Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout - blind test

[Samuel H]

The first part of the Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout is online:
http://www.zacuto.com/shootout-reven...otout-part-one

Until they release the second part, it's a blind test (which you can watch at around 19:00): they haven't said which camera is which. And I know it's compressed for the web, but still... I just thought it would be fun to share our opinions before they say which camera is which.

Just to give me a better chance to make a fool out of myself, I'll start:

My top 2 would be a tie between A and F: they both look great
The next 3 would be tied too: C (which looks great except for the blown-out highlights), E (which has very slight aliasing) and H (which looked slightly too digital at times)
After that would come G (somewhat soft, maybe less DR than others, some issues in the highlights)
Then a tie between I (somewhat soft, less DR than others, lots of aliasing, some noise) and B (impressively clean -except for some slight aliasing-, but looking very digital)
And finally D (horrible)

Isn't this fun, bitching about a lot of cameras I definitely couldn't pay for? "Oh, that $80000 piece of equipment is not good enough, it looks too digital at times". And it's still fair, because I don't know which is which
(Hell, I wouldn't even be able to pay for the LIGHTS they used!!)

[James0b57]

Looks like a torture test, both for the cameras and aesthetically. All the cameras look bad, because the image is bad. But some handle it with a bit more grace than the others.

I had assumed they were going to light each scene much differently so as to cater to each camera's limitations, but it is a comparison test after-all, so they have ingredients for that.

Of course this shoot out did not include the DR heft D800, but is the D800 getting anywhere near the 14stop DR in video mode? (sorry, had to be the guy who brings up the one camera that isn't in the comparison, as well as the guy who isn't going to search for results about the D800 in video mode.)

As always, almost any comparison is going to be interesting, this one is a fun new twist with the Grading in post. And it is always good to hear opinions from master in the field. Which end up being somewhat disappointing and somewhat very informative at the same time. Like the quote about Gordon Willis "I can't tell you why, it just felt right." Haha.

[Samuel H]

D800: 12.7 stops of DR, how much of that is usable depends on your taste for heavily posterized noise, and your fear of using lots of NR
http://vimeo.com/39899742
flaat_13p.jpg

[refocusedmedia]

There's a camera test in there? Sorry, I was just enjoying the wonderful mini-doc on the art of cinematography. If the other two parts didn't have a single additional comparison, and were just more about the art and artistry, I don't think I'd care for a second. And I think that's the whole point, really.

[agcohn]

I pretty much liked them all, outside of D, G, and I.

I actually thought that some looked better on the beginning wide-shot, while others looked better on the ending two-shot, but I think that was mostly the lighting.

I don't feel I can accurately judge the differences between the majority of the shots because of differences in the lighting / grade.

F seems to have the most range and detail.

[Postmaster]

I like A the best.
B looks super clean, but somehow scary digital and artificial (hope it's not the FS100, but Dan usually knows what he is doing).

Frank

[alpi69]

F looks good to me. Is it the Alexa ... or the iPhone? haha....

[Hidef1080]

I like B the best.
D was the worst.

[David G. Smith]

To be honest, I was not really pleased with how it was lit. I do understand that it was a stress test lit for DR. Someone commented on one of these Shootout response threads (I am starting to get confused by them all) that they got the "... Over lit corporate video look..." down pat. I personally think that it looked like a feminine hygiene products commercial, or what ever, and that light sandwich on the face of the blonde girl in the foreground drove me crazy. That being said, I Liked E the best. I don't have a clue which camera was used, but I think that maybe the subtle lighting choices each team made may have really made a lot of differences. I want to go back through the technical specs documentation and see what changes were made to the lighting and then look at it again.

[Tim Nitsch]

Looks like we all have generally the same idea.

A & F = Good
D = Bad