Canon 7D vs. RED ONE - a real footage comparison

[Kevin Wild]

I just ordered a 7D. I'm fortunate enough to be ordering it mainly for really killer family movies. People can argue about the comparisons all they want, but I am excited about bringing only 1 camera to family functions for both great photos and killer video.

Can't wait for it to come.

 

[Graeme Nattress]

No idea - never used one.

Graeme

 

[Jason Ramsey]

What does the Xh-a1 measure then? Got to be closer to 1280x720 than full HD.

Since the a1 is HDV the codec is 1440x1080 to begin with. Not sure on the measured rez of it, but I believe I read long ago that it was around 850-900 vertically.

 

[Benjamin Carthel]

Canon 7D vs. RED ONE - A footage comparison that's more real than this other dude's.

Canon 7D vs. RED ONE - A footage comparison that's more real than this other dude's.

Here it is: Canon 7D vs. RED ONE - a real footage comparison.

For the comparison I took a short part from Philip Bloom "Dublin's People" or how I call it "Dubliners" just referring to a famous novel by James Joyce...

and added short part from my RED ONE lens test with Canon FD 50mm f/1.2 @ wide open f/1.2, available light, 320 ISO, plus a bit of saturation...

But go back to the comparison...and a winner is... RED ONE !!!

Huraaaay....!!!

Bye bye Canon, game over !...

LINK (23.7 MB)>>

you're kidding, right? this has to be your most hackneyed "test" to date - you cropped and upsampled Phil's work from Vimeo...and completely distorted it in this utterly nonsensical comparison. the color space is screwed, the resolution is screwed. what you're posting as a "comparison" looks nothing like the original.

unbelievable.

RED is a great camera that can stand on its own merits without this sort of gross misrepresentation. the community deserves better.

The part is from Bloom's Canon7D 1080p original footage and is not a hack, it's more about to compare a quality of the two cameras.

If you feel "disturbed" with that just do your own comparison.

Thanks for the advice, I actually did my own comparison and guess what? I do feel disturbed with your video. Cause it IS a hack!
Alright, lemme put it this way. If you're gonna compare apple an oranges, don't run one of them through a blender first. If you're gonna criticize the quality of one camera over the other and show a fair demonstration of it, don't doctor the demonstration in favor of your argument.

I had no problem replicating the SAME EXACT demonstration, and the Canon 7d footage looked FAR better than what you posted! Take a look and see for yourself.

CLICK HERE to see what the actual demonstration SHOULD HAVE looked like!

Now to be fair, I would agree that the Red One is an overall superior cinema camera. Cinema is exactly what it's made for. But you're talking about a $28,000 camera against a $2000 camera. I suppose if you had a new Jaguar, you'd want to race against Geo Metros. :shocked:
I give credit where credit is due. I think the Canon 7d is the perfect solution to some starving filmmaker who may be looking for an alternative to a $28,000 camera. Of course it's gonna be the cheaper fix.
Your RED footage looks beautiful BTW... I'm sure that CANON FD 50mm lens you were using had nothing to do with it!

"Game Over Canon"?!?
More like game over Sanjin Jukic's credibility. :jacked:

Have a nice day!

 

[Neil Larson]

Benjamin, your video is private.

 

[Benjamin Carthel]

Benjamin, your video is private.

Pshhh, that's embarrassing. It's fixed now. Thanks Neil!

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

Thanks for the advice, I actually did my own comparison and guess what? I do feel disturbed with your video. Cause it IS a hack!
Alright, lemme put it this way. If you're gonna compare apple an oranges, don't run one of them through a blender first. If you're gonna criticize the quality of one camera over the other and show a fair demonstration of it, don't doctor the demonstration in favor of your argument.

I had no problem replicating the SAME EXACT demonstration, and the Canon 7d footage looked FAR better than what you posted! Take a look and see for yourself.

CLICK HERE to see what the actual demonstration SHOULD HAVE looked like!

