Everyone thinks that shallow depth of field is part and parcel of the film world but not everyone was happy with SDoF.  When one of Hollywood’s biggest directors Orson Welles filmed Citizen Kane a film made in 1941 which was not only directed by Orson Welles but stared the very man himself, director Welles insisted on having a large depth of field for many of his shots.

This gave the crew a nightmare as they had to bring in far more lighting when Orson decided his next shot was to be filmed at T11 or f11 to you and me. T11 in those days ment blasting the set with light in order to allow the iris to stop down to f11, if nothing else things must have got very hot indeed.

If on the occasion enough light was not the answer they would use a split lens to give them two seperate depths of focus now this was tricky as you had to make sure your foreground actors and background actors never crossed the “invisible” line.

As an example you would use the edge of the door as an invisible line then pop on the split lens giving you two separate focusing fields.

As you can see the actors could not move from that position or the effect would be ruined. So you see it’s a savvy director who decides not to follow the rest of the field and give the viewer a visual experiance that in those days was new and different to the norm.

Think out of the box like Orson Welles did seventy years ago, the internet is a great tool but many of you are trying to emulate and be influanced by what you see on YouTube, Vimeo etc. The best films or videos today are fresh, free of influances from what others do and say, it does not have to be the “Film Look” for everything you do, video and its larger depth of field still has a place, it’s the power of your story that matters the tool to do the job is secondary to that.

My thanks to Norrie for the background info.

While we wait for the new Sony FS100 to appear why not look at Doug Jensen’s footage, Doug produces tutorial DVDs for Vortex Media which teach you how to use various levels of Sony Camcorders, I bought one of his DVDs teaching me a lot more about my Sony EX3, well worth the money.

A week before the 2011 NAB Convention, Sony sent a pre-production NEX-FS100 for me to shoot some demo footage for use in my F3/FS100 workshops they asked me to teach at the show.

The camera arrived on a Saturday morning. I set it up on my DSC test chart and created a custom Picture Profile that looked good to me. Please keep in mind that you should never judge a Sony camera right out of the box. You MUST create (or get) a Picture Profile or Scene File with a Sony camera if you expect the camera to perform at its best. That’s the way Sony designs them, and it is the right way to do it.

All but 6-7 shots of this video were shot on that Saturday afternoon at various locations around Newport, Rhode Island.

I used a Novoflex E-Mount to Nikon adapter so that I could use my own Nikon lenses instead of the 18-200 f/3.5-6.3 lens that Sony sent with the camera. In my opinion, that lens is too slow for getting decent shallow depth-of-field . . . which is, after all, one of the main reasons for choosing a camera such as the NEX-FS100 that has a Super-35mm sensor.

The Nikon lenses I used were a 17-35mm f/2.8 and a 80-200mm f/2.8

Only the fishing boats and swan shots at 6:35 were taken with the stock 18-200mm lens.

All of the softball footage was shot through a chain-link fence in bright sun.

Because the camera does not have any built-in ND filters of it’s own, I used a $150 Genus Variable ND Polarizer filter to control the amount of light entering the lens. ALL shots, except for the indoor fruit basket were shot with the ND filter on the lens. I found that this filter actually allowed me much finer control over my exposure than of the camera had only a couple of built-in filters. What at first seemed like a big shortcoming of the camera, was quickly forgotten. I can use cheap step-down rings to use the same ND Polarizer on all of my lenses regardless of their native filter size.

No matte box was used.

All of the slow-motion shots were shot at 60fps at full 1920×1080 mode and recorded on the camera’s onboard SD card. Full 1920×1080 @ 60fps is a unique ability of this camera compared to other Sony camcorders.

All shots in the video were recorded to the onboard SD card at 24Mbps. I will post comparison footage that was recorded simultaneously with a NanoFlash at 100MBps when I have time.

Only three shots, which are identified with supers had any color grading or post-processing applied to them. Everything else is straight out of the camera.

Last year I predicted to the letter what would happen when the large sensor camcorders came along..

2010 “Sony have just brought out the new F3, due for January 2011 shipping, but not as popular as the AF101 if sales are anything to go by plus the need for expensive prime lenses, 35Mbs SxS, 4:2:0 and the £12K asking price. The Sony is a great camcorder and Philip Bloom is testing one as I blog but the lack of 3rd party adapters is a major turn off though MTF are in the process of producing a Nikon adapter for early 2011.

