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AF100 v Scarlet No way

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Andrew Salter

Andrew Salter

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Ok the specs are out for the AF 100 and there's some footage on Vimeo, but having looked at the footage and specs the AF100 is an OK camera but no holds no water against Scarlets specs, DOF is only 1.5 stops difference, the recording format on AVCHD 24mb so you need a Nano flash to up the quality Why!

And $4$ in my case £4£ the scarlet is going to be a fantastic buy up and running for approx $6000

Be interest to hear your views.

Yes l am a Red fan boy BTW
 
BUT... af100 is coming out in december. scarlet is not. its as simple as that
 
I'm indifferent, the AF100 isn't all that great, agreed. Footage doesn't look as good as the 5D.

Scarlet isn't here and doesn't look like it will drop anytime soon, with yet another delay.

For now, nothing's getting me excited in that price bracket. So I'll just keep renting, borrowing and using my EX1 with the Letus.
 
I would love to buy a Scarlet. I wanted it two years ago and I have not upgraded my camera in those two years primarily because I want the RED Scarlet. The AF100 does what I want in a camera that has pretty shallow DOF. Not perfect but closer to what I need now. I almost purchased a 5D. Borrowed one instead. Results worked great for what I needed. In December I will buy a AF100. I will use it and make money. Hopefully RED will have the Scarlet we all want. But I cant wait and the AF100 isn't that expensive in the scheme of things.
 
Andrew Salter said:
Ok the specs are out for the AF 100 and there's some footage on Vimeo, but having looked at the footage and specs the AF100 is an OK camera but no holds no water against Scarlets specs, DOF is only 1.5 stops difference, the recording format on AVCHD 24mb so you need a Nano flash to up the quality Why!

And $4$ in my case £4£ the scarlet is going to be a fantastic buy up and running for approx $6000

Be interest to hear your views.

Yes l am a Red fan boy BTW
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It's actually 21Mbps average with a max of 24Mbps. A nanoflash is a great way to go because you can, over HD-SDI, get 160Mbps MPEG-2 I-frames only. I don't love MPEG-2, but I do like I-frame only recording. If only the Nanoflash was significantly cheaper.
 
I think the most overlooked feature of Scarlet 2/3 fixed is the lens.

28-220 (it's something like this) f/2.8 is going to make it a dream camera for documentaries, events, sports, etc.

Add HDR to that and it's going to be the go-to camera for run and gun documentaries.

I'm personally looking foward to Scarlet S35 for use in narrative works, commercials, etc.

But if I could afford it I'd certainly grab a Scarlet 2/3 fixed for doc work.

However I can certainly see RED somehow scrapping the concept of a fixed lens camera. This camera was announced when we were all using HVXs and EXs. I don't see a lot of people going back to fixed lens.

Maybe RED will sell just one model of Scarlet 2/3 with a detachable zoom lens.
 
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A complete AF100 costs a lot more than the $4800.00 body price. I believe the AJA Ki Pro Mini plus an adequate collection of CF cards is going to set you back four grand or so, and you'll probably need a lens adapter or two or three, plus whatever lens set you plan to use. I've not added the other bits, such as power, because Scarlet will need them as well, but I'm putting an AF100 package in the 11-12 grand altitude.

The 2/3" Scarlet is certainly cheaper and ready to shoot out of the box, depending on the storage media Red offers for the camera.

The 2/3" Scarlet has two very critical attributes that may not make it the better all-around camera for general use; the 2/3" sensor gives an angle of view factor of 2 compared with the AF100 and the DOF is 2.5 times as deep at any given stop. That's a lot, especially for a camera that can't open more than f2.4. We don't always have the luxury of deep sets and you can't always drag the talent's chair eight feet from the wall; you can't always pull off all the tricks we've adopted from years of shooting 2/3"; that's why so many of us yearned for the good old 35MM film days and jumped for joy when the Red One landed in our hands.

More troubling to me is the fixed lens. There's just no getting around this limitation. Nothing wide, nothing long, nothing fast. That's a severe handicap, for me; perhaps not so important to others.

For many, doubtless, the fixed-lens 2/3" Scarlet's promised higher image quality will trump all other concerns. On the other hand, some of the test footage of the AF100 looks very nice to me, certainly nice enough for jobs that do not require the heavy-lifting of the Red One.

There's a lot to like about the AF100; it makes pretty pictures, takes every lens I own, has LCD and EVF, tons of information for the operator, a filter wheel, and it comes in a small, light-weight package.

