4 Camera Shootout and Blind Test

[Mattias Burling]

I got a bit inspired by Ed and decided to make a test in order to answer a few questions and was hoping for some help.

What I'm trying to answer is what type of images appeal to what type of people online.
Therefor I'm posting this on various forums and ask my friends and such in order to get everything from fellow producers, to enthusiasts, pro shooters and all the way to people that couldn't care less about cameras.

As a bonus I'm looking to see what type of people notice artifacts, what people think about different grades, lights, movement and so on.

So in Part 1
I'm simply recording a selfie while I'm chewing gum (yes its boring like nothing else).
If you feel like helping out I would appreciate it.
To clarify, I rather know which you liked best in each scene/look than which one you liked best over all.

I will post the result from the votes here in a few days or so.

Thanks, Mattias

 

[Palpet]

Scene 1  Camera A

Scene 2  Camera B

Scene 3  Camera B

[Liam]

C, B, B.

Was just planning on being a fly on the wall for this one, but hardly anyone has chimed in, ha.

[Axel]

D, C, B, off the cuff.

[Mattias Burling]

Thanks for the input guys, really appreciate it. 

Have over 50 replies after just a few hours with very even scores.  So I might do one more with exterior or something to see if that has any impact.

[Aragonnarun]

A, C, A

[mercer]

1 - D

2 - C or D

3 - D

interesting test. I found scene 2 to be the hardest to decide. i wrote C or D but I also kinda liked A. am intrigued to learn the results.

[Cinegain]

Perhaps it's nice to know 'why' we feel a certain way about our choices...

1. B - great overall image, love the detail, little videoey perhaps, A - Nice 'n flat, a little dreamy soft, C - A little soft, but perhaps the most filmlike, D - didn't like it at all, baked-in feel, noise, just no

2. C - little soft, but great character/tonality, A - little glowy and soft, B - starting to get a little gritty, contrast is pretty harsh, especially the highlights aren't very appealing, D - again, for me the absolute worst

3. The closest call. D -  suddenly comes out rather well. Best overall look perhaps if it weren't for the noise/blockiness, otherwise great balance, still picking it over A's soft glow, A - again very glowy and somewhat soft, seems a smooth skin filter was applied or something, not digging that much, B - nice detailed image, felt again the contrast started to be harsh on the skin, C - the eyes kinda fall dead, but it has the best film look

So I guess the cameras stayed the same designator (A, B, C, D) throughout. B for me would be the best if you'd not push the image. C would be best for overall filmlook. A would be great if you could manage details a bit better/cut the glow. D isn't for your average purposes, but surely has its use.

[Marco Tecno]

I don't like D. That's imo the worst, especially in the first two scenes.

A and B are close, with A more 'cinematic' and B sharper. C has probably the best contrast in scene 2 but I still prefer A and B.

 

So I'd say A, B, B (with B,A,A close seconds, C third place in every scene).

[jagnje]

B, A, C, D

[AaronChicago]

D  for scene 1.

D  for scene 2.

A and D  for scene 3. D has more detail but I like the look of A.

[johnnymossville]

B B B

[AaronChicago]

Who will be the expert and name which camera is which?

[Cinegain]

Last must be something like the Digital Bolex (wildcard: a lens corrected GoPro; perhaps smartphone). I felt like the 2nd might have been the GH4 or NX1.

The first felt like the A7S or perhaps BMCC. The third's like the Canon 5DmkIII.

The depth of field might agree with me, the crops not so much. Could be a lens thing. Not sure if he even has the cameras mentioned. So it's all just guesswork. You could make any camera look like another if you were trying to really really hard.

[Mattias Burling]

Perhaps it's nice to know 'why' we feel a certain way about our choices...

 

​Definitely its just that if I ask to much people wont write anything.
But your right I also would love to hear why, what display was used or pretty much anything extra, thanks  

(and guesses of what cameras was used is always fun.)

[sandro]

I like A/B for all scenes, D is a no-go. Camera A looks like the GH4 to me

[AaronChicago]

Camera D in the first 2 has to be a Blackmagic cam. The way the midtones are handled. Just a guess.

[johnnymossville]

ok I'll go a bit further with my opinion.

A.  The colors are a bit funky and the skin looked like it was artificially softened.  This actually might be a good thing in many situations.  Overall I liked A.  Sony A7S?

B.  Seemed to capture a pleasing looking image with the right amount of detail and color.  This was my favorite in all scenes, but I like A quite a bit as well.  Samsung or GH4?

C. Looked soft, possibly out of focus, the colors were fairly pleasing again, but seemed a bit over done.  Canon Colors?

D. Looked the worst to me,  The detail was good, the colors weren't bad, but the image had a harshness to it I just don't find pleasing.  No Idea what cam this is. 

[cantsin]

With all due respect, but for the images to be really comparable, these shots should have been made with identical camera angles/fields of view and identical exposure. (Exposure greatly varies between the shots, yielding different gammas and different color rendering). Using a mixture of daylight and tungsten in the same shot isn't very helpful either, unless you want to show how well a camera can deal with it. Exposure should not be done only on the basis of identical ISO settings for all cameras and identical apertures for all lenses since these won't mean the same thing across different devices. (Unless you have calibrated your cameras to matching ISO values and use lenses with t-stops).

That said:

Scene 1: B looks best and has the most differentiated skin tone rendition, A is out of focus, C is underexposed, out of focus, and its white balance is off, D looks terrible but is also underexposed and has weird white balance.

Scene 2: B looks best, A looks like Instagram but seems to suffer from an overly soft lens, C looks bad, D looks terrible.

Scene 3: A looks like Instagram, B has a terrible magenta tint and is underexposed but detailed, C is unsharp mush with a terrible red tint making the talent look more salmon than human, D is strongly underexposed, noisy and with salmon skin colors. - None of them look good.

Now my theory: You probably swapped cameras in each shot and tried to grade each of them to look A, look B, look C and look D respectively. So, let's say in 1 you might have had a BM Pocket for scene B to look bright with accurate colors, and you might have used the same camera as cam D in scene 3 graded to the reddish-underexposed look.

Which boils down to that fact that postproduction/color grading is more important to whether or not we find a camera looking good than the choice of the camera itself. You could even have used the same camera on all shots just with different lenses and grades - that should have been possible with a Blackmagic Camera, for example. Maybe this is the point that you want to make. 

[Mattias Burling]

With all due respect, but for the images to be really comparable, these shots should have been made with identical camera angles/fields of view and identical exposure (which now greatly varies between the shots, yielding different gammas and different color rendering). Using a mixture daylight and tungsten in the same shot isn't very helpful either unless you want to show how well a camera can deal with it. Exposure should not be done only on the basis of relying on identical ISO settings for all cameras and identical apertures for all lenses since these don't mean the same things (unless you have calibrated your cameras to have matching ISO values and you use lenses with t-stops).

 

​I hear what youre saying. But you dont know the settings, cameras or reason to why Ive done the way I have nor the way they have been processed or why.
It will all be explained but one must remember, I made this test because "I" wanted to know something.
In the meantime, thank you so much for the great and thorough input