Lastly we cant predict the future without a mention of RED DIGITAL CINEMA, who are producing an Epic light and a Scarlet. I do think RED have an upward struggle to compete with Sony and Panasonic and the fact that Jim also mentioned a significant price increase to Scarlet, a camera thats not in major production yet and has a fixed 8x lens !

The clear winner of the SDoF large sensor camera during early 2011 is by far the Panasonic AF101, it ticks all the boxes, a mountain of 3rd party adapters and lenses and the price of £4K has set this camera into 2011 with it’s head held high and a fantastic sales curve that can only get bigger.

I hope with such quality now available to the professional FilmLike market we will no longer see DSLRs used because the technology is limited and lets be honest Canon have stood aside for over a year now knowing that moire patterning is a major problem and done nothing to remedy the fault. As professionals we owe it to the future of our industry to embrace the new professional shallow depth of field camcorders from Panasonic and Sony…after all we have shouted for long enough about having a camera fit for purpose and the video manufacturers have delivered…BIG TIME.”

So that was 2010 how are things shaping up today almost 4 months later and NAB 2011 biting at our heals, the DSLR is still a major contender amongst those who embraced the technology but there has been a large uptake of cameramen and women who sat on the DSLR sidelines now coming forward since the introduction of the Panasonic AF101 and the Sony F3.

Mike Tapa from MTF Services has been run off his feet over the last three months trying to keep up with orders for adapters, especially the PL and Nikon to mFT adapters.

The DSLR has made its mark in the last two years with some high profile programmes being made like “The Road to Coronation Street” filmed by DP Tim Palmer who has kitted himself out with a mean looking rig.

Tim “Ian Potts, head of technology at the BBC, has asked me to give a presentation to fellow directors of photography about the use of DSLRs on the BBC4 drama “The Road to Coronation Street”. This will take place at Pinewood on March 17th. It sounds like a fascinating day and there will be other DoPs and technicians discussing alternative camera and capture systems. See below for some framegrabs from the drama which aired in September 2010.”

“The camera was a Canon 5D Mk2 and Nikon prime lenses. The vast majority of the show was shot on two lenses – the 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.4. The 35mm f2 and 135mm f2 had the occasional outing. The reason for this spartan choice of lenses is that because the camera is so small, even in tight spaces, one is able to get the camera far enough back to enable the use of slightly longer lenses on wide shots. Whereas under normal circumstances, due to the bulk and length of conventional HD cameras, the use of wider angle lenses becomes more necessary. As a result the pictures benefited from the reduced depth of field characteristics shown by full frame DSLRs.”

I emailed Tim and asked him the following question “Are you still using your 5D or are you considering something like a Sony F3.”

Tims reply “Yes I’m definitely considering the F3 now. The 5D has too many limitations unless it is used either in perfectly controlled conditions, so dolly and track, proper grip gear and camera accessories and a full crew OR completely uncontrolled i.e. shooting with abandon – no accessories just the bare camera in the hand basically being thrown around. Anywhere in between does not work.”

Although I am not a fan of using any DSLR for television work Tim and the team that graded the “Corrie drama” done a fine job and I accidentally happened to catch it and was very pleasantly surprised by the end result.

To bring you up to date on the DSLR, Canon or Nikon have still not fixed the moire or aliasing I assume we are to be treated to a large sensor video camera sometime this year from Canon at least which is why there is no urgency to solve the problem. Canon have given us the D60 which at last has a swivel viewfinder.

My own thoughts are that the DSLR will become less popular during 2011 in favour of the large sensor (LS) camcorders, this is already happening with major DPs now buying F3s and AF101s. Sony has a second LS camcorder due late summer the NEX-FS100 at about 50% less in price than the F3 but with the same Super 35mm sensor.

So what about companies like RED and ARRI who both have a share in the digital film market, all I can say is they both have their followers but there is no doubt about it Sony and Panasonic have given them a fright and I would say the F3 has taken sales from RED but it’s a big marketplace and as long as producers are spending the money DPs will taylor their kit towards their needs.

