Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout - blind test
- Thread starter Samuel H
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Samuel H
Major Contributor
@ Tom Wilkinson: I think B is the GH2. If that's right, and if that's the one you like, congrats, you can get the camera of your dreams in a tiny package and for a ridiculous price. I didn't like it, though: it looks much more "digital" than any other one. It's not something that everybody can agree on, because it's purely subjective: there's nothing clearly wrong with that image (no aliasing, no noise, no softness, etc), but I don't like it.
I liked H the best. I looked primarily at three things. First, the faces of the guy and girl in the foreground after they sat down and how the skin tones looked and the shadows when they turned their faces left and right. Second, the plant in the corner for DR. In some shots it was so dark I didn't know there was a plant back there. Third, the opened door and the light on the woman's face as she looked around outside to see if it was burned out.
In H the skin tones looked nice while the shadows on their faces weren't to dark, the plant was visible, and the woman's face when she opened the door was not burned out. That could have just been how they added fill to the scene for that particular camera, but that's the one I liked the most.
That being said, I didn't like the scene at all. I would prefer to either close the curtains, or just let somethings fall off into total blackness rather than this sort of bland set up. I can't say that it was flat, but it was just uninteresting.
In H the skin tones looked nice while the shadows on their faces weren't to dark, the plant was visible, and the woman's face when she opened the door was not burned out. That could have just been how they added fill to the scene for that particular camera, but that's the one I liked the most.
That being said, I didn't like the scene at all. I would prefer to either close the curtains, or just let somethings fall off into total blackness rather than this sort of bland set up. I can't say that it was flat, but it was just uninteresting.
evilthought
Well-known member
Is it possible to guess Epic from the Epic lighting?
First there is Zacuto original lights (F65 team didn't make any changes)
then changes done by Epic team
Could E be the epic? (refection of the hair from the girl on the sofa?)
First there is Zacuto original lights (F65 team didn't make any changes)
then changes done by Epic team
Could E be the epic? (refection of the hair from the girl on the sofa?)
Is it possible to guess Epic from the Epic lighting?
First there is Zacuto original lights (F65 team didn't make any changes)
then changes done by Epic team
Could E be the epic? (refection of the hair from the girl on the sofa?)
Holy Christmas Trees Batman! All those lights.
I'd like to see a two light shoot out. You get two lights, and any grip equipment you want, that's it.
D is CLEARLY the iPhone. DEAD LAST by a longshot.
B must be the GH2. It is by far the most overlit, with the most fill - and the GH2 young guns talked about how much fill they added. At first glance (on a small screen), the amount of light looks nice - but upon closer inspection it's too much, and not near as natural looking, smooth and filmic as most of the other clips. Hard to compare, because there's so much light and it looks so artificial. But pleasing, to a certain degree.
Eliminating those, I put the remaining clips, in order of quality (best first), as: F, H, A, E, C, I, G
F, H, A - all REALLY nice.
Something really odd is going on in some of the details in G.
I is underlit, but smooth.
(Hmmm...Gilvane and I seem to be fairly alone in ranking H so high...)
B must be the GH2. It is by far the most overlit, with the most fill - and the GH2 young guns talked about how much fill they added. At first glance (on a small screen), the amount of light looks nice - but upon closer inspection it's too much, and not near as natural looking, smooth and filmic as most of the other clips. Hard to compare, because there's so much light and it looks so artificial. But pleasing, to a certain degree.
Eliminating those, I put the remaining clips, in order of quality (best first), as: F, H, A, E, C, I, G
F, H, A - all REALLY nice.
Something really odd is going on in some of the details in G.
I is underlit, but smooth.
(Hmmm...Gilvane and I seem to be fairly alone in ranking H so high...)
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I found the 'film' a bit too long and cheesy for my taste and the setup wast particularly inspiring, but hey, it's a test shoot. However, I appreciate the effort Zacuto have put into this so thank you to everyone who made this test possible.
Here's my guess:
A (F3 S-Log)
B (GH2)
C (Red/ FS100)
D (iPhone)
E (Alexa/ F65)
F (Alexa/ F65)
G (7D)
H (C300)
I (FS100/ Red)
My preferences:
E/F (they both look fantastic; I'd use either any day of the week)
A/H (A has the edge on Highlight handling, but the overall image of H is very pleasing)
I wasn't too impressed with the rest, but I would definitely stay away from G, D and B (though the iPhone seemed to handle highlights better than other cameras).
If I'm right with my predictions, I find the test a bit unfair towards RED. Firstly, viewing 4K footage at 1080 on a computer doesn't do the camera any favours. Secondly, as I understand they didn't use HDRX which would have worked perfectly in this scenario. Nevertheless, I do feel RED need to start focusing on getting better Latitude out of their sensors rather than putting all the attention on their resolution.
