Not so long ago, we tested the rolling shutter sensor-based RED V-RAPTOR 8K VV – in case you missed it, you can head to our Lab Test here. It performed very well in our lab and rightfully sits in the top 5 of all cameras we tested so far in terms of dynamic range. Now this model received a sensor update to a new 8K global shutter full-frame sensor. You can read about all the specs and new features here.

Just recently I wrote the following about the new Sony a9 III which also received a new 6K global shutter sensor: “Global shutter sensors have been around for a while, but so far they have been hampered by the fact that dynamic range was significantly lower than what their rolling shutter counterparts showed. RED was the first company that seemed to have cracked this paradigm with their RED KOMODO 6K global shutter camera (see our Lab Test here) which performed very well in our dynamic range testing.”

The Sony a9 III already showed the potential of global shutter sensors by exhibiting the best results any Sony Alpha cam has delivered so far. Will this also be the case for the new RAPTOR [X] 8K VV?

If you are not familiar with how we test dynamic range, I suggest reading this article first. Also, I want to thank my dear colleague Florian who helped me shoot this test.

For obvious reasons, the rolling shutter measurement is missing. Out of curiosity, we checked the sensor using our 300Hz strobe light and as expected, nothing showed, just an evenly lit plane. As it should be!

Dynamic Range of the RED V-RAPTOR [X] 8K VV

To be completely transparent from the beginning: we did not test the new “Extended Highlight” function that is supposed to add 3 additional stops of dynamic range, as it is still in beta mode. It seems to be based on two successive frames (like Z-CAMs for example are offering as well) with a normal and an 8x higher shutter speed image merged into one frame. For moving scenes, this has the potential to show artifacts like ghosting as early footage revealed.

RED does not provide a “native” ISO of the sensor, and in REDCODE RAW ISO can be changed in post. So we used ISO800 as the middle ground to shoot our Xyla21 chart (Firmware version is 1.7). Here is a waveform plot at 8K DCI R3D HQ for 25 frames per second. I have expanded the RGB curves towards 5600K using the white balance slider to demonstrate a RED-specific phenomenon, which is called “highlight recovery”, built as default into the IPP2 color science (REDWideGamutRGB, Log3G10):

About 13 stops can be identified above the noise floor. Just a quick reminder, dynamic range is a ratio, not an absolute number. Hence, if we go from the very left first patch (which is completely clipped), there is a second (white) patch – which has been reconstructed by the built-in “highlight recovery”, but this stop does not contain any chroma information, only luma (no individual RGB values can be seen). Therefore, the first patch containing chroma information is the 3rd patch from the left – this is the first patch where nothing clips. Now from this patch to the next (the 4th, hence the ratio of the 3rd to the 4th) is our first stop, then comes the next stop, and so on. Until we have reached the last stop that still somewhat sticks out of the noise floor – 13 stops. Even a 14th and a hint of a 15th stop can be seen inside the noise floor.

So far, so good. Now let’s have a look at IMATEST:

IMATEST calculates 12.8 stops at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 2, and 14.5 stops at SNR = 1. This is a really good result but as mentioned, it includes the recovered stop as well.

White balance: just a quick comment, because many readers asked this when we did the last V-RAPTOR 8K VV test – shooting the Xyla chart is independent of the white balance used in camera. We asked our contacts at RED, and the answer was “The camera systems do not use discreet analog sensor gains for different white balances in order to preserve flexibility from the raw sensor data. To further clarify, what this means functionally is that capturing a clip at 2800K, and bringing it to 5600K in post will render the exact same image compared to if you had the camera set to 5600K at the time of capture.”

Also, when we tested the ARRI ALEXA 35, we checked EI400, 1600, and 3200 and IMATEST always showed exactly the same results, as different EI values or ISO’s for that case just move around the code values to higher or lower luma levels. Independent of the EI value, the sensor will clip at a given combination of F-stop of the lens and shutter value.

The RAPTOR [X] shows a similar behavior but is not as consistent across the range of ISO values, as a quick check of ISO6400 revealed: dynamic range drops to 12.2 and 13.7 stops at (SNR = 2 / 1).

Again: so far, so good. Now, let’s have a look at the exposure latitude.

Exposure Latitude of the RED V-RAPTOR [X] 8K VV at ISO800

Latitude is the capability of a camera to retain details and colors when over- or underexposed and pushed back to base exposure. Some time ago, we chose an arbitrary value of 60% luma value (in the waveform) for our subjects’ faces (actually their forehead) in our standard studio scene. This CineD base exposure should help our readers get a reference point for all the cameras tested, regardless of how they distribute the code values and which LOG mode is used.

Again we used 8K DCI 25fps R3D HQ at ISO800, our trusted Zeiss Compact Prime 85mm T1.5, and for your reference here are the development settings in DaVinci Resolve 18.6.5:

I tried two ways to bring the R3D files to the REC709 space:
a) by using a Color Space Transform (CST) from R3D to DaVinci intermediate/wide gamut, adjusting exposure, and then using another CST node to REC709 at the end and b) just adding a node with a LUT (RWG_Log3G10_to_Rec709_BT1886_with_LOW_CONTRAST_and_r_3_Soft_size_33).

Strangely, using the CST at massive underexposure channels started to clip to black. Not so with the LUT approach. So b) was used, and all exposure adjustments were done using the exposure slider in the Camera Raw tab as well as the lift, gamma and gain controls in DVR (on the first node, LUT on the last node).

Here is the base exposure, having my dear colleague Johnnie as a model:

From here, 2 stops of overexposure are possible before the forehead of Johnnie’s skin starts to clip, using the RAW-based traffic light exposure system of the RAPTOR [X] (removing the white sheet of paper quickly). Unfortunately, though, they are not completely accurate, as the below image, brought back to base exposure reveals areas on Johnnie’s head that are already slightly clipping. You can see the highlight recovery at work here – color information is lost, but luma details are still there:

The RGB waveform reveals a bit of a flattened red channel on Johnnie’s forehead. My personal preference here would be to have the option of highlight recovery in post, as is the case with the Blackmagic cameras (when using BRAW). I found it difficult to correctly expose the forehead to be just at the cusp of clipping the red channel. The best way is still an RGB waveform to see where the RGB channels start to align leading to pure white revealing the highlight recovery at work.

Now, from here we start to underexpose by closing the iris of our CP2 lens first and then doubling the shutter value.

At 5 stops below base exposure noise starts to kick in, but it is a very fine noise. 6 stops of underexposure look like this, even without noise reduction quite acceptable:

This looks very good, and we are already at 8 stops of exposure latitude!

Now let’s push it further to 9 stops of latitude, 7 stops below base, and brought back:

Now some noise reduction is needed as the image starts to get corrupted in the shadows. Also a greenish tint starts to appear in the shadow areas:

Nevertheless, I would still rate this as acceptable but reaching its limits. My criterion is always the shadow side of the subject’s face if the skin color can be recovered. You can see in the image above that the shadow side still looks okay-ish.

Now let’s move to 10 stops of exposure latitude. This is the level that the ARRI Alexa Mini LF reached. At 8 stops of underexposure, brought back we get this image:

Noise is all over, but it’s still a rather fine noise. There are no horizontal or vertical lines. Quite impressive! However, a greenish tint is all across the image, as well (also seen in the RGB waveform plot below), and the skin tone on the shadow side of Johnnie’s face cannot be recovered even with heavy temporal and spatial noise reduction:

At this point, I would say, it’s game over. This brings me to the following conclusion: the global shutter sensor-based RED V-RAPTOR [X] 8K VV is capable of a solid 9 stops of exposure latitude, with some room towards 10 stops. This is exactly the result we got from the rolling shutter sensor-based RED V-RAPTOR 8K VV!

The only difference between the two is the fact that the RAPTOR [X] turns greenish in underexposed areas, whereas the V-RAPTOR VV turns pinkish in underexposed areas.

Comparing it to the recently tested Sony A9 III which is also capable of 9 stops of exposure latitude with its 6K global shutter sensor, the 8K V-RAPTOR [X] exhibits a similar latitude but shows color drifts to green. However, the richness of colors is better with REDCODE RAW as colors quickly lose saturation in underexposed areas with the Sony A9 III.

The full-frame ARRI ALEXA Mini LF is capable of one more stop of exposure latitude (5 over to 5 under), and the king of the CineD Lab Test is the S35 sensor-based ARRI 35 which exhibited 12 stops of exposure latitude.

Summary

The global shutter sensor V-RAPTOR [X] shows a really solid result in our Lab Test. Compared to the previous rolling shutter sensor-based V-RAPTOR 8K VV it proves the point (again) that recent global shutter sensors are not hampered anymore by any loss of dynamic range, and have the huge advantage of eliminating any image skew due to rolling shutter effects.

More than impressive!

What do you think about this new model and the results from our test? Have you shot already with the RED RAPTOR [X]? Let us know in the comments below.

Global shutter sensors have been around for a while, but so far they have been hampered by the fact that dynamic range was significantly lower than what their CMOS counterparts showed. RED was the first company that seemed to have cracked this paradigm with their RED KOMODO 6K global shutter camera (see our lab test here) which performed very well in our dynamic range testing.

Now, Sony has introduced a full frame 6K global shutter sensor in their recent a9 III. Please head over to our article here covering the specs and what is new in terms of body and ergonomics. In essence, it provides 4K video oversampled from 6K in full frame or Super 35 mode for frame rates of 24 – 120 frames per second without any crop.

So, without further ado let’s jump right into the results. Again, my dear colleague Florian Milz helped to shoot this test and also provided the IMATEST analytics – thank you, Florian!

For obvious reasons there is no rolling shutter section for this global shutter camera, so next up is dynamic range measurement using our Xyla21 chart (see our article here on how we test dynamic range).

