GH2 Hacked GH2 Impressed in the new Zacuto shootout

zacuto said:
I appreciate you honest and sincere response and all I can say is it won't be easy but you seem very dedicated and driven and I hope achieve your dream. Remember what Victor said in the last line of my film "if you have the talent, the drive and you are willing to do what it takes, you can make a pretty damn good film" Let me know if I can help you in anyway: if you need me to lend you some gear, advice or consultation, happy to do it. Steve
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Thanks for the support. It was nice talking to you.
 
Thank you Zacuto for the education. In a time of "challenging economic times' I find it truly remarkable that you were able to give this to us for free. Surely this must be good advertising for your company but hell you deserve it. A lot of time and hard work went into it. Thanks again!

In a way the outcome has been a bit terrifying because now we can't blame the camera anymore when something looks bad haha :-). On the other hand it is motivating to know that you don't need an expensive camera to make a good audiovisual product or work of art. In the end the whole movie game is about communicating something to other people, and the camera is just one of the hundreds of choices you make in relation to the message you want to communicate and it is most certainly far from the most important decision to be made on a film production.

If you start to care more about the gear and the lights you're using, you are completely missing the point about filmmaking. You think you need the best gear to get the best results but that's not true. It's all about the message, the story in the first place. As a cinematographer it is your job to help tell the director the story, nothing more nothing less. It's not about creating beautiful images per se. Some times the story begs for a very ugly looking scene because it might enhance the impact of the message with the viewer. The other way round is also true.

Work with what you have and make the message or story work, would be a good motivational message to draw from these exquisite shootout series.
 
Could you tell me why you have been using the Fujinon lenses over maybe the Angenieux lenses? I've seen the Angenieux along with the master primescredited more than any other on high end digital productions.

I'm aware the Fujinon costs more, is it superior? I've just heard so many filmmakers state the Angenieux is the gold standard of cine zooms. Not at all a criticism, i'm just curious that's all.
 
blake2404 said:
Could you tell me why you have been using the Fujinon lenses over maybe the Angenieux lenses? I've seen the Angenieux along with the master primescredited more than any other on high end digital productions.

I'm aware the Fujinon costs more, is it superior? I've just heard so many filmmakers state the Angenieux is the gold standard of cine zooms. Not at all a criticism, i'm just curious that's all.
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Hey Blake,
The Angenieux Optimo is a great zoom lens and is a great lens for shooting work, but the Fujinon Premier Zooms are considered sharper and capable of resolving more detail at least with the cinematographers that were involved with planning this test. Don't quote me too hard on the specs, but I think the Optimo resolves around 80 lp/mm where the Fujinon is a higher then that something around 100 lp/mm and is really consistant throughout the entire range.

We basically wanted to allow each cinematographer the best lens they could throw on the camera, even though this is a little unrealistic. I mean lets be honest if you're shooting with a GH2 you probably are not putting an $80,000 lens on it, you might but it's pretty unlikely. Originally when we were planning this we considered limiting each camera to only use typical lenses so on the 7D you might have L-Series glass, the GH2 might have some of the better 4/3rds lenses. But it helps remove the variables from the test some by having most of the cameras use the same lens, it's also easier on the operator and 1st AC who had to pull perfect focus on each take when they have a cine style lens to work with.

We also have a good relationship with Fujinon, and they graciously donated two lenses and flew out a technician to the test, so that kind of support is key with a project like this. I'm sure Angenieux would be a good parter, but we don't currently have that relationship built up with them.

Hope that answers your question.

-Scott Lynch
Producer
Zacuto Films
 
Scott Lynch said:
Hey Blake,
The Angenieux Optimo is a great zoom lens and is a great lens for shooting work, but the Fujinon Premier Zooms are considered sharper and capable of resolving more detail at least with the cinematographers that were involved with planning this test. Don't quote me too hard on the specs, but I think the Optimo resolves around 80 lp/mm where the Fujinon is a higher then that something around 100 lp/mm and is really consistant throughout the entire range.

