Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout - blind test

Samuel H

Samuel H

Major Contributor
The first part of the Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout is online:
http://www.zacuto.com/shootout-revenge-2012/revenge-great-camera-shootout-part-one

Until they release the second part, it's a blind test (which you can watch at around 19:00): they haven't said which camera is which. And I know it's compressed for the web, but still... I just thought it would be fun to share our opinions before they say which camera is which.

Just to give me a better chance to make a fool out of myself, I'll start:

My top 2 would be a tie between A and F: they both look great
The next 3 would be tied too: C (which looks great except for the blown-out highlights), E (which has very slight aliasing) and H (which looked slightly too digital at times)
After that would come G (somewhat soft, maybe less DR than others, some issues in the highlights)
Then a tie between I (somewhat soft, less DR than others, lots of aliasing, some noise) and B (impressively clean -except for some slight aliasing-, but looking very digital)
And finally D (horrible)

Isn't this fun, bitching about a lot of cameras I definitely couldn't pay for? "Oh, that $80000 piece of equipment is not good enough, it looks too digital at times". And it's still fair, because I don't know which is which :)
(Hell, I wouldn't even be able to pay for the LIGHTS they used!!)


Edit: several years later, with the which-is-which, just because I like revisiting my thoughts:

My top 2 would be a tie between A (F3) and F (alexa): they both look great
The next 3 would be tied too: C (epic) (which looks great except for the blown-out highlights), E (C300) (which has very slight aliasing) and H (F65) (which looked slightly too digital at times)
After that would come G (7D) (somewhat soft, maybe less DR than others, some issues in the highlights)
Then a tie between I (FS100) (somewhat soft, less DR than others, lots of aliasing, some noise) and B (GH2) (impressively clean -except for some slight aliasing-, but looking very digital)
And finally D (iphone) (horrible)
 
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Looks like a torture test, both for the cameras and aesthetically. All the cameras look bad, because the image is bad. But some handle it with a bit more grace than the others.

I had assumed they were going to light each scene much differently so as to cater to each camera's limitations, but it is a comparison test after-all, so they have ingredients for that.

Of course this shoot out did not include the DR heft D800, but is the D800 getting anywhere near the 14stop DR in video mode? (sorry, had to be the guy who brings up the one camera that isn't in the comparison, as well as the guy who isn't going to search for results about the D800 in video mode.)

As always, almost any comparison is going to be interesting, this one is a fun new twist with the Grading in post. And it is always good to hear opinions from master in the field. Which end up being somewhat disappointing and somewhat very informative at the same time. Like the quote about Gordon Willis "I can't tell you why, it just felt right." Haha.
 
There's a camera test in there? Sorry, I was just enjoying the wonderful mini-doc on the art of cinematography. If the other two parts didn't have a single additional comparison, and were just more about the art and artistry, I don't think I'd care for a second. And I think that's the whole point, really.
 
I pretty much liked them all, outside of D, G, and I.

I actually thought that some looked better on the beginning wide-shot, while others looked better on the ending two-shot, but I think that was mostly the lighting.

I don't feel I can accurately judge the differences between the majority of the shots because of differences in the lighting / grade.

F seems to have the most range and detail.
 
I like A the best.
B looks super clean, but somehow scary digital and artificial (hope it's not the FS100, but Dan usually knows what he is doing).

Frank
 
To be honest, I was not really pleased with how it was lit. I do understand that it was a stress test lit for DR. Someone commented on one of these Shootout response threads (I am starting to get confused by them all) that they got the "... Over lit corporate video look..." down pat. I personally think that it looked like a feminine hygiene products commercial, or what ever, and that light sandwich on the face of the blonde girl in the foreground drove me crazy. That being said, I Liked E the best. I don't have a clue which camera was used, but I think that maybe the subtle lighting choices each team made may have really made a lot of differences. I want to go back through the technical specs documentation and see what changes were made to the lighting and then look at it again.
 
David G. Smith said:
To be honest, I was not really pleased with how it was lit. I do understand that it was a stress test lit for DR. Someone commented on one of these Shootout response threads (I am starting to get confused by them all) that they got the "... Over lit corporate video look..." down pat. I personally think that it looked like a feminine hygiene products commercial.
Click to expand...

Hehe that's exactly what I thought. I didn't even bother to make a note of which one I liked but some of them looked very video like and the soft organic looking one I assume was the 7D....What happened to the girl in the hot tub? That's the only way to properly test a camera.

We have the same quote too, are you the clone I've been searching for?
 
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squig said:
Hehe that's exactly what I thought. I didn't even bother to make a note of which one I liked but some of them looked very video like and the soft organic looking one I assume was the 7D....What happened to the girl in the hot tub? That's the only way to properly test a camera.

We have the same quote too, are you the clone I've been searching for?
Click to expand...


Ha, Ha, Ha, ..... I'm not the Droid you are looking for...


I do have to 'fess up about my comment. I have been studying and am becoming very influenced by the work of the great Gordon Willis ASC http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0932336/ and I kind of paraphrased him there. When asked about what he thought about the work of Haskell Wexler ASC on his second Academy Award win for "Bound For Glory" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074235/ Gordon said, "It looks like a beer commercial.". That really struck me. The more I study his work, and the work of Cinematographers like Roger Deakins ASC, BSC and Emmanuel Lubezki ASC, AMC I understand what he is talking about. The lighting in the shootout is exactly what he is talking about. That is just an aside, and not what the shoot out was about.. just sayin'.
 
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I was pissed. After choosing my 1,2 & 3, I thought I'd be able to see the identities of the contestants but NO? Silly.
 
I was at the screening in London last week, so I know which camera is which ;) and was amazed at how well the GH2 performed - I had it down as the Epic in my list. The big note for me was that all the cameras looked great, even the iPhone to an extent, considering the 2k screen. The F65 stood out as superb but the C300, Alexa, Epic and GH2 were all really really close. The camera technology is level between manufacturers - what really made these cams shine were the lenses they used (50k Fujinon) and the grading they got (Baselight). If you have access to those tools, you can make any camera look stunning.
 
C, E and F were my top three (in no particular order). I think it was the more natural looking colours that did it for me.
 
@Zephirnoid: they'll say which camera is which in the next part, in a few days. Just so I can make a fool of myself bitching about the defects of cameras I coulnd't pay for.
 
GH2 is I

Around 18:23 in the video, they are interviewing the guys that are operating GH2. They show a scene where GH2 guys are talking about color correction. Look at the exact location of the actors




7392424634_8c8d255d4b_b.jpg



Now the only scene that exactly matches this scene (exact location of actors), is I


*GH2 is I* !!!


7392424532_0dac9145d7_b.jpg
 
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My top two were F and H. No idea what they are however. Surprised theres not more takers for H. Skin tones on girl sold it a big plus for me.
 
I liked H pretty much, just not as much as A and F. Any of A, C, E, F, H, to my eyes, is a winner, a camera anybody should be glad to shoot with. And we're not supposed to be guessing which is which, but I think... H is EPIC, G is FS100, I is 7D, B is GH2, D is iphone. BTW: they recorded GH2 with and without hack, but I think they only show it with the hack: it's 9 cameras (iphone, GH2, 7D, FS100, C300, F3, EPIC, Alexa, F65), and 9 clips (A-I).
 
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