I'm not intending this to be a "which camera is better" thread, but I'm curious which one outputs a cleaner & quieter signal through it's HD-SDI or HDMI spigot (bypassing the inherent codecs).

The reason is I will eventually tether one of these babies (I have an EX1R) to an AJA Ki-PRO, so I'm curious which camera has less noise from it's front end. Although I love the EX1R, it has somewhat of a noisy picture when I look at uncompressed footage, so I'm curious if the Canon's would be "better" in this scenario.

Would anyone care to test this please and share their results...

Thanks in advance,
Lonnie

Take a look at the BBC tests. They test directly from HDMI or SDI

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=1561810&noquote=1

While I have not actually measured the noise from both cameras, I have looked at both side by side. The noise from the two cameras is quite different looking. From the XF it is a very, very fine noise that adds an overall visual busyness to the image sometimes even giving completely smooth surfaces a subtle texture. From the EX1R it is a more blocky noise that is possibly less visually noticeable. Above 6db of gain and I believe the EX1R is noticeably cleaner. At 0db I would suggest the noise levels are similar but it depends on what you like to see in an image.