The DSLR has left it’s mark in history but it comes at a price…apart from the many limitations it was never made to do anything more than website news for photojournalists, the large sensor cameras like the F3, AF101 and the new FS100 are tools that are fit for purpose and come with that coveted shallow depth of field, when used with the right lenses.

The main winners of all these cameras are the lens makers themselves, even today they just can’t keep up with demand.

Alan Roberts is respected by all who read his findings when he assesses various cameras for the BBC but recently people have begun to question his findings especially with the Sony PMW-F3. I take you back to his conclusion on the Canon XF305 last year when he concluded…

2.6 Conclusion

This camera performs well at HD, for such a small- image format. Resolution is very well maintained and is refreshingly alias-free. Detail controls work well, and the factory settings are good. Noise levels are typical for 1”/3 sensors, but sensitivity is unusually good. Operating the camera at significantly lower gain will reduce the noise level without sacrificing significant sensitivity.

The integral lens has a maximum aperture of F/1.6, unusually large for a small camera, and there was mo perceptible loss of resolution through iris diffraction until the lens was stopped down to F/8, at which point significant resolution was being lost. Again, this is unusual for such a small image size. Thus, the camera has a useful aperture range from F/1.6 to about F/6.8. This, together with the 3-stage neutral density filters (each providing a further 2-stops of control), means that the camera has a much better exposure control range than is normal in a small camera.

I don’t doubt the conclusion and for Mr Roberts it’s a glowing report on the Canon XF305 but now I will show you his conclusion on the Panasonic AF101…

2.7 Conclusion

This camera does not perform particularly well at HD. Clean resolution is limited to about 1210×680 by the presence of high-amplitude spatial aliasing. This is a little disappointing from a camera with a large-format sensor, and indicates that optical low-pass filtering is either absent or inadequate, and that the scaling from the resolution of the sensor down to 1920×1080 has not been done in the best way.

Noise levels are rather high, even though the pixel size is that of a conventional 3 sensor 1⁄2” camera. Sensitivity is also similar to that of a 1⁄2” camera.

If this camera is to be used for HDTV shooting, then it should be clearly understood that it’s only advantage over smaller-format cameras is the smaller depth of field. However, to achieve a smaller depth of field in this camera, relative to, say, a 1⁄2” camera, then the lens must be opened by at least 1.5 stops; using an F/2.8 lens on this camera, wide open, will give the same depth of field as on a 1⁄2” camera with a lens opened to F/1.6. This camera will not necessarily always deliver short depth of field, large aperture lenses must be used to achieve that.

This conclusion is far from satisfactory in my opinion as the camera performs fantastic in HD and there is no noise in the picture even at 9dBs, did Mr Roberts tweak the camera as we all know out of the box this camera needs 2 settings changed to remarkably reduce the noise. The BBC have conditionally approved this camera for HD production.

The last assessment is the most controversial I have had a play with the Sony F3 and it excels in low light and has the cleanest picture I have seen in a long time, surprisingly and this is where I take issue with Mr Roberts we don’t get a conclusion so we are not savvy to Mr Roberts final thoughts on the F3. Alister Chapman who in my opinion is far better versed to write about the Sony F3 is also puzzled with Alan Roberts comments and lack of conclusion…

Alister “In the report Alan observes the aliasing that I have seen from the camera, in particular the high frequency moire, so no surprise there. But he also measures the noise at -48.5db. Now I don’t have the ability to measure noise as Alan does and I normally respect his results, but this noise figure does not make sense, nor does his comment that the camera has similar sensitivity to most 3 chip cameras. To my eyes, the F3 is more sensitive than any 3 chip camera I’ve used and it’s a lot less noisy. The implication of the test is that the F3 is noisier than the PMW-350. Well that’s not what my eyes tell me. Take a look at the noise graph Alan has prepared. The hump in the noise figure curves at 0db also appears to be dismissed as insignificant, yet it means a greater than 4db difference between what the curve implies the noise figure should be and the measured noise figure. It really doesn’t seem to fit and is very strange. Video amplifiers and processing are normally pretty linear with gain giving a consistent increase/decrease in noise that follows the gain curve. If you read off the noise figures from the graph, the F3 appears to have less noise at +6db gain (-49.5db)  than at 0db (-48.5db). So id we are to believe Alan’s test then we should be using +6db gain or -3db gain (-53.5db) but not 0db, sorry but that just does not add up and to dismiss the 0db noise bump as “not significant” is something I don’t really understand as too me it is significant. Either there is something very strange going on with the F3 at 0db, or there is something up with the test. I suspect the later, perhaps the individual camera had some odd settings, as my F3 is quieter (visually) at 0db than +6db. I would need to check it out on a scope back at home to verify this.

