Gh4, Gh3, 5d3, 7d, and C100 Shootout

Andrew Dean from HillBillyGripTruck.com posted his updated video shootout of the Gh4, Gh3, 5d3, 7d, and C100. The results were pretty cool and we were able to get a nice side by side view of quality from each of the cameras as they were all setup to be relatively close in settings. On top of making sure settings were close, all of the cameras shot at the same time in the same exact lighting situation to make sure they were all brought an equal scene to work with.

The methods used in this video were definitely well thought out, but not perfect. Andrew wrote on his blog the exact steps he followed to try and keep everything equal.

1. Each camera operator would set their camera up how they normally shoot with it, including color profiles.

2. The lighting would be fairly contrasty to show strengths/weaknesses of dynamic range, and targeted to fall between 200 and 800 ISO - the intensity typical of one of our indy shoots.

3. We'd haze the room.  Haze gives a lovely "volume" to light, but also, the tiny particles in the air can show up as "details" to the camera and can really push the limits of the codec.  (similar to fields of fine grasses/trees with small leaves)

4. Each of us considering the gh4 were planning to pair it with a metabones 
speed booster, so the gh4 would have one for the test

5. All the lenses would be stopped to f4, to get them into their "sweet spot" and to not make this too much of a "narrow DOF shootout". 

6. We'd juggle lenses and positions as much as possible to get similar frames out of each camera.  Especially with the primes we struggled to match framing exactly , but got pretty close. 

7. To test skin rendering and to match "real world", we'd shoot musicians performing as many setups as time would allow, like a sort of minimalist music video.

 

Andrew initially shared the video above but got complaints about the C100 footage being de-interlaced. He actually went back into his settings to check but found nothing wrong and even said he looked into prores versions of the test that he had exported to confirm the C100 footage looked correct. After still receiving complaints on the video he initially uploaded, sure enough, he noticed the C100 footage was de-interlaced when it exported as an Mp4 which he hadn't saved after uploading it to Youtube. In the end, he found the problem and fixed it for everyone. Thanks Andrew!

I mentioned briefly at the top of this article that the setup wasn't necessarily perfect and Andrew went on in his blog to actually point out just that. "Obviously, there are some flaws with our comparison, the least of which is the variation in lenses.  However, these are also the actual lenses that each operator shoots with, so while it is a perfect "real world" test for them, it just might not be your world." Acknowledging that, the footage still is able to give a generally close comparison.

The setup for each camera included the following:

  • C100: Canon 16-35, 24-105 and 70-200 2.8 isII.  Color profile "default"
  • Gh3: Kit 12-35 and 35-100 Color profile "standard".
  • Gh4: Speedbooster with Samyang 35 and 85 Primes Color profile "standard"
  • 7d: Canon 17-55 2.8 and 24-105 using standard profile with sharpness and contrast rolled off 2 clicks
  • 5d: Canon 24-105 and 85mm 1.8 with Lightform C profile
  • all lenses set to f4 except for the "down the neck" guitar shot

Take a look at some screenshots from the video. Also, make sure you do watch the video to find out which number corresponds to the matching camera!

encoding comparison encoding shootout comparison close up encoding preview encoding comparison shootout encoding shootout comparison image encoding shootout comparison shot encoding shootout

 

Overall, this video gives a great insight into the quality of the cameras being used. Some bad and some good. Andrew even said "Sorry 7D owners (myself included), our codec really IS that bad!" Personally, I liked camera 2. The overall tone and look of the footage really made it stand out for me. If you still have not watched the video, I recommend doing so to find out which one that was.

Which camera did you think outperformed the others?

[via HillBillyGripTruck and RedShark News]

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John White is a photographer from Northwest Indiana. He specializes in individual portraiture. Outside of photography, John enjoys building websites for fun, doing graphic design, and creating videos. Also, he really loves Iron Man. Follow him on his social media profiles to keep up to date with what he has going on!

