Here’s a very useful Canon C300 camera test from Paul Steinberg. He shows raw Canon Log footage vs professionally graded finished shots, and then provides a very useful ISO comparison test from 850 ISO up to 5000 ISO. Amazingly, the C-300 is very clean at 5000 ISO. Paul also shows the obligatory 20,000 ISO shot, commenting on the noise in the darker areas of the frame (still very usable though).

The biggest revelation for me from watching this footage; you will get cleaner results by shooting at proper exposure in dark, unlit situations (i.e. cranking the ISO) vs trying to fix exposure in post and grading. In Paul’s example, pushing the underexposed image in post looks really rough…but using ISO to get that same level of exposure in the camera seemed to be much cleaner. Obviously there will be limitations and caveats…ISO/gain is not magic. But the C300′s sensor looks to be usably clean up to 5000 ISO, and perhaps beyond for certain applications.

(Spotted via @jameswebbtv)

FreshDV’s own Kendal Miller was part of a Pro Video Coalition discussion panel at the Createasphere Entertainment Technology Exposition in Burbank last month. For over an hour, a panel of six working industry professionals discussed the tech changes and challenges of 2011, and what lies ahead for the production and post-production fields. It’s a fascinating watch, and we think you’ll enjoy it.

The hour-long discussion is split up into seven parts, and I’ve embedded Part 1 below as a preview. If you enjoy this, you should head on over to the PVC post with all seven segments. And pass it on to a friend on Facebook or Twitter. Enjoy.

This is a bit of offtopic fun…imagine if home videos had a director’s commentary track like most films. It would be a little something like this…

Home Video Commentaries: Not Where You Saw

Home Video Commentaries: Chorophobia

Home Video Commentaries: There’s A Bear