There are also assumptions made about the pixel size and sensor pixel count that are quite wrong. Alan suggests the sensor to be a 12 Mega Pixel sensor, this suggestion is based on Alan’s opinion that the F3 has similar sensitivity to a 2/3″ 3 chip camera, so therefore the pixel size must be similar and the bigger sensor means that it must have 12 MP, yet Sony have published that it is 3.3 mega Pixels (same sensor as FS100). 3.3MP equates to roughly 2422 x 1362 pixels, for a bayer sensor this is a little under the optimum for 1920 x1080 (IMHO) and may explain the aliasing as Sony are probably trying to squeeze every last bit of resolution out of the sensor.

Alans assessment of his zone plate results also concludes that the R, G and B resolutions are the same and that the sensor resolution must be much higher than 2200 x 1240. Well I would not call 2422 x 1362 “much” higher and if this is a bayer sensor (neither admitted or denied by Sony) then the G resolution should be higher than the R and B. So could this be a case of conventional conclusions about an unconventional sensor, or have Sony managed to completely wrong foot Mr Roberts?

An interesting finding was that detail at zero, frequency at +99 and aperture at +20 gives the least aliasing. This is quite different from my own findings and will need further exploration.

The F3 assessment is also missing the usual customary round up from Alan where he suggests whether the camera is suitable for HD broadcast or not. I’m really glad I got my F3 before reading the report as I have seen with my own eyes the beautiful clean images the F3 produces. I strongly recommend anyone considering the F3, but put off buy this report to take a look at the pictures for themselves before making any decisions.”    www.xdcam-user.com

HDW : Personally I think the BBC should be taking their camera advice from at least two independent sources and not from insiders or in Mr Roberts case a retired employee of the BBC. As an independent producer and someone who reviews camcorders I firmly believe to get bogged down in techno speak can be detrimental to the camera and more often than not can confuse a lot of people who are only interested in one thing…does it produce a good clean picture.

I am very much with Alister on this one the F3 is the cleanest, best picture at this price point you will see and I can assure you beats all the older APPROVED HD camcorders by a mile, the other reason for my request for two independent assessors is the need for comparison, sometimes the camera you receive is not up to scratch so two conflicting reports would highlight this.

I think the BBC need to take a good hard look at themselves in one hand they are allowing the use of Canon 5DMk11 DSLR for “Extreme SDoF work” and using Sony EX-3s without a Nanoflash for full HD programming yet they “conditionally approve” the Panasonic AF101 and talk about the Sony F3 as if it was no better than a 2/3″ P2 camcorder…nonsense.

UPDATE : Alan Roberts reply’s as a moderator on DV Doctor forum after taking flack about his AF101 report…

“I apologise for my outburst last week. It was unduly vitriolic.

Here’s the background.

For 11 years, I have been here, posting answers and solutions to problems, providing the science and psychophysics behind the science. Thousands of times. Many times, I have given the same explanation, largely because people seem unaware of the rather splendid search facilities here. Never mind.

Some of the questions have been interesting, some banal, needing only common sense for an answer. I’ve been happy answering them though, because it’s always a pleasure seeing the dawning of understanding. Other forums seem not to work this way, being largely platforms for vested interests to shout at each other. That’s why I stay here.

But, in the last couple of years or so, things have been changing. Now, the questions are more along the lines of ‘you’ve got it wrong because…’, and some of the posters and postings are clearly biased for/against individual cameras and/or manufacturers.

I have always been totally neutral on such things, I measure and report. My neutrality has often been questioned; I’ve been accused of being in the pay of both Sony and Panasonic, so I suppose my neutrality is still observable. It will always remain so.

The recent furore over the AF101 has been the last straw. I got so angry with the continued blether about it that the fuse finally blew. So, here’s my statement for the future:

I WILL NO LONGER READ, OR REPLY TO, ANY COMMENTS ON ANY CAMERA, FOR ANY REASON.

