Glen Elliott
April 30th, 2003, 05:26 PM
I read all the positive and negative comments about the camera here so I was pretty prepared when I got it. I actually was "looking" for the negative things people complained about.
My initial impression was a bit on the dissapointed side regarding the build quality. I mean this thing is ALL plastic. It definitly gives it the feeling of being flimsy. On a lighter note, pun intended, it's quite light- actually incredibly light....it's a fairly considerable size larger than my GL-1 and feels just as light.
The manual zoom ring feels a bit weird- there's a little play in it and is a bit touchy. I was working on a rack-focus shot and my hand brushed it and moved the ring within the slack/play and it affected the zoom ever so slightly. If there is play in it I wish the little area it does move before getting taunt doesn't affect the zoom.
The focus ring IS indeed very soft. However after using it a few times it makes it quite easy to pull of intricate rack focus shots with a single finger.
The audio seemed really good- though I was using an external ME66/K6. Other than some annoying digital buzz/flutter whenever the camera was bumped even slightly.
After hearing all this your probably thinking I'm not quite happy with it- what made up for it was the footage it shot. It was absolutly stunning. The ND (1/64th) does an incredible job of keeping the blues in the sky and not blowing them out. The footage shot in 24p does indeed look very film-like.....more than I had expected with everyone complaining about excessive strobing. Shooting outside yeilded the best footage I've shot to date. Interior shots with lesser lighting seemed, for some reason, less cinematic like and took on the characteristics more like a typical 3ccd. I must say though the low light performance dwarfs that of my GL-1....by a mile. I'm sure the 1/3" CCDs help in that area.
So overall I'm really excited about taking the next few weeks to experiment with it in different settings and beginning to navigate the extensive and somewhat cryptic menus. I'm just going to feel insecure taking it into the feild 1.It's brand-new and costs over 3k ....2. "Feels" like it's going to break. lol
My initial impression was a bit on the dissapointed side regarding the build quality. I mean this thing is ALL plastic. It definitly gives it the feeling of being flimsy. On a lighter note, pun intended, it's quite light- actually incredibly light....it's a fairly considerable size larger than my GL-1 and feels just as light.
The manual zoom ring feels a bit weird- there's a little play in it and is a bit touchy. I was working on a rack-focus shot and my hand brushed it and moved the ring within the slack/play and it affected the zoom ever so slightly. If there is play in it I wish the little area it does move before getting taunt doesn't affect the zoom.
The focus ring IS indeed very soft. However after using it a few times it makes it quite easy to pull of intricate rack focus shots with a single finger.
The audio seemed really good- though I was using an external ME66/K6. Other than some annoying digital buzz/flutter whenever the camera was bumped even slightly.
After hearing all this your probably thinking I'm not quite happy with it- what made up for it was the footage it shot. It was absolutly stunning. The ND (1/64th) does an incredible job of keeping the blues in the sky and not blowing them out. The footage shot in 24p does indeed look very film-like.....more than I had expected with everyone complaining about excessive strobing. Shooting outside yeilded the best footage I've shot to date. Interior shots with lesser lighting seemed, for some reason, less cinematic like and took on the characteristics more like a typical 3ccd. I must say though the low light performance dwarfs that of my GL-1....by a mile. I'm sure the 1/3" CCDs help in that area.
So overall I'm really excited about taking the next few weeks to experiment with it in different settings and beginning to navigate the extensive and somewhat cryptic menus. I'm just going to feel insecure taking it into the feild 1.It's brand-new and costs over 3k ....2. "Feels" like it's going to break. lol