Zacuto Camera Comparison Test

I was surprise when Scott Lynchh said he would choose the Canon 5d to shoot in the amazon. I thought the Canon looked worse than the D90. Also, did I understand that they bumped the image to 1080p for this test?

I have to agree with Car3o about the exposure...maybe like Jens Bogehegn satated...they probably need to play more with the Canon or Nikon to learn the possibilities. Also I think the Nikon footage looked too soft...I dunno...I hope now I do not regret my Nikon D90 purchase...had I not seen the many videos posted by users of the D90 in this forum, after watching a shootout like this, I would probably never had ordered the D90. But I have seen amazing stuff from the d90 in less controlled situations.
 
First of all the video is being reuploaded. I think some last minute changes were made in the edit. That's what I've heard at least. But I'm a few states away so not much I can tell you there.

Here's some answers for you.
Film stock - I'm going to get that information for you ASAP. Keep watching the thread.

For each camera, we did multiple takes. One was a rack focus. Another was a locked off focus on Kate, the female violinist. So the differences in shots has to do with that and how the editor cut it together. Also with the D90, we had three takes one with exposure was not locked off. However, I must say it was rather difficult to set exposure properly on the D90. It was more of a guess and test game using white cards in different light. Does anyone have a better method?

The MK2 was used with contrast at -2. This was a first run test and we only had the 5D2 for a short period of time. No software manipulation of the image was done. However it's important to not the compression artifacts present from these DSLRs. It's a sacrifice you make for the camera. All footage was sent out to D5 tape before we colortimed. So the post house was adequately able to handle 5D2 footage.

I wouldn't say the Scarlet is the "camera killer" but it will definitely introduce new options to the market. Personally, the Scarlet that I want isn't one of the 2,000,000 combinations or what not. But that's okay. I like the P2 workflow too much for that.



In about 5-10 months, we'll produce another one of these. At least, I will! And you'll see better use of these DSLRs and their settings. Plus maybe a certain rosey red camera in the mix! Also be on the lookout for an adapter shootout I'm personally producing with the Brevis MP.1, M2 with CF2, Letus Ultimate, Letus Extreme/Elite, and maybe a SGBlade. I'm also looking to include other adapters like the G35, Movietube, and Pro35 in it too! It'll be thorough as well.

In the coming weeks, we may release the full footage of each camera with multiple takes if there's an interest in this, send me a PM and I'll hook you up with some info.

Keep the questions coming..
 
Super8 said:
I was surprise when Scott Lynchh said he would choose the Canon 5d to shoot in the amazon. I thought the Canon looked worse than the D90. Also, did I understand that they bumped the image to 1080p for this test?

I have to agree with Car3o about the exposure...maybe like Jens Bogehegn satated...they probably need to play more with the Canon or Nikon to learn the possibilities. Also I think the Nikon footage looked too soft...I dunno...I hope now I do not regret my Nikon D90 purchase...had I not seen the many videos posted by users of the D90 in this forum, after watching a shootout like this, I would probably never had ordered the D90. But I have seen amazing stuff from the d90 in less controlled situations.
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Scott was going for the small form factor. If you imagine shooting natives with a big camera setup, they might not go for it as easily if you have a small camera. I also think he liked the portability of CF cards and solid state technology. I'm putting words in his mouth, but from being there for the entirety of the actual round table and the pre-discussion, that's a decent answer.

No one has a magical recipe for these DSLRs yet. I mean Panasonic just released scene files for their cameras a month ago. And some of them have been out for years! So don't be so critical of the look quite yet. We'll get it there in the next one for sure! Tell me how we could improve our test. PM me your personal settings and tricks for exposure on these two beautiful DSLRs.

Keep the questions coming.
 
Joseph:

well done...I did enjoy the comparison...what I did not enjoy was when I cringed at the image of the D90 (which I had literally just put and order for minutes before watching the comaprison shootoutout)

But then again I realize that the D90 will not replace my HVX or DVX or even my HV30...I was just hoping for a little more pleasurable image...I guess I will have to play with it when i get it.

I would love to get footage for the d90...I'll PM you
 
I'll tell you one thing Super8. The D90 is where it's at. It's light weight enough for you to take on a day trip, hike, or even on a day in the city, but not heavy enough to make you feel like you're working too hard.

It'll only get better the more we play with these cameras!
 
Joseph Stunzi said:
I'll tell you one thing Super8. The D90 is where it's at. It's light weight enough for you to take on a day trip, hike, or even on a day in the city, but not heavy enough to make you feel like you're working too hard.