Dynamic range of the Sony a9 III at ISO2000

The first thing to notice when firing up the Sony a9 III is that the base or “native” ISO of S-Log3 is now 2000 instead of 800 like on so many other Sony cameras. Fine, so here is the waveform result shooting our Xyla21 chart in S-Gamut3.Cine / S-Log3 using full frame 4K XAVC S-I at ISO2000:

A solid 12 stops can be seen above the noise floor; even a 13th and 14th stop are visible. IMATEST calculates 11.4 stops at a signal-to-noise ratio of 2 (SNR) and 12.7 stops at SNR = 1. At first sight, this looks like more than 1 full stop less than e.g. the Sony a7 IV camera that we tested here.

But, something interesting is visible in the middle graph above the blue “12.7” line: there are another 3 stops exhibited inside the noise floor which could potentially be “excavated” using noise reduction in post. All other Sony Alpha cameras that we tested so far had a lot of internal noise reduction (that cannot be turned off) already baked into the image, hence leading to seemingly better IMATEST results, but also failing to show any potential to reveal additional stops from the noise floor.

The Sony a9 III seems to be different here. It looks noisier, but the noise looks finely dispersed, hence if the image pipeline including codecs is capable of encoding this fine image grain we will be able to pull stops from the shadows using post-noise reduction.

Also, the dynamic range stays the same for 60 frames per second and 120 fps. Quite remarkable.

In 4K Super 35 mode, there is no oversampling from 6K hence the image is a bit noisier, reflected in the waveform and IMATEST results below:

The dynamic range drops to 10.8 stops at SNR = 2 and 12 stops at SNR = 1.

Exposure latitude of the Sony a9 III

As stated in earlier articles, latitude is the capability of a camera to retain details and colors when over- or underexposed and pushed back to a base exposure. This test is very revealing, as it pushes the complete image pipeline of any camera to its absolute limits – not just in the highlights but mostly in the shadows.

Our studio base exposure is (arbitrarily) chosen as having an (ungraded) luma value of around 60% on the forehead of our subject on the waveform monitor – in this case, my colleague Nino:

Again, we shot S-Gamut3.Cine / S-Log3 using full frame 4K XAVC S-I at ISO2000. The LOG images were developed in DaVinci Resolve 18.6.4 using an input color space transform (CST) to DaVinci wide gamut/intermediate, then adjusted to base exposure and finally bringing it to Rec709 by another color space transform node at the end.

4 stops above base exposure we are at the cusp of starting to clip the red channel on Nino’s forehead, but the image brought back to base looks totally fine:

Now it gets interesting as we start to underexpose the image below our base exposure in 1-stop increments and push it back to base in post. At 3 stops under, the image starts to show a finely dispersed grain, which actually looks quite good to my eyes.

At 4 stops under, pushed back to base noise becomes very noticeable in the image:

Noise reduction can still provide a decent and very useable result:

The image looks really good, there are no horizontal lines and also no banding artifacts visible. We are already at 8 stops of exposure latitude, which is actually 1 stop better than the Sony a7S III or Sony a7 IV- wow, this is really good! So far, only the Sony A1 managed to provide 8 stops of exposure latitude.

Now, let’s see if we can push it 1 stop further – to 9 stops of latitude:

Luma and chroma noise is all over the place, but it is still finely dispersed – as opposed to other Sony alpha cameras, which typically start to show larger blotches of chroma noise that cannot be easily removed by noise reduction.

Noise reduction manages to clean up the image quite nicely:

Wow – this is still rather usable. We are at 9 stops of exposure latitude. The only cameras so far that managed to do this were the RED V-Raptor 8K VV (9 stops latitude), ARRI Alexa Mini LF (10 stops latitude), and Alexa 35 (12 stops). My criterion is always the shadow side of the face – have a look at how this area still cleans up OK-ish.

I think we have reached the limit now, as there are faint but visible larger blotches of pink chroma noise. But they are still not very distracting to the eye.

Now let’s try one more stop of underexposure by moving to 10 stops exposure latitude:

Atrocious noise is now all over the place. Let’s see what noise reduction can do:

Now, this is game over. The shadow side of Nino’s face cannot be recovered anymore, and the heavy noise reduction needed to clean this up already leads to ghosting that would not be acceptable in a moving image. It still looks surprisingly good though without banding or horizontal/vertical line artifacts!

In summary, this leads me to the superb result of 9 stops of exposure latitude with some wiggle room towards 10. This is the best result we found so far for a consumer full-frame camera (as mentioned above, the ARRI Alexa Mini LF exhibited 10 stops of exposure latitude, and the Alexa 35 12 stops).

Summary

The Sony Alpha 9 III displays fantastic results in our lab test. Rolling shutter by the very nature of the global shutter design is non-existent (effectively 0ms) – the best we have and will ever see for full-frame sensors. It cannot get better from here.

Dynamic range using our Xyla21 chart and IMATEST analysis is average when compared to other full-frame consumer cameras. But as is so often the case, IMATEST results are only one piece of the puzzle looking at the dynamic range of a camera. It basically gives a feel for how noisy images are at the various Xyla stops (patches). And here it can be clearly seen that the global shutter sensor is definitely noisier than its CMOS full-frame counterparts seen in other consumer full-frame cameras.

But Sony applied some magic to the image pipeline including the codecs, as the fine noise of the sensor is conserved in the final image and shadows can be massively pushed in post without ugly larger blotches of noise. This results in a superb 9 stops of exposure latitude with some room towards 10, making it the best Sony Alpha camera to date in video mode in terms of dynamic range! It is also the best consumer full-frame camera in that regard.

What a surprise – all this from a global shutter sensor! Well, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, times are a’changin …

Have you shot with the Sony a9 III yet? What are your experiences? Please use the comments section below to let us know what you think.

The FUJIFILM GFX100 II is a really unique offering, especially in terms of sensor size and resolution, and this camera very justifiably won CineD’s “Camera of the Year 2023” title, together with the iPhone 15 Pro / Max (read our article here). Also, my dear colleague Johnnie made one of his lovely mini-docs with it, and you can read his review here.

My colleague Florian (again, thank you for your help) and I were curious to put the GFX100 II through the standard CineD Lab torture test.

The GFX100 II offers a huge variety of sensor read-out modes for video. The FUJIFILM site has more information, but for your convenience, here are the GF options in medium format. There are Premista, 35mm (full frame), and anamorphic options as well.

As you can see, the only mode that covers the full sensor width in 16:9 / 17:9 is the 4K mode. The other modes are either horizontally or vertically cropped. We conducted a range of tests to assess rolling shutter and dynamic range across different modes, utilizing our Xyla21 chart. The corresponding graphs can be found in the CineD Camera Database entry for the GFX100 II.

To me, any mode that does not use the full sensor width defeats the purpose of testing a medium-format camera. Hence in this Lab Test, we focused on the GF 4K mode (Cine 5.8k uses the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, which does not comply with our 16:9 standard studio scene latitude test requirement).

Plus, there is the “F-Log2 D RANGE PRIORITY” “ON” or “OFF” feature. FUJIFILM has not specified what it does exactly, but I speculate that in D RANGE “ON” the full sensor resolution (11648 x 7768) is downsampled to the respective video resolution, at the cost of a higher rolling shutter. Hence, in principle, the 4K (3840×2160) GF F-Log2 D RANGE PRIORITY ON settings should yield the lowest noise, hence the best dynamic range results, utilizing the full sensor width in a standard 16:9 ratio.

As for the lens, we were not able to use our standard Zeiss Compact Prime 85mm T1.5 lens, so we rented the FUJINON GF 80mm f1.7 R WR instead. A superb lens, sharp even when wide open.

Rolling shutter of the FUJIFILM GFX100 II

Fine – let’s get going! The first test with our 300Hz strobe light is the full sensor width, full downsampled 4K mode at 25p, D Range ON. We get a result of 26.5ms (less is better):

We have no comparison with other medium format sensors, but for video work, this is on the (very) high side of things.

Let’s have a look at the same mode, but D RANGE PRIORITY OFF:

As can be seen above, the full sensor resolution downsampling takes its toll on the rolling shutter. In D RANGE PRIORITY OFF, it seems that some sort of line skipping is happening, allowing a much faster sensor readout – potentially at the expense of dynamic range and exposure latitude. We will dive into that in the next section.

To give you a reference, recent consumer full-frame cameras like the Sony A1, Canon EOS R5 C, or Nikon Z 9 are all around 15ms read-out speed. The Canon EOS R3 clocks 9.5ms, and the king of consumer full-frame cameras, the Sony A7S III, only has 8.7ms. (Excluding the Sony A9 III with its Global Shutter image sensor).

In full sensor width GF 5.8K mode, we get a rolling shutter of 25.9ms. I would have expected a faster readout as the picture height is less (2.35:1). One more result: in cropped GF 8K mode the rolling shutter is 31.7ms.

Dynamic range of the FUJIFILM GFX100 II

As usual, for the dynamic range and latitude tests, we used the camera settings that allows minimum noise reduction as it can not be turned completely off. 

Let’s have a look at the full sensor width 4K D RANGE PRIORITY ON waveform first. If you are not familiar with how we test dynamic range, have a look here.

The 4K F-Log2 D Range ON waveform using 10bit 4:2:2 ProRes HQ at the native ISO800 yields a solid 13 stops above the noise floor. The noise floor looks super clean, probably as a result of the downsampling of the massive native sensor resolution (11648 x 7768) to 4K:

The corresponding IMATEST result yields high values of dynamic range: 12.4 stops at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 2 and 13.7 at SNR = 1:

Now, what happens if we turn D RANGE PRIORITY to OFF? The waveform looks a bit noisier, and IMATEST yields 11.7 stops at SNR = 2 and 13 stops at SNR = 1. That’s 0.7 stops worse:

If we switch to the (cropped) 8k mode, probably the closest to native sensor resolution, IMATEST calculates 11.3 stops at SNR = 2 and 12.8 stops at SNR = 1. This can be regarded as the “native” dynamic range of the sensor, without any effects of downsampling.

Head over to the CineD Camera Database for additional IMATEST results for the 5.4K Premista (12.8 / 13.9 stops at SNR = 2 / 1) and 4.8K 35mm modes (12.4 / 13.9 stops).

Exposure latitude of the FUJIFILM GFX100 II

As stated before, latitude is the capability of a camera to retain details and colors when over- or underexposed and pushed back to a base exposure. This test is very revealing, as it pushes the complete image pipeline of any camera to its absolute limits – not just in the highlights but mostly in the shadows.

