Alan Roberts tests the Canon C300 MkII – finds 15 stops ofdynamic range and says it meets EBU tier 1 standard for HD andtier 2 for 4K

Alan Roberts has been testing cameras for many years, first at the BBC, and now as anindependent consultant. His independence and accuracy is unquestioned. Cameramanufacturers who turn to him for tests do not have the chance to alter or selectivelyedit Alan’s findings if the report is published. Unlike other testers he does not do directcomparisons with other cameras. Each test stands on its own and comes with a set ofrecommendations for how users can set up the camera for good results. He tries “tothink like a normal user would think: What am I going to use this camera for? And howam I going to use it?”

For these reasons Alan’s reports have become required reading across the industryand over the years he has become the go-to authority for advice on the suitability of acamera’s imagery for different broadcast tasks.

Alan is largely responsible for defining the HD camera test regime for the EuropeanBroadcast Union (EBU) and the standards established are what he now uses to classifycameras.

The EBU website.

The tests focus on how a camera would perform in a broadcast environment where theimage needs to survive editing, grading (sometimes there isn’t any), encoding andtransmission, before reaching a viewer’s TV. Measured resolution and dynamic rangeare important here. Alan singles out aliasing as being a particular issue because itwreaks havoc with the “smarty pants parts of the final compressors” beforetransmission for broadcast.

“If you can’t calculate where the motion is, you can’t calculate a really good high ratiocompression. A camera that produces high aliasing is not suitable for grade onebroadcasting,” he says.

Simply put, the tests determine if a camera is suitable for broadcasting in 4K and HD.

The EBU groups cameras into specific tiers for both UHD and HD. In HD, Tier 1 is thestrictest. A camera that qualifies is one that can be used without restriction on anyhigh definition programme.

For UHD Tier 1, a camera must have a minimum sensor pixel count of 3840 x 2160 ineach of R & G & B. Every camera tested except the Sony F65 has thus far failed toreach this – mainly due to the limitations of using a Bayer-patterned sensor. The nextrung down is UHD Tier 2 and to qualify cameras must be at least 10-bit and have asensor pixel count greater than 2880 x 1620. The camera must also have timecode

genlock.

The C300 MkII with audio only jackpack.

Alan recently put the Canon C300 MkII through the test. His results are exhaustive andcan be downloaded from the EBU here.

I spoke to him at length about his conclusions and he was full of praise for the C300MkII’s imagery.

The curves for BT.709, Canon Log and Canon Log 2. The plot is of video signal levelversus actual exposure, in stops relative to the exposure level needed to cause peakwhite from the chart’s white patch, when using the BT.709 curve. Canon Log 2captures about 15 stops (about 11 stops latitude plus 4.8). These conclusions wereconfirmed by visual inspection of the grabbed images. The lower slope of the CanonLog 2 curve points to the conclusion that use of this curve will require at least 10-bits,and the 12-bit 444 mode is required for best colour performance with this curve.

His key finding is that the camera has about 15 stops of dynamic range in Canon Log2.His method is based on standardised testing of the signal-to-noise ratio within patchesof a colour chart under tungsten light. Alan explained to me that you can’t measurenoise by simply covering the lens and shooting black (something that peoplesometimes do in online tests). This is because much of the noise in modern camerasensors is something called shot noise – random fluctuations in the numbers ofphotons hitting the sensor at a given illumination level. His method of testing is basedon varying the exposure of the tungsten lit colour chart by adjusting the aperture,internal ND filters and shutter speed if needed.

In regular Canon Log he measured the camera at 13.5 stops of dynamic range, and inBT.709 the range was 11.5 stops.

Measurements of CanonLog 2 using the 12-bit recording format(RGB 444). Adding 6dB and 12dB gain confirmed that the dynamic range is indeedabout 15 stops.

I took the time to compare Alan’s C300 MkII findings to his earlier published results forthe ARRI Amira in Log-C. The C300 MkII Canon Log2 noise levels appear to be verysimilar in the mid-range using his testing methods. Indeed, 50% of peak white is thepoint which the EBU use for certification. The C300 MkII passes here with noproblems. At closer to peak white the Canon is actually quite a bit less noisy than theAmira (although film is actually noisy in the whites which is where the negative is at itsdensest). At the lower end of the curve, at below 10% peak white, things get noisierwith the C300 MkII. The ARRI does something clever here which makes these lowerlevels less noisy.

The camera was exposed to a 6-step grey scale, tungsten illuminated. Multiple

exposures were taken to give 36 measurements, exploring the dynamic range atISO800 (12dB Gain). The resulting plot shows noise levels vertically versus signal level.Measurements were in Canon Log 2, in both a) 1920×1080 and b) 3840×2160 modes.At mid-grey, the assessment level for camera tiering, the noise level is nicely below –50dB, although it is a little noisier in 3840×2160 mode.

