3.03.2011
2.24.2011
The main thing it does is fix a very slight hue shift in the LCD. Also, if you look at the lower left corner of the screen in the photo. That's A.REC with a red slash through it. It pops up when you are in VFR mode to remind you that no audio is being recorded. You still get audio to the headphones and meters still bounce. So it's still not ideal, but it's a good start. Kudos to panasonic for stepping up their firmware delivery. Here's hoping for more in the future.
Panasonic also announced that native avchd editing is coming to FCP through a plugin that they are developing. This is also a huge step for Panasonic as they have historically been very slow to support anything on the mac platform.
2.23.2011
2.01.2011
1.28.2011
1.19.2011
1.05.2011
1.01.2011
Thoughts on the AF100 after 1.5 days
Overall, it feels absolutely frick'n fantastic to be shooting with a video camera again. I think I never want to pick up a DSLR for video again. Having a moveable viewfinder is priceless, The flip out monitor is beautiful and in conjunction with the focus in red, is easy to use for critical focus.
Audio, Duh. Feels like I'm back on the HVX, audio controls and inputs are straightforward and require no workarounds.
1080 Variable Frame Rates. In a word, stunning. Goodbye 720.
Push button waveform monitor. Awesome.
Slow shutter during time-lapse (up to 1/2 sec), thank you.
The four thirds chip feels like a great middle ground in terms of depth of field control. If you need shallow, open up your stop, crank the neutral density wheel and you've got it. Need deep focus for more uncontrolled situations? Crank the ND wheel to 0 and stop down. Compared to the 5D where I always was sweating about focus, unsure if I was focused or not, particularly on a wide lens where the fall off is not as obvious. With this camera, I will never feel that way again. Also the ND wheel is something I will never take for granted. It's so fast and easy, this will be a HUGE timesaver.
One surprise was that the autofocus with the lumix 14-140 lens is actually quite useable! I had no intentions of ever using it, but when testing it out, I thought it performed quite admirably and I'm now sure I'll find myself using the manual mode with pushbutton auto quite often. One slight bummer is that auto focus for some reason cannot be used if you have VFR turned on.
Another nice surprise was the function knob. It's main use is to move a box on the viewfinder to set where you want autofocus and auto iris to take readings from, but the nice surprise is that you can use it to adjust the whitebalance in kelvin. Just set the whitebalance switch to preset, toggle from 32, 56, to VAR. Then the function knob can be used to adjust it manually! Very cool, I'd love to see the use of the function knob expand to allow other things like switching scene files without going into the menu.
The image itself is fantastic in my eyes. It's not noise free, but it has that panasonic "mojo" look. It's not crispy clean like the sony's, it's got some character to it, and that's a positive in my book. I'm not looking to eliminate every tiny bit of noise, to me it's just texture and character. I wasn't afraid of grain in the film days, and I still prefer an image with a bit of character, I'll take this over the plastic look of grain free images. That being said, I think the 3200 ISO on this camera is very clean for the sensitivity it gives.
Another positive is the wide range of tweakable settings in the menu to dial in the look you want. If the small amount of noise the camera generates bothers you, you can dial it out. See editman's tests at http://theeditman.com/blogg/2011/01/01/PanasonicAF101NoiseTest.aspx.
There is one big drawback and a few minor ones that I want to mention after using the camera for a day and a half.
First up, the big one. Perhaps this won't matter to other folks, but to me it's a MAJOR problem. When VFR (variable frame rate) mode is on, no audio is recorded. That's not a major surprise. BUT AUDIO METERS AND HEADPHONE AUDIO ARE ACTIVE WHEN RECORDING IN VFR, BUT NO AUDIO WILL BE RECORDED, EVEN IF YOUR FRAME RATE IS SET TO 24.
In other words, if you have VFR on, frame rate is set to 24, you start recording, you will hear audio in your headphones, the audio meters will be responding to audio, but when you stop recording and play back the shot, there will be no audio. YOU MUST TURN VFR OFF TO RECORD AUDIO. That's gonna catch a few people.
The minor problems are more just growing pains on my end. The main one is that I really really miss the scene file dial. That thing was a piece of engineering genius. It made it so easy and fast to switch frame rates. It seems like they traded it on the AF100 for the shutter/frame rate wheel. I can get use to it, but I'll always have a place in my heart for the scene file dial.
Another bummer is that you only have 3 sensitivities to choose from at one time. You have to go to the menu to set the sensitivities you want to use as high, medium and low. It would be nice to have it work like the whitebalance does where you can use the function knob to set it manually.
