the editman.com

This weekend I shot a corporate video featuring World Rally Championship in Sweden. A couple of years ago I shot a video for Porsche but this was a new experience. As with any sport it becomes interesting once you start to scratch on the surface. Rally is much more than just roaring in high speed.

The first night was at a horse race track and I opted to use my J17 lens on the AF101 since it has a nice reach. I've got used to shoot at ISO1000 and upwards without any noise problems. The trick is to use a scene file that gives you less noise. Just as easy as that.



Each job has it's challenging moments and to do a sit down interview in a restaurant with speakers playing music all over wont be good. I managed to find a hall way that had a low level of noise and that could fit the task. I used my LED312 kit to lit the person and they keep impressing me with good performance and ease of use. I made the face warmer because I like them that way.

The LCD display on the AF101 can be so difficult to judge exactly how it will look but after a year I know you can make it on the verge of ugly warm and then you will get a nice warm skin tone in the final image. To bad I have to use my experience instead of using a correct LCD display.



I used the Atomos Samurai to record it all and on the internal SDHC cards also. I found one quirk when recording overcrank footage. If the Samurai is set to HD-SDI timecode it wont record anything even if a trigger is sent from the camera to the Samurai. I see the logic in this because when when you do 50fps on the AF101 the timecode runs faster than realtime and the Samurai does not like that. If you set the Samurai to record run it does record so that you get in-camera 50fps and 25fps in the Samurai.

To get clips in the same edit friendly prores format I play back clips from the AF101 and the Samurai starts to record. This is a simple way to get overcrank into the Samurai in 1080p.

When you have 1080p50fps record inside the camera the only thing the Samurai does is to mark a clip after you've pressed stop. Maybe to indicate you have a overcrank shot? I don't know.



It was cold outside but other than the LCD display on the AF101 started to have a low refresh rate the camera itself worked fine. My feet froze but the camera and recorded was fine!

I managed to get close in the pit stop and just as the guys stressed to get the car on track I had little time to shoot it. But I had time to use my crane to get some nice crane shots and in the hurry two interviews with the camera mounted on the crane. Not my plan but the driver was about to go so this gave me some interesting angles.

I wish I had more time but sport is often fast moving and this was one of these occasions. No time for a second chance.



I used the SLRMagic Hyperprime for this interview and although I like tighter shots when doing interviews it worked much better than I would have imagine. Kinda nice to try something different this time.

When hauling around equipment it doesn't feel to good but when you're back home in the edit suit any angle you put some effort into getting to that place or bringing that crane pays off.

No matter how you fight the fact that the Panasonic AF101 is an 8-bit camera, it still is 8-bit, with the limitations it brings. This camera can be accused of having the lowest DR of all the large sensor cameras and that's probably true to some extent.

There are a couple of goals how I look upon achieving the greatest footage out of this camera. I look at; colour, noise, 8-bit artefacts, resolution, DR and compression artefacts. It's not an easy task to really know what happens when you dial the settings in camera and what happens when you start to grade or push the footage.

The usual thing to do is to shoot as flat as possible to safe as much as you can and afterwards grade the footage to your liking. Sounds really easy and sure enough you can set the AF101 to be very very flat. The problem is the minute you start to stretch that flat image to achieve some sort of contrast it starts to break up. I think it does this due to 8-bit and compression used when recording to the internal cards in AVCHD.

You can try to set this camera to a flat setting by using the Cineline D gamma and master pedal to +5. Also use the noisefree norm2 colour matrix and lower detail and you'll end up with a reasonable noisefree and utterly flat looking image. That can be a nice flat look that can work on it's own but the second you start to grade it it will break. In many scenes you might not notice it thou but looking at gradients show breaking early on when applying a s-curve.

But most of us do prefer a bit more contrast to the image.  You can try to use these settings for a very contrasty and punchy image; Cinelike V gamma, master pedal at -4, Norm2 gamma and turned down detail and chroma. The result is a picture with great contrast but reduced DR and might look to contrasty.

So is there no middle ground?

Well, there's one trick that works the opposite to shooting log/flat footage and that is to achieve a flatter look when grading. Thanks to many excellent tools like Magic Bullet you can shoot with the most contrasty setting and still end up with a just enough flat image.



The image above shows a frame grab from my "clean" settings. Settings are; Cinelike V gamma, norm2 matrix, master pedal -4, chroma -4, detail -4, v detail -4. I would say this scene file has the lowest degree of noise so check on noise. I put a white card in the frame that is clipped and there are details going into black and levels in between. Focus is set on the plastic bag and the printed text to show resolution.

One misunderstanding I see often is this camera is noisy even at ISO200 but it all comes down to the settings you use. The example images you see here are shot in ISO1000 and using my clean settings the footage is pretty much free of noise.

In itself it looks okay except for the clipped white card and if you check on the lower right corner there's chroma skew due to a couple of things. First it's the settings to have a high contrast image that introduced the chroma skew, then it's the norm2 matrix which boost colours. I think the Cinelike V gamma has a nice high roll-off and the white card is clipped but doesn't really look ugly, just clipped.
 


Now look at the this image. It looks really flat right? I would say it's a bit on the wild side, but I made it this way to show you can do a reverse log/flat thing with the AF101 that doesn't introduce noise or 8-bit/compression artefacts.

If I had done it like one expects - to shoot as flat as possible in camera and graded to look like the contrasty image earlier, it would have gone broke by now. But doing it the reverse way works with the limits of this camera. Since 8-bit only has so many levels it just breaks when you stretch it but not when you make it flat.

You might notice the chroma skew is absent in the lower right corner. There's a little footage saver in Magic Bullet and it's the shoulder. Again I made it pretty extreme in this example to show how it can remedy chroma skew.



Probably you'll grade this image like the picture above. Less contrast but not as flat as the extreme example. My point is you might have to think in a new direction sometimes if you want to achieve something that can be difficult with an 8-bit camera like the Panasonic AF101. It's better to shoot with as few artefacts as possible to start with and flatten the image to you liking afterwards.

Again, if your goal is a really flat result you'd better use a flat scene file but if you're after something that will be graded it can be worth the time to try contrasty vs flat scene file.

One has to realize this is not an Alexa and you can not expect it to be one. But there are tweaks that can make it better.

One of the great things about Panasonic AF101 is you can use almost any lens. The lens that is hard to come by is a fast zoom lens made for shooting video. Non of the m4/3 lenses can do smooth zoom action. You have the choice of getting a very expensive cine zoom made for 35mm film cameras or go the B4-lens route just like I have.

Thanks to the low noise in this camera you can crank ISO way up and end up with a good looking image. The image above is from a shoot I did this week, Prores LT 4:2:2 ISO1000 and the lens at roughly F5.6.

Something that would have suited a 1/3-2/3 chip ENG camera but the AF101 with a B4 lens works really good as a substitute. The downside is you loose two stops of light when using the 2x extender but other than that it's a great combination.

I still hope for affordable lenses made for m4/3 that works as nice as these ENG lenses. I have a Canon J17ax7.7 and made a cable to power the zoom but it would be exciting to see something innovative in the future in lenses made for these type of large sensors cameras.

Is 2012 the year when the world comes to an end? Let's hope not and instead look at what my game plan is for the next 12 months or so.

First I have to admit I'm eager to learn more. I've used this last year to try many new things when shooting and bit by bit I do become wiser. I like to share my findings on this blog and I get alot of email from readers. It's rewarding to hear I can help!

So what's up this year? My main goal is to shoot as much paid jobs as I can. This summer it's wedding time again. I don't do many weddings but when I do it's always fun and challenging. Hopefully I'll make at least one short with friends and have the time and opportunity to try out new gadgets to share with you - dear reader.

I also have another goal and that is to reduce my kit to the core stuff I use. This as strange as it might sound involves to get a couple of missing pieces first before getting to the reduce part. I will try hard to stay out of 5DmkII shooting but I guess I can't avoid it. I really want my AF101 to shine this year and the more I use it the better it gets.

If I could defend getting a Canon C300 camera I would and all would be well. Only when I can take full use of my Canon EF lenses, only then a truly compact kit can become real. Although I can afford it, it's not that easy. It all comes down to how much you can charge a client and until the C300 proves itself to be something that can be used for all sorts of jobs I can't justify buying it. It's three times as much as the AF101, but I could never charge three times as much for a daily rental fee.

Most of what I do is some sort of corporate video. These seldom become public and they seldom have a high enough budget to fit the price of a C300. I still think this camera shows promise but it's priced to high and lacks some important features like overcrank in 1080p, 10-bit output and built in XLR. Does it have better image quality then the AF101? Sure I bet, but not three times as much.

So as long as I still have both Canon and Panasonic cameras I'll stick with two sets of lenses and that in turn makes it harder to get to the point I want to end up at - a kit with one set of lenses. I have no interest in having other lenses than Canon EF L lenses for my 5DmkII.

This year I will take full advantage of the Samurai Prores recorder for as good images from the AF101 as I can. Atomos will update it with focus and exposure assist functions and I'm hoping for 1:1 and false colours.

I have started to case all of my equipment to reduce the amount of things to carry. I just hate to have many heavy cases to bring to a shoot. If I can cope with four cases that'll be great. Camera-tripod-lights-slider, that's what I want. It just takes time to find something that works and boy have I tried many different kind of bags and cases.

A case should be; easy to haul around, use during a job, protect the equipment, be air-travel safe and last a long time. This weak I got one B&W Outdoor Case 61 and further on I'll get a 65 case. It feels like something that'll last forever and no matter what I do to it it will protect what's inside. It's even waterproof! I also like it has rounded corners and feels comfortable to carry.

The goal is to have stuff I use often in one B&W case and when going to a big shoot keep the rest of the bits in the other B&W case. I have many soft bags but two durable hard cases will work better in the long run. I have a closet with most of my tools and if I manage to fit all in appropriate cases I can store it without my office looking like a dump.

I also become fond of my LED312 kit last year. I know LED lights have a poor CRI rating but these look really good and to have something this small, lightweight and portable fits right in when it comes to have a smaller kit. In one of my tripod bags I have three Manfrotto 1004BAC master stands. They are great but also overkill for the LED312 panels. So I got three Manfrotto 1051BAC stands to make this kit smaller and lighter. They will also be great to use for my Canon 580exII flash and things like that when shooting stills.



They stack together like the 1004 stands and they are very compact. Perfect for small lights.




I had hoped for a good screen on the Atomos Samurai but it's kinda poor. If Atomos puts in 1:1 zoom it might work as a production on camera monitor but if not I have my eyes on the SmallHD DP6 with NP-F battery mount. I've got a bunch of these Sony NP-style batteries now and they work on the LED panels, Samurai and DP6 so it makes sense to stay with as few different battery kinds as possible. I'll wait for the Samurai update before deciding to get the DP6.

If I look at which lenses gets the most use on my AF101 it's by far the Voigtländer 35/1.2 and 50/1.1. I also used the Canon J17ax7.7B4 lens more than I would have thought. At first it just seemed to be exciting to try on micro4/3 but as I got to use it I really like the AF101 with an ENG lens on. Great for events and that power zoom is smooth. You don't need a 1:1 mode either since the J17 has a push zoom focus check feature. Parfocal is great!

When reviewing which microphones got used last year the number one was my Sennheiser EW100 G3 system. Paired with one Audio Technica AT8010 for handheld stuff it's a tool I don't want to be without. I have a better wired lavalier but pick up from the cable is worse and I like it when there's less cables on the floor. I have two shotgun microphones - AT897 and AT875R. Both great ones so I'll keep both despite I only use them less. All the rest of my microphones I can do without so I'll sell them.

I'll share more during the reduce journey - less is more!

Inside this Lowepro ProRoller X300 I have my Pansonic AF101 kit. I like this bag because it has plenty of room, it's well padded, compartments are adjustable, you can use it as a backpack and it rolls!

I usually tuck 7-8 lenses inside. My main set of lenses are; Hyperprime 12/1.6, Voigtländer 25/0.95, 35/1.2, 50/1.1 and 75/1.8. I also have a Leica 45/2.8 macro and one Canon J17ax.7B4 lens with adapter.



In one of the corners the AF101 itself lays on the side with extra padding around. One small bag in the same compartment holds audio/video adapters and small things one might need like screws and mounts for different things.



In the opposite corner I have a Cinematics mattebox and a Sennheiser EW100 G3 system. Lenses rests in two levels in each compartment to make room for more lenses. I use 35 and 50mm the most so these are on top and lenses seldom used underneath.



The compartment above the camera holds batteries and chargers. To the far right a pair of Sennheiser HD25 headphones. In the middle a Zacuto EVF and a baseplate to hold camera and rods.



The lid holds many things. Two screw on 77mm filters just in case One ND8 and one CPL. Theres also cables for chargers and power adapter for the camera itself. In the smaller pockets are SDHC cards and card readers. In the outside pockets I have a 10m XLR cable, a Pro70 lavalier, two 45cm rods, flags for the mattebox, a Audio Technica AT897 shot gun microphone and a colour calibration card.



Inside the lid is a small velcro pocket with two microphones inside both from Audio Technica; AT8010 is a handhold interview microphone and the AT875R is for mounting on the camera.
I also have velcro cable holders, cleaning cloths and such tucked inside.

So that's my AF101 bag.

After several months this much anticipated recorder arrived the Atomos Samurai - a big brother of their Ninja recorder.

This recorder had several features I fell for. First it uses solid state drives (or spinning discs) so you don't have to swap smaller cards. It records to a proven codec - Prores in 10-bit and 4:2:2 and it has a very good power solution.

Samurai comes in a waterproof case it seems and everything except harddrive and BNC cable is included. Well you get two mini BNC to male BNC adapter cables but you still need a straight BNC-BNC cable to hook up your camera.



After having seen demos and the talk about sticky fingers to make something happen on the touch screen I was gladly surprised that it only takes a slight touch to navigate the user interface.

It's a very self explained user interface and I figured it all out in a couple of minutes.



On the left side there are connectors for HD SDI in/out, LANC in/out, analogue audio in and headphone output. Included with the Samurai are two caddys to hold harddrives. On the back there's room for two Sony NP-style batteries (included) that power the unit with either battery. You can monitor each battery to see if it needs to be changed and you can swap one even when running when it powers from the other one. A dual charger just like the one I have for my iLed 312 LED panels is included and because I have three iLed 312 panels with six batteries in total I can use all of them plus the two included with the Samurai!



You can record to Prores LT, 422 or HQ and Atomos will sell an upgrade to included DNxHD codecs in both 8-bit and 10-bit. These files are ready to be edited without to much decoding from a computer and for FCP users you can just drop the footage into a project and start editing.

I have one 120GB SSD drive that gives me between about 2:48h and 1:20h recording time and one larger 320GB spinning disc that provide plenty more. When you do overcrank/undercrank on the AF101 the output signal when recording is just plain 1080i50 but if you playback that sequence the Samurai starts recording and you can thus record overcrank after each take. You will loose the higher bitrate since the original clip is recorded but still have edit friendly files to hand over to a client.

