Overview
The AF101 is designed to allow production industry professionals to achieve a cinema-like HD results much more easily than would be possible using other equipment.
VIDEO
The AF101 utilises Micro Four Thirds lenses or, with the correct conversion adaptor, can accept prime or photographic lenses.
Details
The AF101 is the world* first professional HD camcorder to come equipped with a four-thirds MOS image sensor. Optimised for high-definition video recording, the large image sensor on the AF101 enables users to achieve cinema-like results with full artistic control over depth of field. This cost effective camera delivers the look and feel of 35mm, without all the compromises and headaches that come from shooting on DSLRs.
The camera can record video in full HD (1080i/p)/720p formats including 1080/24p native mode with Full HD Variable Frame Rate (VFR) function.
Video can be recorded onto the new larger capacity SDXC memory cards in professional high quality PH mode (up to 24Mbps). Two SD card slots allow relay recording from one SD (SD / SDHC / SDXC) card to another to give recording capacity of up to 12 hours in PH mode or 48 hours in HE mode. The camera is also equipped with HD SDI output and XLR audio 2ch (48 V phantom power source compatible) inputs. Time code recording feature is also available.
* : As of November 2010 (based on a Panasonic survey).
Key Features
4/3 type sensor with digital still camera technology
Interchangeable Lens Micro Four Thirds mount
Variable frame rate recording
Recording media Recording format Support video format Cine-like Gamma
HD-SDI Output
XLR audio 2 channel input
USB 2.0
FAQs
Q: My DSLR Camera already does HD Video, why should I buy a Panasonic AG-AF101?
A:
Digital SLR Cameras have been designed and tweaked over many years to take fantastic, high resolution still photographs, and recently HD video too, but there have been enormous compromises to allow this HD video capture.
Ergonomics - Unless you bolt on many accessories and extra equipment it is very difficult to use a DSLR camera for shooting video just to get over very basic handling issues. The AF-101 has been totally designed with Video in mind.
Connectivity – A DSLR has not got XLR inputs for professional sound recording or full screen HDMI for monitoring, let alone the professional HDSDI output that the AF-101 has.
Picture Quality - Fundamentally DSLRs are compromised by having to do both high resolution stills and comparatively ‘low’ resolution video. To get 1920 x 1080 video out of a sensor designed to produce 5184 x 3186 pixels is not easy, so the DSLRs simply ignore most of the information they are exposed too for video purposes. This is a very crude way of producing HD Video that creates false detail called ‘aliases’, which cause problems for video compression and create weird patterns on video. You won’t see this on pictures of nice soft faces but you will on shirts, walls, roofs and any detailed picture, especially during movement. The AF-101 uses a special filter to reduce the resolution from the large sensor optically so it avoids aliases and produces beautiful video.
Editing - DSLR video has no time code or metadata. For professional video Time code is a vital tool for keeping track of shots in a complex project, and metadata about locations, crew and if a shot is good or bad can be added easily to AF-101 footage.
Compression - The AVCHD footage produced by the AF-101 uses a more sophisticated version of MPEG4 than DSLRs, so it can produce better quality video with less data rate. It also has the option of recording uncompressed audio.
Variable Frame Rate, for action sequences you can subtlety reduce frame rates to speed up the action, or reduce frame rate for creating grandeur, implying scale, or simply doing super smooth slow-motion. A terrifically powerful feature not even included on most video cameras!