If you want to talk rubbish about cameras, get on with it, I won’t comment either way.”

I had a good week with the Sony PMW-F3 and coming from my PMW-350 background it was easy to navigate the F3 menu, unlike the unfamiliar AF101 menu system. The main difference between the two camcorders is looks, the Sony looks more like a conventional camcorder, not the square box look of the Panasonic.

As you can see both cameras suffer flare, I don’t know any camera that doesn’t, the F3 came with three lenses the 35mm, 50mm and 85mm T2 (f2) all of them were very sharp and caused less flare than my Voigtlander NOKTON f0.95 lens also set to f2 for a comparison. The F3 as you can see also has far better resolution due to the excellent Sony 35mm Prime lens.

Remember the Sony Prime lenses are made exclusively for the F3 which is why they perform so well.

CONCLUSION : The Sony PMW-F3 with supplied Prime Lenses certainly resolves far better than the AF101 as you would expect and the F3 is the king of low light images at 18dB, this camera excels in low light. What about the 24MBs (AF101) v 35MBs (F3), strangely this seems to be less of a problem as I was expecting the F3 to gain having the 10MBs faster speed advantage but it only proves that you still need 50MBs, 4:2:2, 10 bit to make a significant difference. They both suffer from being 8bit which is no surprise, thats not to take anything away from the AF101, the Panasonic is fantastic for the money and lets be honest did you really expect the £4K AF101 to upstage the £10K PMW-F3.

About two weeks ago I got a phone call from my friend Norrie who was very interested in my dealings with the Panasonic AF101. He told me he had some prime lenses up in the attic that were gathering dust “Old Bolex ‘C’ mount lenses”.

I got onto the internet to discover a chap in China had been using ‘C’ mount lenses with his Panasonic G2 mFT camera so I hunted down a ‘C’ mount to mFT lens adapter and it was with me by the end of the week.

Today I took a trip to Norrie’s house and we both had a look at the AF101 and the Bolex mount lenses, but could I find that ‘C’ mount adapter anywhere, I could have sworn it was in my CB200 KATA bag…but alas time got the better of me and Norrie told me to take the lenses away with me.

This chap above Yu-Lin-Chan is using the Switar 75mm lens and I note from his info that these lenses were not only made in Switzerland but around the 1950-1960s and is very good glass indeed as the picture of the wee girl proves.

I got home to discover that the adaptor was indeed in the KATA bag, in a front pouch that I forgot it had. I tried the 10 and 25mm lenses but they suffered very bad vignetting so my next try was the 50mm f1.8 lens and it worked a treat. The best of the lot was the 75mm f1.9 lens remembering that we have a 2x crop giving the lens a 150mm angle of view…fantastic.

Amazing prime lenses that were used in a different era (1960s) even back then they were top notch and after a long lie in Norries attic they have seen the light of day and will be cherished by myself and used frequently on the AF101 at the drop of a hat !

So what does the future in video production hold for 2011, firstly without the need for a crystal ball the vat is going up from 17.5% to 20%, now I for one think this will make vat a lot easier to calculate and lets be honest those of you who are vat registered don’t care as you can claim it back.

The future seems to be Large Sensor, Shallow Depth of Field (SDoF) as nothing is taking the video world by storm like the new SDoF cameras from Panasonic and Sony.

SONY…We do know about the Sony NXCAM Super 35mm semi pro camcorder, this needs a serious bit of design work done to it before the summer as the above design is terrible, not to mention top heavy. I do not think Sony have done themselves any favours by showing this bread bin design least of all some early specs 24 fps for USA and 25 fps for UK.

Panasonic…They have just brought out the AF101 a 4.3″ sensor taking micro Four Third (mFT) lenses. My prediction for 2011 is not a new model but some faster lenses developed especially for the AF101 camcorder. Up till now we have seen mFT lenses that have been produced for the domestic DSLR market and there will be a growing market place for faster mFT lenses to satisfy the professional AF101 user.

We will also see a lot of third party AF101 add on’s like matte boxes, hand held rigs and even a new range of cheaper Prime lenses that wont break the bank.

Canon…This must be the year of the 4:2:2, 50Mbs FilmLike camcorder from Canon it’s the last piece of the shallow depth of field (SDoF) jigsaw still waiting to happen. Canon took the broadcast market by storm during 2010 with the XF305 and with their knowledge of the DSLR and Pro Video surly we must see a Super 35mm Canon camcorder that takes 35mm Canon mount lenses.