We basically wanted to allow each cinematographer the best lens they could throw on the camera, even though this is a little unrealistic. I mean lets be honest if you're shooting with a GH2 you probably are not putting an $80,000 lens on it, you might but it's pretty unlikely. Originally when we were planning this we considered limiting each camera to only use typical lenses so on the 7D you might have L-Series glass, the GH2 might have some of the better 4/3rds lenses. But it helps remove the variables from the test some by having most of the cameras use the same lens, it's also easier on the operator and 1st AC who had to pull perfect focus on each take when they have a cine style lens to work with.

We also have a good relationship with Fujinon, and they graciously donated two lenses and flew out a technician to the test, so that kind of support is key with a project like this. I'm sure Angenieux would be a good parter, but we don't currently have that relationship built up with them.

Hope that answers your question.

-Scott Lynch
Producer
Zacuto Films
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Hey Scott!

Thanks, it's the exact response i was looking for!...lol. I think in one regard the new "rouge" series (coming in at about 4lbs per zoom) would have the advantage of portability for certain shoots........I'm curious though, is there a resource for getting lp/mm ratings for still lenses? if not and if you were to venture a guess on how a tokina 11-16 might fair - rating wise, and maybe nikkor ais lenses. I'd be really interested to know in comparison how close they can come in resolving detail vs these high end lenses.

If the day ever comes that i can afford 20-80,000 on a single lens then i'd probably be looking at a much more high end camera ha, ha. But let's be honest, if you did the test with tamron or sigma zooms for example, the high end manufacturers would be crawling all over you about how their cameras can resolve so much better and blah, blah, blah.

Love the test. I think the initial test won't be as telling as the second. I feel many will have issues about how the dp's re-lit the set. Then again there will be those wondering about the settings used. To a degree there may be a point to be made there, maybe not. But the point to me is that on an equal playing field we can see that our lil 700 dollar camera can be projected on the big screen (when operated properly) and look damn good. Which is all i'm really after, that simple affirmation, lol.
 
Gary Huff said:
Seriously, Barry, that's flat-out untrue.

From The Guardian:
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I have seen 48p red epic footage. I don't like it at all for narrative story motion picture making. It looks like HDTV 60p. For a ride or theme park type thing that was carefully crafted it could work but it kills the illusion and looks like a damn soap opera.
 
A 85 000$ lens of a 600$ buck Gh23 body and with ton of lighting equipments around... I enjoye very much the shootout , but mostly for the interview because the tests by itself doesn't make so much sense to me.

v*
__________________________________________________________
Vincent Thomas
Artist for Film / Photograph & Creative Director
http://www.stranger-than-paradise.book.fr/

Scott Lynch said:
Hey Blake,
The Angenieux Optimo is a great zoom lens and is a great lens for shooting work, but the Fujinon Premier Zooms are considered sharper and capable of resolving more detail at least with the cinematographers that were involved with planning this test. Don't quote me too hard on the specs, but I think the Optimo resolves around 80 lp/mm where the Fujinon is a higher then that something around 100 lp/mm and is really consistant throughout the entire range.

We basically wanted to allow each cinematographer the best lens they could throw on the camera, even though this is a little unrealistic. I mean lets be honest if you're shooting with a GH2 you probably are not putting an $80,000 lens on it, you might but it's pretty unlikely. Originally when we were planning this we considered limiting each camera to only use typical lenses so on the 7D you might have L-Series glass, the GH2 might have some of the better 4/3rds lenses. But it helps remove the variables from the test some by having most of the cameras use the same lens, it's also easier on the operator and 1st AC who had to pull perfect focus on each take when they have a cine style lens to work with.

We also have a good relationship with Fujinon, and they graciously donated two lenses and flew out a technician to the test, so that kind of support is key with a project like this. I'm sure Angenieux would be a good parter, but we don't currently have that relationship built up with them.

Hope that answers your question.

