2nd Camera Decision Time

[Ryan Douthit]

Messed up my own test. I was in such a hurry I forgot to confirm the camera settings. Inspector is showing 18 mb/s at 29.97 in the above video. Natch. I'll stop by again tomorrow if I get a chance and try again. (See, even with good intent you can screw up a test.)

[Ryan Douthit]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

I know they are pretty biased over there but merely judging on the images presented the vg900 looks quite soft, especially compared to the gh2 or 3, do you think the full frame sensor will give the camera any other advantages over other smaller sensor camera's? I think that a vg30 would be fine as well then.

Tests can be deceiving. I used to run a computer magazine that did a lot of testing... it was serious stuff to get it right (and as you can see above I screw up sometimes, too.) Easy to botch settings, draw incorrect conclusions or simply not do the effort to ask *why* something was the way it was when it was clearly not operating as one would expect (99.9% of the time it was an error in the procedure or something you thought *shouldn't* be related but was.)

Now, with the VG900 I would expect two things over the lower-end (VG30/A77) units: lessened aliasing (I can dream, right?) and better low light. Then there's the "look" that full frame gives. A certain mojo. I like mojo. I lean to the VG900 over the FS100 because the ergonomics are better and it has a proper (and, it turns out, incredible) eyepiece. The fact that it costs less and includes an Alpha adaptor I'd have to buy anyhow is icing on the cake.

Dpreview measured the A99 with 9-stops of dynamic range -- equal to 5D MKIII in their tests (I had remembered it being higher, which is why I thought it might exceed the FS100's dynamic range... which it doesn't seem to -- better than the A77 tho. FWIW, the FS100 has 11.5 stops according to Able Cine - but it's not exactly apples to oranges if they're using different test charts.)

[Ryan Douthit]

Stopped by the Sony store and re-did the test today. The results were... Less than ideal. Leaning back to FS100 now.

VG900 Test on Vimeo

[Ryan Douthit]

Decided: I ordered the FS100 today. Thanks!

[Chris Medico]

Let us know how it works out for you.

[Ryan Douthit]

It was a nice day out, so I tested some lenses and a couple color profiles on the FS100.

Sony FS100 Test Reel on Vimeo

After shooting with it in three locations and probably logging less than an hour, the shape is as fiddly as I had expected it would be. Also, noticed a nice big piece of fuzz on the sensor at my second location... and I forgot my blower. Natch.

I'll be filming a TV show with it next week, I'll keep playing with profiles and lenses in the meanwhile.