Red-One - Sony EX1 - Nikon D7000 - "Combined" for TV Documentaries ?

[George D.]

I just did an experiment, and I'd like people's opinions and expert knowledge about it.

Using our Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 program, I set it for RED R3D 4K 16x9 29.97, because Red-One footage will be the primary footage in the timeline, but there will be some video footage from our Sony EX1 and our Nikon D7000 along with it. I, of course, had to enlarge the Sony and Nikon clips to fit in the 4K 16x9 frame.

After making a test sample program, I rendered the entire thing, transferred it to Encore, and made a Blu-Ray disc.

My question is this: After projecting it onto a 100" screen, it seems the Nikon D7000 footage is a higher quality and sharper than that from the Sony EX1. Why would that be the case?

Is the Nikon D7000 capable of producing BETTER video than the Sony EX1 ? Or, is all this just my imagination.

Have any of you combined footage like this for television documentaries? Which camera would you prefer over the other, and why? I'm just concerned with the Sony compared to the Nikon at this point. It is obvious that the Red-One puts out the best images in the industry.

If you can give me any help or personal experience about this, and I would be most grateful.

Thanks.

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[Rob Ruffo]

It is just your imagination. EX1 is much sharper in terms of real resolution than any DSLR, but line-skipping will give you the illusion of sharpness (fake texture added), along with lots of other problems. Add some digital sharpening to EX1 - when you are past what is a safe amount, the EX1 will start to look like a DSLR.

EX1 truly resolves every pixel of 1080p - there is nothing sharper, at 1080p, than exactly that. Maybe the lens was dirty?

Quality is subjective however - you either like the 1/2 inch look, and it fits the shot, or not. Also, an EX1 with bad settings will look bad, and generally its 8 bit codec is very hard to grade. But any non-raw camera is hard to grade much and needs attention on set to get the settings right.

[George D.]

It is just your imagination. EX1 is much sharper in terms of real resolution than any DSLR, but line-skipping will give you the illusion of sharpness (fake texture added), along with lots of other problems. Add some digital sharpening to EX1 - when you are past what is a safe amount, the EX1 will start to look like a DSLR.

EX1 truly resolves every pixel of 1080p - there is nothing sharper, at 1080p, than exactly that. Maybe the lens was dirty?

Quality is subjective however - you either like the 1/2 inch look, and it fits the shot, or not. Also, an EX1 with bad settings will look bad, and generally its 8 bit codec is very hard to grade. But any non-raw camera is hard to grade much and needs attention on set to get the settings right.

Good points. Thanks.

BTW - My lenses are NEVER dirty.

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[Rob Ruffo]

Good points. Thanks.

BTW - My lenses are NEVER dirty.

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I didn't mean to imply it was - but the Ex1 with no sharpening applied can look less sharp than a DSLR which ALWAYS has fake sharpening applied. Sometimes just a subtle touch of unsharp mask to Ex1 footy can make it seem to pop more.