It records both video and audio coming from the HD SDI input. It can even be set to trigger from the HD SDI stream and sync with the TC coming from the camera.

I had to try it with my Panasonic AF101 and it worked right away without any fuzz. I got video and it started to record as soon as I hit record on the camera. You can also record by pressing on the screen but I think it's great you now can do dual recording on the AF101 providing greater confidence.



With the Samurai comes a small docking station to bring material into the PC. It's USB3 and transfers very fast. Image quality is pristine. From the HD SDI you get 1080 50i with an embedded 25p signal. You can set the Samurai to record straight to 25p doing 2:2 pulldown on the fly. Or you can just record 50i and do it in the editing program.

The unit feels solid but if I have to criticize something it's the use of mini BNC connectors. I'm convinced they could have put ordinary BNC connectors on the unit somehow so why? Another thing that's really bad is the locking mechanism for the harddrive. The second disc I tried got stuck and I had to remove the side panel in order to get it out. I ended up disabling the HD lock for now. Inside there's a little plastic piece holding the disc and the button on the right side is suppose to release it but I can't have a stuck drive during a job so I'll have to do without it.

I always feel disappointed when opening things to peek inside and you realize quality is less than what you'd expect.

Update: I opened up and re-engaged the lock and learned one thing. You must first push the release level and then pull the disc. If doing it the other way around it can get stuck.

On the top and bottom are 1/4 standard tapped holes to mount it. The first batch had a wrong tapped mount but this unit works with my 1/4 arms and ball heads.

You can do full playback and output in full resolution from the HD SDI output. It's fast and no apparent lag. Be careful not to record more than 2 tracks before Adobe solves an issue with more tracks than 2. It wont import footage into Premiere Pro if more than 2 tracks. The screen on the Samurai is rather dark even with brightness at max but resolution is good. Some sort of peaking/scaling is involved that makes focus a bit easier to achieve. You get that "zing" in fine details when they get in focus. Atomos have said they will come with more functions to check focus and exposure next year.

The first impression of image quality it looks great. AVCHD have a tendency to get a little bit soft which sometimes can hide noise and other times a bit unrefined. The Prores-files look pristine and playback is smooth as ever thanks to the I-frame encoding.

I will use this unit for all upcoming jobs with my AF101 and we'll see how it will improve everything from workflow to image quality.

A sidenote with regards to my preorder on the C300:

Canon C300 will be a very popular camera when it arrives in the end of January. After I got the Samurai recorder and started to calibrate it together with my AF101 I came to the conclusion a new camera is not what I need at the moment. The AF101 is such a great camera and it fullfill almost every shooting scenario I will run into next year. With the Samurai I'll get I-frame 4:2:2 in an easy edit-ready format, dual recording and on top of that a good 5" monitor.

I still think the basic concept of the C300 is great but with shortcomings like no 1080p50/60 and no 10-bit output it's a bit of "to little to late for to much cash". What I love about the AF101 on the other hand is it has everything one wants. You do get so much for what you spend and now that I have a proven set of lenses with 12/1.7, 25/0.95, 35/1.2, 50/1.1 and 75/1.8 that works on this camera I think it's wiser for me to wait.

I admit I'm on the fence right now. Since the launch of Canons EOS C300 I have been tossing how to look upon this camera and I can't decide. Is it good or is it just an overpriced brick?

The biggest thing with this camera to me is actually not the camera itself but rather the fact it can make full use of my Canon L and Zeiss ZE lenses. I look beyond right now and really really want a smaller kit with fewer things and higher quality. I can very much see myself in a years time using the C300 as my A-cam and the upcoming 4k DSLR from Canon as B-cam or special shoot camera.

It's a cross road and I'm in the junction trying to see the future.

On one hand I have my photographic interest and on the other I have video and I want the two to totally merge. Three years ago I switched from Nikon to Canon and started to built a set of Canon gear. It was a bit painful selling my set of Nikon lenses but I saw Canon as the brand that would go ahead with merging stills and video much more so than what Nikon would do. I think I did a wise decision and I'm glad I made the switch to Canon. I have been completely satisfied with all Canon cameras I've had. Even my first SLR the Canon D300 was a great little shooter.

Now I have one foot firmly in the Canon booth and the other in Panasonic micro 4/3. I don't want that instead I want one brand and one set of lenses to take me through stills and video.

The thing is with the Panasonic AF101 it grows on you. It's way better today than how I felt about it a year ago. It's just a great little camera with almost every feature I want and it continues to shoot great looking images. Better and better all the time the more I get to know it. In a couple of weeks I'll get an external recorder to go with it and I'll squeeze more juice out of it.

It's the same with my Canon 5DmkII and EF lenses, a camera that I love to use.

I could do nothing and continue to use AF101 and 5DmkII like I do today but that's not my long term goal. The most obvious way to go would be a combination of C300 and 5DmkII. Use them with the same set of lenses and go from there. When either video or still cameras comes along that I feel will take my shooting further I'll go for that and stay with Canon now that they are committed to make video cameras with large sensors.

But I would miss a couple of things that is possible with the AF101. First of I would miss the simplicity of the AF101. That buttons and switches are all on the body to make fast changes. All framerates in 1080p will also be a hard feature to let go. Last I think B4 lenses on this camera takes it even further in the way you can use it. It's a great camera all over and especially now that I've nailed down all image settings to tailor it that way I want it to look.

On the other hand would a C300 bring more out of each image. So far I can't tell since I've never used it, but everything points towards the fact that it will produce some of the greatest images from a 1080p camera. It's very hard to ignore that.

So I'm sitting here on the fence with a bucket on my head. Should I jump over the fence or climb back?

I have my Af101 on my desk and decided to measure it compared to the C300 spec just to get a feel for how small it is. It turns out that without sidegrip on the AF101 they have the same width. The AF101 with top handle mounted is 14mm taller. Without it's actually lower than the C300 with it's handle. The length again is about the same with the AF101 a mere 3mm longer if you look at the body alone. With the viewfinder on the AF101 it's 30mm longer.

If you include the top and side handle and monitor unit on the C300 it's about 90mm taller, 90mm longer and 22mm wider than the AF101.

Conclusion. The C300 is smaller by a small margin when transporting but actually larger when in use. On the back there are more connectors than on the AF101 but on the other hand XLR inputs and LCD screen are built into the AF101 body.

Sonys F3 is larger than both AF101/C300 but if you really want a small large sensor videocamera Sonys FS100 beats them all. It's a real lowrider at a good 78mm margin to the C300.

Specsheet:
Canon C300 bare body:
133x179x171mm
Panasonic AF101 body:
130x200x170mm (210 including the EVF)
Canon C300 fully kitet:
185x284x301mm

I have to admit I'm very excited about this camera. I should be. After having used a 7D/5DmkII to shoot commercials or corporate all their limits are well known. The C300 is the answer if you like the Canon-look the 7D/5DmkII gives you. It handles video and audio effortless and still have some DSLR magic over it.

To finally be able to use the excellent Canon L and Zeiss ZE lenses in full swing is it's strongest feature. Who can afford PL lenses? To use still lenses is also a size thing. To be able to use a DSLR as a backup camera/B-cam and use the same lenses saves space when moving equipment between shoots.
 

During a job in a facility nearby Öresundsbron, a bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark, this gorgeous sunset outside just had to be captured.

I'm doing a bunch of interviews for a couple of corporate videos and though I'd share on how I set these up.

The two sweetest lenses to do interviews using Panasonic AF101 is Voigtländer 35/1.2 and the 50/1.1. The reason I like these is because they are superfast, sharp but still very pleasing on how they treat faces. They are also all manual lenses with the aperture ring on the front part of each lens. It's much easier to grab in front because you see the ring even behind the camera.

The screenshot above is with the 35mm at about F1.8. This is as wide as I'd go. It gives just enough DOF separation so if you want to paint the background with logos and such they still will be seen and not to out of focus.

My shooting style when it comes to interviews is to use my slidekamera on top of the tripod. I don't slide during every take but it gives the image some life and makes interviews more interesting to watch when having a slide. With the slidekamera slider each take is good. It's so solid and after more than one year with this slider it's running as smooth as when it was new.

Lighting depends on how the surrounding and background looks like. Anything from a reflection screen to a two-three Fresnel spots in a three point lighting. I also try to use incoming daylight to provide key, fill or mood light. Sometimes also to separate the subject by different colours.



When sitting down I prefer to use a wired lav to pick up audio. Sometimes I use a boom mounted microphone but I don't like to bring a boom stand so it's easier to just use a lav. If outdoors I always use a Sennheiser G3 system so I don't have to worry about cables. The big advantage of having a boom is you get no clothing noise and the subject doesn't have as many restraints when it comes to gesticulate.

I also made a version of my "Clean" settings to give me what I want. It's a scene file with a very clean and punchy look and a bit warmer than you'd get from a white balanced image. Minus 3 makes it a tad warmer without being to much. Faces often looks better with a bit of added warmth in my opinion.

Sweetspot for skins with this scene file is around 50-55IRE. Often it needs small adjustments in post if any to look great.



My Zacuto EVF is used to check focus with the 1:1 mode and it also helps you when you need to have a monitor elsewhere. But I like the LCD screen on the AF better because it has better colours and is brighter. I no longer have my Marshall 7" and until I get a new external LCD (haven't decided which one yet) the LCD screen will do.

Despite the fact that the AF101 is not the highest resolution 1080 camera it's a very good image you will get. Thanks to it's balanced OLPF alising and moire is absent even when you shoot fine patterns or texture on cloths. It's a camera that's perfect for doing interviews with!

My first macro lens - Leica Elmarit 45/2.8 for my AF101/GH1 cameras.



I will use this lens as a counterpart to the excellent Canon 100L macro on my 5DmkII to have about the same field of view and sensitivity on my AF101.

It's a tiny lens but I kinda like the focus ring despite focusing works by wire.

I've updated this article with some sample images using my Panasonic DMC-GH1. It's really a lovely lens for micro four third cameras. A portrait lens with image stabilization and on the GH1 it feels really nice balanced.

Having it on the GH1 it might not be the fastest lens in terms of focusing speed but I guess the newer GH2 and G3 makes this lens faster.

For Swedish Television I shot a bunch of interviews with the interviewee in the backseat. One of the guests was Goran Ivanisevic which had an exhibition game vs Stefan Edberg.

It's a very restricted space inside a car if you want to shoot in a portrait fashion. Not much room to point the camera. Not many places to mount it. But it's also one interesting view since the background and incoming light is changing all the time.



I had my Panasonic AF101 mounted on the windsheild using a Camtree suction cup system. Two cups under the camera and the third screwed into the handle on the AF101. I also had a Zacuto EVF on an articulating arm.



Two Sennheiser EW wireless systems mounted on the right side of the camera using a dual bracket. Actually I got really good sound with not much noise from the car except some low frequent rumble.



Last year I did the same using my 5DmkII and 100L lens so I figured a 45mm lens would give me about the same field of view. I used a Leica DG Elmarit 45/2.8 between about F2.8 and F5. Lovely little lens but it looks kinda ridiculous on the AF101 camera.

The car a BMW 7-series wasn't to smooth with bumps and ripples on the street so some camera shake was apparent. The OIS inside the lens helped alot and as far as skew it's much less than what you'll get from a 5DmkII.

To mount a small key light I used one of my iLed 312 panels close to it's 5600K setting. Just a tad of the 3200K leds lit since this gives a broader spectrum of light and looks better. I was really satisfied with the warm skin tones and got a fair amount of colour separation with a somewhat bluer background.

Sharpness and fidelity is much greater than what I would have got with a 5D so the AF101 was a good choice for this job.

Some of the bags that came along for the ride when I this week did beauty shots of a BMW ActiveHybrid 7.



Part of this job is to do interviews inside the BMW so first I tested how to rig my AF101. Used my new Camtree suction cups and a Leica 45/2.8. With the Camtree holding the camera there's some flex. This together with OIS within the Leica 45 lens gives the footage the impression of being shot in a studio but in a cool way. I like it when light and the background changes.



I used my Canon 5DmkII to get some nice shots outside of the car. There's lots of joints to be tighten and check.



I found out the Camtree worked great providing grip for the 5D and it felt secure on numerous locations. Thanks to it being so reconfigurable I had plenty of options on where it could be mounted.



I came back to my Panasonic AF101 to some shots of the BMW while driving. Had my Manfrotto 504/546 tripod fasten to the car and used the excellent Tokina 11-16 for these angles.



Last I used my Hauge crane to take some arriving/departure shots and used Tokina 11-16 for these as well. I'm going through the footage now and it's where nice images indeed!

It makes my work so easy when having options how to mount or move a camera with gear I own. The trick is always to have something good enough but without increasing cost to much.

I see so many shoulder rigs for cameras from different brands popping up but they all are so wrong! Often they have a shoulder pad way back on the rig and a counter weight in the 1kg class on the back and then everything else mounted in front of that shoulder pad. So let's look at the figures. You have 1kg of weight slightly behind your shoulder and camera, lens, mattebox, follow focus and God knows what way in front of the shoulder pad. It takes no genius to figure out it will be ill balanced! I don't know why manufactures continues to make these rigs because from a comfortable point of view they stink!

The only place a camera body should be mounted and it's above the shoulder. Nowhere else. Take a look at the Alexa:


Now, where are you suppose to have the camera on the shoulder? Right, the camera straight above the shoulder. So why not do this for any camera be it a GH2 or AF100? You'll still have plenty of things weighting down the camera in front so you certainly not would want any more in front like the camera body itself.

I'm also pretty tired of rigs you cannot adjust and rebuilt when your need changes or you buy a new camera or other toy that needs support. I have a bunch of Berkey Systems stuff and with these you never run out of ways to use them. Just take them apart and build something new. Just like I do when I need a shoulder rig. Forget about expensive Zacuto rods and blocks, Berkey are the ones you'd want. They will outlast most of the other things you'll buy.



If you take a close look at the parts that make this shoulder rig they are not all from Berkey. The counter weight comes from proaim, the quick release is a Manfrotto and the block that connectos from the Manfrotto to the tripod plate comes from shoot35. So in all fairness you would have a hard time finding everything from one brand. At least I did at the time. I believe Brian at Berkey have made most of these parts since.

I like things simple and this is about as simple shoulder rig as I can put together and it's adjustable to make it fit most cameras and people. I choose to shoot as light and uncomplicated as possible and that's just my style and it works for me.

In a matter of seconds you can take away the cross handle bar, counter weight and shoulder pad piece and you'll end up with a straight tripod mounted rod support. Or you can take away the cross handle bar and use this just holding the grip on the J17 lens. If you don't need a tripod bottom plate you can take it away and slide the shoulder pad even more towards the front and put heavier things in front of the camera and it's still balanced.

