D7000 and Canon 7D compared

That's a better test.

And it shows the cameras look pretty similar, at least after YouTube compression.
 
pretty similar, they look identical except for the obvious difference in saturation. i don't have time now but i'm sure you can very easily grade them to match. that's very good news. but yeah it would be nice to see them native to judge aliasing and compression artifacts.
 
Yup

Yup

plasmasmp said:
Well I see fairly equal moire for both cameras.
Click to expand...

I can see no reason to even consider the nikon now. I was under the impression that it handled Moiring and aliasing better than the Canon 7D. But to me they both look pretty much the same if you rule out the usual suspects (saturation & contrast).
 
The saturation difference is all I can spot and even with that, it's more of a stylistic choice rather than being "better" or "worse"
 
Nikons typically have better DR and less noise at least in my experience (ive had both canon and nikon DSLR's since 2005), contrast and saturation is indeed different, but remember, less moire/aliasing in an HDSLR means softer stills, and these ARE built to be stills cameras, so moire/aliasing will obviously be an inherent trait of both cameras, otherwise the stills people would complain about softness.

I would still shoot video with the 7D because of the codec/bitrate (also because i now have 3 T2i's and have them matched to my twin XH A1 rigs) and stills with the D7000 because of their metering and iTTL flash. Admittedly i am biased towards Canon on video, and Nikon on stills (because i almost always supplement with an array of speedlites, and Canons eTTL is not in the same ballpark as Nikons iTTL) but i use and love both systems for their strengths.

I would NEVER use a DSLR exclusively, due to their sharpness vs the XH A1 rigs (which is partially what causes alias/moire along with pixel binning etc) for video work, not to mention the recording time constraints and the jello/rolling shutter issues; we mix T2i and XH A1 footage with no problems, and generally use stills from the Nikons (i almost always use speedlites, seriously the ONLY way to control lighting 100%) and Nikkor or Canon primes on our Letus/XH A1 rig.

I would have bought a 7D (for video mostly) if it werent for the T2i; i basically bought 2 T2i's for the price of one 7D, and now have a 3rd, so basically with the two XH A1 rigs, i can cover 5 angles and never miss a perfect shot/angle. My girl has a 7D/grip i borrowed for a month and seriously considered and compared to my D300 (also bummed two 580EXII speedlites from a friend) which i compared to my D300/grip with two SB-900 for stills, and i prefer Nikons 3D tracking over Canons for stills, as well as Nikons iTTL over Canons eTTL (by a HUGE margin). I also preferred Nikons button layouts; the 7D made me go into menu's for things the Nikon had buttons/knobs for, and i am used to the twin scroll wheels on the Nikon. The 7D has MUCH better logically laid out menu's, but i prefer knobs and buttons i can manipulate over taking my eye out of the viewfinder and going into menu's over. For stills (and flash) the Nikon is my choice, even compared to the D3s, i would shoot video on the 7D hands down. D7000 color tracking AF may change this, but for me the 7D is killer for video, and the Nikons i prefer for stills. However, for the price, the T2i's beat the 7D 2 to 1, literally.

I am on my 10th DSLR body (8 different bodies due to having 3 T2i's) and have 19 lenses, all Nikkor or Canons. Really, my complaints about differences between brands is minimal. My company is switching over to all Canons mostly because we have more invested in Canon bodies/camcorders, and we can use all my superb Nikkor glass on them (and video is superior in terms of codec, more framerates and full HD capabilities with the Canons) though my D3s will remain the stills/flash camera of choice.


I am not bashing any company; these are all tools and given the price and availability, GREAT tools. 90% of output is how these tools are used. Specs are worthless if you dont know how to capitalize on your gears' capabilities. For right now, i would not purchase either a 7D or a D7000 (7D has no comparable video AF mode but 8FPS for stills and is a prosumer DSLR, plus better video, while the D7000 has better AF in video supposedly, yet lower bitrate codec and slower framerate and not a fully prosumer body).

I would (and will) wait this 'generation/iteration' of HDSLR's out until Canon comes out with a continuous AF HDSLR and Nikon replaces the D300/D300s with a FULL HD continuous AF HDSLR. Neither company's system for HD is complete or really sorted out just yet; 6 months to a year should yield a complete HDSLR/videocamera solution from one of them, and less than the Panasonic AF100 series. Until then, use what you have, make all that you can, and bank some cash for the first of the serious HDSLR's that FULLY compete with prosumer video cameras. Wait and hone your skills, IMO the 7D and D7000 are landmark bodies, but transitional and forgettable as they are not quite 'complete' solutions, same as the D90 and T1i.
 
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im betting d7000 doesnt ahve a better autofocus in video.. better than 7d but not "better"
I dont think any dslr will have better focus on video unless they get a system upgrade like the micro four thirds.
 
