4 Camera Shootout and Blind Test

[Mattias Burling]

I made two more scenes mainly because the score is so even and I wanted to ad a shot with more details, motion and a closeup.
The scenes are called 4 and 5.

I totally get it if you don't feel like looking at more boring footage but its ok, I don't blame you. The statistics will be pretty much the same anyway even if its just the "youtubers" answering.
Thank you all that have answered so far.

/Mattias

 

[johnnymossville]

Camera C in part 2 looked best to me. D looked good as well. 

[cantsin]

Re: part 2

 Okay, now we have the definite clue that indeed, you shot the same scene with different cameras. And we can say much more about the actual quality of the cameras because you shot a more detailed scene in daylight.

Scene 4:

Camera A: Soft image, ugly moiré on the building. Could very well also have been the lens that was soft (like a Russian vintage lens) since the softness of the leaves looks like coma. Pleasing colors. If I were on a TV quiz, then I would say that this is Canon or Sony DSLR/mirrorless footage. (Not A7 though, and not 5D MkIII.)

Camera B: Terrible squeaky consumer cam colors, terrible dynamic range with totally crushed shadows, terrible oversharpened image with no real detail/no real resolution, looks like a smartphone or bad consumer camcorder (even Aiptek-class bad...). Resolution is too bad to produce moiré.

Camera C: Relatively good detail and dynamic range, probably shot with a flatter profile, looks like something from a more modern mirrorless camera like Panasonic GH/Sony A7/Samsung NX. (Could also be an older GH2/3 or a Nikon 5x00.)

Camera D: This is the shot with most genuine detail and resolution, and most natural and differentiated colors. Moiré on the building. I'd say that this has been shot with a Blackmagic Pocket or 2.5K Blackmagic Cinema Camera.

 

Scene 5:

Close-up shots with shallow DoF really aren't useful for comparing cameras. Here, your DoF is so shallow that the differences between the shots rather lie in the center of the focus area (which is slightly different in each shot) than the rest of the image. Since the color palette is greatly reduced, too, and there are no memory colors like grass and skin tones, you can't say anything about these shots either, only one thing:

Camera C: absolutely terrible, oversharpened, blown-out highlights with false color, must be the same terrible camera as B in Scene 4.

Camera D: has clear problems with moiré and false colors (see the blue lower eyelid and rainbow artifacts on the animal's fur).

 

 

[AaronChicago]

I'm going to guess the 4 cameras are GH4, NX1, BMPCC, and Canon DSLR (7D,T2i,5D, etc.)

[Cinegain]

Did you change up the cameras? 'Cause I felt like the scene 4 B was the D from the previous video... and in the 5th scene it was C.

4. A - terrible moiré on those orange panels, nice flat look and details though, bit soft, B - panels look clear of moiré here, bit soft, no shadow details, C - again, clear of moiré panels, nice 'n flatish, good details, D - great balance, probably best, nice sharpness and details, crisp look, but the moiré on the panels though...

5. Tough one... A - fine, nothing to fault here, B - better details, harsher highlight roll-off, C - this looks like something from a smartphone... harsh highlights as well, D - nice again

[j.f.r.]

C and D looks best to me in scene 1 (part 1).

In part 2 scene 4 camera "D" looks best, it's not even close how bad the image looks in all of the other cameras.........

[nougat]

Scene 1, 2 and 3

B - A - C - D

Scene 4 

D - C - B - A (because of the terrible moire)

Scene 5

D - A - C - B

 

When is the reveal?

[Liam]

I don't think you should judge scene 4 based on moire. Matthias has gotten moire from that building with basically every camera, and there's downscaling issues here too I'd think

scene 4 - c

scene 5 - A

[maxotics]

I have never been able to get the kind of DR shown with camera C, so I will say that camera C is a Blackmagic.  If it isn't camera C I will be so, so interested in what it is!  I could get the GH4 to get a flat image like that, but not without hurting skin tones.  

