Zacuto revenge of the great shoot out!

[Gillvane]

Premieres June 15, 2012.

http://www.zacuto.com/shootout-revenge-2012


So in the test they took the following cameras:

Epic

Alexa

F3 with Slog

FS100

C300

GH2 (hacked)

7D (yes a hacked 60D would have been better)

iPhone 4s (for shits and giggles)

F65

Phillip Bloom sneak peak

[Gillvane]

Post your favorite camera:

http://www.zacuto.com/shootout-reven...otout-part-one

[Gillvane]

I like H.

[1]

"We’ve got a lot to prove in Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout 2012."

They proved that talking too much is boring.

(It did look spectacular though...)

[drapeama]

They proved that talking too much is boring.

...yeah.

[Almohada]

HV20

[Gillvane]

"We’ve got a lot to prove in Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout 2012."

They proved that talking too much is boring.

(It did look spectacular though...)

The camera tests start at about 18 minutes in. I could have done without all yakity yak.

[Gillvane]

HV20

The cool thing about this test IMO, is you can look at it without seeing the cameras. Which camera did you like? Which one do you think looks closest to the hv20?

I mean you can look at the pdf and see which camera is which but that kind of defeats the purpose.

[BarteS]

-- Ah, there is a second thread about this one, crosspost as this one is more crowded (other one)

Totally underwhelmed over here. Especially after the teaser by Steve and Jens I hoped to finally get a peak into the heads of some of those great DPs. Or at the very least give me good pointers. Not just name...read good books. Thank you very much for that one. Good movies, sure thing. Sure there were some good advices, as such. But unfortunately it's basically the same old (true) - but increasingly pushed out - story about creativity, effort, learning and leaving tools to what they are...tools. Sorry, but that's not cutting it for me anymore. I'm well aware.
The 'promise' would be how demonstrate how some of the DPs were truly able to max out their cameras. And in the case of the GH2 you've got more work to do, whereas other cameras are out of the box better. Sure, there is more to come and I'll most definitely will take a look at those to. But honestly, the real cliffhanger, the one which you're supposed to get with this 'new' shootout, it was not there. The only one was the shootout and that's "yesterday's" shootout.

[Gillvane]

-- Ah, there is a second thread about this one, crosspost as this one is more crowded (other one)

Totally underwhelmed over here. Especially after the teaser by Steve and Jens I hoped to finally get a peak into the heads of some of those great DPs. Or at the very least give me good pointers. Not just name...read good books. Thank you very much for that one. Good movies, sure thing. Sure there were some good advices, as such. But unfortunately it's basically the same old (true) - but increasingly pushed out - story about creativity, effort, learning and leaving tools to what they are...tools. Sorry, but that's not cutting it for me anymore. I'm well aware.
The 'promise' would be how demonstrate how some of the DPs were truly able to max out their cameras. And in the case of the GH2 you've got more work to do, whereas other cameras are out of the box better. Sure, there is more to come and I'll most definitely will take a look at those to. But honestly, the real cliffhanger, the one which you're supposed to get with this 'new' shootout, it was not there. The only one was the shootout and that's "yesterday's" shootout.

Ok. So why not post which camera you like, before looking to see what they are?

[BarteS]

The shootout part is ok and I get their intentions on that one. It's just that it's part of the bigger video, which did leave me disappointed.
Anyway, as a response to your question, I do prefer camera H the most. Camera B was another one that stood out, but to me it was pushed too much. Quite a few cameras were close too close to each other to be give them a clear positioning in a ranking. The order of those constantly changes slightly. However, D and G were way too distracting, too much loss of detail.

[1]

which camera you like

With my internet connection, I watched in crappy quality, and although some did seem to look better,
the overall feel of what was shown came through in all examples, because they put so much effort in making it look good (set, lighting, etc.).

For us mere mortals, we can go out and buy a cam for $3000 and it could look spectacular......but doesn't because we can't afford the
talent and time and extra equipment it takes to make everything else match the cam's quality.

This has been true for some years now...

[Janke]

This has been true for some years now...

Indeed. In fact, many people who know this (and spend their time/money on the important things) do make amazing stuff with sub-$1000 cameras.

[Gillvane]

With my internet connection, I watched in crappy quality, and although some did seem to look better,
the overall feel of what was shown came through in all examples, because they put so much effort in making it look good (set, lighting, etc.).

For us mere mortals, we can go out and buy a cam for $3000 and it could look spectacular......but doesn't because we can't afford the
talent and time and extra equipment it takes to make everything else match the cam's quality.

This has been true for some years now...

Someone posted a lighting set up diagram for one of the shoots. It was a crazy amount of overhead lights, HMI's, Griffilons, scrims, blacks, and other major major grip equipment.

Not only would you need a two ton grip truck, but the time and crew to set all that up which is also usually lacking on a no budget set. If you have three lights, set up doesn't take long. There's only so many places you can put them.

[BarteS]

That's what I like about the Technical Camera Document (which contains the diagrams). It puts things a bit* more in perspective.

Whereas some are continuously talking about the new, more expensive and better cameras, others are at the same degree guilty of promoting a simple camera being enough. One of those common statements...different tools for different jobs applies. If you want a specific look, it sometimes is more efficient to go out and get that $3000 camera (to more renting will be the better option anyway).

As Gillvane pointed out, you should look at the overall costs. And thankfully that's what's in the document too, to some extent. They mention the relight equipment, but also the relight time and post production time. If you're putting a price on those elements too (including having talents wait to test!) the expensive F65 becomes more appealing. The DP did not relight the scene at all and spent just half an hour in post production. And the DP of the Alexa did add some stuff including one fixture which took 33 minutes and 1 hour of post production. The DPs of the iPhone and GH2 did add 6 and 4 fixtures, spent 32 minutes (fast!) and 52 minutes to light it and spent the full 1.5 hours in post. Sure I'm cherrypicking here and comparison is far from perfect or fair...but at least that's another take-away from all this.

* Problem is...the DPs did add a personal touch. Some focuses on the highlights, others on noise and so on.