This might not be the sexiest rig you'll ever seen but way more comfortable and configurable than all ill balanced ones.

So after having bought many rigs and doing alot of assembling of these the most important lessen learned is to try to have the camera as close to straight above the shoulder as one can. It's the only way to do it. The camera will also move more in line with your upper frame - chest and shoulders - so you'll end up with rock solid footage as a bonus!



Parts according to the numbers.

1: Foam handle. I believe Brian does not make these anymore but you can use his rubber handles.
2: Shoulder pad.
3: Angle block. Four blocks to hold the cross handlebar and handles.
4: Rods.
5: Counter weight Proaim.
6: Manfrotto quick release.
7: shoot35 tripod block and two plates. Shoot35 has a complete assembly with quick release also.
8: Accessory block. I use this one mounted on the cross rod and attach an articulating arm that holds an EVF.

I have been getting many questions on how I've provided power to a B4 lens on the AF100/101 camera and the image above shows how it looks mounted on my AF101 using a Canon 17ax7.7B4 lens. I got this lens on ebay and also found a power cable with Hirose 12-pin connector and a D-tap connector in the other end. As it turned out the solder joints came loose and I had to re-solder the Hirose connector to make it work. In the process I contacted the seller of this cable and found out you have to use pin3 as ground and pin6 as +12V. But I felt the Hirose to D-tap cable had a much to large cable making it hard to solder and frankly way overkill for 12V. So I took a smaller cable I had at home and solder that together with a 3.5mm DC plug that fitted a rechargeable battery I had in my camera bag to power all sorts of things. You can find the cable here and the battery here. This battery is 6.5Ah so it will last very long since you only use it when zooming. Any 12V source will do but I had this battery and I can use the same one to power a 5V add-on at the same time if I please.

The battery mounts with velcro on both camera and battery so you just stick it on the side and it's there. I've removed the sidegrip on my AF101 since I never use it.

So it seams the stars are converging and much of the things that have been stuck in the pipeline will get here this fall. Many interesting things, both new and well known. On top of the list is of course Birger Engineerings micro 4/3 adapter to put Canon EF lensos on bodys like GH1, GH2 or AF100/101.



But before this adapter hits the marker in November we have another adapter from Red Rock Micro. Not as versatile since it only controls aperture and need a 9V external battery. But that's atleast two choices for micro 4/3 users!




Finally Nikon steps into the mirrorless game. Can we expect the same thing happening as when Nikon got the D90 on the market? It was the first DSLR with video and soon after the still excellent Canon 5DmkII took over and crushed Nikons attempt. The Nikon 1 system seams no better than micro 4/3 so I don't see the point. When you're dealing with an exchangeable lens system small is relative to a normal DSLR and it's lenses but non of these mirrorless cameras are small and pocketable if you take the lens in account. I do think it's great to have a small camera with exchangeable lenses that's smaller than let's say a 7D but I believe every attempt to make it to fit in a pocket is futile so make them as good as possible instead.

Canon have something coming on 3 November and if this is a mirrorless system, a new large sensor video camera or something for the movie industry we'll know more of then. Interesting RED announces their Scarlet at the same date. Maybe a Canon 5DmkIII? I do hope for a XF305 like camera with a large sensor and EF mount.

Then the affordable Atomos Samurai is due in October and it seams they have squeezed at least some of the asked for features. Can be a good recorder and monitor to use on any camera with HD SDI output. I'll be getting one for sure as soon as I can. Atomos also have converters so that you can use the Samurai for both HDMI and HD SDI sources.

I also have an eye out for that affordable Sachtler ACE system. Could be a decent choice for a smaller camera setup.

Another piece of add-on lurking could be the new motor for the slidekamera. I'm waiting for an English manual before going any further.

Finally I got power working for B4 lenses and I now have power zoom in a real ENG style. Just a short testvideo using a rechargeable 12v battery supply and a Canon J17ax7.7 on the AF101.

A cool feature on this lens is you can memorize two positions on the zoom and go between by the press of a button. Zoom speed can also be adjusted and it's so nice having the ability to zoom really slow or fast if you please with that smooth rocker. If you're looking to power a B4 lens with the Hirose 12 pin connector you have to wire pin no 3 with ground and no 6 with +12v to make it work. Next step is to get that "rec" button on the grip to work with the AF101.

A camera is just a tool. But as I use the AF101 more and more it gets better. What you appreciate in the long run is the features built into it. Everything just works right in the camera without to many add-ons. I couldn't imagine having the closest competitor Sony's FS100 to work as good as this camera. Even not having focus assist 1:1 is okay these days and considering what you get in this camera it gotta be the golden match. Certainly I would like, for the sake of mind if nothing else, to have a Super35 sensor inside but after use of the excellent Voigtländer 25/0.95 and 50/1.1 on this camera shallow DOF is great and I can get as dreamy as I like.

It's such a small camera and even having rods, a long lens and mattebox mounted it's still small if you compare to most other cameras. It has the connections I use and the functions I want and more importantly use all the time. There's no extra functions one doesn't use so I would say it's perfectly balanced between price/size/features. Considering this is Panasonics first large sensor video camera I have high hopes for what's next AF120/200 or whatever they'll call it.

The thing is with this camera, being so small and feature packaged by itself, you can use it with just the Lumix 14-140 or put a big and fat lens with the whole shabang of stuff onto it. You can make it look pretty much anyway you like. It has taken some time for me to know it's boundaries but now when I've nailed them I can push it much further than I originally thought was possible. I dare to do it now.

Even the AVCCAM codec seams to hold it's own. I do have an Atomos Samurai on the shopping list but frankly I much prefer to use this camera without since overcranking works so damn fine. It will be great for heavier grading no doubt but the codec inside is just fine.

Two of the most talked about downers on this camera has been highlight handling and noise. Neither is a real issue when you know how to set it up. I can even trust both EVF and LCD screen on the AF101. I guess this takes some time, just like it did when I got the Canon 7D, to know how it looks on the screen and where the cameras limit is. And on top of that you have the excellent waveform monitor so you'll never be in doubt.

Better cameras do exist but not for this price and with these features!

So how do I use it then? Obviously I rely on my Voigtländer lenses 25/35/50/75 when I want nicely render images and control of DOF. I also find the 14-140 to be excellent when you need AF or just a zoom lens. I love the concept with B4 lenses on the AF. Great to have something optimized for video shooting at last with parfocal and smooth un-clicking rings. I find audio to work just like you'd expect and with great fidelity. Whitebalance took some time to get right but with the options for AWB, manual WB and preset WB you can't go wrong. When I stopped worrying about no 1:1 FA I found the built in red edge and enhanced detail focus came spot on. Last but not least - overcranking in 1080p is beautiful. Smooth and renders great images!

I have the VFR feature to explore even further with 12fps and the in betweens up to 50fps and it'll be interesting to see how much more an external recorder can go when grading. All in all this is just the right tool for me.

Today a Canon J17ax7.7B4 arrived to complete my B4 lens on micro 4/3 project. This lens can be used just like the other B4 lenses on a Panasonic AF101 if you use the extender. This gives you a super zoom lens at F3.6 except for the last bit on the zoom range which goes to F4.6. If you set the lens to F2.8 (it goes toF1.8) you get a true F5.6 without any change in light input. CA is somewhat strong at F1.8 but much reduced when you hit F4-F5.6. But you can shoot at F1.8 with great result as long as there's no harsh contrast objects in the scene.

One of my favourite lenses on the AF101 is my Voigtländer 50/1.1. It's so nice to do interviews with this lens but it is a fixed lens and depth of field can be super narrow. So in search for alternatives, not to shallow and with zoom just like the Lumix 14-140 lens I've now tested three B4 lenses - J13x9, J20ax8 and J17ax7.7. The numbers refer to how many times zoom and then the widest focal. If you compare the angle on the this J17ax7. to a full frame DSLR it's 30,8mm to 524mm or if you compare it to the Lumix 14-140 it's 15.4mm to 262mm at about F4. That's faster and longer than the lumix so you can see why this can be desirable.



Buying these lenses used you can't be sure the condition they are in. To have them cheap you must buy the SD lenses since HD lenses are to expensive for the AF101 in my opinion. Sometimes you get caps and hood and sometimes you just get the lens. Iris and zoom can be smooth or they can get stuck or be uneven. But looking on the condition of the lens tells you much so look at fine looking samples.



Here's the same chart I've used for the other lenses and except for the corners it's sharp enough for the AF101. How you adjust back focus influence how much sharpness loss there is in the corners but I find this J17ax7.7 to preform just as good as the J20ax8. Lenses with internal focus seams to be better in achieving better sharpness across the frame.

To have a reference chart I took the same chart with the Lumix 14-140 so you can see how it compares. You can right click on each image to view it in 1920x1080. Both images are frame grabs from a recorded 1080p from the SD-card.




So to recap this experience and to give some advice if you're looking for these lenses. Get as new and good looking lens as possible. There are wider lenses but if you really want wide lenses I would wait for the Lumix X 12-35 lens since it will be faster and smaller. These lenses are great if you want to have a decent wide angle like around 30mm and still be able to zoom really close. Near limit on these are excellent and they are parfocal so you can zoom in, set focus and zoom out with retained focus. Something you don't get with still lenses.

Another way to do this B4 lens on micro 4/3 is to use the HDx2 adapters. They will set you back about €4100 but at the same time have better image quality with sharpness all over the frame and reduced chromatic aberration. I found this video showing how the HDx2 adapter compares. Shallow DOF is one of the reasons to use the AF101 but consider using B4 super zoom lenses on the AF101. You can use this camera as an excellent film camera or ENG camera just by changing lens!

I just got this used and tired Canon J20ax8B4 lens and wanted to compare it to the other not so tired J13x9 lens.

Using a testpattern displayed on my laptop I took one sample image of each showing how they look and how much fall off there is. First is the J13x9B4 lens. It's the oldest and as I believe was used on BETASP camcorders.



The testpattern clearly shows how soft this lens gets outside of the 11mm circle when you use the 2x extender to cover the sensor on the AF101. There's one thing that influences how much fall off there is and that's the back focus adjustment. You can make it look a bit better than this but then you wont have a parfocal lens that stays in focus through out the zoom range.



Next it's the J20ax8B4 lens and as you can see it looks better. There's still some softness in the corners but much less. There's also a tonal difference between these. The J13x9B4 is much warmer, something I like, and the J20ax8B4 seams to be more accurate in colours. This lens can also have the back focus adjusted but this time the best corner sharpness was at a position that retained the parfocal behaver and thus much better than the J13x9B4. You can right click on each image to take a closer look.

So is the J20ax8B4 better? I would say without a doubt. But the lens I got (rather cheap) is in bad shape. There's stiffness at the 40mm mark on the zoom and the grip is beaten so much I believe it wont work. I actually had to remove the grip to be able to zoom and adjust iris. The focus and iris is smooth and optical quality seams good but the rest leaves much to desire. But to be fair I got it for 1/4-1/3 of the usual asking price for a used one so what did I expect right?

Now, why would I ever put an ENG 2/3" lens on the AF101? As I see it the AF101 is such a versatile camera. You can adopt almost any lens and use this camera to shoot many different styles and the whole B4 lens on the AF thing opens up for this camera to operate almost like a 2/3" ENG camera and these are expensive! So I can have it both - an ENG style camera and a film style camera for the light price of $5k.

I even got a Hirose 12-pin to D-tap cable but so far I've had no luck to power the lens so I suspect the handgrip to be broken. I have no D-tap batteries so I re soldered the 12-pin connector and at the same time put in a trigger function to use with the AF101. I have one more lens to try before not digging to deep into this whole B4 to micro 4/3 thing. I think the J20ax8B4 is a very nice lens if one get hold of a pristine example. Next lens is a J17ax7.7 and we'll see how that compares to the others.

I had to take my Canon J13x9B4 lens and get a feel for how it works on my AF101. A couple of observations.

Running it without power zoom and it's very difficult to do slow smooth zoom actions. I need to power the zoom somehow... CA is not an issue when you get to F2-2.8 and even wide open can look good. Sharpness fall off is the big downside using a 2/3" lens on micro 4/3. But it's not consistent. Depending on focal and focus setting it varies from very noticeable to just a touch of softness. It can look a bit like a C-mount lens with swirly bokeh sometimes.



I also had the opportunity to try my knew Manfrotto 520 half ball on the slider and it was way better than using two tripods. Very solid and easy to level.

I consider this to be a serious detour from where my usual track goes. This Bell Howell 85/1.4 lens in Canon EF mount isn't something I normally would look close at. A lens from Bell & Howell, who? Well that brand and this lens is the same as the more known Samyang 85/1.4 or Rokinon 85/1.4. A low price manufactur of lenses. Just looking at the box at first glance it had the appearance of a toy. Thankfully it's not a toy it's a fast portrait lens.



I've learned to collect lenses that can be used on my Panasonic AF101 and maintain full manual control. My excellent Zeiss ZE lenses are a bit useless on the AF101 since there's no way to control aperture. Really sad because they are all great lenses. I wanted to have a fast 85mm lens but didn't feel like getting an expensive lens. Despite being low priced it's solid, only the front part is somewhat weak. I have no need putting this on my 5DmkII because I already have a Zeiss 85/1.4 so it's only for use on the AF or maybe my little GH1.



The iris ring is clicking so no smooth changing of the iris but focusing is pretty smooth. Included is a plastic hood and I even got a complete set of UV and CPL filters with the lens. Near limit is at 1 meter and that's worse than on the Zeiss 85 which can manage 85cm.




I'll make something and maybe use it together with that tasty Canon J13x9B4! Let's see if it can deliver something decent to my AF camera.

I saw this concept over a year ago but at the time it was a bit out of reach getting an ENG lens on a micro 4/3 camera. But today I finally got it together. I found both the B4 to m4/3 adapter an a Canon J13x9B4 lens for not much dough.



A 2/3" lens like the J13x9 does not cover the sensor on the AF101 so you have to use the 2x extender that's built in. Doing this you cover the sensor but with one drawback - you loose two stops of light hitting the sensor. This lens is rated at 1:1.6 so using the 2x extender gives you something like F3.5. That's not fast by any means but faster than Lumix 14-140 at F4-5.8. The zoom on the J13x9 is 9-117 and when using the 2x extender you end up with 18-234 at F3.5! That's not to shabby.



An ENG lens has many advantages. It's parfocal which means you can zoom in set focus and zoom out and you'll stay in focus. The iris ring is smooth without clicks like on a DSLR lens. The whole lens is made out of metal and solid as few still lenses are. Even my Canon L or Zeiss lenses feel loose in comparison and these are great still lenses. You can pick these on ebay for a couple of hundred $ and that's dirt cheap for what you do get. Compare the zoom what you'd have on a full frame DSLR and you'll end up with 36-468. Cool!