I would still shoot video with the 7D because of the codec/bitrate (also because i now have 3 T2i's and have them matched to my twin XH A1 rigs) and stills with the D7000 because of their metering and iTTL flash. Admittedly i am biased towards Canon on video, and Nikon on stills (because i almost always supplement with an array of speedlites, and Canons eTTL is not in the same ballpark as Nikons iTTL) but i use and love both systems for their strengths.

Hi Zissou,

How can you manage to match the XH A1 and the canon 7D (or T2i). Is it with picture style of the dslr or by using a particular custom preset with the xh a1. I'm very interested to read something about your experience?
Thanks very much.
(and sorry for the parenthesis in the thread).
 
i dont remember the exact settings, i will look up both rigs and PM you the details this week. do you use a 35mm adapter at all?

saturation down all the way, sharpness down 3 notches, contrast down all the way, adobeRGB colorspace, ALWAYS custom white balance off the same card for both cameras. on the XH A1 i took the TrueColor XH A1 preset and mildly modified it on the color bias controls and hiked up the saturation a bit, as well as using REC709 (HD colorspace on the XH A1 i forget the actual in-menu name).

Then we made a preset in CS5 for modifying the XH A1 footage to perfectly match the T2i's. screwing with the T2i colors was a bad idea; it always came out too harsh. with Truecolor/rec709 and the T2i tweaks, its close enough to be useable with minimal CC. i am partially colorblind so i didnt do any of the final CC tweaking, but our cams match pretty damn good now. Generally, we use the XH A1's outdoors at -3 gain with a Letus rig, and the T2i's for indoors because they are WAY better in low light, and indoor lighting is different and therefor we can get away with any minor disparities, even if we use the same 3200K lights indoors and out of doors. the Letus seems to diffuse and flatten the lighting ie reduce contrast vs the bare XH A1, and if we use the XH A1 units without the Letus, we keep sharpness down only 2 notches and contrast down only 3 notches, color sharpness and saturation work out fairly well.

i would not try to combine them for angle shots of the same subject unless you can legitimately get a different composition (ie total colors and a REASON there would be a difference in contrast etc, like use the XH A1 to film a band on stage from the stages' side, and the T2i from the crowd so it makes sense that the T2i footage would have more contrast due to harsher lighting, shadows, and edges).

i spent about 2 whole days with my editor testing, tweaking, and retesting so we could get the T2i's integrated in our workflow, and now that we have 3, we have one matched as best as we can to the XH A1/Letus/FD lenses, and the other two matched to the XH A1 alone.
 
why are you using adobe rgb if you want to match rec.709 which is the same gamut as srgb? just from trial and error or is there a technical explanation i'm unaware of?
 
mattsand sorry its srgb. i typed that all off the top of my head, i shoot stills in adobergb.

also,
it is tougher to match the T2i's to an XH A1 with a 35mm adapter because of the grain and the obvious differences in lenses. i filmed a few minute long clips of just barely out of focus letus grain at different f-stops and different shutter speeds and different framerates to simulate 60P, 30P, and 24P/25P framerates the T2i can pull off, and i drop contrast a bit in post too, this usually matches the Letus look better than adding grain in CS5.

I also have been working on a way to remove some of the visible grain pattern at higher f-stops, because i can see it in bright white areas even at f3.5 on my Letus. i use CS5 PP. shoot a bright blank wall out of focus with your vibrating 35mm adapter rig, say 30P 1/60 second or 24P 1/48 second at f4-5.6; you'll see the grain pattern. happens to me even at f2.8 in bright areas. for me, its from top left to bottom right, 45 degree angle.

the vibrating nature of my Letus Extreme has 3 posts that the GG sits on. as it vibrates, it tends to vibrate in a line, not gyrate or vibrate in a random pattern. so i took my finger and gently let it vibrate against my fingernail, moving my fingernail around on the perimeter of the 'vibration' rim until i found an area i could 'bounce' the vibrating GG assembly off and it would EVENLY vibrate/gyrate. carefully holding up a prime, i could now shoot WITHOUT grain pattern up to f5.6.

all i did is covered the GG, taped everything good, and at the spot where 'bouncing' the GG had the best, most even effect, i drilled a tiny hole and jammed a piece of stainless steel with a single wrap of electrical tape. then i put a bit of 'GOOP' brand gooey adhesive around the base. the stainless steel was a tube i pulled out of a Staples brand pen; they put them around the ink tube so they are heavier and therefor CLEARLY quality, LOL. i have about a dozen i got for free.

The end result is NO GRAIN PATTERN (streaking) when shooting all the way up to f4.5 or so, BARELY visible at f5.6 on my FD and Nikkor primes.
 
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