-Scott Lynch
Producer
Zacuto Films
Click to expand...
 
vincent thomas said:
A 85 000$ lens of a 600$ buck Gh23 body and with ton of lighting equipments around... I enjoye very much the shootout , but mostly for the interview because the tests by itself doesn't make so much sense to me.

v*
__________________________________________________________
Vincent Thomas
Artist for Film / Photograph & Creative Director
http://www.stranger-than-paradise.book.fr/
Click to expand...
It just cuts down on variables. They want each camera to look the best they can possibly look without giving a huge advantage to one camera and not another. Using cinema lenses really is the only way you can compare cameras in two distinct price ranges like an Alexa and a GH2.
 
moxrox said:
Did watch the test and Iam actually curious about the results. Iam not a serious filmmaker just using the cam sometimes as a hobby.

Which I did like most without any order:

A
C
F
H

I almost bet that B is the GH2, the sharpness is quiete intense..but Iam probably wrong. I would say the image quality was the best of all, little bit too sharp.
My bet for the Iphone is D.
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Iam actually surprised that my feeling as a noob was right watching Zakuto part II and B is really the hacked GH2. Wonder how the clip would look like in comparison if they would have taken some older primes. The sharpness of the GH2 really pops up in comparison to the other footage, a bit too much for my taste like I wrote before for this kind of scene. For nature/landscape the sharpness is just amazing . But at the end the image quality itself was really great for my eye and was probably the best.

This is from Zakuto Part II

A - Sony F3
B - Panasonic GH2
C – Red Epic
D - Apple iPhone 4s
E - Canon C300
F - Arri Alexa
G - Canon 7D
H – Sony F65
I - Sony FS100


There was a poll about the testing on the webpage nofilmschool:
http://nofilmschool.com/2012/07/winner-2012-zacuto-camera-shootout-is/
 
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One group is always missing whenever this shootout tests are done, and i'm beginning to think that once this group is included, most of the speculation associated to these cameras will be cleared. WHERE are the engineers who design these cameras? Some interview with them would give us some insight of what they had in mind or wanted the camera to be able to do and what it can do. The problem is that most of these questions are always answered by salespeople.
 
qap15 said:
One group is always missing whenever this shootout tests are done, and i'm beginning to think that once this group is included, most of the speculation associated to these cameras will be cleared. WHERE are the engineers who design these cameras? Some interview with them would give us some insight of what they had in mind or wanted the camera to be able to do and what it can do. The problem is that most of these questions are always answered by salespeople.
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i'm not a sales person. nor do i care about brand names. but when it comes to quality and budgeting... I brought the gh2 and hacked it. I did some heavy research... that little camera seem to compete with the be dogs. I can't let cameras be the reason why I can't compete with the others. But then again.. it's all about who's behind the camera(s). Below is a link to a music video I recently shot using a gh2 hacked. Let me know your thoughts.

 
Well. Engineers have always been the nemesis of my trade, Human Factors & Usability (HTPO). The reason that engineers are never interviewed is that they themselves have nothing to do with Human Factors & Usability or end-product performance. They like it that way and would not even be able to understand your questions. Further, As I have written often– Much of retail mass produced electronics is simply patents being hobbled together and shoved down the throats of the end user. Being in the business that I'm in and and having functionality and interest in video, means I am a LATE adopter. Always waiting till the product meets my requirements by at least 80%.
The real question is why the business strategy and market strategy doesn't include Independent Film Makers as much as it should. Everything is either Consumer, Pro-sumer or Pro . No Indepent Pro. IndyPro:angry:
 
lpowell said:
Say there's a phenomenal sale on refurbed iPad2's going on and I hear FaceTime is the coolest video app ever. And from what I hear, no engineers were even involved, just iGeniuses so epic wins all around!

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/ipad?afid=p219|GOUS&cid=AOS-US-KWG
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only prob with ipad is the dimensions. As soon as ipad mini id available, it will be in my hands ... Finally, the right ipad for me.
[ EDIT ] IF Apple gives a truly coat pocketable table that is !
 
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