All I had to do for it to stay in focus was to adjust back focus on the rear ring. The ability to power that zoom rocker (future project) will make an ENG camera out of the AF101. It's close with the Lumix 14-140 lens but to zoom in and out with it is anything but smooth. This Canon B4 lens runs fluid in and out. Love it and it's the first Canon on my AF101 with manual true iris control!

There are drawbacks of course. This lens is sharp no doubt but looking at corners it looses some sharpness and CA is visible on high contrast until you stop down. If you want shallow DOF this lens is the wrong choice. Sure you can get it shallow when zoomed in and it's buttery smooth bokeh but real shallow DOF with the AF101 demands lenses in the F1.4 or faster league.



This testpattern was shot with the lens and displayed on my laptop screen. I had the lens at about F2.8 and yes there's softening on the far edges but no disturbing CA and as sharp in the middle one could ask for.



Does it work for indoor shots? Sure if you light your scene I see no problem getting good images out of it. But it's not a low light workhorse.

The B4 adapter is a solid piece. It's made by a guy in Poland and I got it from him via ebay. He makes adapters for other mounts also and I can recommend them after having used this B4 to m4/3 adapter. I do have a soft spot for high quality hardware and both adapter and lens are so well made it makes me feel good :)

I tend to try out many different things in all directions to get grip of the technique and how to use it to achieve what I want. It's a great way to have this journey running and I did dip my toes into anamorphic half a year ago. This time I got hold of another thing to achieve anamorphic images. An old Proskar Anamorphic-16 lens.

The coolest thing with this lens was actually the lens case. One of those hard cases with leather on the outside and velvet on the inside. But the lens itself is pretty cool and a solid piece.



I intend to somehow make use of it on my AF101 but anamorphic is not the easiest thing to get right if you can't or wont spend thousand of money. This is a lens that focus and you need a normal lens on the back of it to get picture in focus. So you'll have two focus rings to turn before achieving focus. No that easy right? Difficult to say the least if you want it to operate as a normal lens.

I plan to shoot something but it has lower priority than my other projects and because it's difficult and time consuming to get it right I'll let it take the time it takes. The Proskar have to have 50mm or higher focal to work so forget wide angle lenses. Cool thing but a bit to complicated to make a quick and dirty test so I'll get back to it.

This week I had two days at Böda camping (trailerpark) in Öland (Swedens second largest island) shooting for a Comviq commercial/sponsorship. Our aim was to mimic how a reality show about this trailerpark looked so I took advantage of the Lumix 14-140 lens on my AF101. This is about as close as I can get to an ENG camera.

All rigged for shooting on my Berkey shoulder rig and taking advantage of the excellent Zacuto EVF. This was the first time using this configuration and it worked excellent to provide ENG style footage. The 14-140 lens on it's wide end and with auto focus engaged  all day long. The way I planned each scene AF worked surprisingly well.



Here's the set in the heart of Böda campings area. An old trailer and a typical Swedish family on vacation was our goal. I only had a silver reflector to provide fill outdoors and relied on my new iLed312 like LED panels indoors. Being what they are - inexpensive panels - they worked great. Built quality is the week part so they wont take a beating so I'll try and make them more solid by adding corner metal or plastic. The 1/4 screw mount is on the weak side as well so if it's possible I'll make something to better this also.
 


But the small size, excellent power solution and adjustable colour is what I love about these. They give enough kick here and there and blends pretty well with anything from bulbs to incoming sunlight from windows. I have a third panel on the way and I will stick with these for now. Love them!



The beach at Böda has the smoothest grains of sand and despite being in the end of summer people stayed here and took a swim. Two shoots on the beach and the rest in and around the trailer. A small and great team and a minimum of equipment made it interesting. I have never shot all scenes in a commercial with only one lens and certainly not the 14-140 but this time it was the right choice. The rather slow lens worked better than I would have thought. Stayed at ISO200 for everything except one scene which was at ISO400. The AF101 and this lens rocks. Smooth iris and smooth focusing. I had my Manfrotto 521PFI if I had the need to pull focus but since AF worked so damn fine it stayed in my bag.



We didn't have a client monitor because we couldn't move more equipment so after half a day we brought it into a laptop to view. Here's the director John and producer Sören checking the latest scenes. When doing quick client viewing I played back directly from the camera and displayed on the Zacuto EVF. The way I had my rig configured this time it felt super solid, a bit front heavy but really uncomplicated.

I swapped EVF and AF battery once during a days shoot but then neither started of at 100%. We runned pretty long takes up towards 20 min and thinking of how this would have worked with a DSLR and I realize how great the AF101 is.


This is a framegrab from one of the scenes we did using the LED312 light to give it a soft key on his face. It blends nicely with incoming light from the window. Our aim was not to make each shot nice because it should look a bit reality show shitty and I guess we ended up somewhere in-between.

It took nine days for it to be fixed but my AF101 is at home and resting in it's bag safe from harm in the padded compartment. I did miss it and had to rely on the 5DmkII to shoot a personal film last week. What did I miss the most? Well 50p slowmotion is hard to beat and I could have made some timelapse shots more confident. I also had some shots that turned out unusable due to heavy moire. Something the AF101 would have crunch for breakfast and the 5DmkII failed utterly.

I brought only one lens to use on the Canon DSLR and that was my Canon 24-70. Interesting this lens is one of the poorer lenses I have, if you look upon it's shear optical performance. But the 24-70 focal is great on a full frame DSLR and even a m4/3 camera benefits from this span.

To tame light and to shoot at F2.8 with the 24-70 I had one ND8 filter to put on and it was enough. Not as flexible as the ND wheel but still workable. I had audio going straight into the 3.5mm input from my Sennheiser G3 system and got clean audio. It's not a confident way to record audio since I can't monitor but this time I could re-shoot the interview if it would have been bad. This is actually the way I prefer to record audio with a bare 5DmkII. It just tend to be to complex when you start to make it work like a video camera.

But I missed the AF101 several times although in the end this film is going to be beautiful. No matter which camera is being used, it's the content and story that makes something stand out.

There's a steady stream of new stuff arriving at my doorstep and that's okay as long as these are used to tell a story and to make shooting easier. But a project like last weeks shoot (an old lady and her summer house) makes you realize any decent camera will do. I'm getting to the point when tools become just tools and I can concentrate more on making something interesting.

Somehow I just waited for something to break on my AF101. Not because any misuse or rough handling by me, but just a feeling of having an expensive camera that is a delicate instrument. Take pro DSLR cameras as a comparison. They are made to take water, dust and to be hauled around the globe. Very few video cameras are as robust as a DSLR and if you ever have used an AF101 you know it has weak spots here and there. Also some reports of problems with other AF cameras and I was waiting on it to happen. Not to mention it's an entire new segment for Panasonic so there have to be some child diseases.

The problem is with the EVF and you can see by the above image something isn't right. Parts of the image that are exposed under about 45% is red. It looks almost like the focus in red thing on the AF101 but it isn't.
The next image shows the problem even more in that it now has green and red horizontal disturbens across the EVF.



It's not anything wrong with the recorded signal or with what's displayed on the LCD screen so it is the EVF that has gone south. I tried to reset the camera, to let it rest, to take out cards and battery but the problem didn't go away. It's service time but I don't like to be without this camera to long. It's becoming better and better as time goes and such a pleasure to use it.

After a while I found out where on the AF101 this problem is. When putting a gentle pressure on each side of the narrow part on the EVF (the part that goes into the EVF mount on the camera) the image cleared and looked perfect. When I stopped to press the problem came back! So I've narrowed it down to a single component - the whole EVF must be replaced or at least some parts within the EVF. Let's hope Panasonic has parts available fast.

This short film was shot in half an hour in my small home studio with the Panasonic AF101 camera and Voigtländer 50/1.1 lens at F1.4. I used one 300W fresnel as key and one 150W fresnel as hair/back light. Recorder in 1080p50 and using a scene setting with all values at default and cinelike V gamma. Edited in Premiere Pro 5 and graded with Magic Bullet Looks. Music track is Jazmine Sullivan - Bust Your Windows. A very suggestive score that suited the visuals great.

This week I had a four day shoot in Båstad/Sweden during Swedish Tennis Open. I had both the AF101 and 5DmkII camera with respective lenses and crane, slider and such to get the shots I wanted. Me and the director John (to the left) hoped for sunny days but sadly it was cloudy and rained one whole day. Despite this we got some very nice footage especially during the sunset tennis match. I wanted to do a recap of how my tools worked during this week.


A framegrab from the 5DmkII and Canon 70-200/2.8 IS II lens.

I bought Zacutos EVF to get a decent monitor for my 5DmkII and it's just a great tool on DSLR cameras and something like Panasonics AF101. The only problem I had was the included LP-E6 style battery. It didn't charge in the charger so I had to use a spare LP-E6 battery instead. Back home I found out the pins does not fit to well with the charger and that was the cause. I had to put pressure sideways to get it to charge and I really dislike the fact this battery can't be charged or used with a 5D/7D. I will not use it since I got a decoded LP-E6 style battery from ebay that works with the charger for the 5D.

In total I brought 13 lenses but only used 8. Voigtländer 25 and 50 , Tokina 11-16 and Lumix 14-140 on the AF101. On my 5DmkII I used 50, 85, 100 and 70-200 lenses. The ultra wide Tokina works great on the AF when mounted to the crane and that 50mm Voigtländer is my favourite for interviews. Instead of using a pure macro lens Voigtländer 25 works almost like a macro. My kit lens for the GH1 - Lumix 14-140 might not be the most exciting lens but given it's 10x zoom lens it's so versatile. I shot alot of tennis action with this lens in 50p and it looks great. had to crank ISO up to 800 on some shots but that's not a problem on the AF camera.


A framegrab from the AF101 and Voigtländer 50mm lens.

Brian from Berkeysystem got me another handle for my light shoulder rig and I configured it to work with the Zacuto EVF and 5D camera. Even with something like the Zeiss 85mm lens looks steady. If the Voigtlände 50 is my favourite on the AF the Zeiss 85 is my favourite on the 5D for interviews. I didn't use my 5D to do any interviews this time and frankly the AF handles audio much better. I have two lenses with IS - 100 macro and 70-200. These got a fair amount of use. Neither I or the director felt the need for wide images except for the Tokina 11-16 on the crane. If you are worried about crop factor on the AF101 camera stop worrying! The Tokina 11-16 is the only ticket you need for wide images and they are pretty much undistorted. Set the lens at about 0,7m on the focus scale in you have a sharp image from near to far.


AF101 and Tokina 11-16 on the Hague crane.

Speaking of the Hague K10 crane it is a nice crane but due to how many floors flexed when people walked on them it became tricky to get shots without crane wobble. That's one of the negative sides of having a crane with a single bar. It does wobble alot if the ground isn't solid or something like the wind makes it wobble. It's also heavy to move. I guess we'll use about 7-8 shoots from the crane.

My slider had the same problem with flexing floors. Or it was a floor problem really. Nothing wrong with the slider. But I have to put a better support together for the slider. It is a heavy and smooth slider which I like but you can't have a center mounted tripod as the only support because it will start to go down when you get near the edge. To have two tripods, one on each end, works but I'm not to fond of that either... I guess I'll figure something out. This time I had two Manfrotto light stands and it worked okay. Not as steady as I would like.

To pick up audio I only used my Sennheiser EW100 G3 system with a wind shield. This is so easy to use and I hardly ever get any wind noise or pick up noise from clothing. Great and affordable audio! I had a handheld AT8010 and an AT875R mic tucked in my bag just in case but had no use of them this time. I even had a Sennheiser EW400 if I would have needed a microphone for my 5DmkII.

Did I miss something? Well I did miss to have a small camera to document the shoot. I left my GH1 at home this time and even if I'd had it with me I doubt I would have used it. I must get a small pocket camera next time.

It was in the mids of winter. The wind howled outside and stirred up the fallen snow. In the sky the moon and sun aligned as the clouds went by. Reality took a shade of blue and captured my dreams.

I have a bunch of footage even from february that waits to be edited and here's something I put together now. Shot with my AF101.

This stone wall was built back in 1896 and has seen alot during the years. I took the opportunity to practice with my Hague K10 crane and get a grip on how to best run cables and where to best hook up a monitor. I must say that I'm very pleased with this crane. There's no problem going fast or make long movements. The only thing one have to keep in mind is how you use that motorized pan/tilt head. It's best to have a constant flow because start/stop isn't perfectly smooth. My AF101 and Tokina 11-16 was mounted on the crane and I think this is a very good combination to achieve great footage.

A girl and her camera discovers the beauty of the nature through her camera. Shot this one with my AF101 and Voigtländer 50/1.1 lens. Music: Gustavo Santaolalla - De Usuahia a la Quiaca

My dear friend Brian at www.berkeysystem.com has since last year helped me solve many things when it comes to putting a rig together. One of the best things about his Berkey system parts is you can reassemble them into something new. They never go out of style or use. Come up with a new idea and you can put it together. This is so great and during this last year I've collected a small toolbox with parts from Berkey. This time I wanted to built a new compact and uncomplicated rig for shoulder use on either my Canon 5DmkII or my Panasonic AF101.

I wanted to mount the camera with most of the weight resting on the shoulder rather than having the camera in front of me. That would just have made it front heavy and I'd have to use an additional weight on the back. Not what I wanted to do, adding more weight.



Because the way I wanted the camera to rest I couldn't use the built in EVF or the LCD screen. I've just got a Zacuto EVF flip and already have a Z-finder and when I got the EVF I had a shoulder rig in mind. These two makes it possible to put something together that's workable and to monitor what you're shooting. I also wanted to make one rig that can be used for tripod mount, with rods and the whole setup of mattebox and follow focus, or use it as a shoulder rig.



I still have to fine tune it and add a better HDMI cable solution to avoid cable clutter but as it is right now it does meet my design ideas. It's small, uncomplicated, compact and can be configured pretty much any way one could possible want. Thanks to the excellent Berkey system parts.



A small articulation arm holds the EVF and it's screwed into a Berkey rod block. When not used or when transporting, you remove the camera and EVF and fold the handlebar so it becomes flat. Everything is adjustable. I even tried to put my Manfrotto 521PFI focus controller on one of the rods and with something like the Olympus 14-35 lens or any other micro 4/3 lens you can pull focus and adjust iris on the fly without moving you hand. With manual lenses, like the Voigtländer 75/1.8 mounted in these images, you have to adjust it directly by hand but even that proved to be comfortable.

This evening I had set plans to shoot with my Hague K10 crane to get to know it. But one moment the sun shined and the next it rained so I had no choice but to stay indoors. It might seam a bit extreme using a crane that can go as high as 4 meters indoors but I did assembled it in my livingroom.



The crane consist of a tripod and three parts that you put together. A wire goes from the camera plate to the pole and it controls tilt so that the camera stays level when going up and down. I have to dig into one issue with the wire because it "sings" in certain positions.