Our studio base exposure is (arbitrarily) chosen as having an (ungraded) luma value of 60% on the forehead of our subject on the waveform monitor – in this case, my colleague Johnnie. We developed the ProResHQ files using the official GFX100II_FLog2_FGamut_to_WDR_BT.709_33grid_V.1.00 LUT, which is available on the FUJIFILM homepage:

Again, we used 4K F-Log2 D RANGE PRIORITY ON mode using 10-bit 4:2:2 ProResHQ mode.

Now let’s see where the red channel starts to clip on Johnnie’s forehead. It begins at 3 stops above the base exposure, as can be seen below. Looking at the RGB waveform of the ungraded clip below, the red channel on Johnnie’s forehead appears intact. However, in the developed version and the image pushed back 3 stops, it starts to look a bit overexposed.

This is something to consider when exposing the GFX100 II, as F-Log2 has a rather smooth transition towards highlights, which in turn makes it a bit more difficult to assess the exact clipping point:

Now, let’s see how far we can underexpose and bring back the image. Not much is happening between base exposure and 4 stops under, although at 3 stops under (6 stops of exposure latitude), sensor smear becomes apparent. It can be seen more easily at 4 stops under, so let’s jump there:

Now noise starts to kick in. We are at 7 stops of exposure latitude. In the shadows, the image starts to degrade, but the shadow side of Johnnie’s face (my most important criterion) still looks OK, even without applying further noise reduction.

However, something that to my eyes looks like sensor smear becomes visible. The white piece of paper on the left leads to a distinctive horizontal band across the image all the way to the right where the image turns greenish, everything else pinkish (within the two horizontal boundaries of the white piece of paper, clearly visible by the two horizontal lines). Not good. However, luma noise is very finely distributed.

Let’s move to 5 stops under, pushed back to base:

More noise is appearing, but the shadow side of Johnnie’s face is still mostly intact, even without noise reduction. Overall, this would be a good result at 8 stops latitude. However, sensor smear is even more pronounced, and in the moving image, large blotches of pinkish chroma noise can be seen. Signs of color banding are also appearing. Have a look at the shadow on the left side in the background of the color checkr.

Noise reduction helps here and cleans up the image nicely – however, the sensor smear is even more apparent and is happening across the image (visible as horizontal lines):

Now, 6 stops under:

Noise reduction cannot save this image:

Now, to stay consistent with earlier Lab Test assessments that are already at 4 stops under (7 stops of exposure latitude), the sensor smear is impacting the image in a way that cannot be fully recovered, although noise in the image is still well-controlled. That gives a total of 6 stops of exposure latitude.

Now, sensor smear can happen if the pixel density on a sensor is very high and an electrical charge impacts neighboring pixels (in this case due to the harsh horizontal transition from the grey background to the white piece of paper – thus the horizontal lines).

We have seen a similar phenomenon on the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K camera (Lab Test here – also see the comments from Alister Chapman and John Brawley) – obviously, sensor smear is more difficult to control the higher the pixel density.

Now, to prove the point we also tested the D RANGE PRIORITY “OFF” settings. In D RANGE “OFF”, the sensor seems to skip lines, hence smear should not affect neighboring pixels.

Let’s have a look at 4 stops under, brought back to base with D RANGE “OFF”:

Much noisier, but no visible sign of sensor smear. The image can be mostly repaired by using noise reduction, however, towards the shadows nasty color banding (stepwise lume / chroma transitions) is starting to appear – hence, even in this mode, 7 stops are the limit. Let’s look at 5 under:

Clearly, much noisier than the D RANGE ON image at 5 stops under (have a look above), but no sensor smear. Very visible are the color banding structures on the left side – the shadow of the color checkr and the area behind Johnnie.

Let’s have a look if this can be saved by noise reduction:

Overall as the noise is still very finely distributed, the image cleans up nicely. Unfortunately, in the shadows, the image shows massive color banding and cannot be reconstructed.

In summary, it can be seen how D RANGE ON leads to a much cleaner, much more usable image if you pull shadows (at the cost of a higher rolling shutter). Unfortunately, this mode is hampered by sensor smear, leading to a usable 6 stops of latitude only. To eliminate the sensor smear, the 4K line skipping mode can be enabled giving a better rolling shutter but much more noise and stepwise transitions into shadows (banding).

If the sensor didn’t show smear, 8 stops of exposure latitude would be easily possible, as the noise is distributed very finely and can be cleaned up in post. To put this into perspective, 8-stop latitude is now the almost standard result for full-frame consumer cameras. However, our benchmark cameras ARRI ALEXA Mini LF display what is possible by showing 10 stops, and the ALEXA 35 has 12 stops of exposure latitude.

Summary

The FUJIFILM GFX100 II exhibits very mixed results in the lab: rolling shutter values are in general very high – as expected for a 102-megapixel medium format sensor. The line-skipping modes (D RANGE OFF) are good in terms of rolling shutter (15ms in 4K) but hampered in the dynamic range and latitude department.

Switching to full resolution downscaling (F-Log 2 D RANGE PRIORITY ON), rolling shutter values are on the high side, but the dynamic range improves. Also, transitions into highlights are very smooth. Nevertheless, in these modes, sensor smear impacts shadow areas. Personally, I would still only use the downscaled modes as the images are simply better.

Hence, don’t expect wonders in the dynamic range department just because of the massive medium format sensor. The GFX100 II is the first solid offering from a manufacturer that enables you to use this camera for serious video work with the “look” of medium format. For comparison, FUJIFILM’s own APS-C X-H2S camera fares much better in the Lab Test and exhibited close to 9 stops of exposure latitude with a rolling shutter of 9.7ms.

Have you shot with the FUJIFILM GFX100 II yet? What are your experiences? Let us know in the comments below.

I have been a Blackmagic Design fan since the introduction of the original pocket cinema camera in 2013, and I still use it from time to time if I am after a certain look. For instance, using it with C-mount lenses can give me a nice vintage, very organic super 16 look. But this is another story.

I then added the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K to my arsenal, which is one of my two go-to cameras. The other one is the Panasonic LUMIX S1.

This brings me directly to the new Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K (BMCC6K), which now uses the same L-mount as my Panasonic LUMIX S1 and also comes with a full-frame sensor. Please have a look at the article looking into the specs by my colleague Jakub here, and a first look by my colleague Francesco here. So, I was really interested to see what this first full-frame camera from Blackmagic Design brings to the table.

BMCC6K – Rolling shutter

Using our 300Hz strobe light, which generates the sequence of black and white bars, we get 18.7ms (less is better) for 6K DCI (17:9):

This is not the best result for 2023. We have a lot of other full-frame consumer cameras that are better. The Nikon Z 9 (8K – 14.5ms), the Canon EOS R5 C (8K 15.5ms), and the Sony A1 (8K 16.6ms) just to name a few. And, of course, the leader of the pack, the Sony a7S III with 8.7ms in 16:9 4K. Full frame cameras that perform worse in the rolling shutter department are the Panasonic LUMIX S series cameras which are all around 22ms.

In 3:2 open gate mode, we get 25ms, and in 4K DCI crop mode, we get 15ms for the new BMCC6K.

BMCC6K – Dynamic Range

The BMCC6K has again a dual native ISO sensor, with ISO400 and 3200 as the “native” ISO. In Blackmagic RAW though (which is the only codec now available, as ProRes HQ is gone), ISO can be set in post. These two ISOs, however, represent a good balance between highlights and shadows.

Let’s have a look at the waveform of the 6K open gate, BRAW 3:1 at ISO400 (color science gen5):

A solid 12 stops above the noise floor can be identified, with a 13th and even a 14th stop visible.

IMATEST calculates 11.6 stops at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 2, and 12.9 stops at SNR = 1 for ISO400. These are almost exactly the same results that we measured for the BMPCC6K and BMPCC6K Pro (they actually showed 0.2 stops better results at SNR = 2). Also, the noise levels look very similar (see our lab test article here).

Now, let’s have a look at the second native ISO circuit – ISO3200:

Also for ISO3200, about 12 stops are visible above the noise floor. However, the second native ISO is really very noisy. Let’s see what IMATEST calculates:

IMATEST calculates 10.2 stops at SNR = 2 and 11.5 stops at SNR = 1. This is similar to what we measured for the BMPCC6K and 6K Pro (lab test here).

Hence, you lose about 1.5 stops when switching to the higher ISO circuit, which is not exactly what I would expect from a dual native ISO sensor. All the other cameras that we tested so far typically showed less than half a stop difference in dynamic range when switching to the second native ISO value.

In addition, the normalized pixel noise reaches values of around 6 in the red channel (see the lowest of the 3 diagrams above), which is way higher than for the BMPCC6K and 6K Pro at ISO3200. I did some quick tests comparing the two cameras at home and actually found the noise nastier, and much more difficult to remove with the new full-frame BMCC6K. Quite surprising to be honest …

In the crop 4K modes, the same exact dynamic range results for the two ISO’s are obtained, which is to be expected – also for the higher frame rates that are possible in those modes.

BMCC6K – Latitude

Latitude is the capability of a camera to retain details and colors when over- or underexposed and pushed back to base exposure. Some time ago, we chose an arbitrary value of around 60% luma value (in the waveform) for our subjects’ forehead as the base exposure in our standard studio scene. This CineD base exposure should help our readers get a reference point for all the cameras tested, regardless of how they distribute the code values and which LOG mode is used.

Again, BRAW 3:1 open gate mode at ISO400 was used, but we only display 16:9 frames here.

As usual, we overexpose until the red channel is at the cusp of clipping on the forehead of our subject (my dear colleague Johnnie in this case), and then we push it back to base exposure in post. Here, typically some patches of the color checker on the left are clipped. Those can be brought back by using the “highlight recovery” option in the RAW camera tab of DaVinci Resolve 18.6.4 that we used here. However, we only test with “highlight recovery” turned “OFF”, as color accuracy suffers massively with reconstructed color channels (as we wrote in many earlier articles) – but it is a nice option to have to save parts of the image if they are partially clipped.