JVC…Looking back at JVCs track record does not inspire a FilmLike camcorder but stranger things have happened. JVC need a large sensor camcorder sooner rather than later if they are to keep up with Sony & Panasonic. They are a very capable company if a wee bit like Cinderella, last to attend the ball.

There is no doubt the world of video has gone large sensor-SDoF and everyone wants to join the party, Panasonic have been very astute with the pricing of the AF101 at just under £4000, pre sales from Preston’s and CVP alone are very encouraging and the third party sales for adapters testifies the growing band of video producers looking for that holy grail SDoF look in a smaller package fit for purpose.

Back to Sony…Sony have just brought out the new F3, due for January 2011 shipping, but not as popular as the AF101 if sales are anything to go by plus the need for expensive prime lenses, 35Mbs SxS, 4:2:0 and the £12K asking price. The Sony is a great camcorder and Philip Bloom is testing one as I blog but the lack of 3rd party adapters is a major turn off though MTF are in the process of producing a Nikon adapter for early 2011.

Lastly we cant predict the future without a mention of RED DIGITAL CINEMA, who are producing an Epic light and so I am aware a Scarlet. I do think RED have an upward struggle to compete with Sony and Panasonic and the fact that Jim also mentioned a significant price increase to Scarlet, a camera thats not in major production yet and has a fixed 8x lens !

The clear winner of the SDoF large sensor camera during early 2011 is by far the Panasonic AF101, it ticks all the boxes, a mountain of 3rd party adapters and lenses and the price of £4K has set this camera into 2011 with it’s head held high and a fantastic sales curve that can only get bigger.

This is the latest picture of the Panasonic AG AF101 FilmLike camcorder. This looks the part and is how many of you will using the AF101…with Prime Lenses. The Prime lens marketplace must be buzzing with DPs ordering 35, 50,85mm lenses.

Alister Chapman says “PL mount lenses were developed by Arriflex for use with movie cameras, so PL mount lenses are an obvious choice. You used to be able to pick up older PL mount lenses quite cheaply, but when RED came along most of these got snapped up, so now PL mount lenses tend to be expensive. If you want top quality then Zeiss or Cooke lenses are the obvious choice. If your budget won’t stretch that far there are a number of 35mm SLR lenses that have been converted to PL mount.

PL  mount lenses often have witness marks for focus. This are factory engraved markings, individual to that lens for exact focus distances. They also often feature T stops instead of F stops for aperture. An F stop is the ratio of the iris opening to the focal length of the lens and gives the theoretical  amount of light that will pass through the lens if it was 100% efficient. A T stop on the other hand is the actual amount of light passing through the lens taking into account aperture size and transmission losses through the lens. A prime lens with an f1.4 aperture may only be a T2 lens after loss through the glass elements is taken into account. A multi element zoom lens will have higher losses, so a f2.8 lens may have a T stop of T4. However it is the iris size and thus the f stop that determines the Depth of Field.”

To read his fascinating story on Prime lenses… http://www.xdcam-user.com/?p=1204

Not all lenses are the same although Canon and Nikon produce at least 3 qualities of lens the best in Canon’s case being their “L” glass. You get better optics in “L” glass, optics to stop light loss, aberrations, vignetting and light versus optical quality. On a simple lens you will find that it will be slightly soft till you stop down to f5.6-f8 by that time your light is overtaken by grain if you are filming in a room with subdued lighting.

This is where the “L” glass comes in, I usually choose Canon “L” glass that is f2.8 all the way through which means that no matter where your zoom is 70mm or 200mm you can shoot at f2.8 and get sharp pictures. This is not true of lesser lenses in the Canon range where they start at possibly f3.5 and stop down to f6.3 loosing you a fair amount of light by the time you are at 200mm.

So in my opinion it’s prudent to always afford the best glass possible if you buy a DSLR like a Canon then as in this case you can use the same “L” glass on your AF101 using a Canon adaptor available Dec-Jan 2011.

Is there a major difference between Prime and “L” glass…in my books you always strive for the best but at around £8,000 per Prime lens it’s a bit prohibitive but remember you can always hire your Prime lenses and if I were a rental company I would be stocking up on PL glass as I think there is going to be an explosion of DPs renting PL glass.

