There continues to be a lot of buzz about Panasonic’s new AF100 camera, and whether or not it’s going to deal a deathblow to DSLR’s like the Canon 5D MkII. While I think not, there are many applications, from corporate video productions, Indie Films and even commercial productions, where the AF100 will be a perfect fit. The camera is already in the hands of many video production crews and filmmakers, and reports I’ve seen are very positive. This is the second article in a series of tests on the AF100.
I wanted to see for myself just how the AF100 compares to the 5D in an identical set up, so I got my good friends and fellow DP’s Tom Myrdahl and Jefferson Miller to help me shoot some test footage here in my office at The Association. We’ve all had great success shooting with the 5D, and since Jefferson is the proud new owner of an AF100, we were naturally curious to see how they compare.
The 5D has a Sigma 50mm 1.4 lens, and the AF100 an Olympus Zuiko 14-35 mm f2, attached with a DMW-MA1 Panasonic adaptor.
We called in our good friend, the very talented Jessica Drolet to be our model, and lit her with a 250 watt china ball for a key, a small Lite Panel for fill and a 150 Arri backlight.
This is the second clip in our side by side comparison. We upped the ISO to 640, with the 5D at f2.5 and the AF100 at an f2.
Make sure you select the 720p version.
Quicktime streaming versions: www.theassociation.tv/videostore/5DvsAF100_Part2.mov
We decided to stay with multiples of 160 ISO that give the cleanest image in the 5D, and were interested to see how the blacks look once we start cranking up the ISO of both cameras, especially the AF100 at those ISO multiples. In future testing, we will set the ISO on the AF100 at multiples of 200, as 200/400 seem to be its native ISOs.
Having said that, I do really like the look of the blacks on both cameras at these settings, and the AF100 looks really good at 640.
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Look for Part 3 of our series coming soon, where we dial up the ISO to 1250.