For Blackmagic color science generation 5 (due to the code value distribution at ISO400) that gives 3 stops of overexposure possibility:

From here forward, we close the iris of our ZEISS Compact Prime 85mm T1.5 (which we always use for full-frame cameras) to T2, T2.8, and so on until T8, and then we also double the shutter speed. These images are also normalized back to base exposure in post.

Now, let’s directly move to 5 stops of underexposure (from base), brought back. Here, quite suddenly, noise starts to kick in, which was almost absent even for the 4 stops under image that was brought back:

We are at 8 stops of exposure latitude (3 over to 5 under). That is almost the standard now for consumer full-frame cameras like the Sony A1, the Panasonic LUMIX SH1, S1, and S5 (not the S5II as this one only had 7 stops of latitude). Noise reduction helps to clean up the image, but a green tint stays in the shadows:

It is already at the cusp of being usable, but I will still count it as a valid result. Quite massive temporal and spatial noise reduction is needed:

Now, let’s move to 6 stops underexposure:

Now, the noise becomes massive, and horizontal stripes also start to appear. Plus, the nasty green tint in the shadows is much more pronounced. The horizontal stripes can be identified more easily when using noise reduction:

Hence, this is a clear “game over”, which leads us to the conclusion that 8 stops of exposure latitude are possible with the new BMCC6K. Compared to recent consumer cameras, this is 1 stop better than the Canon EOS R5 C or Panasonic LUMIX S5II, and it is similar to the Sony A1, Panasonic LUMIX S1H, S1 or S5, and also Nikon Z 9 as well as Canon EOS R3.

This result is a tad disappointing, as I did expect the 12-bit BRAW codec to have more potential to pull up shadow stops compared to the H.264 or H.265 codecs that are typically available for consumer cameras.

The leaders of the pack in the full frame segment are the RED V-Raptor with 9 stops and the ARRI Alexa Mini LF with 10 stops of exposure latitude. Our benchmark is the Super35 ARRI Alexa 35 with 12 stops.

Summary

The new Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K shows a solid performance in the lab test. In the rolling shutter department, it falls behind compared to most recent consumer full-frame cameras, whereas in the dynamic range department, it is on a similar level, at least for the lower native ISO. The higher native ISO is sort of a problem child; I would stay away from it if possible.

Latitude is also in the middle ground, nothing special, but better than some recent cameras like the Panasonic LUMIX S5II or the Canon EOS R5 C.

As a BMPCC6K or 6K Pro user, it is simple – lab test results for the new full-frame BMCC6K are sort of “copy & paste” from the APS-C sized BMPCC6K and 6K Pro. Hence, a bigger sensor, but everything else is similar.

Have you shot with the BMCC6K yet? What is your experience? Let us know in the comments below.

In life there is always a first and that also applies to camera lab testing – so this is the first time we are testing a phone in the lab. So far it wouldn’t have made much sense, as typically a lot of image manipulation is happening in phones in an automated way, such as auto tone mapping which tones down bright parts of the image and increases brightness in the shadows. With the introduction of a log mode, namely Apple LOG for the latest iPhone 15 Pro & Max this situation has changed. With LOG, there is now the required consistency for a rigorous test.

So, let’s jump right into it – or not? Well, it’s not so easy to be honest, because we always try to stick to some very rigid principles in our testing.

So first, at that point again a very big “thank you” for the nice collaboration with my colleague Florian Milz. Especially when testing the front facing camera things got a bit complicated but he will always find a way …

Challenge accepted: adjusting CineD Lab Test standard to iPhone 15 Pro

Coming back to our rigid standards, for one, we always try to use the same Zeiss 50mm CP2 T/2.1 macro lens for APS-C cameras, or the Zeiss 85mm T1.5 lens for full frame cameras. Using these focal lengths ensures a certain distance from the Xyla 21 stepchart (or subject in the latitude test) to avoid internal reflections from the chart which might impact lower stops in the dynamic range evaluation.

Please have a look at our article here explaining how we measure dynamic range.

Secondly we always do a proper research to find out native ISO’s of sensors, and then obviously dial in the white balance, shutter, ISO and focus plane manually to ensure consistency.

Now to item one, on the iPhone 15 Pro there are 13mm, 24mm and 77mm equiv. focal lengths available on the three different back facing cameras. On the iPhone 15 Pro Max there is a 120mm focal length instead of the 77mm. Strangely, for the front facing camera there is no focal length mentioned. So you will get all results from us below, with the exception of the 13mm camera. We found just too much reflection from the XYLA 21 chart using this camera.

Blackmagic Camera App to the rescue

To the second point, the native Apple camera app does not provide any possibility to set manual parameters. So we had to resort to the Blackmagic Camera app which allows exactly that. Settings in the app for all the lab tests were Apple Log and 4K ProRes HQ.

The Blackmagic App taps into the hardware image pipeline hence it receives the same information that the native Apple camera app has. Also, we had to find out what the native ISO on each of the four camera’s sensors (including the front facing one) is.

Ahead of our Lab Test, we were able to determine that the lowest ISO (which is different on each of the 4 cameras) is always the cleanest (native) ISO. Higher ISO’s would just push up the code values thus resulting in brighter images, but also noisy shadows. However, higher ISO’s also bring up the difference between lower stops in Apple Log, so there is a potential benefit of shooting at higher ISO’s if separation in darker stops is needed.

Perfect. Time to get going, right?

Rolling Shutter of the iPhone 15 Pro / Max Cameras

Let’s start with the iPhone 15 Pro 24mm camera. Using our 300Hz strobe light we get 5.3ms (less is better) of rolling shutter:

The 13mm camera reads 4.7ms, the 77mm camera 5ms and the 120mm camera (Max) again 5ms. The front facing camera reads 9.3ms to our surprise:

Comparing these full sensor read out values to recent consumer or even professional cinema cameras, the ~5ms is a superb result. There is only one camera in the market that tops it: the Sony VENICE 2 with less than 3ms. Alternatively, there are global shutter camera options that have 0ms like the RED KOMODO (and most likely, the newly announced Sony a9 III full frame camera which comes with a global shutter – but we have yet to get our hands on this camera to verify this).

Dynamic Range of the iPhone 15 Pro / Max

Let me quickly repeat again why we have 3 ways to judge the dynamic range of a camera:

• The waveform plot of the Xyla 21 chart at native sensor resolution on a timeline with that resolution: this gives a visual indication of how many stops can be identified above the noise floor (= the usable stops). Also, it shows the code value distribution of the stops. Very often, the lower stops are very close together in terms of code value (the Y – axis), hence if you underexpose and raise the shadows later in post (i.e. expanding the shadow stops), you will not have enough code values between the stops and the result is ugly banding (loss of fine color transitions between the stops).
• IMATEST: IMATEST will calculate the signal to noise ratio for each stop. That is a purely mathematical calculation and comes in handy to identify, how “clean” each of the stops is. Cameras that use a lot of internal noise reduction naturally fare better than others with less noise reduction. There is no way to account for that in a meaningful way, as the noise footprint of every camera / sensor is different. Hence, there is also no “standard” noise reduction that you can apply in post to compare cameras. That’s why we at CineD always turn off the noise reduction – as recommended by IMATEST.
• Latitude: exposure latitude is the capability of a camera to retain colors and detail when over- or underexposed. Our CineD studio scene is the real world test (in a controlled environment) of how far a camera can be pushed. The beauty of this test is that it clearly reveals how many stops are usable in our carefully composed standard scene, as the playfield gets equalized – and, it is revealed if a camera is “cheating” by using excessive internal noise reduction. No matter how much internal / or post noise reduction is used, cameras that show a solid 12 stops at a signal-to-noise ratio of 2 typically have 8 stops of latitude in our scene. Cameras like the ARRI ALEXA that show 2 stops more at SNR = 2 also have two stops more latitude. Cameras that try to achieve something close to 12 stops at SNR = 2 by using heavy internal noise reduction only show 6 – 7 stops of latitude.

So, this trinity of tests is very revealing and helps to identify if the combination of sensor readout, signal processing, and codec allows to push exposure around over a large range.

iPhone 15 Pro 24mm camera at ISO55 – dynamic range

The waveform shows around 11 stops above the noise floor. Speaking of which, there is almost no such thing as a noise floor – everything is super clean, hinting at massive noise reduction happening internally (there is no way to turn this “off”):

Wow, 11 stops are really good. Now let’s run this through IMATEST:

We are getting 12 stops of dynamic range in the iPhone 15 Pro (Max) for a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 1, and the same 12 stops for a signal to noise ratio of 2. Also for the “slope based DR”. This is a clear sign of “too much” noise processing for IMATEST to calculate a meaningful result. It also becomes obvious in the lowest diagram where “Noise (% of max pixel)” is shown. Noise values for the shadow stops are super low.

Now let’s increase ISO to see if we get some differentiated result with IMATEST. Looking at ISO1200, we get the following waveform for the 24mm camera:

Comparing this waveform at ISO1200 to the waveform at ISO55 you can see clearly how the code values (Y-axis) are shifted upwards to increase brightness in the image. Now also the darker stops are more differentiated and you can see a 12th stop emerging. It will be interesting to see if the latitude test will reflect this difference as well.

IMATEST calculates (higher) 13.4 stops at SNR = 2 and 13.4 stops at SNR = 1.

Just looking at these results could lead you to conclude that the iPhone 15 Pro reaches ARRI Alexa levels of dynamic range (have a look at our ARRI ALEXA classic and Mini LF test here and our ALEXA 35 test here). Well…

My conclusion so far is that IMATEST mainly measures the noise reduction, and not so much the “real” dynamic range. We will have clarity once we move to the latitude section. Spoiler alert: at the end of the day it is a cell phone with tiny sensors …

Here is a table of IMATEST results for the other cameras of iPhone 15 Pro / Pro Max:

Exposure Latitude results of the iPhone 15 Pro Max

As described earlier, latitude is the capability of a camera to retain colors and details when over / underexposed and pushed back to a base reference level.