Now to be fair, I would agree that the Red One is an overall superior cinema camera. Cinema is exactly what it's made for. But you're talking about a $28,000 camera against a $2000 camera. I suppose if you had a new Jaguar, you'd want to race against Geo Metros. :shocked:
I give credit where credit is due. I think the Canon 7d is the perfect solution to some starving filmmaker who may be looking for an alternative to a $28,000 camera. Of course it's gonna be the cheaper fix.
Your RED footage looks beautiful BTW... I'm sure that CANON FD 50mm lens you were using had nothing to do with it!

"Game Over Canon"?!?
More like game over Sanjin Jukic's credibility. :jacked:

Have a nice day!

Benjamin,

forget this comparison.

I'll make my own very soon!!!

Just waiting for Caprock 2.0 Anti moiré filter (that will a bit reduce a 7D sharpens) and the do my tests in available light.

Have a look on a rig below.

The ultimate digital acquisition rig: RED1 and Canon 7D.

 

[Nook Kim]

that looks way cool Sanjin. One for moving image and the other for stills?

 

[Alsone]

"Game Over Canon"?!?
More like game over Sanjin Jukic's credibility. :jacked:

Have a nice day!

I have to agree Ben. There was another thread like this that the mods closed and I too felt than Sanjin's footage wasn't a fair comparison.

I still think yours isn't totally fair but not because of the renders, but because of the subject material (which was Sanjin's choice not yours).

At the end of the day you're comparing a shot late at night in Dublin under sodium street lighting at very high ISO to a shot in a film premier lobby under considerably better lighting conditions - much brighter and no orange sodium cast - I believe you posted it was ISO 320.

Somehow, I doubt late at night on a Dublin street the Canon's at ISO 320, more like ISO 3200 and that's before you even consider the white balance issues.

The Red One is a remarkable camera and there's no doubt under good lighting conditions its better than the 7D. However, having seen some other footage from the Red, I have to wonder if it wouldn't have struggled on the street where the Canon excelled. Again, horses for courses, but once again we see what appears to be a Red biased test by Sanjin.

If someone is going to do a test, for god's sake take both cameras out side by side and shoot on a street at 10pm at night under sodium lighting and then bring back the results. My monies on the Canon under those conditions although throw a little cinema lighting in there, and I'm sure the Red will win it hands down. Just not at high ISO and difficult WB conditions.

 

[Álex Montoya]

The Canon XH line measured nearly full hd when the video was taken from the hd-sdi output.

The resolution is better than the one on the 5D.

Though it's true that the 5D makes sexier images and has great low light capabilities but it's codec, aliasing, frame rate, poor resolution, etc... make it a flawed HD camera.

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

Tonight I did outdoor side by side test at the neighborhood street with ISO 1600 result from both cameras

RED1 and Canon 7D.

Below is the footage link and you could download it to see what happened.

Also I do not make any conclusion and the test footage speaks for itself.

Shot by RED1 @ ISO 1600, lens Canon 50mm FD L f/1.2 @ f2.2.

Shot by Canon 7D @ ISO 1600, lens Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM @ f2.2.

Ultimate 2 cam rig: RED1 & Canon 7D.

Ultimate 2 cam rig: RED1 & Canon 7D.

1080p footage test to download>>>

 

[Ian G. Thompson]

What's the point with these tests anyways? To show that you have the biggest toy?

You know anyone can make a test sway their way. I think I'd rather trust results from a professional like Rodney Charters who is actually doing something. Check out these tests with the Red/7D and 5Dll.

http://vimeo.com/7563238

http://vimeo.com/7562116

 

[Ash Bolland]

I recon you could get a few more camera's on that rig.

 

[Ian G. Thompson]

In the samples I linked above notice the man spreading his arms on top of the building in the first shot (7D) then look at the one shot by the Red One. The 7D's shot looks like it was day time while the Reds was a lot darker (looking like night). I only point this out Sanjin because your comparison shots makes it look the other way around (sort of). I thought the 7D held up its own in the Rodney Charter's test examples. Yes, the Red is sharper, but he proves that one can intercut the footage together.

