Side by Side Comparison...

S

skipdivils

Member
Okay, enough is enough.

For the love of God, could somebody PLEASE post a side by side comparison of the same scene (with same lighting - maybe tweaked a little) of the M2 vs. the on-camera lens. I think that everybody here would absolutely LOVE to see the difference, SIDE BY SIDE.

I would if I could, but I can't, so I must beg someone with the means to do so. Thanks.
 
Haha Mr. Blonde you rock. Brian Petersen also posted this in the M2 forum!

Skip Divils, the begining of this movie has a comparison of the stock lens vs M2 on a girl and her puppy. http://www.redrockmicro.com/footage/HVX200/karcher_stringer.mov
(This is from the M2 samples page)

Also (on this website) Justin Marx submitted this nice video which has some comparison shots (railroad scene) mid way through the movie. http://marxnet.net/JUSTIN/links/hvxshots.htm

Comparisons are all around. Just gotta keep your eyes open. I do not know of any split screen comparisons, but I do not see an advantage to that anyhow. Is that what you meant by "side by side"?
 
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I love seeing these too - there have been a few little short clips posted here and there, but if you'd like, perhaps I can set something up more formal on Thursday and make a few specific recordings for you to really show off some differences. Do you have anything in particular you'd like to see in a comparison? Be reasonable - I can't set off any explosions or recreate any car chases :) but I wouldn't mind taking a few hours to give you some side-by-side examples. Let me know!
 
Haakon, after that trailer you posted -- you are obviously THE MAN to do an M2 comparison. Any effort you can put into it would be most appreciated by all of us here.

I'm sure we'd all like to see some well-composed well-lit shots with & without, but I'd also ask (if it's not too much trouble) for something where you'd use the M2 as you normally would, but then with the HVX you go through the trouble of backing up/zooming in/using ND's in order to simulate the shallow DOF as much as possible, so we see how the M2 compares against the idea of pushing the HVX's optical DOF as far as possible.

I'm really close to picking one of these things up; Disjecta's Letus footage has got me all amped again.
 
Barry,

Thanks for your comments. I know there was a period of time where you were probably cringing every time you saw a new post from me, and while I don't regret standing up for my convictions/opinions (especially on the filmmaking front), I do think it overshadowed some of the other contributions I was making to the forums. So I'm glad to hear you say such kind things. I do aim to help others, I promise! :)

I will definitely try to do a couple of scenes (whatever I can get together in the limited time I'll have) and will demonstrate both an indoor and outdoor sequence at the very least (and I will make all of the material available in HD, which I think is the only way we can really accurately compare HD output from the HVX). What I'm getting from you is that in addition to a scene where I use the HVX with and without the M2, you'd like me to try to "recrate" the M2's DOF using just the HVX alone, is that correct? I will definitely make an attempt to do that as well, though in some areas (especially indoors with very little room to "back up and zoom all the way in") it may prove to be impossible to get results anywhere near what the M2 is capable of (and that's the main reason we bought it in the first place, right?) :) Outdoors should be easier in this situation, though it should also go without saying that being at the end of the HVX's large zoom capability makes it much more difficult to operate and keep things steady/well composed during a moving shot. So I'll do my best and see what I can come up with.

Certainly, the M2 has its limitations as well (for one, I think people will be surprised that their claim of "virtually no light loss" doesn't exactly hold up), but that's what tests and comparisons are for. I'll be thorough with my findings so that everyone has as much information as possible. No promises on the UCSB coeds though. ;-)
 
Great Haakon!

We are looking forward to see your work....!
Would be also interesting to get an "update" on your experience with the hvx after you allready posted some interesting points before...how is the baby doing in "business-reallife"?
 
Thanks Haakon. I have the M2, but only 1 lens at the moment, i would love to see multiple lenses. ranging from a 20 something to a 100 something.

ANd i want to see a scene you know a person, not a buncha res lines and focus papers! :)
 
The real test would be to perform this comparison, then output to film and project on a big screen to see how it stands up to film out. I suspect it would be too soft but hope it would look great.
 
smelni said:
The real test would be to perform this comparison, then output to film and project on a big screen to see how it stands up to film out. I suspect it would be too soft but hope it would look great.
Click to expand...

ok Smelni, but what could Haakon do tomorrow if he does all that?:nads:
 
Haakon said:
What I'm getting from you is that in addition to a scene where I use the HVX with and without the M2, you'd like me to try to "recrate" the M2's DOF using just the HVX alone, is that correct?
Click to expand...

Exactly. I'd like to see what I'm "giving up" by going the M2 route. Think about that shot of the guy playing the guitar in the desert, that we did in the original 1080/24p footage back in December. Yes that was a specially-constructed shot specifically designed to show shallow DOF, but I'd like to see how the M2 affects the not-shallow-DOF portions.

I found the mini35 on the DVX really softened things, perhaps more than I'd like, but the overall effect was enchanting. I'm wondering about how the M2 and an HD system work together, especially with the HVX. If it's "all good, all the time" then that's what we want to hear. But if there's a substantial sharpness difference on the subject too, that's something I'd want to be aware of.

Thanks for any effort you can put forth!
 
Haakon ever fine tune your edge to edge sharpness? I recall in your trailer some very distinct edge sharpness issues. (i.e. when the boy gets pushed over onto the floor) But then again most shots I could not see it at all, so I don't know what the story is. Btw, I thought the trailer was excellent.
 
BTW Haakon, I've found that setting the detail level up to +3 and coring at 0 - +1 gives off a comparable level of sharpness between the M2 and stock HVX lens.
 
Okay guys, little update. There is some good news and some bad news about the head to head comparison I am doing...

The bad news is that you're going to have to wait longer than expected for the footage, probably to the tune of about 2 weeks. The good news is that the reason for this is because I have decided to be a little more ambitious with the project; instead of just shooting a random shots of people in different places, I have called up the director of The Faithful and we are going to set up some scenes with some actors which I think will be much more useful in a realistic production setting scenario. Full lights, dolly package, possibly some steadicam (though I don't have the Bartech right now so that's still up in the air). Per Barry's request I am also going to try to "emulate" the M2's DOF with just the HVX alone, but as mentioned before, there will only be certain shots where that will be possible. Unfortunately, we are both busy with a super16 film that will have us both booked through the entire next week, but after that we are going to put some good effort into getting a really good comparison done. I am also going to see if I can get Redrock to donate an HD achromat for just the one day we do shoot to see if that makes a difference in the quality of the image. If anyone else in the LA area has one and would like to help out, that would be great, too. The most probable shoot date will be the 19th.

Thanks for being patient; I hope that my comparison project will be beneficial to many people out there who are still on the fence about this M2 stuff. :)
 
That's very generous Haakon - what your proposing sounds worthy of an article.

(hehe, I've spotted what I'm sure you've just spotted - and it's staying:))
 
Haakon said:
Thanks for being patient; I hope that my comparison project will be beneficial to many people out there who are still on the fence about this M2 stuff. :)
Click to expand...

If you put the same effort into the test that you put into your film, The Faithful, then I'm looking forward to the results. Tests like these are invaluable to the people that are considering the purchase of new products. Also Barry's suggestion of trying to get the HVX to emulate what the M2 is achieving is of particular interest, and visa versa, as Mr Blonde posted in regard to tweaking the settings on the HVX to get more sharpness out of the M2.

Anyway thanks and good luck.
 
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