Arri Amira noise profile plot for HD at ISO400 from EBU – Tech 3335 report.

Alan also tested the resolution of the camera and found that in 4K 3840×2160 10-bit4:2:2 (in I-frame 410Mb/s) recording the camera resolved around 3300 lineshorizontally and 1750 vertically. Like other Bayer pattern sensors there is always a lossof resolution due to the way it works. There was aliasing present, but he notes that it isnot particularly high. These numbers are pretty good from a 4K single chip CMOSsensor.

4K zone plate: Fig. 5 shows one quadrant of the luma pattern. The modulation isextinguished above 3300 horizontally, and 1750 vertically. However, aliasing is evident,which is inevitable with a Bayer-patterned sensor.

In 1920×1080 Alan found the the C300 MkII resolution “reaches the limits for HDTV,and the level of aliases within the limits quite low.”

HD zone plate: Resolution reaches the limits for HDTV, and the level of aliases withinthe limits quite low.

As to be expected, the Canon Log2 images had a slightly lower perceived resolutionthan the standard 709 gamma (although in post you should be able to bring Logimages back near to the 709 version). Perhaps more interesting is that aliasing in theimage was also reduced when switching from BT.709 to Canon Log2. These factorsessentially make the Log images look more filmic than the BT.709 versions. Alanexplains opting for Canon Log2 like this: “You don’t really lose anything; what you getis a different feel to the picture.”

Fig. 8 shows the same quadrants recorded using Preset BT.709 and Preset Canon Log2 : BT.709. The presets reduce the level of aliasing quite dramatically, but theresolution is also reduced.

The Canon Cinema EOS line is widely regarded as having pleasing images, even out ofthe box. Historically EBU reports have had detailed settings for gamma, knee, colourand other settings. With the C300 MkII Alan felt it was unnecessary to spend muchtime detailing these as the camera’s presets already “do a fantastic job”. He adds: “Thepresets are all doing precisely what they should do. The average user is never going toneed to go into those (complex gamma, knee and slope) menus.” This should providereassurance for operators wondering if they need to tinker more with the camera’sbase settings.

A standard Colorchecker chart was exposed, using tungsten illumination. Alan findsthat the presets deliver perfectly acceptable results for their intended usage, bearingin mind that DCI-P3 and C.Gamut probably need 12-bit recording to avoid visiblecolour-contouring, and BT.2020 must use at least 10-bit. He says Colour performancetests showed no problems.

He also maintains that to get the best colour performance with Canon Log2, the C300

MkII’s HD/2K 12-bit 4:4:4 mode should be used. This presents an interesting choice forshooters who need a HD/2K final output. Do you opt to shoot in lower bit depth 4K withthe benefit of being able to pan and crop the image later in post? Or do you shoot inHD and opt for the better colour? The answer will of course depend on yourcircumstances.

Noise reduction always comes at a price, usually a loss of resolution due to the actionof the spatial filtering used.

Alan also tested the camera’s built-in noise reduction capabilities. He explains that theC300 MkII uses a spatial filter to do the noise reduction. He found that turning it onresults in a loss of resolution, which should be expected. He says that the noisereduction does a good job and that if you want you can get 5db of noise improvementout of the camera, but at that point you’ve “lost quite a lot of resolution”. Betweenmaximum noise reduction and off, Alan says, “clearly there is a compromise that is

going to work rather nicely”, and setting the camera for mild noise reduction “between3 and 5 (out of 12) would be a good result to have”. This maintains most of the detailwhile reducing the noise effectively. It also reduces the level of aliasing nicely.

Noise reduction set to 6 ought to deliver 2.5dB noise reduction, with a slight drop inperceived resolution. Alan calls this an “acceptable compromise”

Asked whether it is better to do mild noise reduction in post, instead of in camera, Alansays that in-camera is better if possible: “The less noise there is in the image, theeasier job the encoder has putting pictures onto a card”. Stronger levels of noisereduction would be better done at a post facility, he told me, but this is “not the sort ofthing you do on your own laptop”.

Based on his testing, Alan had no problems in awarding the C300 MkII Tier 1 for HDproduction, and Tier 2 for 4K. This rating should be highly reassuring for owners of thecamera and programme makers looking at using it for upcoming projects.

Alan was keen to point out that his recommendations for settings are only a startingpoint from which operators and DPs can then experiment. He tells me:“My guess isthat most users are going to be owners, and that they are going to experiment anyway.

“All I am going to do is test whether the camera is suitable for the main set of jobs thatit is expected to do, and give some advice on how you should do it. Then the user is onhis own….This is only a starting point. Off you go, explore it.”

About Dan Chung

Dan Chung is editor of Newsshooter and has over 20 years of experience workingbehind a camera. His career started in photography but evolved into documentary,multimedia and broadcast TV. He shot the first news video on a DSLR and has been onstaff at Reuters, The Guardian and CNBC.

See all posts by Dan