GH2 High dynamic range test: raw 5DMKIII vs. GH2

G

GMC

Well-known member
I recently got very interested in the RAW capabilities of the 5D MKIII hack as a possible upgrade path from my trusty hacked GH2 / GH1 combo. Hence, I asked my friend Peter Hainzl (have a look at his RAW videos) to come over for a quick testshot during lunchbreak. As my hacked GH's are fantastic all around cameras, tack sharp, almost moire free and perfect for shooting as they are out of the box (without additional rigs / whatever) but lacking a bit in the dynamic range and lowlight department, plus the limitation of 8 bit 4:2:0 color space I was wondering if the 5D MKIII would fit my bill.
I am mostly interested in landscape / nature / people, hence I chose a very high dynamic range landscape scenario for this quick test - shadows from trees and bushes vs. sun - illuminated clouds in the skies.
Hence, time for pixel - peeping (yes, about every 2 years is OK for me ;-)).
follow me on twitter: twitter.com/gunmac
Setup: GH2 with Voigtlaender 25mm f0.95 at f2, LCW vari - ND, smooth film mode (-2,-2,0,-2) mounted on top of 5DMKIII with Canon 50mm f1.4 set to f=4 (to get similar DOF characteristics to Voigty at f=2) with Heliopan Fader ND. Both at 1080p23.976. Same scene recorded with both cams. You will notice a slightly wider field of view on the GH2, as it has a crop of about 1.86 to the 5D MKIII.
Workflow: RAW images debayered in Adobe After Effects CS6 with Adobe camera raw, saved as composition. Imported AE composition in Premiere Pro CS6, sequence set to max. bit depth. Rendered 1080p file as 25mbits/s H264 file for vimeo upload.
Findings:
- sharpness / resolution detail especially in shadows of RAW 5D MKIII better than GH2
- better dynamic range, especially in highlights, better details in shadows BUT surprisingly not so much more. In this scene I expected blown out skies with the GH2 (see first scene), but surprisingly could pull back a lot of the highlights as well as the shadows
- Shadow noise is severe for both cams, could be improved with 5DMKIII by exposing more to the right, as there was still room in highlights
- in general much cleaner image, nicer gradations with RAW 5DMKIII - not very surprising as we are talking 8bit 4:2:0 vs. 14bit 4:4:4
In summary I am very happy I did this first quick test, as it revealed a lot to me - I am mainly interested in internet distribution of my films. And for this purpose the images are NOT lightyears apart. Of course the image is lovely lovely lovely on the 5D. But for travelling, it is also much much bulkier and the screen is fixed which is difficult for my filming style. With careful exposure on the GH2 you can still get decent pictures. Next thing I will try is the blackmagic pocket cinema camera. I ordered it on the first day, so lets see if I get it sooner or later. I am still interested in raw, as the image manipulation possibilities (color grading, exposure, ...) on the raw files are sensational.
Download the source file and have fun!




 
Very cool test, thanks for posting. The grading does help the GH2 a lot. I like how you're able to push it and retain a lot of detail. The 5Diii of course looks great. The GH2 isn't quite set free to go up against the ML raw hack at 45mb though, it would be cool to do one of the "nuclear" Driftwood options against 5Diii raw.

EDIT: I see you responded to that point on Vimeo, so it makes some sense. The interesting thing I think is that if you start moving the camera around, the GH2 holds up really well in terms of aliasing while the 5Diii will show harsh aliasing on linear edges. Another selling point of the GH2...
 
Thanks so much for posting the test.
This further convinced me I made the right decision to "keep" my GH2s and not buy the 5Dmk or Gh3.
For my needs the GH2 is the ticket and at 1/3 the price of the 5D.
 
Ryan Farnes said:
Very cool test, thanks for posting. The grading does help the GH2 a lot. I like how you're able to push it and retain a lot of detail. The 5Diii of course looks great. The GH2 isn't quite set free to go up against the ML raw hack at 45mb though, it would be cool to do one of the "nuclear" Driftwood options against 5Diii raw. EDIT: I see you responded to that point on Vimeo, so it makes some sense. The interesting thing I think is that if you start moving the camera around, the GH2 holds up really well in terms of aliasing while the 5Diii will show harsh aliasing on linear edges. Another selling point of the GH2...
Click to expand...


Thanks Ryan!
 
downsouthstudio said:
Thanks so much for posting the test. This further convinced me I made the right decision to "keep" my GH2s and not buy the 5Dmk or Gh3. For my needs the GH2 is the ticket and at 1/3 the price of the 5D.
Click to expand...


This is exactly why I did this test. Now, my "raw" excitement has cooled down quite a bit ...
 
Nice test. Curious, what did you use to push the shadows up and bring the highlights down? Curves? If so do you mind posting a grab of your curve just for fun?
 
