Awesome video guys. Thanks for taking the time to do this. The Canon looks like it has a lot of contrast in comparison.

АААААА!!!!! я не знаю английского! чего они там говорят - переведите хоть чуть чуть..

I think the last couple of sentences said it all.

Awesome vid, guys. Keep em coming.

Feel free to contact me with any questions about setup and the shootout itself. Full-resolution versions are on their way. I was one of the producers of the shootout.

Is it just me or are the blacks in the 5D MKII footage way richer than any of the other footage. Was that from the camera settings or did you guys choose to make it look like that? Great test, thanks for this!

I agree with Tyler. The blacks on the 5D were way to strong. Did you want them to look that? Or, was that the way it came out of the camera?

Thank you for the test. However, I think the lowly Canon HV30 had a place in your test. The HV20 and HV30 series are the most popular high-end consumer cameras ever, and they are used a lot by many prosumers as B-Rolls too. Here on Vimeo too, they are the most popular cameras too. I think just for the purpose of pure quality, I would have loved to see how the HV30 looked compared to the rest of the cameras too.

You Zacuto guys did a great job with this. Thanks for this opportunity to view the material. It seems all these cams have their strengths and weaknesses.

напишите им кто-нить о том, как правильно конвертить видео с Марка2, чтобы уровни не резать, а то фигня ведь полнейшая вышла... тестеры, блин!

Less than a minute of real content out of 10-minute footage. Next time bring the HMC150.

I have a Canon XHA1 and I can't believe how good it did compared to the other cams, certainly nowhere near Film or RED, but still looks damn good compared to the $8k EX3! It really is all about framing/lighting/KNOWING the camera!

Very nice concept guys!

I too would have liked a little more actual footage, but I'm really grateful for what you did!

Keep them coming!

Hi again!

I took a few still frames into Photoshop and it confirmed a feeling I had:

The 35mm film clip and most of the others have highlights (flames) at RGB values around 250 which makes sense. For the Canon 5D mk2 the flames are at around 175-180 which is muted. It is also pushed into the green/cyan color which causes a pretty unattractive color cast for this otherwise warm and cosy scene.

You mentioned that the 5D tends to deliver contrasty (overly so?) images and you 'opened it up' in post.

I would be interested in a comment what some of the results and limitations were. I can only assume, since professionals were at work here, that this is the overall best image that the 5D can deliver.

I would have expeced brighter, more orange/red looking flames and hightlights overall.

Does anyone from the production care to comment?

Thanks again!

The 5D was taken into the Davinci 2K color corrector like all of the camreas. We tried to match them as best as we could. In hindsight, now knowing a little bit more about the 5D, I would like to try to pull the contrast down a bit in camera while shooting, also reduce the chroma a bit. Then I might have a bit more latitude in color correction. I guess the assumption was that the 5D was like an HVX200 or EX3, that you shoot the best looking image out of the cameras and it shouldn't need much color correction. At the time we shot, before the camera was released, we only had the camera for a couple of days, so we certainly hadn't mastered it. If the 5D is your choice, you will have to learn how to master it and know how to make great images with it. Know you production and post-production path.

Wow - very interesting discussion and test. Thanks! (I've added a link to the 5d wiki - planet5d.com)

Interesting discussion, but no "test".
Bad test. What you experienced? Automation func on cameras?
DOF at all the different. Color .....Oh.

If I was going to the Jungle to shoot I'd take the RED.
Hang on.... I already did.

It handled the conditions well, a little heavy perhaps but the footage was lovely, and the wide latitude helped greatly under the canopy.

I certainly wouldn't take an HVX200 (as much as I like the camera, NatGeo and Discovery no longer accept nature shows shot fully on the HVX as HD). If I hadn't taken the RED I'd have shot an EX3, or an HPX3000.

Not sure I'd risk taking a D5 for a real shoot, it just seems premature (...says the man who took a beta build RED).

I would also love to see some Consumer models like the HV30 brought into this, to really see how it stacks up.

I would also love to see a $200-300 SD consumer MiniDV model thrown into the mix, so we can REALLY see the quality jump from a lower end Consumer, an upper end consumer, a Prosumer, and a Professional rig.

Also, it's love to see them in order of cost, from cheapest cam to most expensive, so we can really see the quality we're getting for the money.

Also, any reason why you didn't put an adapter rig on the EX3? I have heard really great things about it's quality when compared to the HVX, and i'm surprised that the HVX was one of the only ones that got a adapter put on it.

The reason we used the HVX200 on all of the adapters was to have a baseline to be able to judge them one to another having the camera be the constant. I think the next shootout will have to be a adapter shootout. If people as for it we will do it.