You can use all three parts or just two. When you have two parts and the AF camera is used I guess about 2.5kg is about right to counter balance. With all parts in it's full length you need 2x5kg.



This sliding weight is used to fine tune balance. It takes about ten minutes to assemble it and it's very easy to get it balanced. One have to be a bit careful because it will get unstable if used without being gentle.



At the center I found a tapped hole where i could mount an articulating arm to hold the Marshall 7". A fairly good position but I'm not sure how it will work in bright sunlight.




With the crane comes a motorized head and a remote. It's not the greatest quality but the motion is smooth and it runs on 4 AA batteries or a power adapter.

I mounted my new Tokina 11-16 lens on the AF101 using a Kipon EF adapter. It does work but I do miss the ability to adjust aperture because it is often limiting using only the built in ND filters and ISO. Since outdoors was out of the question I did a short film with one of the orchids at home. I'll post the video as soon as it's render and done.

I've been looking for a raincover and decided to try this one out. It's from Petrol and the PR410 version.

You can do with a plastic bag over your camera but how pro does that look? This one hooks into the shoe mount on the front part of the handle and thus stays in place.




The AF101 is a small camera and when mounting the raincover at the shoe mount and at the same time having the EVF outside there's alot of excessive plastic. This cover is not specific for the AF101 and thus everything can't be perfect fitted to this camera.



In the front part there's a cap that extends a bit beyond the handle but the lens is fully accessible. In front there's a hole for a shot gun/on camera microphone.



The rear part has a hole for the EVF and you can fit AF101 EVF with a bit of fiddling. I don't think this is a cover that can be fitted quickly. It takes a couple of minutes to get it on the camera.



I think it sits nicely on the camera when mounted but since the part that hooks up to the shoe mount is rather stiff it can't be folded into something to small. It comes with a small bag but unlike what I have for my Canon 5DmkII, it can't fit inside my camerabag without taking up to much space.



Quality is good and I bet it will keep the camera dry. You can swing the LCD display all the way out since there's plenty of space inside the bag and you can get it snuggle on with zippers.

Today I got a Lowepro Pro Roller x300. It's their largest roller case. Somehow no matter how big bag I have I never can fit everything I want. I must often carry two bags or more to fit it all.

It's a large bag with lots of features. Roller with built in handle to roll it easily. You can remove the inner case and use it as a backpack. There's a 1/4 tripod tap on the handle so it can be used as a camera/flash/other support. Might come in handy!

The inside is well padded and lots of pads comes with it so that you can configure it any way you like. I fitted at least most of my video equipment and even my GH1 slipped into a pocket. On the front you have two pockets for a laptop or other not to bulky things. I tucked two shot gun mics, some powercords and one XLR inside these pockets and it fitted with lots of room for I guess even my Dell 16,4" laptop.

In total seven lenses and two cameras as well as batteries, chargers, adapters, my 521PFI remote, spare SDHC cards and filters are some of things I could fit. I had to leave my mattebox, my rails (which aren't needed if I don't have the mattebox) and some other things. Sometimes it can be a good thing not to fit everything. You have less stuff to keep track of and frankly I seldom use my mattebox on the AF101 since it has built in ND filters. I also came to the conclusion non of my Canon hardware could fit so I left it inside my Lowepro Computrekker AW plus. But I managed to tuck a Marshall 7" LCD monitor with batteries, charger and power adapter inside.

I think the advantage of having this bag instead of my Lowepro DV4000 is it's easier to find stuff and I can fit a few more items inside. It's not airline carry-on so then I have to rely on the DV4000 but for domestic jobs I will bring my equipment in this bag.


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Let's face it, anyway you look upon Canons 5DmkII it's a great camera and Canon makes great L class lenses. I know and have a few golden ones like the 100/2.8 L and 70-200/2.8 IS II L. My AF101 now eagerly awaits one of the best things this year - the Birger Engineering adapter for micro 4/3 mounts and Canon EF lenses. My original idea back in late 2010 was to have one set of lenses - all Canon and use them on both my DSLR and the AF101. It seams it will soon become reality!

There are a couple of key advantages to have this adapter and use it with the 5DmkII/AF101 combination. First I can bring one set of lenses that works on the two cameras. This makes it possible to take high quality stills and video when on set and use any camera for a particular shot without bringing more lenses. Then it opens up the possibility to use electronic focus controllers like the Manfrotto 521PFI I already have, or upcoming controllers from Birger.

What's even more interesting is Canons L series lenses are so common and it seams more adapters are coming for Sonys E-mount to use on their F3/FS100. I really love my Zeiss and Voigtländer lenses but this adapter might make me swing back into Canon lens land again! I would like to stuff my soon to arrive Lowepro X300 with a complete and versatile still/video kit.

I've heard late May and that's now so let's hope for at least a summer release!


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This week I did a commercial chroma key shoot in the smallest chroma studio I've ever been in. Actually I didn't know before hand it was this small and neither did my gaffer. We had to shoot full body and have eight people in total to squeeze into this tight space.

I used my Olympus 14-35 at around 16mm for most shots and at about F5 to have a deeper dof. I also had my laptop and after effects to do a quick compositing to check each take. I had plan for a larger studio but this very small studio had two space lights already mounted so we used these as the main chroma light and two chimera softed blondie heads as key and one blondie as back light.



Here's a screen shot from AE doing the quick test. I feel it's always a good idea to do these kind of tests if you have the time.



I used my Marshall 7" LCD monitor on the camera and rented a Panasonic 17" HD SDI monitor for the director and client. I have to say the easy setup you get with this camera it's great. Compared with DSLR shooting it works like a charm with less battery changing, less cables and the camera can stay on for all day. I did notice the camera getting warm after a couple of hours but it was hot in this tiny studio so no surprise. I bet had I used a 7D it would have warned me that it was hot.



Here's a view from the monitor and as you can see it's a very small studio. To get a good separation subject-background was a bit tricky especially since this character moved alot back and forth and whipped his ribbon. The small size did one good thing and it made the set more like the gfx room everything is to fit within.



In total we made five films and took about 45 takes. One in 50p but all other in 25p and 1080. They are due to air on Swedish Channel 5 in a couple of weeks.

I have to admit the AF101 takes alot of time before you get the good stuff out of it. It's an 8-bit camera with about 10 stops of latitude. About the same as what you get with one of the Canon DSLR cameras. Thanks to the extensive array of settings in this camera you can tailor the captured image to suit different scenes. By default you have a bunch of scene files for different looks but you can set these to what ever you like or that suits your needs.

These are some framegrabs from last weeks project shooting for SJ (Swedish railway). Mostly talking heads and I wanted to get the most out of an unlit environment so I used my "cine" custom scene file.

   

With the "cine" setting you get a washed out image with the greatest latitude. I really like to, when possible, shoot in this mode just because it gives me options when it comes to grading. I can choose to do a contrasty grad like the image on the right or stay with something like the ungraded image on the left. I also tend to shoot a little bit warmer than spot on to get warmer faces. By it self the AF101 is very accurate and in some situations a bit to cold for my liking.

One of the tricks to get the most out of the AF101 is to expose right until it clips but never (or seldom) overexposure. There's plenty of details in shadows and you can always choose to blow a highlight in post but it's harder to save something already clipped. I also find a low chroma setting like -4/5 to get me what I want. The exception to the never overexpose is when you have out of focus stuff in the frame. The softer they are the more you can push them above clipping.

When you shoot with these settings in direct sunshine you can push it all the way up until clipping and skin tones will look great.



The image above is ungraded and straight from the MTS file. Since there's always some harsh look in direct sunlight the flat look of the "cine" setting makes it look good for such hard light. You might think it's shoot with a higher contrast gamma but that would have looked lesser than the flatter settings. Again the trick is to avoid clipping and especially at faces. To stay just below 95% gives you a safe exposure. This one was at 5600K preset and despite chroma being at -5 there's plenty of facial tones.

I had to lit a couple of interviews with my LED600 set and ended up using only one for this and used a floor standing 3200K balanced bulb based light that already stood in the corner. Just to give it some "opposite" side light. I like how portable and versatile LED lights can be but at the same time I find them to be less than a fluo like kinos.

 

As you can see the image on the left (ungraded) has to much chroma and to warm. I like it to be a little bit warmer than spot on to get facial tones warm and lower in post but this was just to warm. I had a diffusing filter gel mounted in front of the LED and doing that makes for a more pleasant lighting. The one on the right is graded to fit in the mood of the film. Still warm but balanced.

White balance can be tricky when dealing with mixed lights. Often there's little time to make the right decision, but faces comes first then white and then all the other colours. When in my "cine" scene file since the image is so flat looking it can be hard to judge you have the right facial colour. I found a trick to be useful and that's to set it up in my "clean" setting, which gives me something of a WYSIWYG, and then switch to a flat setting just before you start shooting. It works like using LOG and a LUT to view how something will look in the end and still capture the widest dynamic range you can.

This one was shoot using my "clean" setting. It has alot more contrast in it and I can do less with it when grading. The upside is I can see how it will look in the end right on the monitor which with a flat setting can be tricky. I also let the camera choose white balance and in doing so it ended up this warm. Regardless of which scene file you use, overexposure is a bad thing with this camera. Stay out of it!

These are my "cine" and "clean" settings:

Cine
Detail/V detail: -5
Chroma: -5
Gamma: Cinelike D
Matrix: Norm2

Clean
Detail/V Detail: -4
Chroma: -4
Gamma: Cinelilke V
Matrix: Norm 1

During these last weeks I've been out shooting with my Panasonic AG-AF101 camera. I also promised myself to be on hold and not buy any new gear or even review for a while. I need time to shoot, work and just kick back and watch movies. I find this a big inspiration to watch features in all kinds.

Once I stopped getting new stuff, it took a month for already order stuff to get here, I realized I can get buy with just what I have. At the same time the AF101 has made things easier. But even if I'm on hold the world still turns and new stuff and software are getting on the streets. Following a bunch of fellow videoshooters on twitter I get info about new things many times a day. Like it!

It always seams the latest thing to hit the market is the thing users want. Now Sonys FS100 camera seams to be on the shortlist for many out there. It will be a very popular camera until the next camera is announced in the same price range. It's interesting to see what the Technicolor profile can do for all of Canon DSLR cameras. I think they are great on their own but this will squeeze even more juice out of them.

When I looked back at what was in my camerabag I sold of my Olympus 35-100/2. It's great but it's to big for the AF101 and I hate that focus by wire thing. Even with the Manfrotto 521PFI remote. I still dig my Olympus 14-35/2 and will most definitely keep it. I also got some fair use of my Voigtländer lenses and they are great. Small enough to fit in my Lowepro DV4000 shoulderbag yet built to a very high standard.

I guess I will open the lid after this summer and start looking at new things. Another "quest" for the next thing. Working with DSLR cameras I always had to improve them from shoot to shoot to make it work better but as the AF101 is so boringly perfect I need very few add ons.

At first when I got the AF101 pixelpeeping was the thing to do but once I've peeped it through I now find little need for it. It just works and I've made several scene files to suit different situations. My latest is to shoot with a flat - log like setting. It makes this camera to look just like a 35mm camera. Smooth and without a hint of being videolike. I guess if I have to pick one thing to dislike it's I can't trust the LCD for any colour accuracy. I'm fine outdoors since I know it's around 5.6k but indoors in mixed light enviroment it can become impossible to get it right without an external monitor. Thank God for that Marshall!

To my surprise the EVF in this camera is excellent. I had a tricky colour in a girls hair and neither the Marshall or LCD got it right but the EVF did. I had only my Pioneer 9G plasma to display it better which by the way still is the worlds best TV. Three years old! I use a Panasonic Bluray player to look at daily takes straight from the cards and when I get it right it's just gorgeous footage. My laptop display is just the opposite. It looks really bad, about as bad as it can get. On the upside I know it won't look any worse on any other display.

The hottest "quest thing" right now is when someone makes one LCD-display/recorder combo, Atomos Samurai is close, that renders my Marshall obsolete and improves quality and workflow issues. It will also be interesting to see how Panasonics AVCCAM plugin for FCP will turn out. Hopefully just drag and drop into FCP like you do it in Premiere.

Three things I really dig right now. Spring is finally hear! I get to shoot with the AF101 and what a great community we have at dvxuser and such sites for us shooters!

I have used my DSLR cameras extensively to shoot commercials these last years and in a way I felt like a pioneer. It was actually fun to figure out how to assembly a decent rig and how to monitor and set it up. Doing the mirror flipping it has been so easy getting that loved shallow depth of field and great colours. If Canon hadn't put video in their 5DmkII camera where we are today might only been a dream.

Since getting the AF101 I hardly flipped the mirror on my 5DmkII. I'm using it as what it's meant to be -  a still camera. It's not until you get to see what something like the AF101 does to the image you find a DSLR image lacking. Everything from wide shots to close ups, fine detail and patterns. The AF101 is far superior and this is only the beginning. Sonys dynamic duo F3/FS100 seams to be really excellent cameras and having the F3 in S-log and 4:4:4 just makes one want it. You can shoot very flat with the AF101 also but the F3 is in another league. It's aimed as a 35mm movie camera replacement on a budget and the AF101 is an excellent large sensor video camera. Where the FS100 is we'll see once it hits the market and people starts to shoot but a super35mm sensor is hard to beat.

It's even hard to keep up these days because so many things happen in parallel. Finally cameras starts to get affordable. Things like monitoring in EVFs are finally on the market and darn good. High Def video recorders comes in many flavours. I hear Birger Engineering are ready to get their Canon EF to micro 4/3 adapter on the market in May. Canon being the worlds largest DSLR maker and have so many great lenses that finally can be used with all functions on the AF101. I for one love if I could use all my EF lenses on micro 4/3 with an electronic follow focus. Man that gotta be sweet and much less complicated to use. No more mechanical FF to mess your rig up. I could take full advantage in having one lens set for both the AF101 and my 5DmkII!

On the horizon lurks the Sony F3. If Birger makes an adapter for the mount on the F3 I don't have to buy expensive PL lenses. No doubt PL lenses are made for cinema shooting but just looking at the optical performance and weighting in the prize I could think of no better way than using EF lenses. Man the future is so bright I have to wear sunglasses!

Another thing that's great, when having a video camera, is you don't have to get all of the things you need on a DSLR. All by itself the AF101 is a one box solution. Just peeking inside my numerous boxes of things reveals what hassles I've gone through to get DSLR to work like I want them to.

So the story goes. In 2008 we got large sensor video in an affordable package and in 2011 we take the next step towards excellent large sensor video cameras and they are still within reach!

 

I got the idea from a user on dvxuser.com how to make a start/stop remote for the AF101.

At first I planned on getting a 2.5 mm tele connector and a push button to put something together. But I found a half broken headset at home and gave it a shot. As you can see I manage to use the headset almost in it's existing form. The pins on a stereo 2.5 mm connector have to be wired so that ground and left are connected and between ground and right you have to add some sort of resistor in between to make it work. I used a 10k ohm resistor and rewired the push button on the headset so that when pressed it connects ground to left.