[Palpet]

Scene 4 Camera C

Scene 5 Camera B

 

[Volker Schmidt]

Scene 1-3:
Cameras A + C looks organic, but not really impressive:)
B + D looks more electronic (D looks terrible plastic:)
C with the best 3d feeling

Scene 4:
Cameras A + D more organic
B + C more electronic, but C is ok (B looks terrible:)

A = C (from the first clip)
B = D 
C = B
D = A

 

[nougat]

A = C (from the first clip)
B = D 
C = B
D = A

 

Close to what I have...

​A = C (from the first clip) 
B = D 
C = A
D = B

[AaronChicago]

Scene 1-3:
Cameras A + C looks organic, but not really impressive:)
B + D looks more electronic (D looks terrible plastic:)
C with the best 3d feeling

Scene 4:
Cameras A + D more organic
B + C more electronic, but C is ok (B looks terrible:)

A = C (from the first clip)
B = D 
C = B
D = A

 

​Just curious, what is your go-to camera in real life?

[bunk]

Scenes 1/3 are the same just different grading.

I like cam A the best as it has the most pleasing framing dof to me.

If I had to guess A] bmp, B] lx 100, C] NX1, D] D16.

 

Scene 4 framing cam A most pleasing to me.

Scene 5 framing A and C are close and B an D. Don't like the framing of B and D. A has A DOF advantage over C, so I choose for cam A.

 Guess of cams: A] bmp, B] NX1, C] LX 100, D] D16.

[Geoff CB]

From your first comparison. A, D, B, C. D is very, very underexposed compared to the rest, but I like the tone of it judging from the last comparison.

[Mattias Burling]

I have never been able to get the kind of DR shown with camera C, so I will say that camera C is a Blackmagic.  If it isn't camera C I will be so, so interested in what it is!  I could get the GH4 to get a flat image like that, but not without hurting skin tones.  

In which scene do you mean? 

[Mattias Burling]

Thank you all so much for the input. I find the results and comments so far very interesting. I will start preparing a score board for part three.

/Mattias 

[MattH]

Firstly D in scenes 1,2,3 is abysmal. No detail, over-sharpened. Probably 720p from a point and shoot.  I believe this was the same camera as B in scene 4 and C in

scene 5. Unless you want the 80s video look do not bother with this camera.  Forget it.  I think you know this already though.  I will not even include it in my rank of preferences.

 

Scene 1,2,3: B,A,C (B being the best)

B is the bmcc.  I thought it was the bmpc 4k until I saw the moire in D in scene 4.

A is the pocket. Good but a little soft. For film look it works.  But revealed itself with the moire as camera A in scene 4.

 

Scene 4: C,A,D  in order of moire suppression.  C probably won because it didn’t have the detail to resolve the moire area.

 

Scene 5: B,A,D  but there wasn’t much in it.

 

With a mosaic filter the BMCC would walk it.   C in 1234 did pretty well as an all rounder.  Prety much equal detail to the pocket

Oh and I didn't like the grade of scene 2 by the way, but b held up the best.

 

[maxotics]

In which scene do you mean? 

​The scene facing an avenue.  Whenever I shoot such a scene, the shadow side of the trees loses most detail with any 8-bit consumer camera I have used.  Indeed, I think trees are one of the best indicators of dynamic range.  Short-light photography is meant to have contrast, so when you shoot such a scene most 8-bit consumer footage looks naturally good. 

It's the same with the same camera and dog.  I can get such RAW footage to match the other higher contrast, richer colors, but not the other way around. Although the scene of the dog with camera C looks a bit over-exposed and flat, it looks like perfect footage to me that will have a lot of latitude in what you want to do with it.

My experience is that no consumer 8-bit camera can match consumer RAW (Blackmagic) in delivering film-quality skin tones or high-detail dynamic range (not to be confused with sharpness).  Professional 8-bit cameras, that have the processing power and settings to basically do what Davinci Resolve does IN CAMERA, are a different story.

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

First scene:

A & C- Canon DSLR and a 1080p pocket camera.

B- Very modern sharp image with good colour yet lots of colour moire LX100?

D- Tiny sensor with very bad colour rendition and/or lack of grading knowledge or raised up ISO and excessively stepped down.. So I have no clue to tell what is, it Might be Anything that's horribly shot and treated or just a very bad sensor.

Tell if I got it right!

My preferred? the modern B for high res corporate/weddings/nature etc and A&C for films.