Back to my question is there much difference, personally you have to to back in time to realise that for big 35mm productions you had one choice…PL glass after all it was made for the cinema in mind. OK so that was many years ago and if you wanted the best… PL was the answer. Today we have far superior optics both in PL glass and 35mm glass but for many of us the choice will be micro 4/3″ or 35mm glass due to constraints in budget and having the glass already.

As I said in the previous blog I do a lot of head and shoulder interviews so the shallow depth of field will be an absolute winner for me as demonstrated above.

Lenses are as important as the camera itself so aim high when choosing your glass for your AF101 wether you rent or buy, PL or 35mm, make sure you do not compromise your clients shoot with cheap glass.

When it comes to choosing one of the new cinematic camcorders it’s a hard choice, depending on your finances. On the one hand we have the Sony F3 Super 35mm sensor and on the other hand we have the Panasonic AF101 micro 4/3″ sensor.

The choice is not as simple as it may first appear, the Sony certainly has the better sensor and at 63dB a fairly noiseless sensor so why would you choose the Panasonic ?

Firstly the Panasonic is three times cheaper than the Sony so if budget is your driving force there is no competition. Secondly the Panasonic has a far better choice of lens adaptors from PL, Nikon and Canon in fact speaking to Mike Tapa only today he tells me that he has had a run on his PL to micro 4/3″ adaptor.

I met up with Mike recently on my way down to London and he told me that the Panasonic AF101 has brought a great amount of interest in his micro 4/3″ adaptors, from dealers worldwide to individuals making sure they have the correct adaptor in place when they purchase the AF101. Strangely he has had more interest in PL mounts than Nikon which surprises me as the Prime Lens route is a dear one, it also tells me that DPs are taking this camera seriously.

The Sony F3 gives you two mounts effectively, a PL mount and if you take this off the camera you are left with a new “F” mount which is a natts whisker short of a standard EX mount except with the electrical contacts in a different position and a small pin that locates with a cutout in the top lens mount flange.

Both cameras suffer from bad viewfinders though the Sony is a tad better than the Panasonic, it’s my biggest bug bear with these camcorders I can’t understand why Sony & Panasonic put such bad viewfinders on a shallow depth of field camera when focusing is far more critical than with a conventional camcorder. Future cameras in my opinion should offer you Hi-Rez viewfinders even if it’s an optional extra.

Both cameras offer similar features from 1080 50i to 720 50p and 25/24p, the Sony records at 35Mbs while the Panasonic is 24Mbs both have HD SDI out giving you 4:2:2 and the F3  having a dual link HD SDI option that with an upgrade will give you 1080 50p 4:4:4 into an external recorder.

Two DPs I know are committing to the Sony F3, Alister Chapman and Paul Joy. Alister has just finished an initial review of the camcorder…

Alister  ”This is NOT as big as the frame of a full frame 35mm DSLR (Canon 5D) or 35mm SLR camera. It is closer to an APS-C sensor in size. This is important, because if you want to use PL mount lenses designed for super 35mm film you need this size of sensor, any bigger and you would get a fall off in performance at the edges and possibly some vignetting. Why do you want such a big sensor? Well the larger the sensor, the shallower the depth of field for any given field of view. In 2D film making it is traditional to use the difference in focus between background and foreground to give a scene a sense of depth, this is part of the “filmic” look that many video makers aspire to.

A further advantage of this low light performance is that you can use very low levels of gain or amplification to get a decent picture. Consider a stereo sound system or even an ipod. Pause the music and turn the sound up high… what do you hear? Hiss!  The hiss is the electrical noise generated in the system, the higher the gain or volume, the greater the noise. It’s exactly the same with video cameras. If you have a camera with a sensitive sensor you don’t need to have lot’s of gain (volume) to produce a bright picture and once again this is evident in the F3′s beautiful images which have extremely low levels of noise and grain. At 0db it’s all but impossible to see any noise in the pictures from the PMW-F3. Even switching the gain all the way up to +18db the image is still remarkably clean and I would, for the very first time be happy to use an F3 with +18db gain for a paying production, if needed.”

