Surprise, surprise the DP/cameras I gravitated towards happened to be #1 "F" - Rodney Charters with the Arri Alexa, #2 "C" - Ryan Walters with the RED EPIC, and #3 "I" - Den Lennie & Mick Jones with the Sony FS100. "F" just had gorgeous fall-offs on the shadow gradients that made it look truly natural but with clean facial and/or silhouette details on each of the characters in the scene. "C" seemed to be a middle ground balance between a pleasingly lit scene but with faces and characters clearly defined without looking too manipulated. "I" seemed to be the extreme contrast case with minimal lighting but still kept character silhouettes defined without getting muddy (though there were some odd looking patterns in the window when it blurred). "A" was on the contrasty side as well but some of the characters got lost in the shadows and the cool blue cast was not right for the scene. "B" was just lit up artificially like a studio sit-com (not my cup of tea). "D" just had no depth blur and the outside backdrop lighting didn't match the in door lighting - it looked as if characters were green-screened into the shot. "E" looked great but outside the window was obviously daytime but the indoor scene looked like it was lit as a night time scene - very odd. "G" was just muddy on the wide shot with so much detail falling into dirty blacks. "H" had a very likable contrasty look (maybe more so than "I") but again that blue cast from the main window was inconsistent with the light coming in from the door and with the scene over-all - should've been warmer. That's my 2 cents and as everyone mentions in the series, it's all very subjective - again, I watched it all on my iPad so my viewing experience was much different than those that watched it projected in 2K. But it feels good to have my cinematographer sense tingle, where I can point out my personal preferences and formulate my own philosophies on lighting.
http://www.zacuto.com/shootout-revenge-2012/revenge-the-great-camera-shootout-part-two
http://www.zacuto.com/shootout-revenge-2012/revenge-the-great-camera-shootout-part-two
