50mm Lenses Compared, plus 4444 ProRes for the URSA

Maddy shot with URSA 4K RAW

I was lucky enough a few days ago to receive the brand new first production run of the SLR Magic 50mm T2.1 APO PL mount lens and I was keen to try it out on some skin tones.  By way of comparison I also had the Zeiss CP2 50mm T1.5 Superspeed.

I’m afraid I only had time test these lenses at T4 so they’re both probably at close to their best.

The key was two 2K blondies and two LUPOLIGHTS which are a daylight fresnal source I’ve not used before. I believe they were 575w.  I generally prefer tungsten for skin tones rather than LED and discharge light sources.

Behind camera I had a 1k tungtsen bounce onto a 6×4 foamcore panel as a kind of fill and eyelight.

I had a bare Tungsten Kino tube in the background behind our model Maddy and I placed it half against a flippy, or black drape.  The idea was to look for any chromatic aberration. and veiling flare.  I also draped the bare tube on a nice chromed CEE stand so again, looking for those colour fringes in highlights.

Right up close to camera on the far left you’ll see a lighting stand which I put at minimum focus.  The CP2 focuses a few inches closer at about 18″ than the SLR Magic 50mm which is about 24″ so that stand is there for a focus pull to check for breathing you’ll see on the motion clips.

To my eye the SLR Magic 50mm T2.1 APO stands up really nicely, considering it’s half the price of the CP2.  It’s certainly sharp, it doesn’t flare as much, especially around the Kino tube, and it has good geometry and dimensionality, Maddy seems to seperate nicely.

It’s also a bit warmer, which I liked.  it reminded me a little of the Cookes…

It’s also a bit darker, and there could be a couple of things going on…perhaps I wasn’t as accurate with the iris, or one of them isn’t correct at T4.  The slightly darker image of the SLR Magic might also explain why it’s a smidge warmer.

There are some Blackmagic URSA 4K RAW frames here, and I invite you to take a close look and compare and comment back here what differences YOU notice.

I also took the chance to at the same time shoot some stills with the same lenses on an Olympus EM1.

I wanted to try my Leica M 50mm APO as a comparison and I also have an Olympus 45mm F1.8 that I’m very fond of as well.

In the same linked folder below you’ll find the stills for each lens and I’ve tried to match the frames as best I could.  once again, peep away and tell me what you see.  Once you compare the prices of those lenses, I think you’ll agree it’s amazing how close they all actually are….

If i was doing this again, I’d change the shutter speed as I matched the exposure time of 1/50th but I was handheld with the camera and didn’t use a tripod.  I did turn IS off as well, so sharpness will be harder to compare.

I’ve also included some ProRes 444 files shot at the same time and I’ve also included 422HQ as a comparison.

I like that the URSA now has this option, not so much for the colour sampling, but for the fact that 4444 ProRes is a 12 bit file vs the 10 bit 422 HQ.

Interestingly though the data rate for 4k RAW 3:1 is a little less that 4444 ProRes…I wonder if people will choose RAW over the 4K 4444…

So here is the link to all the still files and the motion files.

Please be aware that these are only for illustrative purposes only and the copyright shall be retained by me.

A very big thank you to our model Maddy and to Sassy Entertainment for the late notice booking, and to Dragon Image who supplied the studio and lighting.

And HUGE thanks to my assistants Jessica Clarke – Nash and Roberto Tarrants !

And finally, here are the ungraded files. Please be sure to come back and tell us what you think !

URSA was 24 FPS, 180 Deg shutter at ISO 400.  You’ll also notice the LED xmas lights are pulsing at this frame rate / shutter angle.

https://copy.com/t1JUMFBCZJCtpDcg