For our CineD studio tests, the base exposure level refers to a luma waveform value of around 60% on the forehead of my dear colleague Johnnie. We always establish the clipping level first by overexposing until the red channel is at the cusp of clipping on the forehead of our subject. This means that some colors have already clipped on the colorchecker on the left. From there we then underexpose in 1 stop increments. We did this via the Blackmagic app using the shutter value (1/30s, 1/60s, etc…). As mentioned earlier everything was shot in Apple Log and 4K ProRes HQ on the iPhone Pro Max phone (at the time of exposure testing we only had this one available).

For the iPhone 15 tests we used the 24mm and the front facing camera, and we checked exposure levels in the RGB waveform. The beauty is that an external monitor can be connected as a visual reference:

Now, to develop the shots we used DaVinci Resolve 18.6, via a color space transform (CST, from REC2020 and Apple Log to REC709). Adjustments to exposure or noise reduction were always made on the first node, the second node then did the CST:

24mm at ISO55 – our base exposure looks like that:

Now, at ISO55 can go to 3 stops over and bring back the image to base exposure in post (using the lift / gamma / gain primaries in DaVinci Resolve 18.6) without any issues:

Now, moving to two stops of underexposure and bringing back the image in post, we get already a rather noisy image:

This is already at the cusp of being usable. Let’s push it one stop more:

Uhh … that doesn’t look good. We have reached the latitude limit. Massive banding can be seen, as well as a very blotchy chroma noise distribution. Image sharpness is lost as well. Also, the concentric circles hint at an in – camera vignetting compensation.

If our suspicion, derived from the IMATEST results is right we will not be able to do much with noise reduction, as the image is already heavily noise processed by default.

Hence, let’s apply noise reduction to the 2 stops under and 3 stops under images:

Please have a look further down in the article for a table of the noise reduction settings applied in DaVinci Resolve 18.6 for the various ISO’s and cameras.

Concluding for the 24mm camera at ISO55, we get 5 stops of exposure latitude (3 above to 2 under). This is actually 2 if not 3 stops below the current crop of consumer APS-C or full frame cameras. Comparing it to the aforementioned ARRI Alexa Mini LF, it is 5 stops less exposure latitude. And compared to the Alexa 35, the difference is even seven stops.

Now let’s have a look at higher ISO’s for the 24mm camera – at ISO1200

As mentioned earlier in the dynamic range section, we noticed the phenomenon that at higher ISO’s code values would shift up and the lower (darker) stops would show a bit more differentiation resulting in potentially less banding.

Let’s directly move to the 3 stops under image, for ISO1208 and 24mm camera:

Well, this actually looks a bit better than at ISO55. Still, I would not consider this usable.

Now let’s look at the front facing camera starting with ISO55

We couldn’t use the lowest of ISO 20 as it was not possible to clip the forehead of Johnnie with our standard studio lighting.

Again, 3 stops overexposure from base is easily possible, so lets move directly to 2 stops under:

Interestingly, the front facing camera has a different, more organic image processing, also the noise is a bit finer, not so blotchy (especially the chroma noise) as with the 24mm camera.

This image cleans up nicely again:

Let’s see if we can push this to 3 stops under:

This looks better actually than the 24mm at 3 stops under, even at ISO1200.

Now, let’s do one more test at 3 stops under, using ISO1207 on the front facing camera:

It becomes very obvious that the noise is much finer, especially the chroma noise. However, there is much more luma noise in the image. So let’s apply noise reduction:

Ok, this is still not usable unfortunately. There is less of the blotchy chroma noise and much more luma noise, but overall there is a pinkish tint and the image is still not usable.

As a summary, we can conclude that the iPhone 15 Pro / Max is capable of 5 stops of exposure latitude, with some wiggle room towards 6 at higher ISO’s.

Summary

Quite a funny experience to run a phone through our lab tests! The rolling shutter is exceptionally good on the iPhone 15 Pro / Max, with around 5ms for all cameras, the front facing camera has 9.3ms which is still very good. Perfect for handheld video shooting.

Looking at the waveforms and the iPhone 15 Pro dynamic range in IMATEST, at first glance you could be tricked into believing the very high values that are displayed. In the end it turns out that those high IMATEST values are achieved with a really high internal noise reduction, confirmed by the latitude results of 5 stops (which is on the very low end in our benchmark). Recent Micro four thirds cameras like the GH6 have seven stops of exposure latitude, consumer APS-C cameras like the FUJIFILM X-H2S or the Sony A6700 have 8 stops and the leader of the pack, the ARRI Alexa 35 has 12 stops to give you the benchmark of our testing.

Nevertheless, we have to keep things in perspective – we are talking about a phone with tiny image sensors … So all due respect to Apple in bringing Apple Log with 4k ProRes HQ encoding to their latest phones, which opens up a lot of possibilities for creators. It will only get better from here. Exciting.

Have you shot video on the iPhone 15 Pro / Max? What are your experiences? Please let us know in the comments section below.

Please have a look at the article from my colleague Florian Milz here, where he takes an in-depth look at the new Sony a6700. For this lab test, again it was a nice collaboration with Florian as he contributed the rolling shutter and dynamic range measurements and helped to shoot the latitude tests – thank you!

Rolling shutter of the Sony a6700 in 25p and 120p

As usual, we use our strobe light to generate the sequence of black and white line pairs, which is an artifact resulting from the readout mode of CMOS sensors that can be used for the measurement.

For 4K 25p, we get the following result:

15.9ms (less is better) in 4K 25p is a good but average result for an APS-C sensor. The FUJIFILM X-H2S, for example, has a rolling shutter of 9.7ms. The best camera in this sensor class (albeit more like APS-H) we have measured so far is the ARRI ALEXA 35 with 5.7ms.

In 4K 120p, an additional crop of 1.6 is applied and the rolling shutter reduces to 8.1ms.

Dynamic range of the Sony a6700

If you are not aware of how we test dynamic range, please head over here first.

The sensor of the Sony a6700 has two native ISO modes, one at ISO800 and the other at ISO2500. For 4K XAVC S-I (all – intra 4:2:2 10bit) at 25p, we get the following waveform plot:

About 12 stops can be identified above the noise floor. IMATEST calculates 11.2 stops at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 2, and 12.4 stops at SNR = 1.

Those results are solid, but again, in the middle ground. The FUJIFILM X-H2S, for example, shows 11.9 / 13.4 stops at SNR = 2 / 1, very similar to the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K. Just for reference, the state-of-the-art for APS-C (or in this case APS-H) cameras is the ARRI ALEXA 35, which exhibited 15.1 / 16.3 stops at SNR = 2 / 1.

What I find quite remarkable in the middle diagram above the blue “12.4” line are the additional stops visible in the noise floor. Maybe those stops are partially usable in the latitude test.

For the second native ISO at 2500, we are getting very similar results. The waveform looks almost identical, and IMATEST calculates 11.1 / 12.3 stops at SNR = 2 / 1, which is just 0.1 stops less when you use the second native ISO.

Switching to 4K 120 frames per second leads to a native pixel read-out at an additional 1.6 crop factor, and as expected, the images are noisier, which is reflected in the dynamic range results.

Here is the waveform plot for 4K 120p at ISO800:

As can be seen above, the noise floor is much noisier, and we can identify around 10, maybe 11 stops above the noise floor. IMATEST confirms this giving 9.51 / 10.9 stops at SNR = 2 / 1:

Again, at ISO2500 for 4K 120p, only 0.1 stops are lost. IMATEST calculates 9.44 / 10.8 stops at SNR = 2 / 1.

Latitude of the Sony a6700

As said before, latitude is the capability of a camera to retain details and colors when over- or underexposed and pushed back to a base exposure. This test is very revealing, as it pushes every camera to its absolute limits – not just in the highlights but also in the shadows.

Our studio base exposure is (arbitrarily) chosen as having an (ungraded) luma value of 60% on the forehead of our subject on the waveform monitor. In this case, my dear colleague Nino:

From there forward, 4 stops of overexposure are possible until the red channel on Nino’s forehead starts to clip (to the left certain patches of the ColorChecker are already clipped):

Now, we start to underexpose in 1-stop increments and push back the exposure in post to match our base exposure. At 3 stops under, pushed-back noise starts to creep into the image:

We are already at 7 stops of exposure latitude, and the image still looks really good! Noise can be easily removed by noise reduction, but it is not really needed at this point (in my opinion). The combination of sensor/image pipeline/codec really shines with that little camera.

Now, let’s have a look at 8 stops of latitude, 4 stops under, and pushed back:

Yes, now the noise starts to have a significant impact on the image to the point where it becomes borderline – but it still looks somewhat OK as it is a finely dispersed noise. Hence, noise reduction can still save this image to an extent:

This is quite impressive. 8 stops of latitude are typically the maximum consumer cameras can achieve. With that result, the Sony a6700 is on par with many full-frame cameras like the Sony A1, the Panasonic S- series (S1, SH1, S5), and it is actually one stop better than the recent Pansonic S5II or the (full frame RAW capable) Canon R5 C!!

Now let’s go to 5 stops under:

Noise is now heavily corrupting the image. For example, have a look at the shadow side of Nino’s face – even noise reduction cannot clean up the skin:

Noise reduction cannot clean up the image (again, look at the shadow side of Nino’s face), and there are horizontal (static) lines appearing in the image, hence, “Game Over”.

That gives 8 stops of exposure latitude. Similar to what we got for the FUJIFILM X-H2S and also the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K (Pro). Very impressive to say the least! Just to give you the current benchmark for a full-fledged cinema camera, the ARRI ALEXA 35 has 12 stops of exposure latitude.

Summary of the Sony a6700 Lab Test

Sony’s new a6700 APS-C camera performs very well in the lab. Rolling shutter values are OK, dynamic range is on par with a lot of other consumer cameras for the APS-C as well as for full-frame sensors, and the latitude results really show the capabilities of the new sensor/image pipeline and robust all-I 4:2:2 10bit codec. This size/price/performance ratio is hard to beat!

Have you shot with Sony a6XXX series cameras? What do you like about them? Please tell us in the comments below.

