Just watched first part of zacuto shootout, and after seeing all the cameras back to back on a 2k projector, wow. Really showed how far the mid range cameras have come. Even the GH2 was not too bad after post.
What was shocking was how bad the post production made some cameras look and other better. From having seen the work done on all the cameras, the alexa and F3 are the most pleasing to me after post, but the epic... the epic was fucking awful like really really bad post/grade. It was average in terms of the basic grade, not really standing out, but the 'master cine grade to make the camera as good as possible' was boarder line film student. I think everyone there was shocked at how bad it looked. I know the epic can look fantastic, but if i was naive and took one test as the 'be all and end all' of cameras as people seem to, i would not want to buy an epic, i would want a F3 or alexa or the cine that made the gh2 look good.
Also, the test is retarded, many of the cines have pushed the grades to get the most dynamic range, regardless of how shit it looks even though they stated at the start, 'to get the most pleasing image'. Half ignored horrible color and such to get the sky's in exposure etc.
The cameras - post grade - to me, ranked, alexa, f3, gh2, f65, c300, fs100, 7d, epic. iphone
I love epic, but i can see from a producers perspective why they take the alexa.
Also if you watch this, bring headphones and an ipod, the music during is horrific, and credits seem like the avengers climax.....
seeing this is such a professional test, the quality of the entire production doesn't say much. It just feels tacky.
Also if you go to a screening, be prepare for tech-bots to constantly rattle out things such as "s-Log, 4:2:0, 4:4:4 23.98, log-c 25mbit/s hacked 35 megawhattss five bits 40k" and go round in circles til the point you need to walk out. Specs are for paper, if you dont know them, look em up, nearly everyone has a phone with net these days.
I suggest the Zacuto instead of having a 'Great camera shootout' have a 'Great tech-spec shootout' in which they put people who cannot talk about anything but specs in a room with some nail ridden 4x2's. That would be more entertaining.
Also, if red keeps talking about bring a knife to a gun fight, in this test, they bought a machine gun operated by a generic James bond villain. They hit nothing.
Originally Posted by Matthew Scott
