
MATRIX NORM1

...and for what it's worth:

- HVX200P
DTL 0
VDTL 0
CORE -2
CHLV -2
CHPH +7
MPED -2
GAMMA B-PRESS
KNEE LOW
MATRIX NORM

GH2 is still far more saturated than the other 2, but that's an easy dial-down in post vs any color matching - which you kind of need to do to counter the magenta. You can compare adding/not adding the magenta/chroma phase shift, I do that to counter the cameras' natural green shift and deal with the slight post tweaks.

[Luke Watson]

Kevin,

thanks for the settings,
previously been using some scene files that match up the AF101/HMC150 pretty well,
I'm gonna try applying your HVX scene file to my HMC150, hopefully it'll give me a decent match with the GH2/AF101 settings you provided,

cheers

[Sanjin Svajger]

Originally Posted by Luke Watson

the blacks aren't clipping when I check the waveform - is that what you mean?
How would I measure the DR?

That's what I meant yes. If you shoot the same scene with both camcorders and then if one of them had more clipped luma then that camcorder would have had less DR. Off course this would be a rather crude test but we could start to form an opinion based on that... If you're up to it: just shot the same scene from the same point and with the same lens with both camcorders. Make sure that the scene has dark as well as bright areas. And try to shoot with both cameras with as "flat" a profile as possible...

I would really be interested in the results:)

[Lee Mullen]

The OP announces something and doesnt follw up. whats the point??