Editor’s note: The DJI Inspire 3 with Zenmuse X9-8K results from this Lab Test have also been added to our Databases. Recording modes and times will be added to the Databases later.

A lot has been written about the DJI Inspire 3 drone with the new Zenmuse X9-8K Air camera module. You can read the announcement with all the specs by my colleague, Jakub Han, here, and another article with everything you need to know here. Also, CineD awarded the NAB 2023 Best of Show Award to DJI – read about it here. A more in-depth video review of the Inspire 3 is currently in the works as well.

Hence, we were quite curious to see how it would fare in our standardized lab test. Now, this was not a straightforward task. We needed to align it properly with our Xyla21 chart (no tripod mount available, obviously ;-), and, it came with the DL 50 mm F2.8 LS ASPH lens. Hence, Florian and I were unsure if our studio light setup would be strong enough to bring the red channel close to clipping at our subject’s face using the F2.8 aperture to test the exposure latitude. Thank you Florian for all your help!

So without further ado, let’s jump straight to the results! For the record, the camera firmware was 10.00.15.01 (most recent at the time of writing).

Rolling shutter of the Inspire 3 Zenmuse X9-8K Air camera module

First, we tested the rolling shutter in full frame mode with the 8K DCI (8192×4320) settings at 25 frames per second (recorded in ProResHQ 422):

Ouch – a whopping 31.3ms (less is better)! That is unfortunately a very bad value. Recent full-frame cameras that we tested showed a range from 3ms to 16ms (e.g. the Sony VENICE 2 in 8K DCI has less than 3ms, the Sony a7S III has 8.7ms in 4K, the Canon EOS R3 at 6K has 9.3ms, and the Nikon Z 9 came in at 14.5ms in 8.3K).

You might argue that the onboard gimbal mitigates a lot of the issues with rolling shutter, but as this drone can fly as fast as 95km/h, be aware that rolling shutter effects will show up, especially on tracking shots.

Now, what we found strange is that DJI advertises up to 75fps in 8K for ProRes RAW shooting (in 1:2.4 aspect ratio). How is that possible? We tested it and found that the sensor switches to another readout mode if you go beyond 30 frames per second. From 30 to 60fps, the rolling shutter decreases to 16.3ms. We were a bit unsure about what actually changed, so we took a quick look at our resolution chart to check if the full sensor was still sampled or if some kind of upsampling from a lower resolution was happening:

Regarding resolution, we couldn’t see any difference, even standing a bit further away from the chart to see if the finest details would still be recorded. You can see in the above display that there is no difference in 25 or 60p for 8K DCI ProRes RAW recording.

We cannot tell you what is happening and why the sensor changes readout mode above 30p, but at least there is no impact on the resolution. Hence, for fast action scenes, it is advisable to switch to frame rates higher than 30fps in 8K DCI ProRes RAW mode to mitigate rolling shutter effects.

Interestingly, for ProRes HQ recording mode in full-frame mode, you can also select higher frame rates, but the sensor switches to a different read-out mode AND a reduced 4.1K resolution above 30fps, and again the rolling shutter clocks at 16.3ms.

Now let’s have a look at Super35 (or APS-C) mode:

In 4K DCI in the ProresHQ 422 Super35 settings, the rolling shutter reduces to 14.7ms for 25fps or 50fps.

Dynamic range of the Zenmuse X9-8K Air camera module

We switched to ProRes RAW at 8K DCI, ISO800, and used Apple’s compressor to transcode the ProRes RAW file into 12-bit ProResXQ 4444 D-Log before ingesting frames into IMATEST.

The waveform shows a solid 13 stops above the noise floor:

IMATEST calculates a solid 12.1 stops at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 2, and 13.4 stops at SNR = 1. Those are very good results, on par if not better than most recent full-frame cameras that we tested in RAW mode. The leader of the pack remains the ALEXA Mini LF, which clocked 13.4 / 14.5 stops at SNR = 2 / 1 in ARRIRAW.

The Zenmuse X9-8K Air camera features a dual native ISO sensor, so we tested the second native ISO at ISO4000 – showing 11.7 / 13.2 stops at SNR = 2 / 1:

Again, there is very little impact on the dynamic range if the second native ISO is utilized – very good!

Now, just out of curiosity, we also tested ProResHQ 422 at ISO800. Here is the waveform and IMATEST result at ISO800 (showing 12 / 13.5 stops at SNR = 2 / 1) – very similar, but a less noisy noise floor:

In ProRes RAW (12-bit) as well as ProResHQ 422 (10-bit), there are additional stops visible in the middle diagram above the blue “13.5” curve (those are stops buried in the noise floor). Potentially, those can be utilized using advanced post-production techniques (noise reduction, etc..).

Unfortunately, the noise present in the noise floor is not evenly distributed, even with the 8K sensor. As a result, at least in our standard studio latitude scene, we were unable to utilize this potential.

Latitude of the Zenmuse X9-8K Air camera module

Latitude is the capability of a camera to retain details and colors when over-or underexposed and pushed back to base exposure. Some time ago, we chose an arbitrary value of around 60% luma (in the waveform) for our subjects’ foreheads in our standard studio scene. This CineD base exposure should help our readers to get a reference point for all the cameras tested, regardless of how they distribute the code values and which LOG mode is used.

For the following shots, we post-processed the ProRes RAW files two different ways and brought them into DaVinci Resolve 18.4 for further analysis (as DVR does not support ProRes RAW so far):

• The Raw Converter App in the Windows App store, which transforms ProRes RAW into a Cinema DNG sequence that can be imported into DVR
• Final Cut Pro, using the ProResRAW dialogue to adjust exposure and exporting a ProResXQ 4444 12-bit file, and then using the official D-Log to Rec709 LUT in DaVinci Resolve

The DNG files from the Raw converter were then developed directly to Rec.709 in the Camera RAW tab of DaVinci Resolve:

Next, we found that our studio light was not able to bring the red channel on my colleague Nino’s face close to clipping at ISO800, due to the rather slow F2.8 lens from DJI. The red channel is exactly 0.5 stops below clipping (as we deducted from comparing it to the waveform plot above):

Thus, we had to add a half stop to the latitude results shown below. Here is a shot at base exposure using the Cinema DNG workflow:

Now, let’s underexpose. We did this by doubling the shutter speed from 1/25s to 1/50, 1/100, and so on until 1/1600. After that, we proceeded to decrease the aperture of the lens step by step, going from F2.8 to F4, F5.6, and finally F8.

Here is 4 stops below the base exposure image, brought back using the CDNG workflow:

We are now at 7.5 stops of latitude (3 over to 4 under plus 0.5). Noise starts to creep into the image, as can be seen in the shadows on the lower right-hand side, for example. Also, shadow areas have become greenish.

This noise can be adequately removed using noise reduction in DaVinci Resolve. Now let’s go to 5 stops of underexposure, brought back (using the CDNG workflow):

The image is now heavily affected by noise, and it is, unfortunately, a rather coarse noise, not finely dispersed, which makes it difficult to remove (see below). Horizontal stripes also start to appear, which noise reduction cannot fully mitigate:

There is a greenish tint to the image which cannot be removed sufficiently. It looks like we have reached the limit. As the skin color on the shadow side of Nino’s face is still somewhat intact, I will include this result.

Let’s look at one stop further to 6 stops of underexposure, brought back using the CDNG workflow:

The image turns greenish (especially in the shadows), and noise degrades the image to a point where it cannot be recovered, even when using heavy temporal and spatial noise reduction (see DVR settings below). Also, the skin color on the shadow side of Nino’s face is not intact anymore:

That yields 8.5 stops of exposure latitude – among the best we have seen from consumer full-frame cameras so far. The ALEXA Mini LF showed 10 stops in comparison (and the ALEXA 35 exhibited 12 stops).

That was the Raw Converter / Cinema DNG / Resolve RAW tab workflow. Now out of curiosity we also tried the second method, developing the ProRes RAW files in Final Cut Pro, doing the exposure adjustment, and then exporting a ProRes XQ4444 12-bit file to DaVinci Resolve.

Well, the official D-Log to Rec709 LUT introduced a more pinkish tint to the image overall, but basically, the results are the same (as expected). Have a look at the 5 stops under, pushed back image below:

Using noise reduction yields the following image:

And just for reference, at 6 stops under the image, noise becomes too coarse to be effectively eliminated with noise reduction. A strong greenish cast covers the image, creeping in from the shadows – plus we have the horizontal lines issue.

Summary of the Inspire 3 Lab Test for the Zenmuse X9 Air

The DJI Inspire 3 Zenmuse X9 Air camera exhibits a rather diverse spectrum of attributes from good to bad in our standardized lab test: the rolling shutter is seriously bad in 8K DCI mode below 30 frames per second but improves significantly above 30 fps. The dynamic range is on par if not better than all full-frame cameras in the consumer price bracket we have tested so far. Only high-end cinema cameras like the RED V-Raptor 8K or the ALEXA Mini LF manage to top these results.

A similar conclusion is derived from the exposure latitude test: a solid 8.5 stops of exposure latitude is shown, which is among the best we have tested in the consumer price bracket.

All in all, a strong performance!

Have you worked with the DJI Inspire 3 and the Zenmuse X9 Air camera so far? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below …

The Canon EOS R3 was launched in September 2021, but there was a longer waiting period due to all the logistic issues of the pandemic. Hence, this camera was readily available only in the middle of 2022. Please head over here to read about the specs, which include 6K 60p internal recording in CRM RAW or CRM RAW Light formats (plus 4K 120p in MP4).

The Canon EOS R3 features a stacked, backside illuminated 24.1MP full frame sensor, which claims to have a very fast readout speed. Thanks again to my colleague Florian who helped to shoot this test. So, let’s have a look. Camera firmware was 1.2.2

Rolling shutter of the Canon EOS R3

As usual, we used our strobe light to generate the sequence of black and white line pairs. In full frame 6K CRAW mode (which is 17:9, hence 7% less picture height than 16:9), the camera shows a very good 9.5ms (less is better):

Wow, that is really good. The number 1 in terms of full frame rolling shutter in the consumer price bracket so far still is the Sony a7S III which clocked 8.7ms, but the competition is getting closer!