I see from reading the shooting specs that the Sony EX3 was set at -3db. The difference between -3d and 0db is that at -3db the highlights above 100 are clipped. 0db would actually been better. Using a CINE2 or CINE4 picture profile would also have yielded a better picture for postprocessing.

Bonjour Joseph, there are some HVX-like Picture Profiles published at dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=124880&page=5 (and many other in the same indispensable thread for XDCAM EX shooters). I feel this test has NOT been exploited what the EX1 and EX2 really can do. No Picture Profiles gives definitely the worst picture. Keep on the good work !

Hey guys,

I can't even begin to explain how valuable this movie was to me. I'm an aspiring filmmaker currently shooting on an 8 year old Panasonic miniDV (go figure!). Especially the discussion part (which was most of the movie) was very refreshing and informational to me. A true insight in the way pro film makers think.

Also it's great to read in the comments that a great movie comes from a great movie-maker, and not from an expensive camera per-se.

I'm aiming for a Red Scarlet next year, can't wait to see one of those in a future Shootout.

Any chance one of the filmmakers in this video could email the individual camera settings? Sorry if that's a hassle. Or just at least the RED settings, and the HVX and the XH-A1.

Thanks a bunch.

Nevermind.

"You have to have skilled hands." I've seen total crap shot on a RED and on 35mm film and I've seen absolutely stunning material shot on the new 5D or an HV20 for that matter. This last sentence of the interview sums it all up. For me, I'm loving my EX1 Letus/Nikkor setup.

It would be great to know what lens the RED stuff was shot on vs. the 35mm. The RED stuff looks soft. Was it a 35mm lens, Nikon, or?
Thanks,
Max Kaiser

Read Specifications of Shoot at zacuto.zenfolio.com/p82280286/h1429ae6c#h1429ae6c

Great work guys! Very educational discussion. I felt like a fly on the wall! It's greatly appreciated.

But I can’t help but wonder why there’s such a drastic difference between your 5D video footage of the violin players, and Vincent Laforet’s “Reverie” 5D video footage on Canon’s website? Canon claims that all of Vincent Laforet’s footage was straight out of the 5D camera with no color correction. But obviously it had to be compressed for the internet, and I’m guessing they went all out on that step; probably a multi-step compression that they left working all night long on one of their many big-daddy computers. But is it simply a difference in compression that created such a wide quality gap between your footage and Vincent Laforet’s?

Now I’m a far cry from an Online Editor/Color Corrector, so maybe it’s just my untrained eye, but the difference seems huge to me. Or maybe it was just seeing that incredibly gorgeous film clip first that ruined the rest of the clips for me.

Cheers!

Keep in mind some may look soft to you, but that's only in comparison to another. If you saw a whole video of the 5D and nothing to compare it to. I don't think you would think it's so soft. I agree with Stunz. A lot of the what you see with the 5D is night footage and it really shines there. I wished we would have talked about how well this camera does in low light.

Were all of these cameras running at the same time? Could you put all of the results on a DVD, with several angles on one track to switch between? I'd love that, and it could be a great promo piece for your company.

Thanks a lot!

Thanks for the post on Facebook (Zacuto Hd Camera Packages) about the new Zwing-Away! Cheers.

You're welcome guys! Keep the comments and questions coming!

I just bought a Canon 5D Mark II and I immediately noticed the crushed blacks, the lack of shadow detail, in all the video clips I produced. The images are somewhat contrasty for sure, but the latitude at the dark end is utterly dismal. I tried all the different picture style settings to little effect. If you reduce the contrast setting for any picture style, you can add a tad of shadow detail, but not enough to write home about.

So . . . yes, the camera is sensitive in low light (video-wise), but it will drive a lot of the shadow areas to black under all conditions. It makes that choice for you. Perhaps a lousy jpeg algorithm for the video mode. I don't know what is causing the problem. And I don't think there's any way to prevent it.

Great test. Since the 5DMKII spurred this test into being, it would be great to know if any solid production workflows have been created.

It seams like there is no way, take-to-take, to know that you are getting the same setting in terms of DOF, Shutter Speed, and ISO. So how can you even do a talking head interview without worrying that the camera is "automatically" fixing the shot for you. I have read "all the tricks" from around the web, but if you have to start rolling, then lock exposure, then press the shutter button half way to display the settings the camera has set for you, then try again if you don't like them for every take..... well you might be there a while.

Or am I missing some new firmware hack that allows you to setup the video mode manually now?