Since I already had this headset and I have a box full of electronic components the cost was next to nothing.

When I first put it together the earpiece was still in place and it worked with the AF101. When I removed the earpiece it stopped working so I concluded some sort of connection had to be made between ground and right and hence using that 10k ohm resistor. I did it to try the concept but will do another version when I find a push button that can be attached at the camera in a better way.

I got an email a week ago from a guy having problems with his AF camera and some lenses. Today I looked into how my Voigtländer lenses behaved when stopping down and if this is related to his problem or it's another artefact or whatever you'd like to call it, I don't know. Take a look at this image:



You have to click it to see it bigger. In the middle of the frame is a black dot. Just to the left of the bulb. First I got worried the sensor was damaged but it seams something else is happening. The spot changes shape and form when changing aperture and it's only visible when stopping down the lens past F4 (Voigtländer 75/1.8). I even tried my Olympus 14-35/2 and sure enough the dot came forward and the image above is with that Olympus lens.

I would guess some sort of blackout happens when the blades on the lens are closed

And the solution tada! Dirt or objects on the sensor cover/glass. I found a tiny dust speckle and I can image something similar happened to the other guy. Good to know what this was next time it happens.

I got my fourth Voigtländer lens this week and that makes my Voigtkit complete. To take them for a swing I brought my AF101 to this weeks commercial shoot. I still use my 5DmkII as the Nr1 commercial camera since the directors love the way it looks. I worked as first AC on this job and we had a great team and finished 1½ hours ahead of schedule!




Check out the behind the scenes video featuring the AF101 and all of my Voigtländers.

This week I picked up a Voigtländer 25/0.95 for my GH13 and AF101. I wanted to do a piece with the combo but the weather outdoors was so boring.

Then I looked at vimeo and saw the weekend project. Only one rule - use the music track "Catching The Simple But Happy Days". I also had to do my laundry so I came up with doing a piece on the laundry room.

As it happens this was also the last day with the old booking system. It's to be replaced with an electronic one which will make it more difficult to access the laundry room so I'm not to happy with that. So in line with the tune "Catching The Simple But Happy Days" this is my tribute to how the laundry room worked before the change. I had my AF101 on the Manfrotto 504/546 tripod and also made use of my skate dolly for a couple of shots.

Settings on the AF101:
Detail: -7
V Detail: -7
Coring: -2
Chroma: -5
Gamma: Cinelike V
Matrix: Norm1

1080p25 and most of the shots are with the Voigtländer at 0.95.

Weekend Project - SoundCloud Inspiration @ vimeo

This was the second time we did a sponsorship/commercial for Briska cider. Last year we used my Canon 7D and this year it was my 5D mkII. I also had the chance to use my AF101 as a second unit camera and to capture a BTS video I had my GH13 on set also.

What a wonderful place the Zugspitze is! It really makes you feel humble going up, up, up into the sky and reach the summit of Zugspitze - Germans highest alp peak. To bad I had only 15minutes to shoot this scenery before going down and catching my train back to Munich. I'd love to stay for half a day or more and eat at the restaurant and enjoy the view for a couple of hours or so. But going abroad to work often only takes you to the airport - transportation to the hotel - to where you have to shoot - and then back to the airport. Not much time to enjoy new places.



I found the view through the window out to the Austrian side of the Zugspitze and the sign "No exit Danger of life" telling. Almost 3000 meters up in the air and looking straight down on the north side really puts a chill through your bones. On the way up all the other Alps just vanished down so I realized this was going to be one trip to remember.



Having only 15 minutes seams like madness. I literary ran the steps up from the cabin to the view point and rushed the shoot. Still I managed to do at least two short timelapse with my AF101. Inside the cabin I couldn't use the AF camera so I had my little GH13 and kit lens to capture on the way up.

I also had to pack light so my backpack Lowepro was stuffed with all I needed and I only had my Manfrotto 504/546 tripod to carry.



Here's a short video showing the ascent and view from the top.

Getting a new camera it takes some time to find out what works and what doesn't. I've watched so many videos shot with the AF100/101 that looks unexciting, flat, blown highlights, chroma clipping, bad skintones and some even noisy. So does this make the AF101 a bad camera?

I know many had their hopes set very high since this one was suppose to be the DSLR and DOF adapter killer. When you have high expectations you're bound to be disappointed. Many of us, me included, have made some really nice looking videos with both the 7D and 5DmkII despite all of their shortcomings and artefacts. Why do they often look great and the AF101 not?

I've narrowed it down to these facts about what makes a good looking image or if you prefer a "cinematic" image:

Soft, warm look, crushed black, soft highlight clipping, shallow DOF, rich colours without bleeding or clipping and warm skintones. All of these things are trademarks of a DSLR. Then you have two things you create with proper lighting and that's to avoid a flat looking image, mostly to do with having the background breaking any flatness. The second being creating a dynamic looking image with selective focus and contrast. Sounds simple right? So why aren't all of the AF101 images like this?

When I have a 7D or 5DmkII on set I use my Marshall 7" monitor to judge exposure. False colours is a great invention and it makes it so easy. Just stay out of red and you are safe. Avoid to much dark blue on people and you are safe. Choose the colour temperature and you get the right skin tones or mood. If you try to follow these simple rules on a AF101 it might work and it might not work. There are a couple of things that doesn't work like DSLR shooting.

You must be extremely careful when selecting colour temperature. Having white anything other than spot on and exposure higher than 85% will make yellow/orange to clip. It's one ugly clipping so you must avoid it no matter what. Blue, red and green are not as sensitive but watch out for yellow and orange. Under daylight balanced bulbs clipping is not bad. It clips but really nothing ugly about it. It's under tungsten one can run into problems. One way to make it work is to lower the colour temperature in camera and make it warmer in post. Then you can get rid of much of the ugly yellow/orange clipping and halo. Under mixed lights it can be difficult to balance the camera. I did a short video under a mixture of streetlights and it was really a trial and error in each shot to make it look good. But I could so it's not impossible.

A shallow DOF can really help to make clipping much more pleasing by making it smooth. So even if the camera itself don't have a perfect handling of colours the user can make it look good.

Exposure works the opposite if you compare with a DSLR. I seldom have any problem with highlight clipping on either 7D or 5D. It clips and looks pretty smooth. But blacks are always crushed on these cameras. I don't think it's a bad thing since it does get rid of noise and makes the image looking contrasty. The AF101 is just the other way around. You have plenty of detail in shadow areas which is great and not so great. By itself it looks way flatter than the crushed black of a DSLR. This is not a problem, lower black level to crushed and you have the same contrasty image but rather than being a "feature" of the camera you now can choose to crush it.

As long as you are spot on with white, highlight clipping is okay. Not as smooth as a DSLR but still okay. Get it slightly off and all sorts of ugly colours starts to creep into the clipping. I really can't stress white balancing enough! If you look upon a DSLR working in the upper spectrum up to 100% white I would rate the AF101 to work in the lower end at 85% white. I also think white looks best when it's off white as compared to super bright white. This is also one thing that sets a "cinematic" image apart from a "video" image. White is seldom pure white in a block buster.

Updated 12 February: It seams the chroma channel on the AF101 is prone to clipping using the default Chroma level at 0. Reducing this and choosing a flatter gamma curve like HD norm or like the flattest Cine D does make it possible to have higher exposure without chroma clipping. The default setting is very saturated so having this below -5 helps alot. It's not a real fault in the camera just the high level of chroma coming from this camera. Reduce and be pleased.

On a DSLR you are limited to a small number of settings, sharpness, contrast, colour and colour temperature. On the AF101 you have many settings to tweak the camera. You can create one setting that will be a middleground setting that works pretty good in all situations or more likely, create several to suit different kind of shots.

You can get this camera to look bitingly sharp or very noisefree. It's really up to you and it makes this camera very versatile. My goal is to make this camera look as good as possible and really the tools are at my disposal. Looking at what some of these settings do this is a shortlist:

Detail: Makes the image more or less detailed. At 0 it's very sharp so to make it softer I would step down a couple of steps at least.
V Detail: It affects only vertical details so has less impact than detail.
Coring: This is noise reduction. Higher smooths noise and lower makes it more coarse.
Gamma: You can select different curves to tailor gamma. The flattest looking is Cinelike D and the most contrasty is Cinelike V.
Knee: Set where highlight roll-off starts. Low starts earlier and high starts later. This is invalid when using Cinelike D or Cinelike V.
Matrix: Sets how colours and mostly noise is perceived. Cinelike is the most noisy and Norm2 is the least noisy. But it comes with a tradeoff since Norm2 smears the image and this can be seen in peoples faces sometimes. Fluo adds magenta to compensate for fluorescent lights and their green spike and Norm1 is a middle ground between Cinelike and Norm2.

Going back to the trademarks of a 7D or 5D that manage to mimic a 35mm camera very well - Soft, warm, crushed black, soft highlight clipping, shallow DOF, rich colours without bleeding or clipping and warm skintones. Okay let's start to tweak the camera. Soft. I would step down on detail to between -4 and -7 to make it softer and more pleasing. Warm look and crushed blacks. These goes hand in hand since you can colour correct with lowering gamma and achieving both a crushed black and warmer colours. Soft highlight clipping. Get your white balance spot on and stay below 85%. Set lighting as smooth as you can.

Shallow DOF. This is one area where I think many are using to wide angles. Stay at longer focals, make the shoots tighter. Lenses makes all the difference with this camera since the sensor is smaller than an APS-C one that we are so used of seeing. Go for 50/1.4 and 85/1.4 whenever you can. Rich colours without bleeding or clipping. Get your white balance right and never go above 85%! Lowering gamma makes the image richer. Warm skintones. Now this can be achieved in many different ways. If you can I would set up a very soft 3.2K light as key for the face or making as neutral colour in camera as possible and colour correct in post. Set exposure for the face at max 60-70% or even lower to get a rich warm look.

These are the things I would do to make use of the AF101 to it's best. So far besides shooting many tests I've done one daylight cloudy video, one under 5600k light with deeper blacks and one at nighttime under mixed lights. I've also shoot interviews in mixed shade/sunlight and indoors under different light conditions.

Remember, in the end we do make videos that are an artistic presentation of the real or imaginary world. Not something that is exactly like the real world. But getting the camera to work within it's limits helps to give you something worthwhile.

 

I'm going to Garmisch-Partenkirchen Germany to shoot and interview and get on top of the highest alp in Germany. Since I haven't used my AF101 with snow and direct sunlight I had to prepair and test. I'm glad I did because I discovered it's hard to tame light using lenses without real aperture adjustment. Also the built in ND filter even at 4 is not enough if you want to shoot wide open at F2.0.

I tried it with my Canon 70-200/2.8 and it was very difficult to adjust and get a good result. Using the Kipon adapter it vignettes to fast so not really useful with this lens. I liked how the 14-140 behaved since you can have it in auto-iris and it's so much easier to setup a shoot. My Zuiko 14-35/2 is the lens I plan to use the most so I had to try this one also. Putting a ND8 on the lens I could shoot wide open.

This is a frame grab from the videofile. The afternoon sun hits part of the building but with ND8 and the Zuiko 14-35 at F2.0 you can get very nice results. I think this one, ungraded also, looks very nice with a soft sun on the building and still a decent exposure on the rest of the building.

I know many are struggling with how to tame the AF101 in sunlight but it seams more ND is needed like when adding another ND filter. I'll shoot some faces tomorrow to get the final test for the shoot abroad. Importing files into Premiere often it looks blown but if you apply a luma curve and roll it off it looks great, as long as you expose by the waveform on the AF101.

This trip I have to pack light and I'm only bringing, besides the AF101, a Zuiko 14-35/2 and Lumix 14-140 along with a GH1 (13) body as a backup. I also have a ND8 one polarizer, one Sennheiser G2 system, one handheld microphone should the G2 not work, XLR cable, Manfotto tripod, gorillapod, Sennheiser HD25 headphones, a rain cover, a reflection-screen and alot of batteries. Not much room for clothes...

I think there are several advantages of having a mattebox mounted. Primarily it's to shade the lens from the sun or lights. A secondary function is to hold filters. So these are the two things you get with a mattebox. Sadly a decent mattebox does cost alot. I've had my eye on the Shoot35 mattebox to come but after getting the AF101 I asked myself if I really need one? For DSLR shooting it's indispensable because you have to tame light in order to keep a shallow DOF using low F-numbers. But with the AF101 you already have built in ND filters that are way superior to using ND filters inside the mattebox.

Everything you put in front of the lens will affect the light going into the lens. Even UV-filters can introduce reflections no matter how good they are. But a ND filter in front of the sensor, like in the AF101, has no drawbacks. No reflection, no filter handling, no broken glass.

So I dug into my ever growing toolbox of camera stuff and came to the conclusion that a plain rubber hood will be much better in giving the lens some shade and it's like dirt cheap. I think I paid something like $10 for a 77mm rubber lens hood. I've used them as a gasket between the lens and mattebox in the past on my GH1 and I think these are great. You can extend or collapse them and make it work for many lenses.

This will be one goal in 2011. Leave my mattebox at home and bring rubber instead! These are screw in hoods so when you change lens you have to unscrew it and screw it back in. But despite this I think lens swaps will go faster.



This is how I aim to rig my AF101 with a follow focus and the rubber lenshood. When I don't need one or the other I will skip it since I like things being simple. On wider lenses you might find that the plain rubber lenshood comes in the way but you can get both normal hoods and wider ones.

A follow focus can be indispensable in certain situations but when you don't need one I think it just makes a camera more difficult to setup and use. So whenever I can, I do shoot without one. Today a Manfrotto 521PFI came with the mail and I had the chance to try it out. It's a device that fits many Panasonic cameras and also works on the AF101.

On the back of the AF101 you have ports for focus/iris and start/stop. This one has no start/stop button but can control focus and iris. What's cool about it is I can use my Olympus 14-35/35-100 lenses and use this one as a follow focus. It works just like a follow focus but is better than a purely mechanical one. Since the Olympus 35-100 has focus-by-wire there are no stops. The focus ring just keeps turning after you've reached near and far focus limits. With the Manfrotto 521PFI you can set limits so that the wheel on this thing gives you a 270 degree turn using the lens total focus range. It has two modes. One you set limits and the other doesn't have any limits. When using the later focusing is faster since it adjusts focus more rapidly so in a run-n-gun thing this might would come in handy to find focus fast.



I have to say that having this little device mounted at an ergonomic spot makes focus pulls much easier. You can also do repeatable focus pulls even with the 35-100. I've tried to use my Shoot35 FF unit but you can't do this because of how this lens works, but the 521PFI can!

