Just watched first part of zacuto shootout....

[Matt Ryan]

The fact that each "DP" got to relight for their camera took the "scientific" aspect out of the equation. It basically becomes a lighting test and those who lit the best for their camera's win. It's no longer a scientific camera test because the variables are adjusted between camera's, WTF? Their should have been one master lighting setup and every camera expose for the given shot. The fact that they gave each camera it's own "grade" is ridiculous. What does that show? It show's that you can make any camera look half way decent with an agressive grade. Terrible "test."

[David Mullen ASC]

The old guard film community does not like RDC with their low prices, fantastic images, and cutting edge tech. So they use venues like this one to discredit RDC to the public and to blind the eyes of possible future RED owners. It happens all the time in the corporate world. If you can't beat them, discredit them. Now if the EPIC was $100k then their would be no problemo, but $30k!! Unthinkable.

The flaw in your logic is that Zacuto does not primarily sell to the "old guard film community" or big studio productions but to smaller digital productions... so there is no motivation to only make $100K+ cameras look good. If anything the reverse would be true, they'd make the $100+ cameras look worse.

Second, an Epic package is not cheap and the camera itself falls closer to the high-end, price-wise, of the cameras Zacuto tested, not the low end.

Zacuto sells more gear to Epic owners than Sony F65 owners.

[David Mullen ASC]

The fact that each "DP" got to relight for their camera took the "scientific" aspect out of the equation. It basically becomes a lighting test and those who lit the best for their camera's win. It's no longer a scientific camera test because the variables are adjusted between camera's, WTF? Their should have been one master lighting setup and every camera expose for the given shot. The fact that they gave each camera it's own "grade" is ridiculous. What does that show? It show's that you can make any camera look half way decent with an agressive grade. Terrible "test."

Well, in their defense, the most common criticism of earlier tests by Zacuto and other people was that the Red footage was not posted and graded in a way that was specific to the needs of Red footage, that it was "forced" into a common workflow and forced to match other cameras. So you can't have it both ways, argue that these tests all need to use the same parameters and argue that Red needs to be posted in whatever way is best for Red footage.

But I agree that a test where everyone does whatever they need to do in order to improve the camera image by relighting, etc. is not scientific, but it's just another type of test that some people may find interesting.

No single test is going to satisfy everyone, particularly people who have a vested interest in certain results before the test is even shot. And if someone makes a decision to drop $50,000+ of their own money based on a single test that someone else performed, then they are not very bright, are they? And if they are not very bright, they aren't going to make good decisions no matter what you tell them.

[Sid Idris]

Hey at least the Epic beat the Iphone. That's something, right? (suck it, Apple)

I can't help but wonder how much better looking Spiderman would have been had they opted to shoot on the Gh2...

[Martin Stevens]

I think that the high quality imagery in "PROMETHEUS" proves scientifically
that the Red Epic can produce......high quality imagery.

:)

[Matt Ryan]

Well, in their defense, the most common criticism of earlier tests by Zacuto and other people was that the Red footage was not posted and graded in a way that was specific to the needs of Red footage, that it was "forced" into a common workflow and forced to match other cameras. So you can't have it both ways, argue that these tests all need to use the same parameters and argue that Red needs to be posted in whatever way is best for Red footage.

But I agree that a test where everyone does whatever they need to do in order to improve the camera image by relighting, etc. is not scientific, but it's just another type of test that some people may find interesting.

No single test is going to satisfy everyone, particularly people who have a vested interest in certain results before the test is even shot. And if someone makes a decision to drop $50,000+ of their own money based on a single test that someone else performed, then they are not very bright, are they? And if they are not very bright, they aren't going to make good decisions no matter what you tell them.

I agree with you David. I don't own anything so I shoot with whatever works best for the given shoot.

The problem with these "tests" are that even though most shooters do their own tests, producers, directors, and non shooters base decisions on "tests" like these. I am shooting with a camera this weekend because the production company heard from another company that it is the best camera there is. I gave my input and the differences as well as pro's and con's in a spreadsheet of each camera for them to review. In the end they went on the experiences of another company and based their decision on that alone despite the breakdown I gave them. So for many, these tests will be what companies, etc. base their decisions on.

[Paul Provost]

Hey at least the Epic beat the Iphone. That's something, right? (suck it, Apple)

I can't help but wonder how much better looking Spiderman would have been had they opted to shoot on the Gh2...

ok that was funny.

[Josh Beadle]

The Zacuto tests are just another dot on the scatter plot which paints the complete picture for anyone who takes the time to looks at all the data to make informed decisions.

[Francesco Bonomo]

It's truly, incredibly simple, like in the good ol' days.

Run.Your.Own.Tests.


(and maybe it's just me, but I believe we've come to a point where if you take any higher-end digital camera and put it out there in the real world in the hands of someone who knows how to use it and what he/she wants to achieve with it, the differences between cameras are far less than the similarities).

p.s. I mean no disrespect to the ones involved in the Zacuto or in the PGA/ASC tests. I'm sure they spent a great deal of energy and time to have the best results.

[Mark Toia]

I could sadly see this coming a mile away...

Sorry guys. I was asked by Zucato to perform the test of the RED EPIC for this Doco... Sadly I declined due to work commitments.

I feel like I have let everyone down.

It's a sad day for all of us RED EPIC owners when shit like this happens.

Such a great camera it is, with great images coming from it... so easy to use and post... and people still manage to fuck it up.