Cinema 5D says A5100 has 13 stops of dynamic range

I have to wonder why any of this minutia matters? What do these fractions of a stop being debated on a camera with ergonomics of a brick buy you really?

I say this as a 20 year veteran of making a good living shooting professionally - who cares?

Go shoot something other than a test already - make a film please. Stop pixel peeping - you'll go blind! All you are doing is feeding the marketing and advertising of the already bloated blog industry - you aren't helping filmmakers at all by getting them to drain their wallets on a regular schedule!
 
wallrc said:
So did that bug then affect all the other tests, all the other cameras, as well?
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I find it weird that it only effected the one camera. Reads of fishing for website hits and if that is true I have no respect for that.

In order to have legitimacy they should re-test all cameras listed or is it something that only effects Sony codecs which would mean a re-test of the A7s also. I knew something was up. The number of the A5100 didn't pass the smell test.
 
Everyone ran loudly with obviously incorrect DR scores all over the internet. Now that it's been proven false not a peep. Just more faulty information floating around the net passed on without varification.

Getting hits are more important then getting it correct.

i asked on C5D what that meant for their other test and how 'software' can be buggy on only one model of camera. Hmmm
 
I think everyone can make a mistake. I would not blame them. What´d be great is if they publish the results, not a graph and a number. I want to see those charts, waveform or similar results.
 
Yes, I asked them for the chart image from the alexa when the a7s numbers came out, and they wouldn't post it :(

Re: why software matters: they use math to define what's usable and what's not, by requiring a given SNR in the shadows for them to count as DR. If this was really a bug, my guess is that there's a parameter somewhere saying what resolution shadow detail has (something that you'd have to test first with a different chart), and they set it incorrectly. As I noted myself, the 5N does have the same total DR as the a7s, but the bottom 4 or 5 stops are a useless mush with no detail.
 
macgregor said:
I think everyone can make a mistake. I would not blame them. What´d be great is if they publish the results, not a graph and a number. I want to see those charts, waveform or similar results.
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I agree everyone makes mistakes. What defines them will be how they own up to the mistake.

Its pretty clear that C5D is nothing close to a 'scientific testing facility'. Not releasing chart images. Not detailing their threshholds that led to their conclusion and not responding to criticism (now very warranted) of their methodology leads one to have little regard for their results.

Going live with a blog that a $550 camera has 13 stops of DR doesn't pass the smell test. Its reckless and irresponsible. They should have held off and especially if as they claim the software results "Differed from their subjective observations".

Until I see them redeem themselves I will lump C5D in with the other gossip blog sites. Its too bad as we need more legit camera sites and less gossip sites looking for hits.
 
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Appreciating the dialogue here..very helpful. I'm someone who's dropped all my Canon/Fuji gear with the hopes of getting into Sony, but am utterly unable to make a move with all these bodies coming out, the inconsistent "lab" reviews like C5D, and Photokina around the corner. I'm a mostly-stills guy, but have had some marginal success with video..so the a5100 got me excited - now I don't know what to think :) I guess the footage will tell!!
 
I though the a5100 and the a6000 share the same sensor. DxOMark, another fly-by-night outfit : ) ...rated the a6000 the same as Cinema 5D at 13 EV dynamic range. DxOMark has a different way of communicating the "usable" DR though, through their "Low-Light ISO" metric.
 
baklava said:
I though the a5100 and the a6000 share the same sensor. DxOMark, another fly-by-night outfit : ) ...rated the a6000 the same as Cinema 5D at 13 EV dynamic range. DxOMark has a different way of communicating the "usable" DR though, through their "Low-Light ISO" metric.
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DXOMark is basing their dynamic range rating off of the camera's RAW stills mode, not the compressed video modes, so the dynamic range is generally a couple stops less in video mode. C5D's follow up dynamic range score of 10.5 stops is much more believable, albeit a bit disappointing after their initial rating.
 
Before interpreting these picture performance results of a Sony camera it is beneficial to consider:

a) site naming of its origin
b) the fact that every other camera on the DR comparison has flat (or flat-like) profile used, which Sony's "portrait" mode is not


This camera is highly underrated. Currently.
Proper test with reduced contrast and external recorder should give more insight about its imaging potential.
 
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StarCoreFilms said:
DXOMark is basing their dynamic range rating off of the camera's RAW stills mode, not the compressed video modes, so the dynamic range is generally a couple stops less in video mode.
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Compression alone does not reduce the ability to capture sensor's full DR.
Pre-capture gamma transform does.

Compression affects the usability range of captured DR, as in ability to pull back the detail from the extremes.
 
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