Comparing 6 Cameras

We were working in Utah shooting for a client late February and had a day off to shoot some slanted lens lessons. We found a great location with teepees and hired a horse and found a mountain man and woman to be in our shot. Were going to take a different approach though with this lesson. With all the talks about iPhones and 4G, I wanna see how much difference it really makes. Samy’s Camera in Los Angeles was nice enough to ship us several cameras so we can do a camera comparison. That’s an awesome package to receive with all those different cameras, it was like Christmas, only you had to send it back. Anyway, let’s take a look at comparing six different cameras and the images they make. The camera profiles will all put on neutral where applicable. The question for today’s lesson is “Can you match the images from this six different cameras without knowing which one was taken and which?”

We will shoot the same scene of our mountain people using the following cameras. The iPhone 5C with its eight Megapixel camera and a 15% larger CMOS sensor, very impressive. The iPad. Not the iPad 2 or Air, just an average old iPad. The Nikon D800 with a 36.3 Megapixel full-frame sensor. You know, I’m not a Nikon guy, but this is a really impressive camera. The mirror-less Sony 7R with a 36.4 Megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor. These are great little cameras. The Canon Mark 3 with its 22.3 Megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor. The Canon 1DC, I actually love this camera. It’s 4K and a great camera to shoot stills and pull frames from. It takes great images. It has an 18.1 Megapixel, full-frame sensor. So not quite as large as our Mark 3 or certainly not as large as our Nikon. So there’s our lineup. We have six devices that take photos. Let’s see how they compare with each other. I chose a scene that was lit by direct sun, so the comparison would be easier to see and give a bit of an advantage to the iPhone. Shadows are a place where you’ll see the camera break down very fast. So this image is fully lit given the advantage to the iPhone.

When I first setup the camera I usually want the sun as a rim light, especially when I’m using strobe but because I’m not using strobe today. I can’t overpower that sun, bring a positive exposure to the sky. This would’ve been a fight to make this images look any good. I can see very quickly that we need to move to the other side of the teepees and shoot looking Northwest. This is a much better angle, one will be easier to light and look so much better with that blue sky at the background. Here’s our first shot. I won’t be fighting the sky from this direction, I only need to open up the shadows in his face though. Were going to use reflectors to make that possible. Let’s look at our image lighting. I turned the subject into the sun, this allows me to expose for his skin and keep a nice deep blue background with the clouds. There’s a bit of cloud out although and that helps us a little bit. This is our first image, the shadows are very heavy. When your shooting continues like, this is when a good reflector makes such a great difference. Were going to add a 39-inch silver gold light panel from the camera left side. It’s going to open up the shadow on left side of his face. I can shoot with him looking into the sun with a good reflector, as long as it doesn’t too harsh and some bit cloudy today so it works out nicely. For our last light we’re going to add a gold silver pop up reflector on the camera right side. It’s a full length reflector, this will help open up the right side of his face. This opens up his face but doesn’t destroys the shadow, it’s still gives a very real feeling. This is our final lighting. We added a smoke in the background, of course! We have added smoke in the back ground. With our Rosco 1900 smoker, you know it due to an end for that small generator we’ve brought. I should’ve brought the 1700. I know for the future I guess. I want the smoke to create some atmosphere in the background. It’s windy and very hard to control and it’ll be a bit of a challenge but were gonna fight with it. Here’s some of the final images from this setup.

It’s now time to shoot with each of our cameras. We shot with the iPad in it’s Pad-caster cover. I do love this cover when using the iPad as a recording device or when were using as a teleprompter. It’s a great way to attach it to stands or to be able to hand hold it to give us some stability. We shot with the iPhone, the Canon 1DC, Canon Mark 3, the Nikon D800 and the Sony 7R mirror less camera. I shot as quickly as we could so the scene would remain the same. The smokers flying and the cameras are flying in and out. Here are the final images in no specific order. This is photo number one, this is photo number two, and here’s photo number three, and photo number four. Now we have photo number five, and last of all photo number six. Remember there’s no specific order to these, they’re just shot randomly. Can you tell which photo was taken with each of this cameras? The Canon 1DC, the iPad, the Canon Mark 3, the iPhone, Nikon D800, Sony 7R. Take a minute to look at them over and see if you can tell the difference between this six different images. So let’s take a look at each of this images full frame with it’s name so we can see what we learned.

This is the Canon 1DC. It has a great dynamic range, it holds up well in the shadows. This image is crisp but the color is very vivid. This is the iPhone. It looks defused and out of focus. The image quality is not very good, it’s scares me that we are taken all of our future family images with this device. It’s not a very good camera. This is the Nikon D800. The image quality is very good. There’s a bit more contrast but very good image and has nice color quality. Photo number four is the iPad. It’s just obvious. There’s more contrasts, it’s very soft looking again it’s just not a great camera. Number five is the Sony 7R. It’s probably the most contrasty but a very good image. I was impressed with the image quality from this little mirrorless camera. It wasn’t to cantrasty, it held up very well and had a great range. And last of all number six, The Mark 3. Open shadows and a bit orange but great image quality. I like the dynamic range and the image quality of this camera. It’s always been one of my favorite. Now I know your all going to compare an iPhone to a full frame camera. The reality is full frame sensors and an iPhone are just not the same world. I don’t think the iPhone or iPad in a range that they should be considered cameras you record history with Family pictures, events you want to have in the future. They’re just blurry and the image quality is not very good. Now if you wanna do a very artistic kinds of images where you want that kind of blurry look. Great! Use the iPhone but if you really want to record events you value. I would get a better camera, a Rebel you know a T4 or something will give you a little better images to pass on to your kids. As for me I like the dynamic range, contrasts and color condition that kind of cameras, they just worked for me. So there’s my opinion. I know you’re gonna say it’s a full frame sensor compared to an iPhone. That’s right it is and the iPhone lost, imagine that. Keep those cameras rolling, keep on clicking.

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