PaPa said:
Nice test. Curious, what did you use to push the shadows up and bring the highlights down? Curves? If so do you mind posting a grab of your curve just for fun?
Click to expand...

Hi PaPa, yes, i used RGB curves. The curve looks funny indeed. Let me see if I have the time today in the evening to post the curve ;-)
 
Marino215 said:
Till this day the GH2 continues to impress me. Nice test, thanks.
Click to expand...

Hi Marino, yes, me too. It's funny because very often I find myself getting very excited about a new hype on the net. Also this time, but a little reality check reveals very often that the tools matter less and less.
 
Ryan Farnes said:
The interesting thing I think is that if you start moving the camera around, the GH2 holds up really well in terms of aliasing while the 5Diii will show harsh aliasing on linear edges.
Click to expand...

No it doesn't. That is an error that the basic ACR sharpness correction does on 5d raw material. Set that slider to 0 and you will have zero aliasing on any edge.
 
GMC said:
I recently got very interested in the RAW capabilities of the 5D MKIII hack as a possible upgrade path from my trusty hacked GH2 / GH1 combo. Hence, I asked my friend Peter Hainzl (have a look at his RAW videos) to come over for a quick testshot during lunchbreak. As my hacked GH's are fantastic all around cameras, tack sharp, almost moire free and perfect for shooting as they are out of the box (without additional rigs / whatever) but lacking a bit in the dynamic range and lowlight department, plus the limitation of 8 bit 4:2:0 color space I was wondering if the 5D MKIII would fit my bill.
I am mostly interested in landscape / nature / people, hence I chose a very high dynamic range landscape scenario for this quick test - shadows from trees and bushes vs. sun - illuminated clouds in the skies.
Hence, time for pixel - peeping (yes, about every 2 years is OK for me ;-)).
follow me on twitter: twitter.com/gunmac
Setup: GH2 with Voigtlaender 25mm f0.95 at f2, LCW vari - ND, smooth film mode (-2,-2,0,-2) mounted on top of 5DMKIII with Canon 50mm f1.4 set to f=4 (to get similar DOF characteristics to Voigty at f=2) with Heliopan Fader ND. Both at 1080p23.976. Same scene recorded with both cams. You will notice a slightly wider field of view on the GH2, as it has a crop of about 1.86 to the 5D MKIII.
Workflow: RAW images debayered in Adobe After Effects CS6 with Adobe camera raw, saved as composition. Imported AE composition in Premiere Pro CS6, sequence set to max. bit depth. Rendered 1080p file as 25mbits/s H264 file for vimeo upload.
Findings:
- sharpness / resolution detail especially in shadows of RAW 5D MKIII better than GH2
- better dynamic range, especially in highlights, better details in shadows BUT surprisingly not so much more. In this scene I expected blown out skies with the GH2 (see first scene), but surprisingly could pull back a lot of the highlights as well as the shadows
- Shadow noise is severe for both cams, could be improved with 5DMKIII by exposing more to the right, as there was still room in highlights
- in general much cleaner image, nicer gradations with RAW 5DMKIII - not very surprising as we are talking 8bit 4:2:0 vs. 14bit 4:4:4
In summary I am very happy I did this first quick test, as it revealed a lot to me - I am mainly interested in internet distribution of my films. And for this purpose the images are NOT lightyears apart. Of course the image is lovely lovely lovely on the 5D. But for travelling, it is also much much bulkier and the screen is fixed which is difficult for my filming style. With careful exposure on the GH2 you can still get decent pictures. Next thing I will try is the blackmagic pocket cinema camera. I ordered it on the first day, so lets see if I get it sooner or later. I am still interested in raw, as the image manipulation possibilities (color grading, exposure, ...) on the raw files are sensational.
Download the source file and have fun!




Click to expand...


Awesome test, thanks for posting this!
 
maarek said:
No it doesn't. That is an error that the basic ACR sharpness correction does on 5d raw material. Set that slider to 0 and you will have zero aliasing on any edge.
Click to expand...

ACR sharpening exaggerates the aliasing that's already there, but it is there. Not as bad as some cameras.
 
Excellent test, It just reiterates the fact we have the tools to produce very nice images for around 500.00. Of course RAW is a great tool to have when needed, but for internet, it's really hard to see a whole lot of difference unless studying the screen, and who does that? (avg Joe speaking).
 
Kholi said:
ACR sharpening exaggerates the aliasing that's already there, but it is there. Not as bad as some cameras.
Click to expand...

For some reason ACR sharpening works differently on 2megapixel DNG raw files than on the 22megapixel fullsized RAW's. A sharpening of 25 is quite unnoticeable on the 22megapixel files, even fullsize but with the 2megapixel DNG files, it already looks quite bad. You can argue that the aliasing "is there" but it's very, very minimized.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top