Zacuto camera shootout episode one
 

This covers "The Dynamic Range Test, The Under Exposure Test and The Over Exposure Test".

The Great Camera Shootout 2011: SCCE ~ Episode One | Zacuto USA

This has debate from the floor and cinematographers pose questions about how the numbers should be interpreted.

Re: Zaculo camera shootout episode one
 

dam what a shoot out, you can really see lots of details and the differences of all the cameras tested

Re: Zacuto camera shootout episode one
 

Nicely done & I am really impressed with the results.

I like the extra sound bites from the people watching the results, really nice touch. I kept rewinding after listening to the things they were keeping their eyes on.

Biggest question I had after watching... Did Zacuto's Steve Weiss & Jens Bogehegn take a trip to Coruscant to shoot their parts?

Re: Zacuto camera shootout episode one
 

One question from me is about the F3 - were the dynamic range measurements using the internal recording, or via 10 bit HD-SDI? It occurs to me that if the former, they are more likely to have been more a test of that recording format than the camera.....? Which from all I read is heavily designed to be used with an external recording system and the 35Mbs as proxies.

I do appreciate that you could wait for ever, and there would always be something just around the corner. But it does seem that we have a massive elephant OUTSIDE the room in the shape of the FS100. OK, it wasn't quite available when the tests were done, but it does seem a shame. It's getting a lot of attention and I'm sure a lot would be interested in some sort of definitive comparative testing of it versus such as DSLRs, the AF100, and the F3.

Re: Zacuto camera shootout episode one
 

One thing I noticed was that they used the film ISO's as the standard reference. As I understand it, many digital cameras have a 'sweet spot' of anywhere from ISO 100 to 800 depending on the camera. Also, as a Lumix GH2 owner, I've read that using any ISO for that camera that is not a multiple of 200 such as ISO 320, results in more noise than using a higher ISO 400 that is a multiple of 200. The RED camera folks were somewhat steamed at the latitude tests as well.

All this to say that the shootout was interesting but perhaps unavoidably, somewhat flawed. OTOH, it was nice to see what's out there side-by-side and I for one was pretty impressed with all the cameras, especially price/performance-wise.

What stuck with me was a sense that this wasn't so much a definitive test to determine which camera is best but more a visual smorgasbord of the possibilities/limits these new tools present. And I agree that including audience comments was nice.