By technical editor Matt Allard:
Tomasz from Film Cyfrowy recently posted some very interesting test videos with the new KineMAX 6K camera. The above video shows ISO tests and Tomasz thinks the camera is usable up to 3200 ISO before the noise starts to become bad. Looking at the tests he did I think the camera looks useable until it hits 5120 ISO. Anything over that and it seems to get a very patterned video noise look to it.
The KineMAX 6K received a lot of attention when it was publicly shown at NAB 2015. The camera is now shipping for For €9626, or $8990 US for a 6K package from HD Videoshop. The KineMAX 6K is a Super35 CMOS camera which can record a maximum resolution of a whopping 5760×3240 pixels at up to 30fps. Put another way that is nine times the resolution of HD or 2K. This is combined with a claimed dynamic range of 14 f-stops and 12-bit colour depth. By utilising pixel binning techniques the camera can also record 3K with a claimed 16 f-stop dynamic range and 14-bit colour depth.
Kinefinity have also officially been given permission by Apple to add ProRes to their camera, This makes it a much more viable option for all sorts of productions. Up until now the KiniMAX 6K has been limited to recording their own proprietary RAW format for shooting in 4K or 6K. Few in Television or web production want to deal with the big file sizes that RAW shooting gives you.
The above video was shot ISO 800-3200 with one shot at 6400 in KineMax 6K at DNG 3K. Lenses used were Zeiss Standard Speed 2.1 (24/50/85mm). The only lights used were The lights in the restaurant. All the shots were taken at 8-11pm. According to Tomasz It was dark, so the grain is there because he had to keep changing exposure.
Below you can see the rolling shutter tests he did with the camera.
Tomasz also notes that the rolling shutter is unfortunately very bad on this camera. Sport Mode or HiSpeed Mode which is supposed to help reduce rolling shutter was not activated on this camera.