I really dont see how this can be considered a fair comparison for any of these cameras. To my eyes, i'd rather see the original footage (without any fancy corrections) all converted to grayscale. This will allow me to evaluate the tonal values, latitude and other technical qualities better (as most ppl who do test would look at). All the DOF has to be about the same for each and every case. Take the case of RED. This was obviously shot with a very shallow DOF on a very wide aperture to create the kind of bokeh I see. If not, then the lens of the RED must be very soft. Even comparison between the A1 and EX3 shows the EX1 picks up more information in the shadow but we have no idea if this was due to post processing where the A1's black has been clipped more or the EX3's shadow has been lifted etc... The HPX300 is a 2/3 chip that currently shows more DOF than the EX3 or HPX170. Maybe the other two looks softer because the aperture was shot wide and the 3000 was at its sweet spot?
Assuming that film was the baseline, the adapters shouldnt even be in this at all. I dont see the point in putting in DOF adapters because there are t0o many variables that starts to creep in. Which adapter? Which lens? Are you guys just doing this because you want to use these camera names to bring attention to Zacuto or do you really want to test them out? Cut the original footage and desaturate them and show us the essence of each camera's capabilities.
Apart from that, the general discussion you had was ok. Each person had their own arguments and each held their own validity. However, I wouldnt call this a shoot-out. More a discussion on the usability and practicality of the new breed of cameras for the independent filmmakers.
Thank you for taking the time to do this review.

Joseph,
Thanks for responding, but I have the camera with manual nikon lenses, and the only way that I have found to lock exposure is after you have started to record. Then you have to press the shutter button half way down and look in the LCD. It tells you what it set for ISO and electronic shutter speed after you are rolling. I have seen it pick 1/40th of a second one moment at ISO3200 to 1/100th of second at ISO1600 the next time I start rolling again. In essence, Canon has crippled this version of the camera. All it would take is a menu option to turn on "Full Manual" mode so I could set things the way I want them. Real 23.98 and 29.97 would be nice too. But if I can't get full manual mode, then for now my HVX and a friends Red do wonders. It's just so frustrating, because the image quality and noise signature of the 5D just smokes the HVX (in my opinion) and the Red can be heavy and really needs a crew to be effective.

So if you have a faster or better workflow for the 5d, then please lay it out step-by-step, because I can't get two back to back takes with the exact same ISO and shutter speeds.

Thanks.

I dunno. The compression is an obstacle for me. DVCProHD is way better than H.264. But the prices of CF vs P2 are something to consider as well. You are correct that RED truly needs a crew. What mode are you shooting in with the 5D though? Shoot me a private message on here and we can chat technique

PM sent.

For 5dMKII shooters and potential shooters, I think an old fashioned letter writing campaign needs to start.

Since the 5DMKII can be tricked into doing most of what you want, then it is obvious that it was intentionally hobbled to prevent competition with their video division.

Maybe when Canon starts receiving thank you letters from Nikon and Zeiss for all the additional lens sales that they are making they will respond. I'd rather be buying L series glass, but it is useless (for video) if I can't repeatedly control it, shot-to-shot.

As a proud user of the hvx/redrock rig, the footage looks great, but I'm going to challenge the back focus on your hvx/redrock demonstration. Seems a little soft to me. Just so viewers are aware, lens adapters have a multitude of tiny calibration and tweaking combinations, and if any of those factors are not optimized, you won't be getting the best picture you possibly can. I've seen redrock/hvx footage that looks like 35mm (search "sarah landon" on google and look at the footage) and I've seen some that looks like burry video (if I had some of my earliest footage up anymore, I'd show you what I mean). Again, it's getting the rig tweaked just right. Also, people must take into account the glass used. I happen to own Nikons since they're cheaper but for the bigger budget projects I rent Zeiss. you wouldn't think it would, but it makes a huge difference in terms of light loss, contrast, vignetting, and color saturation.

I think you guys are totally AWESOME for doing this video, and would LOVE to see a shootout in natural light outdoors. HIGH regards!!!

thank you very much for this comparison. shooting d90 at the moment, seeing your footage, the red looks incredibly interesting. the modular system and the concept appeal to me, image quality looks very close to film .

Thanks for doing this. It's a great idea, but it's kind of impossible to see the real subtle differences between these cameras on a web compressed video sample, even an HD sample.

Is it possible to post a much less compressed, HD, 1 minute video clip that we could download?

Thanks!

very imformative.. thank you for posting this!

Thanks for putting the video together. I would have loved to hear the colorist comment on how much room he had to grade with. Regardless of the DPX conversion I would think there would only be so much base color information available. Which formats required the most work? Which were the least flexible?

Very informative overall. I have a feeling that if you were able to spend more time with the 5D Mark II, that it would have looked a lot better. Compared to the colors produced by the other cameras (and the video footage from 5D's I've seen at many other places) it's clear that the 5D IQ is not as good as it could/should have been. The candle color alone shows that something was off for both this and the Nikon.... unless they just are that different from the "big boys" in the video world.... which is hard to believe considering the quality of a single shot from either of these smaller cameras.

Still great info - I'm shocked someone would want to take any sort of film into the Amazon at this point. Humidity alone would cause serious (potential) technical issues.