For some reason though I thought the 5Dll's image was the worse one. But maybe because it was a direct comparison shot by shot with the Red.

 

[Ariana]

In the samples I linked above notice the man spreading his arms on top of the building in the first shot (7D) then look at the one shot by the Red One. The 7D's shot looks like it was day time while the Reds was a lot darker (looking like night). I only point this out Sanjin because your comparison shots makes it look the other way around (sort of). I thought the 7D held up its own in the Rodney Charter's test examples. Yes, the Red is sharper, but he proves that one can intercut the footage together.

For some reason though I thought the 5Dll's image was the worse one. But maybe because it was a direct comparison shot by shot with the Red.

It looks like the 7D is clipping alot earlier if you look at the guy in the post, the detail in the red wall, etc.

The building in the center looks brighter on red vs 7d interestingly.

The detail level is surprisingly diffferent.

 

[Michael Moreno]

What's the point with these tests anyways? To show that you have the biggest toy?

You know anyone can make a test sway their way. I think I'd rather trust results from a professional like Rodney Charters who is actually doing something. Check out these tests with the Red/7D and 5Dll.

http://vimeo.com/7563238

http://vimeo.com/7562116

Dont be a hater. Sanjin's a good contributor here.
You want Rodney Charter, go watch him.

 

[Ian G. Thompson]

Why would I hate on anyone Michael? I just think that the opening of this thread was kind of strange for a "good contributor." I'd expect that from a new guy like myself. I like tests like anyone else but they need to be unbiased. Rodney Charters is not a member of any forum that I know of but he is a known professional. If he was a member here going on about this camera is better than that camera then his credibility would have been lost with me. But since he's not, and has nothing to lose or gain from examples like above, then I'll take a chance and trust that he's doing what he can to get the best out of all the cameras he's testing. That's why I made the comment above.

But going back to my first question...really...what is the point of Sanjin's test? Why are we comparing a $1,700 camera against a $30,000+ camera? I'm not sure what the point is. We can see what the RC folks are trying to do....but I have no idea where this is going? Looking in from outside the box it just seems to me like the message is "my cam is better than yours." And if that's not the case then I go back to my original question...what's the purpose? The Red cam is a professional cinema camera....why on earth would someone try and compare that to a consumer DSLR that happens to record video? You see what I'm saying?

I've seen so many flame wars against different camera owners in other forums that I had to jump in here and ask the question....why!!??

 

[Ian G. Thompson]

It looks like the 7D is clipping alot earlier if you look at the guy in the post, the detail in the red wall, etc.

The building in the center looks brighter on red vs 7d interestingly.

The detail level is surprisingly diffferent.

You know Ariana you might be absolutely correct about what you are saying. I expect that critical POV from folks here and in forums like these (including myself). I bet one could find a million and one things different about each footage. But I guess I think folks should ask themselves "who's my audience?" I say that because as long as you take care of your shots then the average viewer is not going to notice. We all know that the 7D/5Dll is not anywhere as detailed as the Red but that is not what those guys are trying to prove. What they are doing (IMO) is making a case (in their own way) that one is able to inter-cut footage from all these cams. I certainly think so especially if shot with care. Seeing that these DSLRs are much smaller than the Red means that they can go in certain places that the Red can not....and for those thinking about using these cams together its good to know that inter-cutting footage is (might be) possible.

 

[Ian G. Thompson]

By the way...in Sanjin's example above the contrast for the 7D is way too high. Shooting like that will blow out any camera's highs while crushing the blacks.

 

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

Sanjin, why didn't you put the camera on a tripod? It's boggling my mind.

You just threw a cine-puff for the camera and put it sitting in the middle of the street, that's weird man hahahaha, I'm laughing over here.