5D3 vs. GH2 Images Compared

[jcs]

Here's the 5D3 vs. GH2 example with a little bit of post-work on the 5D3 footage. The anti-aliased 5D3 footage can look sharper after editing in post, however the original anti-aliased look, while 'softer', looks more like film than digital.

Also note the original 5D3 footage's white balance and color space were way off (including the histogram); I matched it closer to the GH2 image.

[Andrew Reid]

I'm interested to try some sharpening in post. What are you using?

By the way I think this is too over sharpened... Fine for a still but it would look very animated in motion.

[jcs]

First, try shooting with sharpness turned off (0). Then use a sharpen filter in your NLE. In PPro is "Sharpen", GPU accelerated so runs real-time. I found sharpen 30-48 to look decent (this is a convolution filter: won't cause halos).

Performing a histogram equalization in Photoshop shows the 5D3 footage has more information than the GH2 (halos from high levels of sharpening with an Unsharp Mask style filter). Note the fine detail in the limbs (regardless of the halos). Same resolution vs. GH2.

[Andrew Reid]

This is interesting!

[Andrew Reid]

Here's my go at it...

Kind of depressing trying to make a $3500 camera look like a $600 to be honest.

But it does sharpen up without too many nasties.

Nice... Sort of. Still not convinced it can fully be salvaged in motion though... Isn't all this digital sharpening very un-cinematic and eye fatiguing in motion? It certainly seems it to my eye so far, but thanks for the inspiration.

GH2 on the left. Sharpened 5D3 shot is on right of first screen shot. Original is bottom file right side.

[jcs]

The two shots looks similar. The GH2 looks like a digital camera, the 5D3 looks more like film (also less noisy). Is that what you see? Turn down sharpening if motion has issues.

Shot indoor with the 70-200 F2.8L II, camera setting P (as shipped), profile "Faithful" (everything 0), IBP. The footage in PPro looks excellent. Didn't really need sharpening (looks a lot like film), but added a Sharpen 33. File was renamed with a .MPG extension: plays in real-time. Note that the DOF is fairly narrow, however the small text is readable. Playing back full screen looks great.

I ordered 2 of these cameras (kit and body only). Definitely keeping the kit. I need to shoot a project with it before opening the body. Goal is to be able to shoot with two cameras. Have not decided whether to keep the body yet (will know better after using the kit camera on a real shoot). Might replace body with a pro video camera (high quality image stabilizer, high quality autofocus, for interviews). Need to demo/rent them first; leaning toward something that shoots 50Mbps 422, XF series or similar (can't justify C300 yet).

[jcs]

Looking more closely at the GH2 image: it's much noisier and highly aliased. The 5D3 footage is cleaner, and even after sharpening, looks well anti-aliased while being about as sharp as the GH2. I will shoot outdoor daylight footage during lunch today.