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18 Comments

I'm not sure if I'm missing anything here - but where does it tell us which camera is which number?
You've got at least two different order listed in the article - and the image again looks like it is different...

- Gh4, Gh3, 5d3, 7d, and C100 in the first paragraph.

- C100, Gh3, Gh4, 7d, and 5d (when describing the settings and lenses used)

- In the image though it looks like the 5D is camera 1? Actually it's impossible to tell…

Very confusing!!

At the end of the video.

Right above the photos I pointed out to watch the video to find out which number corresponds to which image. Thanks!

Gee thanks I jumped exactly that bit.. there's my ADS

Haha happens to me all the time!

A great content but unfortunately confusing write up and labeling. Makes me wonder if this was rushed? I know such things are lots of work and we aren't paying a dime for it. Yet again, i hope its more reader friendly. I hope it can be updated soon...

Mine was number 4 (SPOILER ALERT!)...the GH3. To me, it had the best color depth and was very pleasant to look at. The depth of field was also good and it wasn't too flat of an image, which can be both good and bad...

...Unfortunately the exposure is all over the place between these cameras, which is a huge flaw in this camera shootout. They should have used a calibrated monitor to set the exposure via IRE levels, so that each camera would have a chance of achieving optimum results. As it stands the GH4 footage looks like it is at least 1 stop under-exposed.

i was playing yesterday whit GH4, @panasonic presentation here in Slovakia... and all the videos I've took they been at 1 stop under-exposed... i was using camera's monitor... :(
in 1 week I will get my GH4.. i will do a test GH4 vs. D800...

3 way tie between 1,2,4 - which didn't surprise me one bit at the end. I have the 5diii but have been eyeing the c100.

I liked #4 the most. Seemed crisper and richer than all the others. I was surprised to see it was the GH3 to be honest. It'd be nice to see a nikon thrown in there (like the D800 or D600) and maybe a Sony (A7/A7r).

just in case you don't want to watch the whole thing
1 c100 iso 640, 2 5Dm3 iso 400, 3 GH4 2k iso 200 - prefirmware update , 4 gh3 iso200, 5 gh4 4k iso 200, 6 7d iso 400

Lot of confused people here.....strange, i knew exactly what was going on after seeing the numbers on each shot....regardless, i personally thought number 4 (the GH3) looked the best, BUT, for a while i liked number 6 (7D), BUT, towards the end they couldn't hit focus at all with it.........so how the heck can you judge???

I really enjoyed 5&6 and I couldn't choose which I liked more. I'm surprised to find one of those being the gh4 and one the 7d.

What a shit! NEVER compare cameras using different lenses for each one (use 50mm 1.4 in every cameras, for example), cause different lenses produces different resultes. It's basic knowledge in photo or video... One more thing: comparison between 7D and C100 is the crasiest thing I ever seen in my life! COMPARISON might to be between similar equipaments, dude!! You are putting ferrari and beatle in the same race! That's A TOTAL nosense!

What a shit! NEVER compare cameras using different lenses for each one (use 50mm 1.4 in every cameras, for example), cause different lenses produces different results (sharpness, DOF, colors, etc). It's basic knowledge in photo or video... One more thing: comparison between 7D and C100 is the crasiest thing I ever seen in my life! COMPARISON might to be between similar equipaments, dude!! You are putting ferrari and beetle in the same race! That's A TOTAL nosense!

Don't get so bent out of shape. This obviously isn't the best performance from all the cameras. Right now Panasonic is listening to their customers and Canon is listening to their wallets. I'm a 60D and 7D owner and I know for a fact that the 7D can produce much better images than the images shown here. Case and point: https://vimeo.com/73835410

(not my video by the way)

All-in-all I just want people to stop getting so bent out of shape over specs and just make stories that make you happy. No one cares if your camera has impressive specs, just take it for what it is.

The audio sounded so good to me that I forgot about the video test for most of the clip, but overall I felt #4 looked best.