DSLR shooting tests

[Franck De Togni]

Hi Guys,
We made a small test with two friends this week-end at the media center of our town (where one of my friend actually works). We shot a few videos with a GH1 and a 5DmkII.
For real, we got really beautiful images on a samsung full hd 42".
Then we watched the videos on a 62", and there came a light blur...
And then, we tried then on a canon full hd 1080p projector. With an image of around 100" diagonal, the image was really ugly, with awful grain (or pixellisation???) and blur was on the hole image.
Then we tried it on a 200" x 120" screen... and I won't tell about the result... XS

So, After this, my opinion is: If I shoot for internet or familial tv, should be no problem, but
if I shoot for cinema (and maybe tv), I'll never take a 5D or GH1. While waiting for scarlet-epiX, nothing better than a hvx200 or EX3.
Has anyone of you experienced a problem like this for a job or something?
'cause if these marks are talking about professional results, you can be very disappointed !

 

[Franck De Togni]

Just thought about something...
hasn't the 5D a bigger sensor than anything else?

 

[Dan Hudgins]

H.264

H.264

Its the H.264 it looks OK an a small monitor if you do not grade the shot and use flat lighting, but if you shoot under normal light and under-expose to hold the highlights then grade like you would ECN, it falls apart for the most part.

We shot some canon H.264 then processed it uncompressed as frame based in my "freeish" DI system, then output to 35mm print stock and looked at in projected, and as still frames it was not bad looking, but moving the "Macro Noise" from the H.264 was just too much, I think mostly makes it un-usable.

You could grade it very low contrast and flat with less saturation and avoid moving camera, but the "Macro Noise" from the over processed sensor data and H.264 would probably still be visable from 24fps 35mm film projection when the projectin lens is in focus...

Best to shoot RAW data and save RAW data for motion picture work...

 

[Russ Blaise]

I worked on a movie set a few months ago shooting behind-the-scenes footage of a full length western being made. They used three 5DmkII's to shoot the movie. It will be shown to us in October on a 38' x 16'6'' projection screen… I guess we'll all have to wait and see if it was worth using the 5DmkII's. I've seen some of the footage and it looks like they did a good job controlling the lighting.

 

[Gerald Menclik]

I just edited a short feature where I got footage from a 5D to add ..... I can tell you, horrible even in SD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never I would work with some equipment like that!

 

[Patrick Tresch]

??? Had a short film entirely shot with the 5D MKII all in night / lowlight condition @ +- 1200 ASA. Color corrected only a tiny bit in Color and output DPX to do a Direct to print at Technicolor in Rome.

In the big screen there is nothing to complain about. I think it depends on how you shoot with it and what results you want to achieve. The short needed a harsh look. We shot everything at 1,4 with the 50mm in hand held mode. Great results.

Patrick

PS: this is NOT a case against RAW nor RED One!