Next Camera Evaluations – request for comments

First, my apologies for cross posting, but if I can’t break my own rules…I’m also posting on Cinerant.

The next camera evaluations are shooting in three weeks and I’ve been thinking about how to change them from previous ones, bearing in mind comments I’ve received.

I’m going to try to move away from marking =/- on the charts, it will be purely stop and shutter angle for this test.

I will light to 200fc and set the cameras to the manufacturers recommended EI.

We will shoot from T1.5 to T 22 at 180 degrees and then T22 at 90 & 45 degree shutter.

The tests will be shot both tungsten and LED daylight. Tungsten being the most “accurate” source I can use. I’d love to take the tests to Australia to shoot across a window of 11 am to 1pm across the weeks it would take to shoot the tests in real daylight! The LED’s will be the most commonly used and should show what happens in a “real-world” environment.

The evaluations will be available to download as EXR’s in ACES space from the ODN, and hopefully, depending on cost and support, I’ll also make some of the original camera files available. I had intended to do this but we lost a number of sponsors this year and may not be able to afford it.

I will also upload QT files to Vimeo, these will be UHD and 422, I’ll let them convert them to H264, and also H264 directly to YouTube.

The compiled files that I upload will be all matched at 18% grey, matching only the green level as I don’t intend to colour correct them in any way. Everything will go through ACES with standard IDT’s and appropriate ODT’s.

This time I will make observations as to which EI I think the cameras should be exposed at to get the best images, this will be basically based around noise levels.

So if you set the camera to an EI of 800 but the noise is better at 500 I’ll say so, I’ll also upload a LUT that adjust for you setting the camera to 800 and your meter to 500. This will be a LUT in 2 forms, one that is “naked” and just needs to be dropped into the ACES pipeline in Resolve and the other will include the appropriate IDT’s and ODT’s to “correct” the image on 709 monitors on the floor.

I guess I’m going back to the days when I published GRR’s for various film stocks ?

OK, beat me up now.

2 thoughts on “Next Camera Evaluations – request for comments”

  1. 200 fc is a lot of light today. I wonder a) how many prospective shooters of *some* of the new crop of cameras would be in a position to bring 200 fc worth of fixtures to a shoot (other than getting it “free” from an uncontrolled day exterior) and b) how many of the new cameras were designed to do some interesting things in lower light levels. Might you consider an additional, dimmer, set of tests? Say, 40-50 fc. As the chart on cml taught me forever ago, “T.good” (T2.8-4 split) at ISO 800 (24fps/180 degrees) is less than 20 fc. The VistaVision-ish sensors may need another stop. That puts you around 40 fc. Just a thought. By the way, where did that chart go? I had to make my own (appreciate any comments on it):

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dTwfGgoyIs3vGibT5CMXyhSXe4q3JbgulGEl-vmq9AQ/edit?usp=sharing

  2. I made a mistake, it’s actually going to be 400fc.
    It’s nothing to do eith normal shooting levels, it’s all about a level thst allows the cameras to be over and under exposed by five stops.

    Geoff

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