The big wheel with pits is for controlling iris. I couldn't get it to go lower than about F2.7 on my 14-35 so I'll have to dig into this some more later on. There are several switches for manual and auto in focus and iris and you can switch direction for the wheels. There is room to make focus marks on the inside and a small arrow helps you. To bad it's black and not white... how come Manfrotto?

I took some parts from a shoulder gunstyle rig and built a new one for the AF100/101 camera.

It's just as simple as can be. One handle in the front, one 10" rod, two 90 angle blocks, two shorter rods and a shoulder pad. This rig is very light and much better than holding just the camera by it's sidegrip. This week I did a shoot handheld and it was a pain to use that sidegrip so I just had to put something together that would allow me to work without getting to tired.

I had an itch to try to do something in the evening and went out in my neighbourhood. I also wanted to try out how my Zeiss 50 would look and behave together with the AF101.

About nine months ago I got in contact with Brian Berkey of Berkey System. I was looking for a rod block to hold a Giottos MH1304 ball head. He had just the part and once I received it I realized Brian is one guy out of the ordinary. Ever since then we have had an ongoing mail conversation about how to best put together a DSLR rig. The end result became the "editman" cage. In it's form a basic concept but very versatile, robust and of top notch quality. This is the only support I'm using for DSLR shooting. Any camera will fit and you can adjust it in any height or width.

Thanks to other camera operators Brian has developed one versatile base block than can be put together in many ways. You can have it wide for use with a DSLR camera and the wider bodyshape, or you can use it for a videocamera were the body is longer. He has also put adjustable height rods so you can have them low or high.



In it's purest form Brian makes blocks and clamps in a variety of shapes and functions. But he has so many other rigging gadgets and I have only scratched the surface of what he is capable of creating and solve.



When others are turning to Zacuto, Red Rock, Shoot35 or any other manufacture of gear I can't imagine they get half of the service Brian gives you. I'm beginning to sound like a commercial but I can't praise him enough! I like the ability to toss ideas and get something that is custom made for my need and use.

All pieces is not ground breaking or even new but they solve issues extremely well and if there's something not right he fixes it. Man does he ever sleep... I was looking for a lens support for that big Olympus 35-100 and he came up with a small but efficient clamp/block with adjustable height and it works and solves the issue.



Don't look at the AF101, don't look at the Olympus 35-100, don't look at the mattebox. Look at the small supporting clamp for the lens!

I've been doing some noise tests and my conclusion so far is this. I shot several different clips in different settings in the first part and took them into Premiere CS5. The second test I used my Marshall monitor in 1:1 mode to look close at the noise coming directly from the camera via HDMI. I believe it's not the codec that introduces noise but it's the sensor and/or electronics before the file gets coded that has the noise issue.



There is no to very little noise in parts that are properly exposed. It looks great in every aspect. But when you start to have underexposed objects the noise starts to creep into the image. When adjusting settings in the camera it brings noise to the image or masks it. I did this test to profile how the noise character can be made to a non issue. I also believe you should set up different scenefiles for different shooting environments. In daylight outdoors noise will not be an issue but indoors you have to use a different setting.

I started comparing how noise is on my Canon 7D and the 7D has less noise at the same ISO before tweaking. After more than a year with the 7D I know this camera in and out but to make an even comparison I used the standard picture profile with sharpness only one notch down and the rest at neutral setting. The Canon 7D does go black sooner with less DR so it might mask more noise but the characteristics of the noise is very fine.

All my tests in ISO320 but I also tried if decreasing to 200 or raising it to 800 would cause anything out of the ordinary but ISO doesn't not change the character of noise else than it becomes a bit more when cranking up that ISO. Just as it should.

Next I went on to the detail settings and coring. Noise does become less apparent when you lower detail or it looks smoother. Coring does little and so does V detail.

There's also Master pedal. It lowers or raises the black floor. It's best setting is at 0. You might mask some noise if you lower it but I rather do this in my editing suit and it does not reduce noise. Of all the settings Detail, Gamma and Matrix are the parameters that influences how you perceive noise the most. After testing the best settings are these:

Settings:

Film cam

PH 1080/25p

Detail: -7

Gamma: Cinelike V

Matrix: Fluo

All other settings at their default position.

After these parameters have been set the noise looks very smooth in lower exposed areas and the overall impression is a decent clean image even on a LAP top screen or when using VLC. The image is not noise free but I don't think it draws any attention from the rest of the image. It's smooth and blends into the image pretty well. I also discovered that the matrix you are using affects noise in black and colours differently. "Fluo" or "Norm1" were the ones that had the lowest noise but blue were noisier with Norm1 and black were noisier with Fluo. I think noise in black is more tolerable than noise in colours so I choose Fluo.

Blue is the colour that shows more noise than red or green so I would pay more attention in lighting to bring up exposure for that colour.

I have a bunch of test material but I urge you to try these settings and maybe tweak them further for an even cleaner image. Even my Canon 7D and 5D mkII shows noise when underexposed and with these settings I think it's on par with the Canons. When raising ISO towards 800 on the AF101 it looks very good so I wouldn't hesitate to use at least 800ISO when I need some more speed.

You can go to my vimeo page on download this clip to see one example of how little noise there is in a original MTS file. It's in three steps from ISO320/640/1250.

 

The day finally came when my AF101 arrived. During these last months I among many others have been eagerly awaiting this camera. I have to admit I was excited to open the box and dig into what was inside. A couple of things as my initial feelings about this camera. It's lighter than I would have expect. It is solid but borderline to much plastic parts to my liking. It's really easy to use and in a way it feels underwhelming when coming from a DSLR. The powerbutton is recessed a bit to much and that makes it harder to power on and off but I'll get use to it.

Both the LCD display and the EVF are great. It so easy to pull focus and nail it and much better than on my Canon DSLR cameras. I would use the LCD instead of the EVF since it's big enough and bright. The plastic covers for connectors on the back are not what I expected. Having used a HVX200 I realize that HVX-cameras plays in a higher division. It's more solid and have better parts than the AF101. But when you start to use this camera and look at what you get a HVX200 have nothing to put up against it. This camera loves texture, it's so sharp and detailed, it feels very much alive.

The somewhat plastic feeling of just holding the camera goes away once you start to rig this baby for shooting. The picture above have a rod block made by Brian Berkey and the same one I use in my DSLR "editman" cage. It's a bit to high but so solid and when mounted it's a very decent camera to hold and use. Besides the Berkey block I took some rods, my mattebox and the Olympus 14-35 lens to make it workable. On the backside I mounted my AT875R shotgun microphone and Sennheiser wirelss lav. Cable holders are included for a tidy looking camera. I mounted the microphone mount upside down because I didn't want anything to extrude above the handle so that the camera will rest safe in my bag.



Inside the box besides the camera body I got; charger, power adapter, 5800mAh battery, microphone holder, IR-remote, rubber eyecup, manual and a software CD. I already had two Sandisk Extreme 16GB cards and a brand new VW-VBG6 battery. I find it interesting that the battery that came with the camera is smaller but holds 5800mAh instead of the VW-VBG6 battery that holds 5400mAh. You can manage to get about 4 hours each so these two will take me through a days work just fine.

There are many things to get to know in this camera. On the surface it's easier to use than a DSLR but within are many tools that I have to get to know. As with my Canon DSLR cameras this one will take some time before I can squeeze every last bit of image quality out of it.







Overcast, not many daylight hours and a powder decorated Sweden. Well, not ideal to shoot anything with my new Panasonic AF101 but I went ahead and brought my Olympus 14-35 lens.




I also tried my Zeiss 85 and Canon 100L and did one indoor short.

My latest lens Olympus 35-100/2 arrived and I wanted to do a short test on how manual focusing works. It sure looks big enough mounted on the GH1... well actually it's the GH1 mounted onto the lens!



I put the Olympus 35-100 on my GH1 and mounted it inside my "editman" cage and used my Shoot35 follow focus. It worked fine to use the grooves on the focus ring itself instead of using one of my Zipgears or Flexigears. As you can see I top mounted the FF unit because using that tripod collar on the lens raises the camera more than my 5D/7D which my cage is set up for.




I also shot this short video showing focus pulling, a bit course I know but I did it in a hurry...



You can't use repeatable marks on a follow focus to do focus pulls with this lens. Focus-by-wire is not made for that and it sucks since this is such a fine lens. Another thing that's somewhat irritating is that focus pulls takes a bit longer than I would like them to take. On the other hand you hardly miss a focus spot. It's also interesting that when you turn off the camera the lens parks itself at infinity.

I do think this lens will come in handy but at the same time I prefer my Zeiss lenses since they are much better to focus with. The big advantage now that I have both the Olympus 14-35/2 and the Olympus 35-100/2 is I cover all of the focal I tend to use. 14mm is wide enough and I seldom go closer than 100mm unless I'm doing a macro shot.

There are three adapters for using 4/3 lenses on a micro 4/3 camera body. Panasonic has the DMW-MA1 and Olympus MMF-1 and MMF-2. I decided to try both Olympus adapters since I already have tried Panasonics adapter.

Besides the obvious colour that differ these two adapters apart they are near identical if you look upon them. But picking one up it's also obvious that the MMF-1 is the one with better built quality. It weights almost twice as much as the MMF-2. It's worrying that the newer adapter, MMF-2, is so light weight and I don't get that sense of owning something exclusive when holding it. It will probably work with lenses up to 1kg but if I had a choice it would be the MMF-1 no doubt.



So why is the MMF-1 twice as heavy? First of the mount is solid steel as oppose to MMF-2's aluminium mount. I guess the MMF-1 adapter is also reinforced inside and that this adds to the weight. The answer could also be that the MMF-1 is made in Japan and the MMF-2 is made in China...



Besides MMF-1 being the better adapter it functions is no different than that of the MMF-2 or the Panasonic adapter. They could all be the same if it wasn't for the MMF-2's weak construction. I have tried both adapters on my GH1 with the Olympus 14-35 lens and when mounted I really can't tell which one I'm using except the colour of the adapter. They both feels solid but I can't dismiss what I know so I will use the MMF-1 on my AF101 as it is the better option.

Having EF lenses on a micro 4/3 camera pose one problem and that is to control aperture. Birger engineering is suppose to come with one adapter with electronic coupling that allows for many things like aperture, focus and IS function on EF lenses. But until it is a real product this adapter might come in handy.

At $125 it's a bit pricier than the plain EOS to m 4/3 adapters but it's a solid piece and got no less than 14 aperture blades to stop down the lens. The aperture ring is heavily damped and feels great to turn. It's numbered between 1 and 6 but you can go beyond the 6 mark albeit with the risk for introducing black spots according to the manual.




I took the adapter straight out of the box and fitted my Zeiss 50/1.4 ZE lens. It feels like a fine machined adapter. You can't use EF-S lenses because they will probably hit the blades. It's the same thing as EF-S lenses does not fit a 5D mkII.



Here's the adapter mounted without lens and the aperture open. Setting at "1". There is no glass so I suggest you open it up before removing the lens or adapter to protect the aperture blades.




Here the blades are closed to "6" on the aperture ring but you can close it even further. I will take a few snaps later tonight and show how it affects DOF and image quality.

More testing is needed but so far it feels great and finally I can use my Zeiss lenses on the GH1/13 and the AF101!

You can get it here on ebay!

Update 20 December:

Testvideo with the adapter.

I put this test together to try out if it would vignette on different lenses and how DOF would be affected. This video is updated with a pure vignette test in the second half.

Lenses used in the test:

Canon 70-200/2.8 IS II L
Canon 100/2.8 L Macro
Zeiss 85/1.4 ZE
Zeiss 50/1.4 ZE
Zeiss 35/2 ZE
Olympus 14-35/2
Canon 16-35/2.8 L

I would say this adapter is a great buy to make use of specially Zeiss ZE primes 35/50/85. It works perfectly with all of these to increase DOF and stop down the lens. On the other hand I don't think it works that good with the 70-200/2.8 since you get vignette after "3" and IS is not activated. Even the Canon 16-35/2.8 L turned out to work okay with only a slight vignette that could be tolerable.

Usually when I frame for head shots I use my Zeiss 85/1.4 lens. It's a great lens and focal length. Not the best near limit at about 85cm but for interviews or like the framing I used in the Guldbrev commercial it's about perfect on the 5D mkII. Very pleasing shallow DOF, sharp but also with a soft focus fall off. So when I get the AF101 and would like the same type of effect I have two options.

Field of view with a 85mm lens on the 5D mkII is just like putting a 50mm lens on a micro 4/3 camera. What you loose is that very shallow DOF but you can have the camera at almost the exact position and still have the same framing. Take a look at these frame grabs.

First off is the Canon 5D mkII with the Zeiss 85mm at F1.4. Very nice bokeh and out of focus background.



This one is with a Zeiss 50mm at F1.4 and with the GH1/micro 4/3 sensor. Still shallow DOF but nothing like that buttery bokeh of the 85mm on the 5D. These two shots differ in levels so disregard that but you can clearly see they both have the same angle of view and about the same framing. Just a tad closer. The camera was at the same position on both these two shots. One advantage of using a 50mm lens is you can get closer and get even more shallow DOF as it's near limit is 45cm.



This third shot is with the 85mm Zeiss still at F1.4 on the GH1/micro 4/3 but with the camera backed half a meter and the object moved towards the wall about 75cm. Still about the same framing and angle of view but with much more pleasing bokeh. If I have the space this is the lens I would use when framing for heads. If I can get as close as I can and have more than 2 meters behind the subject I bet it will look great.

I can see three lenses being utilised together with the AF101. First an Olympus 14-35/F2. This one covers the wide end and is very fast. Then a Zeiss 50/F1.4 is great for interviews and so is the Zeiss 85/F1.4 when you really need that super pleasing bokeh. Another thing with that Zeiss 50mm is you can get close. It's not a macro lens but Zeiss has a 50/F2 lens to get even closer. I tend to stay in the 35-85mm area on both my 7D and 5D, I guess that's why 35/50/85 is a standard lens-set. I already have a Zeiss 35/F2 which is great so when I get the Olympus I do a comparison.

Shallow DOF is all about how close you are to the subject and how far it's from the subject to the background. Even my Canon 16-35/F2.8 can have a very pleasing bokeh when you get really close at 35mm. But there's something about staying in the medium tele range that just feels right. One advantage with using a more sensible sensor size like the micro 4/3 standard is you do have some room for in focus subjects. A 5D sensor at full aperture is just to shallow in many instances.

I've gathered more information about the upcoming AG-AF101.





Last weekend I had the chance to get to see and touch the camera. Since then I have some more information about what we will see later in December or in the beginning of 2011. I have a HVX200 on my desk and browsed through the menu system to check what one might expect from the 101. HVX200 does variable frame rate in 720 only but the 101 turns it around and you can only do it in 1080p which is way better. Especially since the sensor gets down converted to a 1080p signal before compression and storing. The sensor is about 12MP and it's sealed. So there is no risk of dust getting onto the sensors itself. No need for sensor cleaning then as in the GH1 and other G-series cameras.

