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The Great Camera Shootout 2011 part #1
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    In the most scientific camera comparison to date, “The Great Camera Shootout 2011: a documentary of the Single Chip Camera Evaluation (SCCE)” premieres with Episode 1: “The Tipping Point.” The first episode of the 3-part web series examines three SCCE Tests: The Dynamic Range Test, The Under Exposure Test and The Over Exposure Test.

    Look at video at http://www.zacuto.com/the-great-camera-shootout-2011/episode-one

    I, personally, do not like both selection, approach and procedure of this shootout.
    But it is interesting to watch.
  • 17 Replies sorted by
  • brianlucebrianluce
    Okay, now I am talking conspiracy. So, THREE Canons in a Zacuto sponsored shootout? What's the subtext here? Canon can hold its own with Alexa so buy a Canon and don't forget your Zacuto rip off rails?
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    >So, THREE Canons in a Zacuto sponsored shootout? What's the subtext here?

    No context here.
    As far as I remember, Panasonic did not want other cameras present.
    Most probably same is true for others.
  • bitcrusherbitcrusher
    I thought that this was good. No test is really going to tell you what is the best camera, and they said it in the video a few times. I think this is good stuff.

    It is sponsored by Zacuto and Kessler crane but I don't see too much adverting in the video. Zacuto is smart because you can only watch it from their web site. I think Zacuto sells stuff to GH users as well. I would have like to have seen a GH2 in the video.
  • OedipaxOedipax
    It's lame that the GH1/GH2 was excluded on grounds of it not coming from the "professional" division of Panasonic. It out-resolves the three Canons they have there, has none of the moiré issues, can record for longer than 12 minutes at a go, accepts a wider selection of lenses, etc. I understand they don't want to compare every second-rate consumer cam on the market, but come the fuck on.

    Does anyone know where the GH cameras would fall along the continuum for stops over/under key as tested here? I.e., does it see more into the shadows or protect more into the highlights? I tend to underexpose by a stop or so on the GH cameras, just looks better to me that way, but it would be interesting to see a more technically objective answer as to the best practices.
  • bitcrusherbitcrusher
    I think the gh2 would be very close to the af-100. I noticed my gh2 blows out in the same way on cinema mode in the highlight test.

    As a general observation gh2 looks a lot like the af-100. As far as the footage on vimeo that I have seen.
  • LPowellLPowell
    If Zacuto had dropped the aging Canon 1DMk4 and included the Sony FS-100, the line-up would've looked pretty impartial to my eyes. I found the Canon 7D's results distinctive enough to justify its inclusion in the shootout, but that would certainly set the bar low enough to qualify the GH2 as well.

    However, in this league, Panasonic is no doubt regarded as an upstart. Sony's professional video camera legacy is enshrined in the F35, and Canon and Nikon are of course distinguished by their undisputed dominance in the world of 35mm photography. Panasonic is merely one of the largest and most successful consumer electronic corporations on the planet, however little that is worth in prestige.
  • zigizigizigizigi
    The part two of dynamic range test is not very scientific. They chose a mid luminance point as a reference and the only thing that this test has really shown is that different cameras adjust their latitude range differently around this arbitrary chosen point. This is precisely what their bar chart shows. So when these guys are complaining that some cameras "clip" highlights, it's not the camera - it's THE FLAW in methodology that doesn't take into account that different cameras use different gamma curves. It doesn't mean at all that you cannot adjust one or another camera not to clip highlights. Of course you can.

    It would have been better if they had taken the most low lit object as a reference point, make it clip on all cameras and then we could have seen where exactly all cameras actually clip the highlights. They did the same thing in their first circle pattern latitude test but vise versa - they took the most high lit circle as a reference and then we could see how long the dynamic range goes down.

    It's a shame that none of them pointed it out. So they just expose their incompetence and lack of understanding of what latitude is when they speak that "some cameras are better for lowlights, the others for highlights". You can shift the latitude range wherever you want by adjusting exposure. And what this test missed is aligning the latitude ranges of different cameras properly.
  • bitcrusherbitcrusher
    I think somebody mentions that @22:30 also they spend a a few sec before explaining a few other flaws in the test.
  • zigizigizigizigi
    Okay, perhaps I missed some part. But still, after this test I expect to read in the internet that X camera is better than Y camera in terms of highlights rendition. "I saw it in Zacuto test". That's how internet myths originate.

    Otherwise, it's an interesting watch. Alexa rules. If not the an-arm-and-a-leg price tag.
  • fatpigfatpig
    @oedipax: the included the af100, which has the same sensor, so thats ok for me to count as gh2 comparison.
  • PixCanFlyPixCanFly
    Canon 5D Mk2 was never in Canon line of pro SLR. It's always a semi-pro camera.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    You must think about this as commercial thing with clear target for owners.
    Thing made by professionals. Good looking commercial product.
    Words like "Independent" constantly mentioned do not have any relation to such "tests". Zero.
    It is sad thing, but it is life.
    Test can be independent if people agree about all test parameters and procedure, provide their own cameras, collect necessary money for selected persons to perform the test. This is the right way to do.
  • stoneystoney
    Hmmm... that sorta supports lpowell's tip: Minus one or two thirds EV to maximize DR on GH1.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    >Minus one or two thirds EV to maximize DR on GH1

    If you try to hear pros in this clip you'll find that they all said that you must always expose to highlights if you want to preserve them. And it is not camera dependent technique.
  • stoneystoney
    Yes. The vdslrs preserved the underexposed scene better that highlight scene.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    dvxuser has extremely hilarious thread with Jan describing some shortfalls by the fact that they had a man with the camera but he is basically had one instruction - not to touch anything, use default settings. Because they thought that doing otherwise could gain unfair advantage to Panasonic camera due to the fact that other technics assigned are not so good.
  • TheNewDealTheNewDeal
    Ah, yeah.
    - DSLRs are not like film cameras.
    - The film camera skills and workflows don't always apply to DSLR skills and workflow.
    - You do have to know your DSLR camera, and set it properly for a scene to get good results.

    This is news? Yawn...
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