Dynamic range of the Canon EOS R3

If you are not aware of how we test dynamic range, please head over here first.

In DaVinci Resolve (18.1.4), the Canon RAW files can easily be developed to Canon Log 2 (LOG, CLOG3, and Rec709 are the other options) in the RAW camera tab:

Now, starting with 12 bit Cinema RAW in 6K at ISO800 developed to CLOG2, here is the waveform plot of our Xyla21 chart:

As expected, with Canon RAW files, the darker stops are quite noisy and 12 stops can be identified above the noise floor. IMATEST calculates the following:

10.9 stops at signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 2, and 12.2 stops at SNR = 1 are calculated. As can be seen in the middle graph above the blue “12.2” line, about 2 more stops are buried in the noise floor. Those can be excavated in postproduction using advanced noise processing.

If we switch the camera to 4K H265 4:2:2 10bit CLOG3 recording (no CLOG2 option available in-camera) we get the following waveform plot:

About 11 stops can be identified. A very faint 12th stop is visible inside the noise floor – which looks super clean compared to the CRAW file above. A lot of internal noise reduction is going on here.

IMATEST calculates 11.2 stops at SNR = 2, and 12 stops at SNR = 1. Thats it. No additional stops buried in the noise floor (see the middle diagram below, there is nothing above the blue “12” line):

11.2 stops at SNR = 2 for a full frame sensor is on the low end nowadays. Hence, if you want to exploit the full potential of the sensor, you are forced to use CRAW.

Latitude of the Canon EOS R3

As said before, latitude is the capability of a camera to retain detail and colors when over- or underexposed and pushed back to a base exposure. This test is very revealing, as it pushes every camera to its absolute limits – not just in the highlights but also in the shadows.

All latitude shots were done at ISO800 with 6K 12bit Canon RAW developed to CLOG2, but I will also use the 10bit 4K internal H265 recording on some shots to show you some differences.

Our studio base exposure is (arbitrarily) chosen as having an (ungraded) luma value of 60% on the forehead of our subject on the waveform monitor. In this case, my dear colleague Johnnie:

Now, let’s jump to 4 stops of overexposure:

As seen in the ungraded RGB waveform above, the red channel is at the cusp of clipping but fully intact on Johnnie’s forehead. On the left side, some patches of the ColorCheckr are already clipping.

In the Camera RAW tab in DaVinci Resolve, it’s very easy to push the files back to base exposure. Just use the exposure slider and adjust. Unfortunately though, this only works from +4 to -4. Above or below that, the typical lift, gamma and gain controls were used.

Now, let’s start to underexpose by closing down the iris of the lens in one stop increments (until T8-after that the shutter value was halved).

At 3 stops under and pushed back, we see significant noise creeping into the image:

The noise is finely dispersed, and I would not see the need for noise reduction at this stage. We are already at 7 stops exposure latitude (4 over, 3 under).

Now, at 4 stops under, pushed back noise obviously is getting way more severe:

Now you would have to apply quite a lot of noise reduction to save this image (see the values needed in DaVinci Resolve below):

We are at 8 stops of exposure latitude in CRAW. That is state-of-the-art for consumer full frame cameras. Can we push it one stop more? Let’s have a look:

Things are getting super noisy now. Chroma noise is all over the place. Let’s apply some heavy noise reduction:

Unfortunately, noise reduction cannot save this image. Larger pinkish and greenish blotches of chroma noise hover all over the image, and the moving image has a harsh appearance. Game over. However, I do like that the shadow side of Johnnie’s face cleans up rather OK’ish (but with a pinkish cast), and overall the image still looks quite good.

So, that gives us 8 stops of exposure latitude with some room towards 9. A top result!

The current leader of the pack for full frame cameras is the ARRI ALEXA Mini LF with 10 stops of exposure latitude.

In case you are wondering how the 4K H265 10bit image performs, here are some results. You can still go to 4 stops over and push back the image to base exposure. From 4 stops under, however, the image starts to fall apart:

Noise reduction saves it partially, but you get these larger patches of pink and green chroma noise which are very distracting to the eye – have a look at Johnnie’s shirt for example, or on the shadow that is cast by the Colorcheckr:

In my opinion, this is overall at the edge of being usable, but comparing it respective to the 6K CRAW file, you can see how much better the 6K RAW file looks, especially in terms of color fidelity.

At 5 stops under, things fall apart completely in 4K H265:

No matter how I tune the noise reduction settings for higher values temporal and spatial, the image turns brownish and is completely unusable.

This is a nice example of the power of CRAW: in 12bit 6K CRAW at 5 stops under, the image still retains some color fidelity. In 10bit 4K colors are mostly gone.

Summary

Using CRAW, the Canon EOS R3 offers state-of-the-art values in our lab test: the rolling shutter is among the best tested so far for consumer full frame cameras, dynamic range in CRAW offers a solid potential if you are willing to invest time in post-processing, rounded off by the latitude results which are again among the best for consumer full frame cameras.

If you are not ready to invest in CRAW (in terms of storage space requirements and time in post-production), then in 4K H265 10bit CLOG3 you have to know that the situation changes a bit for the worse. Results are still good, but you are left with less room to push the image around.

Have you used the Canon EOS R3 yet? How do you like the image? Let us know in the comments section below.

In case you missed it, have a look at our more recent articles on the LUMIX S5 II, such as Johnnie’s review and mini doc highlighting the autofocus and our article covering all the specs.

So without further ado, let’s jump right into the LUMIX S5 II Lab Test. And as always, thank you to my colleague Florian, who helped to shoot this test.

Panasonic LUMIX S5 II – Rolling Shutter

As always, we are using our strobe light to generate pairs of white and black bars (they appear due to the nature of CMOS sensor readout).

For full frame mode, our results are rather similar to our Lab Test of the predecessor LUMIX S5. We are getting 22ms – less is better (21ms for the original S5):

That is 1ms higher than the original S5 and is on the high end for current full-frame cameras. The leader of the pack in that (consumer) price bracket is the Sony a7S III with 8.7ms. By the way, the rolling shutter for the 5.9K 3:2 open gate mode is 25.4ms (to read the full picture height).

A surprise happens in APS-C – we are getting 14.3ms:

Why is this a surprise? Well, initially we tested 10.5ms for the predecessor S5 in 25p and 50p. Obviously, at some point in time with firmware updates also the readout mode changed, as we just now retested the rolling shutter (to make sure there is no mistake on our end) of the S5 and got 12.5ms for 24p (and 10.8ms for 50p – interesting, isn’t it?).

So in summary, the S5 II result is 1.8ms worse. By the way, this result of 14.3ms for the S5 II stays the same for UHD 60p in APS-C mode, so no change in readout mode from 24p to 60p. Hence, something has definitely changed in the image pipeline (sensor – image processor) since the previous model.

Panasonic LUMIX S5 II – Dynamic Range

If you are not aware of how we test dynamic range please head over here.

The LUMIX S5 II is again using a dual native ISO sensor, with the base ISO’s of 640 and 4000 for V-Log. This time, we made a couple of measurements for dynamic range (using V-Log): 5.9K full frame 3:2 open gate mode, UHD full frame mode, APS-C UHD 24p and 60p.

Let’s have a look first at the waveform result shooting our Xyla21 chart in 5.9K open gate at ISO640 in V-Log:

A solid 13 stops can be identified above the noise floor, with a 14th and a faint 15th visible. The corresponding IMATEST calculation is shown below:

IMATEST calculates 12.3 stops at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 2 and 13.7 stops at SNR = 1. Compared to the original S5 that is slightly better but in the same ballpark.

At ISO4000, we obtain 11.9 stops at SNR = 2 and 13.3 stops at SNR = 1. So, a tiny bit noisier but very similar – that’s the beauty of dual native ISO sensors.

Utilizing UHD in full frame mode at ISO640 again, IMATEST calculates 12.4 stops at SNR = 2 and 13.5 stops at SNR = 1.

Now, switching to APS-C mode (ISO640) and utilizing UHD 24fps we get the following result in IMATEST:

That’s a tiny bit worse, with 12 stops at SNR = 2 and 13 stops at SNR = 1. This result is also obtained in UHD 60 frames per second.

In summary, this is a really solid result, more or less on par with the best full-frame consumer cameras in this price bracket and very similar to its siblings, the LUMIX S1, S1H, and S5. The leader of the pack for full-frame sensors is the ARRI ALEXA Mini LF with 13.5 stops at SNR = 2 and 14.7 stops at SNR =1.

Panasonic LUMIX S5 II – Latitude result

As written before, latitude is the capability of a camera to retain detail and colors when over- or underexposed and pushed back to a base exposure. This test is very revealing, as it pushes every camera to its absolute limits – not just in the highlights but also in the shadows.

All latitude shots were done with V-Log, 5.9K open gate H.265 10-bit internal recording, cropped on top and bottom to 16:9.

Our studio base exposure is (arbitrarily) chosen as having an (ungraded) luma value of 60% on the forehead of our subject on the waveform monitor, in this case, my dear colleague Johnnie:

Now, let’s go to 4 stops of overexposure:

4 stops over are possible, as can be seen in the waveform of the ungraded shot, the red channel is at the cusp of clipping on Johnnie’s forehead (by the way, on the left side of the Colorchecker some patches are already clipping).

So far so good. Now we underexpose, by first closing down the iris of the lens in one-stop increments, and then doubling the shutter value from T8.0 onwards.

The 3 stops underexposed, pushed back to base exposure shot looks like this:

We are at 7 stops of exposure latitude and the image only shows a tiny amount of noise. That is really good! However, compared to the original LUMIX S5 the noise is more blotchy and not so finely dispersed. To be honest, I personally liked the original image processing more.

One thing that looks a bit strange, which becomes more obvious for the 4 stops under, pushed-back image, is the shadow of the Colorchecker shows what looks like banding. Here is the 4 stops under, pushed back image:

The shadow(s) clearly show some banding! This comes rather unexpectedly, as it is a behavior none of the other LUMIX S-line cameras, we have tested, have shown.

