I hear it all the time…complete novices and non-techies look at the image from a Canon DSLR and say something to the effect of “I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t look like video to me. It looks filmic.” There’s a lot of reasons why they might arrive at that conclusion…a shallow depth of field tends to be associated with production value and “films,” and the $2500 Canon 5D MKII offers about as shallow a focus field as you could hope for, with it’s massive sensor size (as a side note, this shallow DOF is also an annoyance, depending on the application). Canon DSLRs also render skintones and color in a very natural and pleasing way. Or maybe it’s the 24p cadence of the video capture that appears filmic. Like I said, there are many factors that contribute, and a few that don’t.

But one more area that the Canon DSLRs shine is in dynamic range. Video traditionally has had a very limited dynamic range, with the best of video cameras rendering only 6-8 stops of usable image information spanning the darkest blacks and the brightest whites. Film, on the other hand, is generally somewhere north of 13 stops, depending on who you talk to and what stocks you are using. So when people like Art Adams do tests on the Canon 5D MKII and show it has 10 stops of dynamic range, there’s one more subtle reason why people may think the image is filmic…it’s approaching the range of detail in film. That’s a significant accomplishment. When the Red One camera came out a couple years back, I recall that they were aiming for 12-13 stops of range, and most folks I believe tested it at around 11-ish stops. A significant development at the time (which has been improved of late with the MX sensor upgrade program).

And there’s reason to believe that DSLRs will improve over time…as I anecdotally recall, didn’t Zacuto recently test the Canon 7D at over 10.5 stops of dynamic range? Or was it 11? I can’t recall ofhand, but do remember if being marginally better than what the 5D offered. So there you have it…pixel pushers like Art Adams (and I say that with the utmost respect and appreciation) are telling us WHY we unconsciously appreciate the images coming from a Canon DSLR. And as a facts guy, it makes me happy that I can associate a factual number with the image that I already knew and appreciated from an aesthetic standpoint. Thanks Art!