Adapters are plenty full but the thing that's of interest is Birger-Engineering who is working on an EF to micro 4/3 adapter with electronic coupling. What this means is you can take advantage of aperture/iris adjustment on the 101's iris wheel. Probably image stabilization will work on EF/EF-S lenses that has it. I for one would love continue using my Zeiss primes in EF mount.

Looking into that EVF it's small if compared to a Z-finders magnified view. But it's on par with other Panasonic cameras. You can have both LCD and EVF activated at the same time but you can't have HD-SDI output activated and both LCD and EVF at the same time. You have to choose two out of three. If this is valid for the HDMI output I don't know. The only thing that separates the HDMI from the HD-SDI is there's timecode output on the HD-SDI and HDMI has no timecode. You can turn the EVF to black and white and still use peaking on red to pull focus. At the same time the LCD can be in colour. Most overlays can be output via HDMI/HD-SDI and you can turn them off to enable external recording. Digital output is 8 bit 4:2:2.

There's also headphone output, composite video and audio via cinch connectors and USB2 connector. All of the outputs are behind rubber lids in sections so if you only want to use HD-SDI output that's the only lid which is open at the time. Just like on the HVX200.

Sadly there is no magnification of the image to check/set focus so you have to rely on peaking, visual or the focus bar. This is due to not enough processing power and the way the OLPF is implemented.

There are three user buttons that can be set do functions you might use often. Checking the menu on the HVX200 there is a list of functions you can add and I presume it will be the same on the 101. The camera has two rec buttons, one on the left side and one n the right side. No top rec button but the one to the right can be seen from above.

This camera can be set to operate as a filmcamera or a videocamera. In filmcamera mode you have ISO and on the videocamera mode you have gain. -6 gain is equal to ISO200 and 0 gain is equal to ISO400. You can only do variable framerate in filmcamera mode. There are gamma settings and colour settings pretty much like the HVX200.

It's a light weight camera by itself only 1.2kg. What you will find in the box is; Camera, charger, power adapter, 5400mAh, mount cap and IR remote. The handle has got a mount for a microphone and both side grip and top handle is removable.

Overcrank in 1080p25 works in the way that you can set it between 12 and 50 fps inside the 1080p25 file. It playbacks in slowmotion directly from the card or file in editing programs. The camera has a prerec feature which can be turned off but left on it's 3 sec pre rec. You can do timelapse in 1sec, 10sec, 30sec and higher intervals. This camera takes stills in 1920x1080 resolution by the press of a button or can be extracted from a video file. There is no audio during overcrank.

On the top is a built in microphone and you have two XLR-inputs on the right side. These can be set to either line or microphone level input and you can power microphones via 48volt phantom. Audio is recorded in either AC3 or uncompressed PCM 48/16 audio for PH mode and AC for the other modes. Video recording has it's highest resolution at 1920x1080p in PH mode at 24mbps. A high quality AVC codec is being utilised for this camera just the other AVCCAM from Panasonic.

To check exposure this camera has a waveform monitor in low pass mode. It only displays luma values. It also has vectorscope, two different zebras and a marker which can be moved inside the frame to spot check exposure. The zebras are adjustable. For white balance there are two presets and one user adjustable/calibrated. A button on the lower front of the camera does AWB. You can set white balance between 2300K and 9900K.

Built in is a four value ND-filter. They are 0, 2 stops, 4 stops and 6 stops ND. As of now the only lens that does face recognition and silent af/iris is Lumix 14-140/4-5.8.



 

I attended the Photo Fair in Stockholm this weekend and got a glimpse on some interesting hardware.

This fair is one of the smaller fairs but despite this they had two cameras that are two hot ones these days. First they had a Panasonic AG-AF-101 on display with Zeiss primes and we tried the Lumix 20/1.7 and 14-140 lenses on as well.



This was the first time I saw and handle the camera myself. It's a very nice camera that will be so popular. It's about the right size and feels solid to hold. I tried it on sticks, hand held and holding it low. With that Zeiss prime it both looks and feels great.



One thing that isn't included is a focus assist to zoom in for focus confirm. Instead there's a bar on the lower part of the screen that tells you what's in focus. I really don't know how the camera knows what to focus on... but the other focus feature - peaking actually worked better than I would expect. My Marshall monitor has peaking but it's seams to work better in the AF-101.









To mount that Lumix 20/1.7 on this camera makes it look like a toy lens but the 14-140 actually looks pretty decent. Add a lenshood and it looks somewhat proportional. We tried some overcranked footage and it looked great. Smooth and when shutter sat at 180 degrees the camera takes care of the shutter speed.





There are alot of overlays on the monitor/EVF and external output if you like. A clean good looking image as seen on the picture above. It looked creamy and rich in colour on that big display. The EVF is small but with peaking activated I manage to get things in focus so maybe this is something one can get used to.

I asked what will came with the AF101 and were told these things be included; camera body (with handle and side grip), microphone holder, 5400mah battery, battery charger and net adapter. Unlike the HVX200 a separate charger and power module is included so that you can charge and run the camera on AC at the same time.

There were not many people around this camera since this fair is mostly aimed at the photographers. Good thing for me. I didn't expect to see the next camera - Sony PWM-F3 on display. But in a corner together with some other Sony cameras the F3 rested on a pair of sticks. I could easily missed this camera if I hadn't read the news about it.



Mounted on the PL mount adapter they had a Cooke prime. What strikes me is we have two new cameras, the AF101 and the F3, similar in shape and features but also a different approach. The AF101 seams to be more a grab and shoot camera. Add a lens and you're ready to go. You can add an external recorder but it seams to be as good as can be from the get go. Sonys F3 has a low bitrate MPEG2 codec in 4:2:0, just like the AF101, but with a (probably) much better sensor and lower noise. Sony presume you will go for the lens-kit package with seams really good. Three primes (make not known) in 35/50/85mm focal. It has XLR input just like the AF101 and below a set of cinch connectors? The AF101 also has cinch for composite and audio output.



When it comes to the layout of both cameras the AF101 seams well laid out and not cluttered with buttons. The F3 on the other hand has buttons all over the camera and the display wasn't as solid put together as the AF101's display. I find both cameras EVF placement a bit awkward. When you hand hold them at least the AF101 feels like a handycam. A bit heavier but still like a handycam. The F3 is way heavier at 2.8kg were as the AF101 is about 1.2kg. These figures according to specs.



I were told that overcranking in 1080p will come later on but only 720p overcrank as of now. I think the image from the F3 looked great. A smooth and sharp image. Both cameras has built in ND-filters, the AF101 in three steps 2/4/6 and the Sony F3 in two steps. I don't know what numbers the Sony had but my guess is something like 3 and 6 stops.

Maybe it's me being used to handle a Panasonic HVX200 but the AF101 felt like a friend right away were as the F3 didn't. There was no point in trying to shoot something with the AF101 because in four weeks I'll get it myself and I don't have a work flow for Sonys memory cards. I now feel more confident that these two new cameras are going to be very impressive cameras to work with.



In one booth Philip Bloom almost bumped into me just as he had gotten a new Gorillapod (another one?) since he were there doing DSLR seminaries. I for one hope the new breed of big sensor video cameras will put an end to the cable clutter DSLR video shooting brings. Is that image above a DSLR shooters rig or a cable stand?

Just to show a couple of frames from a native AF100 MTS file shot by Barry Green. I don't want to bad talk this camera because it looks great but at the same time I can't live with the risk ending up with artefacts that will ruin certain shots. I never see any mud on either Canon 7D or 5D mkII so this is a bit of worry. I haven't experienced this with the hacked GH1 (GH13) in 40mbps hacked firmware so far.

Let's hope they can fix this!

I do find it very interesting that this is the first clip shown to us from an almost finish camera and it shows the same tendency as the GH1 did when it comes to leafs and mud. The original clip was shot in 1080p24 according to Premiere were I extracted the images from. So far talk has been that the PH mode is robust, very robust, but then again the first sample failed right away. A bit of worry I'm sad to say. I know that shooting highly detailed scenes stresses the codec but honestly I've hoped for no artefacts this being a pro-camera.

For reference this is a link to the whole video at vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/16700572

Besides this artefact I'm a bit disturbed by the blown out colours. Green and red are the worst but given the short period of time they spent with the camera no one knows if this is a no issue when treated right. I do come from the post production world and had photo as an interest for twenty years before doing it more on a regular basis professional. When it comes to bad colours or levels I'm extra picky. Having worked with Canon DSLR cameras there are really good things and there are bad things coming out. Colour is one of the good things. I like it since it resembles what still pictures look like because it is a still image sensor and technology inside. Maybe I'm unfair to compare it to a video camera... deep inside I know it wont look like any of the Canons.

Things are looking great with the AF101 being released in December at a price lower than €5000. Still there is almost no footage from the camera but I guess it will pop up anytime since there's gotta be testers and reviewers that has the camera. Panasonic also has a dedicated page for the AF101.



At the same time we will see Panasonics GH2 later in October and it seams some of the functions on the AF101 has trickled it's way to this new camera. I'm not totally convinced about a 4/3 sensor being enough when you had the chance to shoot with Canons 5D mark II and Canon 7D. But I do expect both AF101 and GH2 to be way better than the GH1 in it's original state.

So the release of Panasonics first pro micro 4/3 sensor camera is getting closer. Recently the European version, AF101, is being exhibited at IBC and from what can be read it's seams to be a killer. So many problems associated with DSLR shooting seams to be remedied. Just looking at the spec and feature list makes one release what hassle it is to shoot with a Canon 5D or 7D. I wonder if all the manufactures for DSLR shooting style gear will fade away once the breed of big sensor cameras arrive? Who needs it when the AF101 has such a great formfactor.

Sony has their VG10, Panasonics upcoming AF100/101 and probably other manufactures will make large APS-C size sensors video cameras.
Still there is no video camera with as good sensor as the Canon 5D or maybe Nikons D3S and that sensor size. Sensor size that's the key.

Is DLSR shooting just a two year fling? Will we all turn to the AF100/101? I realize that with an AF101 in my bag I don't need my Marshall monitor. I don't need my dual sound recording system. I don't need my ND filters. There's a lot of stuff I don't need to make this camera fly. I do need lenses but I could fit everything in one bag instead of two-three bags as it is now.

But what will I miss? I like the fact that Canon 5D and 7D are still cameras first. They are small, they take high quality pictures, they are workhorses. So I need to keep at least a 5D in my bag and with it Canon or Zeiss lenses, if I want to continue taking stills. I guess this is the cornerstone in DSLR shooting and why they are killer stillcameras and affordable video cameras. Versatile and cumbersome at the same time...

When I had Pansonics GH1 and shot different things with it I liked what I saw. When I later got the 7D and even later the 5DmkII the images took a big step for even greater images. I know the GH1 resolves more information but the Canons feels better and makes better images. At least that's my experience with these cameras. I always felt the GH1 to have a good sensor but it couldn't be compared with the sensors in even the 7D when it came to the final result.

My prediction is that the AF101 will become very popular mainly because every DP and active producer likes to try the "new hot thing" in the industry. RED is great but if the AF101 can truly resolve 1080p with no artefacts and for that price, it's a true killer. AVCHD files is not the easiest format to work with but still manageable and even Premiere Pro can, on a decent machine, handle material and edit in real time without converting. Way better than RED files. File formats should be based on an open standard so it gets spread around and stimulate development of improved software.

When I started editing commercials and TV shows back in 1994 we had a 10 million SEK standard definition editing suite. About 1.4 million $. I can now sit at home and edit full HD files on my $500 laptop and be able to do more in higher resolution than what was possible in 1994. The same thing will happen with big sensor cameras just like what is happening now with the AF101.

Would I want one? Hell yes. I've always said, since the dawn of DSLR video shooting, that when a HVX200 formfactor camera combined with a large sensor, that is going to be the camera to have. Cudos to Panasonic for making this groundbreaking product!

Panasonic AG-AF100 release is getting closer and now Panasonic has a dedicated site for the AG-AF100.

Link to the Panasonic website.

The AG-AF100 is a professional AVCCAM Series HD camera recorder equipped with the Micro Four Thirds optical system commonly used in digital single lens still cameras. It directly accommodates Micro Four Thirds digital single lens still camera lenses, and an adaptor can be used to mount 35 mm film camera lenses and prime lenses. This lets you capture a wealth of film-like images with distinctive lens characteristics, like a shallow depth of field and an attractive soft focus.

Designed for stable camera work, the AG-AF100 is packed with functions and specifications that combine comfortable operation with superb images and extended recording times. It features HD-SDI output and mic input, remote control terminals, and versatile system interfaces that you normally find only on professional camera recorders.

The AG-AF100 also offers PH mode recording to deliver optimal AVCHD image quality in multiple HD video formats — including 24p and 30p. The variable frame rate enables slow/quick motion recording. Use the AG-AF100 to produce videos with stunning image quality, such as music, promotional, TV commercial and other short productions.

The AG-AF100 records in 1080:59.94i/50i/29.97p/25p/23.98p or 720:29.94p/50p/29.97p/25p/23.98p with its multi HD format. When recording in 720p mode, you can render movie-like images with effects like slow and quick motion. The Dynamic Range Stretcher, Gamma Select and other image features have also been inherited from previous Panasonic professional camera recorders.

The AG-AF100 features HD-SDI output, XLR audio 2 channel input, and other interfaces that are typically found on professional camera recorders. Time code recording also supports precise video production. In addition to its compact, lightweight body, the AG-AF100's professional camera recorder design with grip, handle and large viewfinder firmly support reliable camera work.

This PDF file has more info on aspect of the upcoming Panasonic AG-AF100.pdf (3,44 MB)

It will be exiting to see this camera in action once released. Everything is in place for a very nice camera. Let's hope that Panasonic delivers.

I'm excited, everyone is excited! Nothing from Panasonic after the excellent, but still a DLSR-like camera GH1 and now a fully fledged video camera with a micro 4/3 sensor.

Just look at that HVX style camera with a still lens! I was going to write about hardware I got today but now forget it.
I work in a very trend sensitive business - commercial. The Canon 7D has been on everybody's lips but this seams to be the king to be when it's released.
Expect it to be available in the fall/winter of 2010 at around $6000 I hear. Well worth every penny if they just get the basics right.

I don't expect Canon to sit still. This is something that will, if it's not already done, trigger other manufactures to come with similar products.
Is it to early to claim HD DSLR dead? How awkward will a 7D feel when this baby hits the market?

The upside is all equipment, even Canon lenses, can be used on and with this camera. Something I realized some time ago. Invest in things you can use with any camera so you just have to sell the body and move on to a better body. Thing is I love the HVX200 form factor so this camera will feel like second nature to me. Will I get one? Well I think we'll see more cameras just like the AG-AF100 during 2010. The future looks bright my friends!