Day Two the low light test : I got a phone call from Tony today who asked me about the AF101s low light capabilities, I was honest with him, I didn’t know. Tonight around 5pm just as the last of the blue sky disappears into darkness I decided to test the AF101. I recorded a piece to camera at 9dBs using one considerably dimmed 500W, V lock powered LED light and a NOKTON 25mm f0.95 lens.
As you can see there was nothing fancy just me a light and the AF101, just after filming myself I filmed my wife arriving home from work then some shots of buildings. Afterwards I had a look at the footage and once again nearly fell off my seat, there was no obvious noise at 9dBs what is going on here. This is indeed a strange camera I have seen the noise everyone is complaining about yet I have seen more footage with no noise, is this down to the VBR (Variable Bit Rate).
Everyone knows how your DVD performs so well 90% of the time yet some footage looks more pixelated than others, I am not seeing pixelation more a fine grain especially in the blacks but it’s not there all the time and it depends on how you are viewing the footage. I do not own a grade one monitor so I can’t see a true non processed picture but on the whole I do see a lot of cracking footage that leaves me stunned into silence.
UPDATE : This is a video still from last night and as you can see from a crop of the original frame their is no noise in this picture at all !
Since filming some footage this afternoon I have tweaked the camera bringing down detail etc. I will divulge my settings if they prove fruitful but till then I am still on the whole very exited with this camera and I hope to get some more filming done tomorrow.
Thanks again Philip for your clear insights. If there’s any better advocate for a new product, it is the consumer! Did you choose the AF101 over the F3 because of the cost?
The F3 would have had a far better chance at £8,000 and keeping the EX mount rather than adding one extra pin and moving the position of the electrical contacts. The F3 is a great camcorder and has far better noise levels and a superior low light capability but most of us do not want the expense of PL (Arri) lenses or a smaller choice of 3rd party lenses al-round.
The AF101 is in a sweet spot both in price and the immediate choice of lenses it has to offer from Canon, Nikon, mFour Third, PL (Arri) and coming soon the Sony/Minolta mount.
There are no zooms for af100.
You must use PL zooms if you want to work quick.
Panasonic should have produced 1 decent wide and long zoom for PROS.
Constant T-stop and zoom,iris,focus manual controls.
What pro used to $10,000 ENG lenses can work with plastic photo zooms.?.