nofilmschool » test

'Battle of the Bokeh' Beauty Contest Blind-Tests Canon, Nikon, and Sigma 35mm F/1.4 Lenses

Dave Kendricken — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 23:04:41 +0000

When considering lens options for purchase or rental, certain criteria may stand out to you more than others. This depends on what you shoot most often, or what a project demands. Perhaps as a run-and-gun doc shooter, you simply need the extra stop you get with one 85mm lens for the same price as another that doesn’t vignette as badly. Or you gave up a contrast performance you really preferred in favor of the IS lens of greater overall value. But what if money were no object, and focal length and speed were matched? An aspect you’d find yourself evaluating closely is the way each handles its bokeh, or de-focused areas of the image. DigitalRev’s latest Battle of the Bokeh is a comparison between Canon, Nikon, and Sigma 35mm f/1.4 lenses in precisely this spirit — with some unexpected results. (more…)

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Dude, You Gettin' a Dell? Former Apple Editors Choose 'Yes, Bro' over Mac Pro for Performance

Dave Kendricken — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 00:18:26 +0000

Something weird is going on. We know the Mac Pro hasn’t had a substantial upgrade in some time. We know that something is looming over the horizon, but we don’t know what, exactly. We also know that Apple will probably over-charge us for it (or it wouldn’t quite feel right for anybody). And while it may not be fair to fault a machine that’s still quite hefty and robust for losing to brand new ones in spec tests and benchmark performance — just what are we waiting for here? Should we even be waiting for it at all? How much incentive to hold out for Apple remains when you can build your own Mac Pro, build your own specialized editing PC — or, for instance, as a recent StudioDaily feature shows many video editors are doing — switch to powerhouse Dell solutions? (more…)

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What's the Best Camera Under $1K? Canon T4i, Sony NEX-6, Panasonic GH2 Shootout

Dave Kendricken — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:39:00 +0000

Kevin Good and the Weapons of Mass Production team are on a sleepless mission to determine the best bang for your buck, and weed out all the rest. Each contender will get its due where it excels, but a clear winner will emerge from the settling dust just about every time — and WOMP will suffer no runners-up, all on behalf of the budget shooter. You know this from the show’s 24-70mm lens shootout — you also know how to shoot with an iPhone, or how others measure up to GoPro as action cameras. Now, WOMP sets out to answer the question of questions in today’s camera market: what’s the best you can do for under a thousand dollars? (Runners-up, beware). (more…)

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Now That Zacuto's 2012 Shootout Has Ended, Have Your Favorite Scenes or Cameras Changed?

Joe Marine — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 21:30:08 +0000

A lot has been said about Zacuto’s Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout 2012 — on this site as well as on many others. Almost everyone who could weigh in has weighed in, and the positives and negatives of such a subjective/objective test have really been argued ad nauseam. Now that all three parts of the shootout are available to download in full 1080p rather than just streaming, you can watch the test in the best quality possible (besides being in a theater, of course). We’d like to put forward to NoFilmSchool readers, if you’ve already seen the original test, what is your favorite scene now that you’ve had some time to think about it — and maybe even watch it a few more times (in full quality)? Is your favorite scene affected by what you know about the lighting circumstances or the objective test in the third part? Would you choose a camera solely on the subjective test or the objective test? (more…)

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Thoughts After Seeing the Zacuto Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout 2012

Joe Marine — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 23:13:38 +0000

A tremendous amount of time is spent perfecting the Zacuto shootouts, and if you haven’t seen what went into the Revenge of the Great Camera Shooutout 2012, you should watch the behind-the-scenes immediately. The documentary is going to be split into three parts, with part one being released tomorrow, June 15th. I didn’t have a chance to see the RGCSO (as Zacuto calls it in acronym form) at NAB because the showings were cancelled, but thankfully they’ve been showing them around the country and I was finally able to attend. (more…)

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How Much Work Goes into Zacuto's Camera Shootouts? Find out in These Production Log Videos

Joe Marine — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 23:00:43 +0000

While I was excited to see the Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout at NAB, it was not to be, as there were some technical issues, and the screenings were cancelled for the entire week. As many of you know, Zacuto has done a number of camera shootouts in the last couple of years, and many of them have been strictly technical discussions. Their goal this time, however, is to go beyond the tech specs, and really get the most artistically out of each camera. I’ll be seeing the shootout very soon — and will share my thoughts just before it goes live on June 15th — but if you want to see the massive amount of work that goes into producing these things, check out the behind-the-scenes production log videos below. (more…)

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FS700 Price Confirmed - It's Under $10k, but by Just How Much?

E.M. Taboada — Tue, 01 May 2012 22:44:01 +0000

When Sony’s FS700 camera was first announced, it was rumored to be under $10k, with some folks pegging it at $8k. When the European version’s price came out at roughly 8,000 euros (~$10,500) the promise of being under $10,000 transformed into “probably around $10,000″. So what am I going on about? Well, the price has finally been confirmed in the U.S., and it’s just as hoped for — $8,000 dollars for the camera body, or $8,600 with an E-mount zoom lens. With this announcement, I figure it’s a nice moment to check out some more test videos shot with the camera that look at how well it handles whip pans, high contrast lighting, auto-focusing situations and more: (more…)

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Zacuto's Great Camera Shootout Concludes with Motion Artifact, Color, and Skin Tone Tests

Ryan Koo — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 16:11:11 +0000

Zacuto’s excellent behind-the-scenes look at the Single Chip Camera Evaluation concludes with a comparison of motion artifacts, color and skin tone on the ARRI ALEXA, RED ONE-MX, Sony F3, Panasonic AF100, Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 7D, Nikon D7000, Kodak 35mm film, and a few others as well. Here’s the trailer; click on the image below for the full 25-minute episode. (more…)

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