It'll only get better the more we play with these cameras!
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I am all about not working...if I feel like i need the weith i might slap a 10 pound weight disk to it...hey maybe it will cure the "shakey bakey" problem
 
This is a great example and I really like the attitude of the piece- I think an amazing test would be in an environment where the lighting wouldn't be able to be fully controlled- like outside! and also with camera movement- even hand held! I think then you could really see how some formats shine in particular; film.

Love the last few lines about having skilled hands- that is dead-on.
 
hunter richards said:
This is a great example and I really like the attitude of the piece- I think an amazing test would be in an environment where the lighting wouldn't be able to be fully controlled- like outside! and also with camera movement- even hand held! I think then you could really see how some formats shine in particular; film.

Love the last few lines about having skilled hands- that is dead-on.
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Hey Hunter:

do you have the d90...I've seen your work..I would be interested in seeing how you would handle the d90
 
hunter richards said:
This is a great example and I really like the attitude of the piece- I think an amazing test would be in an environment where the lighting wouldn't be able to be fully controlled- like outside! and also with camera movement- even hand held! I think then you could really see how some formats shine in particular; film.

Love the last few lines about having skilled hands- that is dead-on.
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The problem is shooting with 11 cameras in that fashion. I mean you can't adequately compare the dynamic range among other things when the lighting changes. It took us an entire day to setup, light, rig, and shoot this thing. So outside would be cool to see the camera image itself, but I'm unsure as to if that'd be a fair comparison due to the sheer amount of change you'd go through with multiple cameras. Maybe simultaneously or with a lesser number of cameras this would work.

The last few seconds of the discussion are where it's at!
 
Joseph Stunzi

Just curious as to what lense was used on the D90. Was it the 18-105 ?
 
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Wow! Some revelations! Thank you all for putting that together!

SURPRISES:

1. I was very impressed with the colorimetry, sharpness, and overall aesthetic quality of the HPX3000, compared to that of the 35mm film footage. The only thing I didn't like about the HPX3000 was of course, its still-too-deep-focused, 2/3"-sensor.

2. RED footage looked soft compared to the 35mm?

3. Both the Canon and Nikon DSLR footage appeared to have substantially smaller color gamuts, and noticeably lower apparent resolution than all of the other compared cameras.

4. I didn't know that HVX200+35mm adapter footage in general, could look so good. Great colorimetry, decent contrast, and surprisingly sharp-looking!

QUESTIONS:

1. What was the "key" level on the female violinist's camera-right side of her face in footcandles?

CONCLUSIONS:

I bought a D90 sight-unseen a week ago. I felt that if it failed as a D-Movie camera, I still needed to upgrade my aging D70 anyway. I'm a bit disappointed that the D90 looked, to me, the worst of the bunch, and again, I'm surprised at how good the HVX200 footage looked. But, I long ago dismissed the HVX200 after performing my own tests (comparing it to full-sized Sony BVW400A/BVW600 ENG cameras). The HVX' ultra-blocky, low-light noise was intolerable, IMO. The decade-old, analog Betacam 2/3" SD cameras with which I compared the HVX, exhibited virtually ZERO visible chroma noise under matched light levels.

One camera that would've been interesting to see also compared is the HPX500. It's a mid-line 2/3" HD camera (albeit, employing a pixel-shifted block), that's selling for only $8,000-$9,000 these days, and is certainly worth considering over pricey 1/3" and 1/2" HD alternatives. However, the lack of affordable 35mm adapters for 2/3" cameras still handicaps this option as a shallow depth-of-field, filmmaking tool.

CHOICES:

If asked the same questions as the panel in the video, my preferences would be:

1. High-end project: 35mm film.
2. Documentary in the Amazon jungle: Sony EX3.

Thanks again for all the hard work in producing this multi-camera, shoot-out!
 
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Joseph,

Thanks to you and Zacuto for doing the test and posting it up. I would have liked to see some outdoor shots, but I understand that would have been difficult to do.

Like Ralph, I was surprised that the Red footage looked a little soft. But the HPX3000, EX3, and HVX200 held up pretty well. The DSLR's didn't look so good here, but I've seen better shots elsewhere. Please let us know when you post larger footage - it's hard to see all the details on Vimeo.

BTW, which camera(s) did you use to shoot the discussion?
 
