The world of DSLR (and mirrorless camera) video has some new players emerging but for the average user with a budget are they really anything to get excited about? For the last several years the only real heavyweights have been Canon with the 5D, 7D, and T2i series Rebels and Panasonic with the GH2 and GH1. The hacked GH2 was by far the leader of the pack, producing results that under certain conditions can compete with cinema cameras ten or more times its price. How do new, far more expensive offerings from Canon and RED stack up and is this price difference worth it for the average independent film maker.
Last week Canon announced the C300, a $20K cinema camera in a DSLR-like form factor that has a 4K sensor but only outputs 1080p. While Canon billed this as a historic announcement, I find the camera to be somewhat underwhelming. It supposedly has great dynamic range and can shoot at up to ISO 20,000, but I'm not that impressed by the couple of video samples that have been shown off. In Vincent Laforet's Mobius, there is quite a bit of noise apparent even in some well-lit out door scenes and, maybe it's just poor compression, but there is noticable banding (like at 5:54) and very bad noise and macro blocking around the 6:52 mark. It is also safe to assume that this video used lenses that cost as much or more than the camera and had a hefty post-production budget. If this is the best the C300 is capable of, I've seen some better amateur footage come out of a GH2 using the Driftwood hack, a sub-$1,000 lens, and amateur post-production. Yes, I'm sure in many instances the C300 could beat the pants off of a GH2 when it comes to dynamic range or color grading potential (with its 4:2:2 codec), but the advantages are small for over a twenty-fold price increase.
The new RED Scarlet-X (another camera in the $20K range once you configure it to be useable) was also announced last week. I've yet to see any footage from this camera, but it does boast some impressive specs like 4K output, RAW, and high frame rates. Like the C300, I'm sure this camera could put the GH2 to shame with respect to dynamic range, color gradability, and post production potential. Again though, are these benefits worth such a drastic price increase? In one head to head test on Vimeo, a GH2 with a conservative hack applied even bested a $50,000 RED Epic with respect to video detail. Plus, lets not even get into the fact that post production of 4K footage would likely require some hefty upgrades to one's computer.
Overall, I'm not trying to argue that professionals should ditch their C300's or RED cameras in favor of a consumer grade camera; I'm saying that a vast majority of amateurs, independent filmmakers, or hobbyists will find much better results than are achievable with a GH2. Viewing hacked GH2 footage on a big screen TV in 1080p is stunning. I'm still wowed that such a cheap little camera can back such a huge punch.
No comments:
Post a Comment