Another minor complaint is that the time-lapse mode only allows intervals of 1 sec, 10 sec, 1 min, 2 min. It would be nice to have more options between 1 and 10. Also, once you turn interval recording on in the menu, it only lasts for one shot then turns itself off. It would be nice to have it remain on until you turn it off.
Overall, I'm super happy. As a documentary/ sports shooter, I am so stoked to be moving on from the SLR world back to a video camera that feels like the right tool for the job. Thanks to Jan and Panasonic for taking this step into the large sensor video cam world.
All the best, Tim
Overall, it feels absolutely frick'n fantastic to be shooting with a video camera again. I think I never want to pick up a DSLR for video again. Having a moveable viewfinder is priceless, The flip out monitor is beautiful and in conjunction with the focus in red, is easy to use for critical focus.
Audio, Duh. Feels like I'm back on the HVX, audio controls and inputs are straightforward and require no workarounds.
1080 Variable Frame Rates. In a word, stunning. Goodbye 720.
Push button waveform monitor. Awesome.
Slow shutter during time-lapse (up to 1/2 sec), thank you.
The four thirds chip feels like a great middle ground in terms of depth of field control. If you need shallow, open up your stop, crank the neutral density wheel and you've got it. Need deep focus for more uncontrolled situations? Crank the ND wheel to 0 and stop down. Compared to the 5D where I always was sweating about focus, unsure if I was focused or not, particularly on a wide lens where the fall off is not as obvious. With this camera, I will never feel that way again. Also the ND wheel is something I will never take for granted. It's so fast and easy, this will be a HUGE timesaver.
One surprise was that the autofocus with the lumix 14-140 lens is actually quite useable! I had no intentions of ever using it, but when testing it out, I thought it performed quite admirably and I'm now sure I'll find myself using the manual mode with pushbutton auto quite often. One slight bummer is that auto focus for some reason cannot be used if you have VFR turned on.
Another nice surprise was the function knob. It's main use is to move a box on the viewfinder to set where you want autofocus and auto iris to take readings from, but the nice surprise is that you can use it to adjust the whitebalance in kelvin. Just set the whitebalance switch to preset, toggle from 32, 56, to VAR. Then the function knob can be used to adjust it manually! Very cool, I'd love to see the use of the function knob expand to allow other things like switching scene files without going into the menu.
The image itself is fantastic in my eyes. It's not noise free, but it has that panasonic "mojo" look. It's not crispy clean like the sony's, it's got some character to it, and that's a positive in my book. I'm not looking to eliminate every tiny bit of noise, to me it's just texture and character. I wasn't afraid of grain in the film days, and I still prefer an image with a bit of character, I'll take this over the plastic look of grain free images. That being said, I think the 3200 ISO on this camera is very clean for the sensitivity it gives.
Another positive is the wide range of tweakable settings in the menu to dial in the look you want. If the small amount of noise the camera generates bothers you, you can dial it out. See editman's tests at http://theeditman.com/blogg/2011/01/01/PanasonicAF101NoiseTest.aspx.
There is one big drawback and a few minor ones that I want to mention after using the camera for a day and a half.
First up, the big one. Perhaps this won't matter to other folks, but to me it's a MAJOR problem. When VFR (variable frame rate) mode is on, no audio is recorded. That's not a major surprise. BUT AUDIO METERS AND HEADPHONE AUDIO ARE ACTIVE WHEN RECORDING IN VFR, BUT NO AUDIO WILL BE RECORDED, EVEN IF YOUR FRAME RATE IS SET TO 24.
In other words, if you have VFR on, frame rate is set to 24, you start recording, you will hear audio in your headphones, the audio meters will be responding to audio, but when you stop recording and play back the shot, there will be no audio. YOU MUST TURN VFR OFF TO RECORD AUDIO. That's gonna catch a few people.
The minor problems are more just growing pains on my end. The main one is that I really really miss the scene file dial. That thing was a piece of engineering genius. It made it so easy and fast to switch frame rates. It seems like they traded it on the AF100 for the shutter/frame rate wheel. I can get use to it, but I'll always have a place in my heart for the scene file dial.
Another bummer is that you only have 3 sensitivities to choose from at one time. You have to go to the menu to set the sensitivities you want to use as high, medium and low. It would be nice to have it work like the whitebalance does where you can use the function knob to set it manually.
Another minor complaint is that the time-lapse mode only allows intervals of 1 sec, 10 sec, 1 min, 2 min. It would be nice to have more options between 1 and 10. Also, once you turn interval recording on in the menu, it only lasts for one shot then turns itself off. It would be nice to have it remain on until you turn it off.
Overall, I'm super happy. As a documentary/ sports shooter, I am so stoked to be moving on from the SLR world back to a video camera that feels like the right tool for the job. Thanks to Jan and Panasonic for taking this step into the large sensor video cam world.