Sumfun said:
BTW, which camera(s) did you use to shoot the discussion?
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HA! That was also MY first question, watching the video! Also, was there an HDW-F900R in the test? Just curious, since this is the camera I use at work now, and I think it looks just lovely.
 
mrmoe said:
Just curious as to what lense was used on the D90. Was it the 18-105 ?
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We used a Zeiss ZF 50mm prime lens on all DSLRs and adapter setups in this test. We used an adapter to get it onto the EOS mount of the 5D2.


Ralph Oshiro said:
1. I was very impressed with the colorimetry, sharpness, and overall aesthetic quality of the HPX3000, compared to that of the 35mm film footage. The only thing I didn't like about the HPX3000 was of course, its still-too-deep-focused, 2/3"-sensor.
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Jan backs the 3000 for a reason my friend!


Ralph Oshiro said:
2. RED footage looked soft compared to the 35mm?
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In reality, nothing can really beat film. I don't feel that RED is a replacement for film but rather an alternative for your workflow. Film will always look the best in my opinion in these tests. At least until all those Epics come out! :)


Ralph Oshiro said:
3. Both the Canon and Nikon DSLR footage appeared to have substantially smaller color gamuts, and noticeably lower apparent resolution than all of the other compared cameras.
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What do you expect from a small photographer-centric product? They compress the footage like crazy! Especially the D90, which will leave to compression artifcats and blocking. The color gamuts might be increased with some work using some better settings, but we had had the camera for all of 3 days before we had to do the shootout.


Ralph Oshiro said:
4. I didn't know that HVX200+35mm adapter footage in general, could look so good. Great colorimetry, decent contrast, and surprisingly sharp-looking!
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YES YES YES. There's a reason people like 35mm DOFAs. The reason they look so good is in part due to the lighting. Proper lighting really helps these adapters shine.


Ralph Oshiro said:
1. What was the "key" level on the female violinist's camera-right side of her face in footcandles?
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Let me get my production notes. I'll get back to you.


Ralph Oshiro said:
One camera that would've been interesting to see also compared is the HPX500. It's a mid-line 2/3" HD camera (albeit, employing a pixel-shifted block), that's selling for only $8,000-$9,000 these days, and is certainly worth considering over pricey 1/3" and 1/2" HD alternatives. However, the lack of affordable 35mm adapters for 2/3" cameras still handicaps this option as a shallow depth-of-field, filmmaking tool.
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We originally planned to have 14 candles but ran out of time. We had a HPX500, Varicam, and F900 lined up as well. Unfortunately time ran out.

Sumfun said:
Like Ralph, I was surprised that the Red footage looked a little soft. But the HPX3000, EX3, and HVX200 held up pretty well. The DSLR's didn't look so good here, but I've seen better shots elsewhere. Please let us know when you post larger footage - it's hard to see all the details on Vimeo.
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We brought up in our prediscussion an interesting point. The majority of the DSLR stuff we've seen has been at night. If you download any of the DSLR videos from vimeo and look at them in full resolution, you'll see the same compression and blocking we did. We're not saying that we are expert DSLR shooters. We're just trying to show what a Director and DP with 40+ years of experience between them can do with all of these cameras. We'll post the larger footage on bittorrent in the coming days. You can download the Vimeo file if you want to get a little better peak.


Sumfun said:
BTW, which camera(s) did you use to shoot the discussion?
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We used 5 HVX200s. 4 were locked off on each of the panelists. 1 was on a Losmandy Tripod Dolly.


Ralph Oshiro said:
HA! That was also MY first question, watching the video! Also, was there an HDW-F900R in the test? Just curious, since this is the camera I use at work now, and I think it looks just lovely.
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Unfortunately we ran out of time. Setting up 11 cameras "ain't easy!" and we tried out best to get in the F900 and HPX500. However, next time we do this, we'll have less adapter setups to worry about and a different setup. The reason being for less adapter setups is that I'm doing an adapter shootout myself in the coming months. I'm even trying to get my hands on a SGBlade.
 
Thank you Joseph! Appreciate your answers, and I can certainly appreciate the tremendous amount of time and effort that must've gone into this project. Thank you again to both you and your team for putting this all together! Hat's off to Joseph and all those at Zacuto who helped out!
 
CALLING ALL DSLR users...
Tell me the best way to lock exposure and set white balance. Tell me your scene file settings. PM or on this thread. I'm trying to put together a reflective conclusion on what I'd do differently and what not in a future shootout. So help me out!
 
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