I reckon B, H, A look best, iPhone must be D

An excellent article and a nice wee test, looking forward to the follow up

@Shian When I was at the C500 event I remember needing to ask for help to change the ISO, so don't feel bad. :) I'm told the two cameras control almost exactly the same, so I will add my comments about the C500 here. Many of the controls were very intuitive and I did like having direct access to so many parameters without having to dive into a menu. The tools you mentioned were very helpful, and as far as the RGB waveform display it really made a difference for me. Similar functionality (including the "exposure" tool) is of course offered on the RED Scarlet and Epic, though with an RGB histogram as opposed to a waveform display.

The C500, shooting 4K to an external recorder, performed every bit as well in the highlights as the 12-stops would lead me to believe, so it is possible the encoding format is the limiting factor on the C300.

As far as the mount, their senior rep at the event answered that as one of my questions during the public Q & A. The official position, whether anyone else agrees with it or not, is that the using an interchangeable mount would result in some reduction in image quality, no matter how minute, and that the company will not make that compromise on the camera itself. Now, they are open to offering their cinema lenses with a PL mount in the future (though I was somewhat unclear as to whether that would come in the form of an interchangeable mount or would just be a different product).

@Philldaagony yeah, Sony has always been that way with their flagship products.

I'm shooting with a C300 tomorrow so we'll see what's up.

I'll also be interested to see if they had scopes running live on the footage, rather than using each camera's in-cam meter.

Thanks, Nick @driftwood

I like that they released a pdf of how the lighting was altered for each. Kinda shocked that the F65 was the only cam that didn't change anything from the base setup. Would have thought the Alexa could handle the DR easily from the meter readings given in the PDF. Other than the EU in that one corner which is off the scale on the shadow side, and would be hard to capture any detail there and still retain the highlights, it's really only a 9 stop DR scene. Too broad for the DSLR cams, hence the adjusted lighting, but well within the claimed 13.5 of the bigger cams, and the claimed 12 of the C300.

On the GH2, if they shot smooth, and the median exposure is the foreground girl's face at 5.6 1/2, then everything over 11 would be really hazy, and everything at 16 and above would be pure white. On the shadow side everything under 2 would start to get murky, but you'd still have a little detail on the 1.4's before pure black. The EU on that desk/cube, would be pure black. This all depends on if they adjust the 2/3s of a stop to get her skin to 50%. if not, they'd have another 2/3 highlight room, but lose it again on the shadow side.

I like how they compensated the room to bring up the exposure inside, pulling the scrims and ND, adding the joker, the 650, and the two 4x4s. I'm really looking forward to seeing this.

"If anyone who calls themselves a cinematographer considers this absurd exercise in stupidity a test they truly don't have a clue." Francis Kenny @ RED.User

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?79526-Just-watched-first-part-of-zacuto-shootout/page6

Well...it's official now! We are all fucking clue-less...

I've heard a lot of different numbers for the dynamic range of all the various cameras, so I just used my own figure for the GH2 and I admit, I used the Red's marketed figures for the Epic since I don't have an Epic. I ended up with 8 and 1/3 stops of range for the GH2 with hack using this method (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/determining-exposure.shtml). I counted what I thought were usable stops, so I'm sure you can get a higher figure with different criteria. If the Epic's usable DR is really around 11.5, then that is kind of disappointing.

Either way, I think the GH2 has enough dynamic range for most applications if you plan on doing post correction. If you notice in the link where the Alexa and 7D's dynamic range is compared, you'll notice how fast highlights blow and how much detail the shadows retain. Protect your highlights and dig a little in the shadows if needed. The highlight blowout indicator in the GH2 + histogram is tremendously helpful for this. I think the key is to work around the GH2's shortcomings which seems to be the lesson of this shootout.

Dude, the XF must be garbage. I've never tested it. But I have tested the HVX200 vs F900 and the only real difference is detail, not DR. And The same vs. 5D and GH2.. The detail in the shadows is at first blush, way better with the DSLRs, but in terms of pure DR, not a lot of difference. I've shot on the 7D a few times, and didn't see anything close to 11 usable stops... not even close. The original RED ONE had 11, and we could not fit the DR of stuff shot on the RED ONE onto the 7D, we had to squeeze it into 8.

The GH2 (on the average) has 3 stops above 0 and 5 and 1/3 below. This range moves around as different film modes are selected, but it never really stretches wider. Everything is a compromise. Better shadow response on NOS equals worse highlight response... and so on.

Now I've shot stuff with the GH2 in Smooth and Nostalgic modes, that seemed to be handling a wider DR than I would normally think capable, but when I went to grade the footage, that "extra" range was complete crap...just falls apart immediately on both the high and low ends when trying to grade it, so I have given up trying to use those outer edges, it never pays off the way you want it to. I'm resigned to 6 that I can work with, readily. And 4, if I wanna do any serious grading.

Fit everything into 4, and you can do some amazing shit in post.

@mintcheerios Well said, well said I made those same observations long time ago. We have plenty to work with using the GH2 8bit 4:2:0 is good enough, just have to learn how to make it shine..

@danyell Yeah, I remember seeing that and wondering how they measured. It just did not reflect my experience with the cameras that the gap between the RED and 7D was only 1 stop.

@thepalalias and @kholi, lets say it is 2 stops compared to the 1.5 from the zacuto test, but not the 6 stop I made reference from. I base it from some test I have seen from provideocoalition and now the zacuto 2011 test.

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/uploads/FileUpload/ee/1f710f6d505171964b288d498ed158.jpg

well, because I have tested it, and am still testing it across film modes and hacks, let me tell you. The GH2 has a full range of 8 and 1/3 stops, only 6 of them are effective stops, and only 4 stops of detail between 80IRE and 20IRE regardless of film mode. Not even close to the RED.

No DSLR at the moment. not even the 5D has a larger DR... they are all about the same. which is a 5.6 to 6 stop effective range. It is a myth that DSLRs have a significantly greater DR than any other standard HD video camera. Don't believe me, take an F900, XD-cam or an HVX and chip chart it with a 5D and a GH2... they are all pretty much the same.

And to be perfectly clear, since some people don't understand what dynamic range actually is - Dynamic Range is the exposure range (in stops) across a single exposure from pure white 100IRE to pure black 0IRE. There is a REASON your in-cam EV meter only goes to +3 and -3.

EDIT - the 6 stops of effective range refer to the 6 stops between 95IRE and 7.5IRE (broadcast)

GH2's useable DR is around 9 to 9.5 stops.

Epic's useable DR is around 11.5 stops @ 5K FF

So yeah, it's a good two up.

HDRx is a rarity, no sense in counting it.