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!

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]