Would you use an AF101 on a run and gun shoot? Hmmm… not sure…
I guess the title really answers my own question.
Today I went to shoot a fire and rescue exercise for one of my clients. For a number of reasons, I ended up arriving just before the fire fighters were due to start the exercise. It was literally, run out of the car with my camera and lens bags, dump them in a safe place and turn the camera on – and shoot.
Not ideal.
Once I started, the shoot was a bit frantic. I had to get a lot of coverage in a short space of time. Get the narrative nailed with a couple of interviews and shoot enough cutaways before the guys left for the day.
It’s a times like the these that I miss using the Sony EX1R. With it’s fixed lens and lack of follow focus and matte box, it’s super simple to use and you can get good looking images from it. Not great images, but good images.
The biggest issues today were:
Interchangeable lenses – worries about dirt ingress on the sensor and general faff with changing them.
Follow Focus and Matte Box – nice to have, but adds complication and time to a lens change.
Tripod – my tripod is a lightweight carbon fibre Velbon Sherpa Pro with Manfrotto 701 head. Nice and light, but not quick to change height and not stable enough for long lens work.
I got the coverage I needed, but the general feeling of the mechanics of the shoot, was not ideal. It’s probably practise thing and the need for slightly better kit.
But, but but, those images! Back at the office, in Final Cut Pro, the images look great. Nice tonal range. The slow motion footage of the fire, looks epic and the overall smoothness and tone of the image is quite unlike the EX1R. There’s more to the quality of the image than the shallow depth of field. It just looks better…
So, the moral of this story is. You have to endure the pain to get the gain when you shoot with this sort of equipment.
Camera choice was borderline today. I went with the AF101 and I’m glad I did. But it did give me the run around.
Below are screen grabs out of FCP. Ungraded.
Hi Jonathan,
which lenses did you use? I’m thinking of getting an AF101 for reportage style documentaries – lots of available light shooting and handheld stuff. Can you recommend a zoom lens that is both practical (stable, not too heavy) and decently fast?
On the pic I noticed you didn’t use an additional HD-monitor. Can you work with the built-in display?
From your experience: Do you get into trouble sharpness-wise when you have to work with low light (rainy day, dusk, dimly-lit room)? What’s is like when you shoot at the 14mm end of a zoom lens?
I hope you can answer my questions – most people only describe how to do scenic stuff with an AF101. But as I said, I’m more interested in documentary-style (but with the possibility of nice shallow DOF images).
Best wishes, Adrian
Hi Adrian,
Perhaps some of these questions are best answered by checking out the lens resolution test here http://www.jonathan-richards.tv/the-big-lens-resolution-test-on-the-af101/
My got to lens is the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8. Nice and sharp and useful focal length. Not very long, but this is a multi-lens camera.
Yes, resolution certainly seems to suffer in low light. But I guess this is the same for most cameras. The AF is very good in low light, so it’s a while before it’s a real issue.
I haven’t used the AF for any run and gun, hand held work yet. I’m going to Ghana with it in the New Year doing some reality style work with it. So watch out for a blog post early next year.