Vision3 500T and Vision3 200T MP color negatives compared to digital video cameras

[daniel_henr_quez_ilic]

<p>Hi All,<br>

Valvula Films, post-production house in Chile, did produce last year a comparison demo test, between 35mm (motion picture) and digital cameras.<br>

Glass was Carl Zeiss MKII for all cameras.<br>

Stocks used were Kodak Vision3 500T and Vision3 250D, developed (as ECN-2 normal) at top notch Laboratory FotoKem in Los Angeles, California. The exposed and undeveloped rolls were sent by courier; and so got developed several days after the shoot; in an intent to also analyse real life shooting conditions in remote places. <br>

The stocks were scanned at Cinelicious, a great post-production company, also in Los Angeles area, through a DFT Scanity scanner, a scanner that can handle up to Density 3 (or a even a bit more), so compatible with Vision3 stocks. (their Dmax is much higher than other color negative stock, thus explaining the extended exposure latitude in the highlights). Output of the scanner was TIFF RGB 16 bits log/flat image sequences.<br>

Digital Cameras were Arri Alexa (in ProRes compressed format) and Red Epic X (R3D RAW compressed format).<br>

This is not a scientific test, of course, but helps to see some important differences, like highlights handling, flesh tones, and image texture.</p>

<p>This is the link :<br>

http://www.cinematography.net/valvula.html</p>

<p>All the best,<br>

Daniel Henriquez Ilic<br>

Post-Producer</p>

 

[Dave Luttmann]

Another nod in favour of film.

[randrew1]

<p>Latitude is one feature of color negative film that is very tough for digital systems to replicate. Still cameras can make use of HDR techniques, but this is hard to do with motion pictures.</p>

<p>This demo shows a modest advantage for digital in low light scenes. In practice, I've seen bigger advantages. </p>

[Karim Ghantous]

<p>RED's new sensor, the Dragon, is low noise and resolves 16+ stops of DR. As far as movie cameras go, it's cheap at about $30K. Film still looks better, and it's easier to use for motion than it is for stills (scanning is very easily automated for movies). I did not have access to the full sized images in this test, but I will check them out ASAP.</p>