Although I don't intend to buy a fixed-lens camera, I do plan to cover all my bases; Red One, then Epic, when picture quality is paramount, 5DII for impossibly tight places, and the AF100 for a great many jobs. What's wrong with that plan?

Good shooting and best regards,

Leo
 
I'll be using my AF100 with my Cinedeck Extreme recorder. I'll be doing that THIS year. I'll probably have already shot at least 1 feature and a handful of music videos while the watchers from the sideline are still waiting for Scarlet.

I also have the option of using my Flash XDR if I want (same quality as nanoFlash).

My Cinedeck Extreme will allow me to record in Cineform, ProRes, Avid DNxHD and even uncompressed if I need it. Add XDR 280 Mb/s I-Frame MPEG and that's quite a few nice options. Add to those five, the camera's built in codec and that's 6 choices to meet any needs I'll have.

My wait for the Scarlet won't be so bad, no matter how long it takes.
 
My point about the Af100 is why release a camera with such a low codec, l know its about a price point, but it seems if you want to get a good i frame from it you have to bolt on a nano flash etc and time you've rigged it up with all the bits, no change out of $7-8000. Its lost its simplicity and has become a bolt on package without any ergonomics or major break throughs apart from a largish sensor.

Although the base cost isn't that great the end cost might be.

Yes its going to be here in Dec/Jan but l firmly believe scarlet will be out by June, once epic is out scarlet will follow very shortly then the AF100 will seem like an old camera as soon as its out. Its not pushed boundaries far enough.
 
Stephen Strangways said:
Seeing as I can't stand aliasing, moire, and lots of skew, I'd say that 5D footage doesn't look as good as the AF-100. To each his own.
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Just sayin' I don't like the look of the footage from the AF100 as much as the 5D. Regardless of what words you attach to why an image is bad (aliasing, moire etc), the final image is what's important. If the final image doesn't look up to much, that's all that matters...
 
Andrew Salter said:
epic is out scarlet will follow very shortly then the AF100 will seem like an old camera as soon as its out. Its not pushed boundaries far enough.
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Well if the scarlet makes my AF100 look old. It'll make my Viper look absolutely prehistoric since it's based on 10 year old design. Actually, no scratch that. Viper still makes great pictures even after 10 years. Still allows me to record true 4:4:4 uncompressed, something scarlet (or any RED camera) will never be able to do.
 
Its true the af100 is coming out and the scarlet is still on eternal delay, but -
We have reason to believe it won't be too long now, for real for real. The camera is fully decided upon, and its just a matter of following through with the plans to production. The Epic is more or less done, and soon to go into production, and so there is one thing I can bet on. Its going to be Scarlet 2011, not 2012. With that said, comparing cameras, the scarlet simply trumps the af100. The af100 would be a dream camera, a gift at this pricepoint, if the scarlet wasn't such an imminent reality. Might as well invest that hard earned cash in an s35 Scarlet, no? The camera to beat all, right?
 
Aaron Newsome said:
I'll be using my AF100 with my Cinedeck Extreme recorder. I'll be doing that THIS year. I'll probably have already shot at least 1 feature and a handful of music videos while the watchers from the sideline are still waiting for Scarlet.
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I wouldn't be able to do this. You see, back in the summer of 2008 I was beginning to look for a new camera. If the AF100 had been available I would probably have bought that, but it wasn't. At first I wanted the HVX200 but when I stumbled over Scarlet, I found everything I ever needed. Now, two years later I almost have all the savings (depending on the dollar exchange rate). And a day haven't gone by, where I haven't thought about it. Think about being pregnant and thinking about your baby for 9 months, this is three babies in a row. As much as I want a camera, standing so close to the finishing line I wouldn't want to spend all my money on the AF100, and have to wait two years more to be able to pay for the Scarlet. That's why I'm not the least jealous at you. I think it's great if you get a camera you want at a time you want it. As for me? I surely hope good things comes to those who wait.
 
Thomas Church said:
I think the most overlooked feature of Scarlet 2/3 fixed is the lens.

28-220 (it's something like this) f/2.8 is going to make it a dream camera for documentaries, events, sports, etc.
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According to Red, it's closer to 7.5-60 mm. I may get flamed about this, but I really wish people would stop quoting full-frame equivalents without actually stating that's what they are. And the aperture is f/2.4, T2.6.
 
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