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AG-AF100 vs. GH2 final round
  • Brian202020Brian202020
    I hear on this forum, and in others, people constantly saying one is better than the other. I personally own both and am willing to do a test. It might be a week or two before I'll have time to do it, but I will do it, preferably with advice from people on this forum and others.

    I ask, is there any links you can post of people that already have done a test with these two camera's? I'd like to see what others have done before I do mine.

    I want to test only image quality. That seems to be what people are always bickering about. We all know the benefits of SDI, price, ND, smaller size, and which camera has each benefit. It's the image in question.

    All tests will be done with the same lenses. I think 5 different camera configurations are needed to do the test correctly. Here are the 5 I'm thinking.
    1. AF100, 24p, with Abel's "RANGE" settings, AVCHD.
    2. AF100, 24p, with Abel's "RANGE" settings, ProRes via external recorder.
    3. GH2, 24p, best high latitude settings, stock.
    4. GH2, 24p, best high latitude settings, highest quality yet reliable long GOP hack.
    5. GH2, 24p, best high latitude settings, highest quality yet reliable I-frame only hack.

    What are the preferred high latitude settings for the GH2? As for what hack settings to use, I'm open for suggestions as well. I'm leaning toward cbrandins 66mbps AQ2 and Driftwoods latest 176mbps version.
  • 35 Replies sorted by
  • AriaAria
    I'd be very interested to see this test. Any idea of what you'd try to shoot in order to test these cameras? I'm partial to scenes with shadow areas and really hot areas to see latitude.
  • nomadnomad
    @Brian2020
    I think your suggestions sound very reasonable. Do at least one test with a DSC color chart (or something similar) and some exposure bracketing. Try to correct them in post and compare the colors by eye and vectorscope.

    One of my biggest complaints about the AF100 are massive color shifts just before clipping. Abel's settings improve on this (defaults are horrible), but don't avoid them completely. The GH2 behaves much more civilized in this respect, even the FS100 shows a bit more of the problem.
  • qwerty123qwerty123
    Make sure to manually white balance the gh2... don't rely on tungsten and daylight presets. And if changing film modes, white balance accordingly.
  • bwhitzbwhitz
    I'm totally down for this! I'd also love to rent an F3 for the test as well. Is anyone here in the LA area? I'd love to set up our own indie-shootout. Let's do it!
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    @bwhitz

    Sounds good :-)
  • MacalincagMacalincag
    ...and the final verdict?!
  • fatpigfatpig
    @Brian202020: what happened? :) driftwoods latest is always the best idea for image quality!
  • danyyyeldanyyyel
    Yes, been waiting for this for ages. For me it would put the gh2 against known quality because it seems that it is the least tested camera at least in terms of DR. Once we know the gh2 compared to the Af100 we will have a better idea compared to the other cameras.
  • alcomposeralcomposer
    @Brian202020
    We need answers man! Answers! Got so excited that finally we were not comparing the GH2 to RED, but now I am holding my breath! :D
  • stoneystoney
    Let the RED folks do the comparison. Move on :)
  • alcomposeralcomposer
    @stonebat
    Exactly
  • bwhitzbwhitz
    @alcomposer

    Haven't found anyone with a AF-100 yet... :(

    ...and I'm too broke at the moment to rent one. But, if anyone in the LA area has a AF-100 and wants to do the shootout... I'm still game.
  • danyyyeldanyyyel
    The gods are against us, I think we will never see the gh2 vs Af-100 comparison. I don't know how many time I have heard about such attempt that never took place.
  • griplimitedgriplimited
    That's because the government agents of Panasonic forbid such an act. Users and testers have since gone missing from such an attempt.

    In reality, we know what the GH2 is capable of and it's limitations are. If we wanted the $4.5k AF, we'd buy it and put it to use no doubt. Although everyone here seems to be satisfied with their GH2.
  • mozesmozes
    Panasonic GH2 mounted on top of an AF100 with the same lens on both
    Geüpload door TexasMediaSystems op 21 dec 2010
  • mozesmozes
    GH2 vs. AG-AF100/101 - in 4k - Panasonic Micro FourThirds prueba тест 檢測 のテスト
    Geüpload door handysheriff op 18 sep 2011
  • mozesmozes
    http://www.google.nl/search?client=opera&rls=nl&q=gh2+vs+Af-100&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest#client=opera&rls=nl&q=gh2+vs+Af-100&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=nl&tbo=u&tbm=vid&source=og&sa=N&tab=wv&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=f51657f5ceacaff2&biw=1276&bih=893
  • Brian202020Brian202020
    Sorry guys, I've been on hiatus for a little while. Work got insanely busy and with family obligations and Christmas shopping, I just ran out of time. I'm still interested in doing a test soon. I need to come up with an external recorder to borrow for the AF100.
  • ShieldShield
    I owned both the AF100 and GH2 for about 2 months. The Af100 footage was better out of the box, and offered many tools that the GH2 just doesn't, like focus peaking, white balance button, ND filters, other exposure assistance features, and a screen that doesn't shift when you hit record.

    But I sold the AF100 and kept the GH2. Why? Two reasons - stealth of the GH2, and the ETC mode. Oh, and the cost of the AF100. So 3 reasons.
  • alcomposeralcomposer
    @Shield
    You mention that the AF100 was "out of the box" better, what was your feelings regarding the hack on the GH2,.. did it lift it to AF100 standards? (quality not usability)...
  • ShieldShield
    I thought the AF100 always looked better than the hacked GH2, especially low light indoors. Using the 14mm on both, and setting the gain to 3200, the AF100 was noticeably brighter, like 1-2 full stops. But the color profiles didn't match exactly; I used "standard" on the GH2 and a custom "clean" scene file.
    But, I don't shoot for $$$, and the AF100 didn't look $3k better. :)
  • LPowellLPowell
    @mozes
    Thanks for posting the link to the YouTube comparison by Schrott Film. In the scene with the rainbow boots, the girl's skin tone was yellowish on the GH2 side. I think this indicates that the GH2's green channel was too hot, which you can also observe in the silver spoon's greenish tint (on the right side of the frame at 0:36). I sometimes shoot with an M-5 adjustment in the Smooth Film Mode to compensate.

    The AF100 side looks good for the most part, but I did notice macroblocking smudges in the grass at the lower left corner of the rainbow boots shot. Looks like the GH2 did a cleaner job of handling that scene.
  • stoneystoney
    1st gen m43 lenses show greenish and blushish skin tone. Leica DG and Lumix X have nano coating, and they give better skin color. The only difference is lens coating.
  • LPowellLPowell
    @stonebat
    I assumed the same lens was used on both GH2 and AF100 footage?
  • kazuokazuo
    @Stonebat
    Yeah, Stonebat is spot on the lens coating. It has nothing to do with the sensor I reckon, cos i recently did a shoot using a Zeiss 50mm / 1.4, and a Rollei 50mm / 1.8 and the Rollei produced images that had a significantly more pronounced green cast. I did a search on line, and found out that although both are Planar lenses, Rollei does produce a more sandy tone.

    So I would think it's down to the coating and make of the lens, and how the glass resolves colours.
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