Zacuto's The Great Camera Shootout 3

Last year Zacuto started a great series called The Great Camera Shootout where they compared film cameras with digital cameras and DSLRs. We featured the first two episodes but somehow overlooked the final show in the series. Some of these tests seem a bit excessive to me but it's good to know that there is a discussion going on with the top professionals in the field. Some of topics covered are camera resolution, color vibrancy, green screening, and shooting video in raw. As photographers, we are still going to hear people making an argument for not shooting video on DSLRs but if you watch the 3 full length short films presented in this episode I think the DSLR video haters' days are numbered.

The Great Camera Shootout 2010 Web 3: The Revolution Begins... from steve weiss on Vimeo.

Patrick Hall's picture

Patrick Hall is a founder of Fstoppers.com and a photographer based out of Charleston, South Carolina.

Log in or register to post comments
6 Comments

Yeah, this was a great series and well needed. At times, yes a bit excessive but so very useful!

One thing I do agree from my extensive experience by editing in CS5.0.3 and FCS 7.0.3 is that It does help the end results by transcoding the video to a high end codec such as Prores and edit in FCS than editing AVCHD or DSLR .Mov files natively in Premiere pro CS5.

The real question is why are those guys sitting so close together....

@ruban we've never used Prores but after hearing them all rave about it does spark my interest. Anything you can elaborate on it? Does it creat all new files or just side cars? Maybe it would have helped some compression artifacts on my Wakeboard video?

@jmont I agree, I couldn't figure than one out either. lol. I thought the Dynamic range test was the most eye opening for me. However, The red really should have been in there. Everyone wanted to see that one. Also, I got a little chubbed up when the d3s's video was crap lol. Canon shooter obviously :P

If you have not yet used Prores, Try it with that problematic clip on the wakeboard video. It might help. I am not sure why was the artefacts problem in the first place, it could be also be the compression method used for Vimeo. Prores does help if you do lot of colour grading, Think of something similar to the files Raw ( CR2 / NEF etc) vs Jpeg.

If you are using FCP and Canon or Nikon Cameras, Use Compressor to convert to Prores 422 HQ. For AVCHD clips ( GH2 etc) use Toast Titanium 10 or MPEG Streamclip to convert, then edit in FCP with Prores files and see for yourself.