All the best, Tim
12.30.2010
12.25.2010
12.09.2010
Tim and I both have a few days off so it looks like we are both deep into spring cleaning. Here a scan of a screen grab from our colorist in Seattle, Eric Rosen. These are kids from Mexico City that were extras in the Jack Black/Jared Hess adventure. That was one funnest documentary projects we ever worked on.
Big thanks to Tim for helping me set up my new computer. This is the view from my new office in Midway, I will be back to working out of the house, very happy about that, it feels right. I just had 2 edit jobs, first edit jobs in years. Things are looking good for Tim and I, the calendar is filling up with cool documentary projects. Life is good.Peace to all.
12.07.2010
12.06.2010
12.03.2010
12.02.2010
12.01.2010
I've been going through some old negatives i've got. Here's a shot of David law on the road out to the salt flats. Taken during the "scenic route" shoot.
11.15.2010
Hi Everyone,
Steve-o and I are unloading a bunch of video equipment as we shut down one office and
open another. We thought we'd send the list out to you folks first before blasting it out
onto ebay or the like. Everything is priced to move as I'm not to interested in spending
the next 4 weeks trying to sell this stuff.
UPDATED:
EVERYTHING is SOLD!
well, except the Beta SP deck. If any one wants a free one
come by my place and pick it up!
Steve-o and I are unloading a bunch of video equipment as we shut down one office and
open another. We thought we'd send the list out to you folks first before blasting it out
onto ebay or the like. Everything is priced to move as I'm not to interested in spending
the next 4 weeks trying to sell this stuff.
UPDATED:
EVERYTHING is SOLD!
well, except the Beta SP deck. If any one wants a free one
come by my place and pick it up!
11.09.2010
ENCOUNTER-Skate: FUEL TV ID from FUEL TV on Vimeo.
The 3rd and final installment of the Encounter series.
Thanks Billy Rohan and everybody at Camp Woodward that helped make this one happen... like Dave Metty Matt Henry, Jeffrey Robert Brockmeyer, Don Hampton and all the video camper like Will and the rest... too many cool people helped on this project to mention.
Peace thanks, you too Chris Folau and Derek the DP and Tom the producer...
11.03.2010
10.31.2010
10.28.2010
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I am doing behind-the-scenes on a Hollywood film shooting in Utah. More about the film later, but it does make me want to see "Grand Canyon" "A Fish called Wanda" and a few others. Photo by still photographer on set Wilson Webb.
10.23.2010
10.15.2010
Another one of our brothers went down hard. TJ Lavin crashed at the Dew Tour in Las Vegas last night, he is in rough shape and was put in a medically induced coma. We wish the best for our buddy TJ, and pray for his speedy recovery. I met TJ in 1997 and he has been a source of sunshine in my life every since. Check out this video TJ did for Stephen Murray when Stephen crashed a few years ago. Peace.
9.23.2010
The episode of Firsthand that we produced is premiering this weekend. Cam was great and it was fun to travel to Australia and stay with his family on the farm.
“CAM WHITE’S FIRSTHAND” Air Dates on Fuel TV:
Sunday - 9/26/2010 10:00 PM ET / 7:00 PM PT
Sunday - 9/26/2010 1:00 AM ET / 10:00 PM PT
Monday - 9/27/2010 1:00 PM ET / 10:00 AM PT
Tuesday - 9/28/2010 8:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM PT
Wednesday - 9/29/2010 11:30 PM ET / 8:30 PM PT
Thursday - 9/30/2010 10:00 PM ET / 7:00 PM PT
Thursday - 9/30/2010 1:00 AM ET / 10:00 PM PT
Friday - 10/01/2010 8:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM PT
Thursday - 10/07/2010 1:30 PM ET / 10:30 AM PT
Friday - 12/31/2010 8:30 AM ET / 5:30 AM PT
(The photo: Part of our job, making sure everything is OK, this time is wasn't, get well soon Cam, love you man)
9.13.2010
8.25.2010
8.18.2010
Paul and Fidalis Art Access Show from Solpin Films on Vimeo.
My nephew Paul Alusa and artist Fidalis Buehler are part of the 16th Annual Partner Exhibition at Art Access in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. The opening reception is this Friday, August 20, 2010 from 6 to 9 PM. The Art Access Gallery is in downtown Salt Lake City at 230 South 500 West. The show is part of Salt Lake City Gallery Stroll, there will plenty of other art to see that night. Please come and support Paul. Paul has been doing art with Fidalis for the last 7 months. Paul is recovering from a severe stoke he had several years ago. Big thanks to Fidalis for giving his time and talent to Paul.
8.16.2010
8.05.2010
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