To read Alisters conclusions go to…http://www.xdcam-user.com/?page_id=1182

As well as myself I also know of many more DPs committing to the Panasonic AF101 so whats the draw ? Well I can only come at it from my own point of view, I run a small production company and we do a lot of interviews which are partly spoiled by drab backgrounds, there is a limit to creative lighting and even with a 2/3″ camera you can’t exclude some backgrounds as the room is often to small. In a lot of medical interviews you have to work with what you are given, consultants time is like gold dust.

This is where the AF101 comes in the shallow depth of field will give me the shots I have been craving for over the last few years, 35mm adaptors were far to cumbersome and by the time you add the prime lens took up far too much room so why did I not revert to the Canon 5D2…simple…little to no control over focus, if you interview a doctor and get it wrong you may not be allowed a second chance and it erodes your reputation.

I take on board that the AF101 may not be as good as the Sony F3 but I have invested in a Sony PMW-350 only last year which is a cracking camcorder and I am not about to throw that up in the air nor can I afford the asking price of the F3. At £4000 the Panasonic is affordable and leaves me plenty of change for batteries, lenses and adaptors. I own some sexy Canon “L” glass and look forward to using it on my AF101 in fact a company in the USA is bringing out a fantastic adaptor early next year that will blow your socks off…I kid you not. The Canon adaptor alone is worth owning the Panasonic AF101.

So that’s my take on the AF101 if money and the price of PL glass was not an option I would plum for the F3 but each to their own, one thing that’s clear is that there is a market for both filmlike camcorders and the professionals like me who never took to the HDSLR are being given a bite of the shallow depth of field cherry with cameras that have all the functionality of what we are used to and the added bonus of minus the pitfalls of the HDSLR.

Just today it has been confirmed that H Preston Media have ordered 120 Panasonic AG-AF101 camcorders showing full commitment to the new cinematic camera.

John Preston said “We are so committed to this new camcorder as we feel it has the potential to rock the video market to it’s core. Usually when Sony or Panasonic announce a new camcorder we get cameramen looking to update but this time we have been inundated not only with pre-orders but companies from Europe looking to buy the new AF101 camera.

“Our technical and working DP Philip Johnston has been put in charge of all orders and is sourcing all the accessories from around the globe to make sure we have all the adaptors in place.”

“Mike Tapa from MTF is stepping up production of his Nikon to micro 4/3″ adaptor along with his PL to micro 4/3″ plate that will cater for at least 60% of the marketplace and a company in the USA who are producing an amazing Canon adaptor that will not only pull focus but will allow wirefree aperture as well.

“We are making sure we also have spare batteries in stock as this will be an essential purchase beyond the camcorder itself and we can place a special order for PL lenses or Micro 4/3″ Panasonic or Olympus lenses as needed.”

“On Tuesday the 7th of December we have an open day at our Hampton show room in London and we shall be showing off the new Panasonic AF101 from 4-7pm, we will also have an MTF Nikon to Micro 4/3″ adaptor if you want to see your Nikon glass on the 101, full details at www.videokit.co.uk.”

HDW…As you all know I work part time for John and we are working very hard behind the scenes to make sure everyone who orders an AF101 gets the usual gold star service you have come to expect from H Preston Media.

I will be getting to know the camcorder as soon as it arrives from Japan and be updating my blog to pass on any hints and tips to you all. I have a Voigtlander 25mm f0.95 Micro 4/3″ lens arriving today that I purchased with the AF101 in mind, it’s not cheap at £695 but the quality of the optics are stunning. My friend Philip Bloom told me about this lens when I met up with him last week in London as he said “It’s a must have lens”.

Voightlander is made by the same company that produce the glass for Leica and if you look at the pictures below you can see just how sharp this lens is.

Philip Bloom has produced this tasty video using the new Voightlander 25mm f0.95 lens on the Panasonic GH2…fantastic.

A little test film of my adorable mum cooking lunch for the three of us.

Shot on a GH2 in 24p “Cinema Mode” using one single lens. The wonderful Voigtlander 25mm F.95. This lens and this camera are soul mates!

Graded with Magic Bullet Looks. 20% off at checkout with code: bloom20

Read more on my blog with a full review coming soon: http://philipbloom.net/2010/11/21/gh2

Music Cotton Candy by Rio Jeno

Big thanks to mum for her patience whilst I shot this!