Here's my guess:
A (F3 S-Log)
B (GH2)
C (Red/ FS100)
D (iPhone)
E (Alexa/ F65)
F (Alexa/ F65)
G (7D)
H (C300)
I (FS100/ Red)
My preferences:
E/F (they both look fantastic; I'd use either any day of the week)
A/H (A has the edge on Highlight handling, but the overall image of H is very pleasing)
I wasn't too impressed with the rest, but I would definitely stay away from G, D and B (though the iPhone seemed to handle highlights better than other cameras).
If I'm right with my predictions, I find the test a bit unfair towards RED. Firstly, viewing 4K footage at 1080 on a computer doesn't do the camera any favours. Secondly, as I understand they didn't use HDRX which would have worked perfectly in this scenario. Nevertheless, I do feel RED need to start focusing on getting better Latitude out of their sensors rather than putting all the attention on their resolution.
vision_filmz
Carbonite Member
Personally I hated the way "B" looked, it looks to much like video. Real sharp and everything fake, film in my opinion looks more organic/natural which is why I like the the other scenes better. Personally I like A the most with E and F coming in and a tie for second. B by far looks clean and razor sharp but I truly do not like that image at all, truly hate it.
evilthought
Well-known member
And G is 100% 7D (looks even worse than IPhone due to soft image plus moire).
H is 100% F65.
How do we know that? Someone who watched the screening said this about F65..
Now which clip has the magenta cast? It's H (Someone also said F65 had a different colorist than the rest).
So now we have,
D: IPhone (100%)
G: 7D (100%)
B: GH2 (too much lights, too much contrast -- no wonder many people picked it at the screening, but it doesn't look great after analyzing it a bit more).
H: F65 (magenta cast)
F: Alexa (99% probability)
I am almost 100% sure that the above is correct ...
The other ones (just a guess) E, Epic, I: C300, and A and C (FS100, F3 not sure in which order).
evilthought
Well-known member
I know I am very close, as my list was based on logic and available info
I know this part is correct: D: IPhone (100%), G: 7D (100%) B: GH2, H: F65, F: Alexa
If there was something missing, then it has to be in this part: "The other ones (just a guess) E, Epic, I: C300, and A and C (FS100, F3 not sure in which order)"
I think I has to be C300 because I have not seen anyone say anything positive about C300 performance at zacuto screening (must not be good?).
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roxics
Veteran
This doesn't make sense to me. Because in a real world scenario (an actual film) the mass majority of people are not going to analyze it. So if it looks good it on the surface than it looks good and that's what matters to them.
This reminds me of the Fuji Velvia story I heard back in the 90's. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but there is a good moral to the story. It goes like this:
Kodak was attempting to create an even more accurate to reality film than they already had. Meanwhile Fuji was doing psychology tests on people to see what kind of images they preferred. What they discovered was that although not accurate, people in general preferred images with more saturated hyper-real color. With that information they developed Velvia which went on to become one of the best selling film stocks ever, redefining landscape photography.
It doesn't matter if that story is real or not, because what is real is that cameras don't capture reality. They create an interpretation of of reality. The camera is never at fault, it's the photographer who is at fault for expecting something out of it that it doesn't do rather than using it for what it does do.
I know I am very close, as my list was based on logic and available info
I know this part is correct: D: IPhone (100%), G: 7D (100%) B: GH2, H: F65, F: Alexa
If there was something missing, then it has to be in this part: "The other ones (just a guess) E, Epic, I: C300, and A and C (FS100, F3 not sure in which order)"
I think I has to be C300 because I have not seen anyone say anything positive about C300 performance at zacuto screening (must not be good?).
Well, if that's correct it's a little bit disappointing. I picked H as my favorite and it's a 65K camera if it is the F65, but that is what you'd expect.
Did not like B or D. I did like A and then C slightly less than A.
Generally I love Epic footage I"ve seen and I'm not really digging E if that's the Epic so I'm not sure what's up there. It looks Ok, but definitely not my favorite.
Same with F. Looks good, but not my fav. Seemed a little bit videoish for some reason, maybe a tad oversaturated.
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Ian-T
Veteran
Tim Nitsch
Well-known member
There is something about Epic footage that draws me to it as well. But I will say that I didn't see that "something" in any of the footage from that test so who knows.
I would love to see what Jim Jannard chose as his favorite. It would be interesting if he chose the Epic and it would be even more interesting if he didn't. I guess we'll never know because he's not much of a team player unfortunately.