I couldn’t believe it, so we also used the UHD full frame mode and shot the scene, to see if the different codec (now 10-bit H.264 4:2:2 3840×2160) makes a difference:

It looks really similar. The banding is there, very pronounced. We are now at 8 stops of exposure latitude – which is state-of-the-art for consumer full-frame cameras. Other than that, the image really looks quite good, even without noise reduction applied. However, this banding renders the image unusable in my opinion.

Let’s have a look at the same image with noise reduction applied:

Of course, the banding is now more clearly visible. Just a very tiny amount of noise reduction was needed in DaVinci Resolve, as the clip cleans up nicely.

Just for reference, here is the 5 stops underexposed image, pushed back:

Of course, the banding becomes much more pronounced, the noise is very blotchy and not finely dispersed as with previous LUMIX S line cameras, and also horizontal stripes are now appearing in the image. The image turns greenish and noise reduction cannot save it, either.

Just for your reference, the state of the art in terms of latitude is the ALEXA 35 with 12 stops of exposure latitude.

That leads me to the conclusion, that the new LUMIX S5 II is capable of 7 stops of exposure latitude, as the banding becomes too pronounced at 8 stops. That is one stop less than its predecessor, the LUMIX S5.

Summary

From a pure lab test perspective, it seems that there is no gain without pain: the new LUMIX S5 II has nice new features including solid autofocus, but unfortunately in the lab, it falls a bit behind the previous generation, the S5 – when pushed to the absolute extreme, to keep things in perspective.

Not only is the rolling shutter worse (1ms more in full frame, 1.8ms more in APS-C), also the latitude result is not as good – it finishes with 7 stops of exposure latitude, mainly because of banding artifacts in the shadows and a more blotchy noise pattern which doesn’t look as pleasing to the eye.

That said, the dynamic range results are very similar to the previous generation LUMIX S5.

What are your experiences shooting with the LUMIX S5 II? What do you think of this LUMIX S5 II Lab Test? Please let us know in the comments below.

[UPDATE June 23rd 2023]
After firmware update V4.00, our updated lab test results are as follows for N-RAW, H.265 and ProRes 4:2:2 HQ (numbers are stops of Dynamic Range):

You can find all results for fimware V3 and FW V4 in the Camera Database.

[Original article continues]

As my colleague, Jakub said in an article on the firmware V2.0, “Perhaps the most impressive new feature of the firmware v2.0 is the addition of the in-camera RAW video formats – 12-bit N-RAW video at up to 8.3K (8256×4644) 60p as well as internal 12-bit ProRes RAW HQ up to 4.1K 60p. In regards to the infamous RED patent, I am not entirely sure how Nikon managed to include internal ProRes RAW when so many other camera manufacturers needed to remove the codec from their devices, but it is definitely good news”.

We used firmware version V3.00 to test N-RAW on the Nikon Z 9. (Current camera version is 3.01 which brings small improvements that are not related to video picture quality). We did not test ProRes RAW – for one, it is limited to 4.1K and secondly, you cannot import it natively into DaVinci Resolve – hence, we discarded this option altogether. Thanks again to my dear colleague Florian, who helped with shooting this test.

So without further ado, let’s jump into the results of our Nikon Z 9 N-RAW Lab Test!

Nikon Z 9’s Rolling Shutter in 8.3K N-RAW Full Frame

There’s nothing new to report on this front, as we get exactly the same result as with Z 9’s other full-frame codec options:

As I wrote back then, that is about 1ms better than the Canon EOS R5 and about 2ms better than the Sony A1. The king of the castle for mirrorless full-frame cameras in this price bracket is still the Sony a7S III with an 8.7ms rolling shutter in full-frame mode. On top of the list is the Sony Venice 2 with less than 3ms.

Nikon Z 9’s Dynamic Range using N-RAW at ISO800

When importing the Nikon N-RAW files into DaVinci Resolve 18.1, we have the following options in the Camera Raw tab (see image below). Basically, all you need to do is expand the image values using “Lift” and “Gain” to get a bit more contrast, set the color space to Rec709 (other options are P3 D60 and Rec2020), and the Gamma to N-Log (with Gamma 2.4, 2.6, Linear and Rec709 as other options) and you are done.

If you are not familiar with how we test dynamic range, please head over here. The following waveform is obtained when shooting the Xyla21 chart (setting “Lift” and “Gain” back to “0”):

12 stops are visible above the noise floor, similar to our earlier findings. It’s a bit of a pity that there is no newer N-Log profile available. N-Log, as it is now, is very flat in the shadows, almost cutting off the noise floor.

Imatest calculates 10.2 stops at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 2 and 11.9 stops at SNR = 1. Also, beyond the blue line tagged with “11.9” in the middle graph below, there is maybe one additional stop visible. Hence, about 13 in total.

N-RAW is obviously using less signal processing (like noise reduction) than the other internal codec options we tested earlier, which is good. Noise reduction can always be added in post-production. Therefore at first glance, the IMATEST results are worse than, for example, when using H265 8K internally (11.6 stops at SNR = 2 and 12.7 stops at SNR = 1).

However, there is a big advantage when shooting N-RAW, which will become very obvious in the next section: the latitude test – N-RAW is recorded at 12 bits!

EDIT: some readers (Thatcher Freeman and others) suggested that potentially a color space transform in DaVinci Resolve from N-RAW using linear to another log profile would circumvent the deficiencies in the shadows of N-Log. I tested that, using “Linear” as the gamma in the Camera Raw tab and Rec709 as the Color Space, and also using that as an input in the color space transform node. Then setting the output to ARRI Wide Gamut 3 and ARRI LogC3 and developing the files in IMATEST. Here is the result:

As can be seen above, IMATEST calculates slightly higher results (SNR = 1 is now 12 instead of 11.9 stops, slope based DR = 13.4 instead of 13.2), while SNR = 2 is the same 10.2 stops. Interestingly (due to the ARRI LogC3 Gamma), shadows are not cut off so abruptly – there is about 1 more stop in the shadows, seen in the middle diagram above the blue curve labelled as “12”. In the latitude section below I have added one image using ARRI LogC3 as well.

Nikon Z 9’s Latitude result shooting N-RAW at ISO800

As written before, latitude is the capability of a camera to retain detail and colors when over- or underexposed and pushed back to a base exposure. This test is very revealing, as it pushes every camera to its absolute limits – not just in the highlights but also in the shadows.

Our studio base exposure is (arbitrarily) chosen as having an (ungraded) luma value of 60% on the forehead of our subject, in this case, my colleague Nino on the waveform monitor.

Now, the first positive surprise: with N-RAW, we can go to 4 stops of overexposure and bring back the image to base exposure. As you can see below, in the waveform the red channel on Nino’s forehead is fully intact (before bringing it back to base exposure):

With N-Log and internal 10bit H265 8K recording, we could only overexpose by 3 stops.

Now, let’s underexpose and bring back the image. We do this by closing the iris of the lens from f1.4 to f2, f2.8 until f8, and then we increase the shutter speed from 1/25s to 1/50, and so on.

In post, using DaVinci Resolve 18.1 there is another very positive surprise. The “Exposure” slider in the Camera Raw tab goes from +5 to -5. So, bringing back the over- or underexposed images is super easy.

Here is the 3 stops underexposed image, brought back:

A fine noise starts to appear, but the image still looks really good without any further editing. Now, this is already one stop better than the results we got one year ago with internal N-Log 8K H265.

Because N-Log is so flat in the shadows, there is almost no code value difference between the stops. Shooting 10bit H265 internally in our first lab test, even 10bit did not provide enough code values between the stops leading to banding, and therefore a rather bad latitude result of only 6 stops.

With 12-bit N-RAW, there is no banding visible so far. Let’s move to 4 stops under, pushed back:

Noise kicks in, which can be removed by noise reduction, but as you can see from the screenshot below, a rather high chroma noise (spatial) and temporal noise reduction is used:

Other than that, all is good. We are at 8 stops latitude, which is already the best result we got so far for consumer full-frame cameras in this price bracket – with the Panasonic S1H, S1, and S5 as well as the Sony A1. That is 2 stops better than with the 10-bit internal 8K H265 codec. That’s the power of RAW!

Now, the 5 stops under, pushed back image starts to fall apart – also adding a very greenish tint to the image:

Even heavy noise reduction in post cannot completely save it:

As can be seen above, we are already using a maximum of “100” for the spatial chroma noise reduction, and quite a lot of temporal noise reduction.

It still looks quite OK, however image details in the shadows (for example in the lower right-hand corner next to Nino) are fading away.

That gives a solid 8 stops of latitude performance, with some wiggle room towards 9 stops!

Edit: using the N-RAW “Linear” to ARRI LogC3 color space transform in DaVinci Resolve and applying noise reduction yields the following image:

A bit more pink in the image, less greenish, and a bit more contrast in the shadows – apart from that little to no difference.

Summary: obviously, a color space transform circumventing N-Log does not yield improved results unfortunately. Nevertheless, thank you to our reader Thatcher Freeman for pointing out a potential improvement path! We really appreciate this discussions with our readers in the comments section below!

Summary

With the inclusion of internally recorded N-RAW, the Nikon Z 9 really makes a huge leap forward. Not only does it show strong results in rolling shutter performance (as it did before), but it’s now also capable of recording 8.3K 12bit up to 60 frames per second. As expected, N-RAW is noisier because not so much internal signal processing is going on – leading to lower IMATEST results of 10.2 stops at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 2 and 11.9 stops at SNR = 1 (compared to internal 8K H265 N-Log).

But looking at the latitude results, the 12-bit combined with the power or RAW in terms of exposure adjustments make all the difference.

2 if not 3 stops more latitude compared to 10bit H265 recording bring it to the top of the list of full-frame consumer cameras with 8 stops of exposure latitude (with wiggle room towards 9).

Nikon has come a long way with the video features on their photo cameras, and it shows.

What do you think of this Nikon Z 9 N-RAW Lab Test and our results? Have you shot N-RAW on the Nikon Z 9? What are your experiences? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.