Zacuto Shootout Proves Video DSLRs Match Film VERY Closely

The Zacuto folks today released Episode 1 of their "shootout" comparing top end Video DSLRs to 35mm movie film cameras using Kodak and Fuji stock film. This episode is very well named: "It's All About Latitude."

Let me skip right to my bottom line evaluation of what these first tests showed. While we are still just at the first episode and barely into the testing already the Video DSLRs are proving out to be doing incredibly well - actually blowing away professional cinematographers and colorists with their performance.

The first 3 tests were a "high key", a "low key" and the filming of a gray scale chart which measures the dynamic range latitude or how many F-stops each camera could discern. The biggest differences came in the high key test which combined brightly lit elements and deep shadows in the same scene. The Kodak and Fuji film stock did a slightly better job at handling the very brightest areas when the scene was exposed for mid-range skin tones than did the Video DSLRs, but those differences were surprisingly small.

One fascinating element of these tests was that although the Video DSLRs have the capability to shoot at ISOs as high as 12,000 these tests were all conducted at very modest ISO settings, like between 100 and 300.

One comment from this group of testers really summed it all up for me. He said you could easily intercut the best of the Video DSLR footage with the footage from the 35mm film cameras without any problems even when shown on a movie theater size screen. For those of us shooting content for the Web and the very much smaller "screens", the differences between the film stock and video footage are even less apparent.

Not all the Video DSLRs tested did equally well. For instance, during the "high key" test the Nikon D3S (which can only shoot at 720p using Motion JPEG) did not perform as well as the Canon 5Dmk2 or even the Canon 7D. The Canon 1Dmk4 did very,very well in all the tests performed so far.

The Panasonic GH1 also performed well but not as well as the other cameras in the test - still it created some beautiful images. Another thing to keep in mind is that some of these Video DSLRs came out so close to film and to each other from a technical point of view that it really comes down to a personal preference - in other words which image looks best to your eye.

The Canon T2i which came out just as these tests were being conducted WAS included in some of the tests and they even did a few special tests just for this camera which we will see in later episodes. The testers felt that with perhaps one or two exceptions the T2i did just as well as its big brother the Canon 7D which costs twice as much. That's very good news for those of us who were holding off buying the Canon T2i for fear that it just wasn't "as good" as the 7D. In terms of its video performance, we are being led to believe by these tests so far that there's nothing at all to worry about...go ahead and save that $800 and buy yourself a nice lens.