Welcome to our studio test scene

Published Sep 18, 2013 | By Kelcey Smith

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After many, many months of design and testing we are happy to announce the official unveiling of our studio test scene. The new scene was designed to address certain drawbacks with the previous test scene, as well as providing the opportunity to show more real-world relevant information about how cameras behave. We've increased the number of cameras supported to 23 and we'll be continuing to add models (old and new) in the coming weeks.

You can read a more detailed explanation of the scene, what it offers, how we shoot it and why we needed it in an article by our Studio Manager, Kelcey Smith.

Click here to find out more about the studio scene

Here you can see the studio scene based around our reference camera - the 80MP Phase One IQ180.

The Phase One is included to showcase the scene, rather than the camera, so will remain in daylight mode, even if you switch other cameras across to low light mode.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions held by dpreview.com or any affiliated companies.

Comments

Total comments: 271

I like the new scene, it gives me the option to compare so many parameters of the cameras.

For example, the colors and saturation of the Fujii X-M1 are darker except for the blues where they are lighter. I'd think this could be fixed in post processing, so its a question as to just how much correction of the image is done.

0 upvotes

thanks so much Dpreview crew for this new tool. I am really glad you guys included the IQ180 as the current non plus ultra reference. The reason I switched back to Nikon (D800E) - was the fact that the 5DIII files looked similarly inferior when compared to the D800E, now imagine trying to convince a crop happy art director (who is used to mf files) to let you shoot an assignment with your favorite m43 camera.......

2 upvotes

Also how did you guys pick whose photos to include in the scene? I see you included Richard's photo. Shouldn't Phil Askew photo be included as a tribute?

0 upvotes

None of us are in there. The last thing I'd do is put myself in the scene.

7 upvotes

would like to have a baby (not bird) and an old person with a thousand wrinkles.

0 upvotes

Sorry if this shows up twice - I'd posted earlier but it disappeared - odd

Anyway, thanks to DPreview - good work.

It would be nice to see the Olympus E-5 included. I know that Olympus has announced the E-M1 as their future but the E-5 and it's 4/3 lenses gives us the chance to compare the two systems.

6 upvotes

I won't promise it, but I'll put it on the 'if we have time' list.

5 upvotes

That's all I can ask - Thanks

1 upvote

great job guys as usual, lets see how many of the older cameras you can find to reshoot this. By the way how does it work, you guys at dpreview have a museum of every camera made in the last 10 years? Is there a closet with every camera and every charger? Or you borrow older cameras from friends and family members here and in England to reshoot these?

0 upvotes

We'd have to hope the manufacturers still have examples in good condition - all cameras go back after review.

1 upvote

ask your readership and I'm sure many would be happy to help out...

1 upvote

and that could be also VERY, VERY good to see also what happens to the sensor in time!!! :)

1 upvote

Good work. Though personally I'd have gone for a composition of a pet animal, some extreme latte art, a cute baby, a very large flower, a flying bird and a black and white person on the street all set against an HDR landscape. THE ULTIMATE TEST SCENE

1 upvote

Is the lighting calibrated each time to the same illuminance?

0 upvotes

Yes. Except at the very highest ISO settings where it may need to be reduced to allow the camera to correctly expose the scene.

Comment edited 48 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

Excellent job.

0 upvotes

Wow, Comparing the Olympus EM1 to the IQ180 is interesting. Setting both to print, you see the slight sharpness difference.

The EM1 only really falls apart with the blue on Red circles. Very interesting.

0 upvotes

Shouldn't the size of the pictures be the same ?
The Nikon picture is slightly zoomed out.

1 upvote

Your looking at the full res option! Go to the top right and change it to Print or Web to see them on equal footing.

0 upvotes

The Nikon is also a 3:2 camera, so is shot slightly wider (they're shot to the same image height, to suit the resolution targets).

1 upvote

all 3:2 sensors lose 11.1% of area as the test desgined. for example, D7100 has a sensor area of 368.16mm2, but only 327.25mm2 is used in the test. this gives a 0.17 stops disadvantage to all 3:2 sensors against 4:3 ones.

Comment edited 4 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

You should list the lens that you use for each camera... e.g. its incorrect to compare tele macro primes with wide angles as has been done in the past on DPR.

1 upvote

In the text you'll see that the lens used, along with other shooting information, is available from the [i] button under each image.

Where possible, we use a roughly 75-90mm equivalent prime lens, so that's an 85mm on FF, 50mm on APS-C and 45mm on Micro Four Thirds.

I can't think which camera we ever shot with a wide-angle lens, (unless it's built-in), but obviously we'd do this only if it was the only thing available to us.

3 upvotes

Just out of curiosity, why are the Fuji Xtrans APSC sensors shot at 35mm vs 50?

0 upvotes

I assume because 56/1.2 lens is not out yet. I guess you are saying they should have used 60/2.4?

0 upvotes

> Just out of curiosity, why are the Fuji Xtrans APSC sensors shot at 35mm vs 50?

I concur. 60mm is MUCH closer to your expected 85mm FF equiv focal length. It's also much sharper and will show what's sensor is capable of rather than the lens capable of.

0 upvotes

Our experience is that the 60mm isn't sharper than the 35mm.

2 upvotes

since we have a flat target now, it might be a good idea to use a same copy of 50mm prime for Nikon mount, which can also be used on Canon and mirrorless mounts.

this will eliminate errors of different apertures (if it can repeat well) and transmission (at center, and border for sensors of similar sizes).

Comment edited 42 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

Thanks to the DPReview staff. Some of us know you're working hard and we appreciate it....and I personally have for over ten years now.

10 upvotes

You guys need an engineer on your staff.

2 upvotes

where Sigma cameras,
SD1 for example?

2 upvotes

We may be able to shoot the DP1 Merrill - however, the problem that we end up having to use non-standard software, such that it isn't presented in a way that's consistent with all the other cameras.

That's why the DP1M and SD1 images were only available within specific reviews in the old scene (where we could flag-up this inconsistency).

Comment edited 26 seconds after posting

1 upvote

DP1 Merrill is the worst of Merrill cameras in terms of resolution. The point in including Sigma is to show modern Foveon sensor cameras, so either SD1 with top glass or DP2M or DP3M would be more sensible. Mentioning non-standard software sounds fair but that should not prevent DPReview from showing these cameras' test-scene samples.

Comment edited 2 minutes after posting

6 upvotes

I agree, SPP isn't the best software, use default if you like, but please, include it, SD1 at least

3 upvotes

So Adobe is the reason that we don't see any Sigma camera in the comparison tool?

0 upvotes

The SD1 and DP1 M are in the existing comparison tools but are only available from the SD1 review and the Ricoh GR / Nikon Coolpix A reviews, where we can put a large note saying that they're not directly comparable with all other cameras.

1 upvote

Now that the old scene has been cleared I'd like to book for some dismantled items; possibly the most famous Martini and Baileys bottles in the world. :-)

0 upvotes

I think they drank everything on the move to Seattle. This was noticed as the bottle top opened between some reviews.

1 upvote

We did have to empty the bottles for the move to Seattle, as we couldn't ship the alcohol over in unaccompanied freight.

Believe me, after nine years sitting under those lamps, no one touched a drop of their contents - the Baileys in particular was not at its best.

5 upvotes

@ dbatemam: I was thinking of them as rare collectors items, not to be actually drunk; or to make a personal studio scene - with the original stuff - a fandom diorama paradise! ;-)

1 upvote

What no cat?!?!?!?!? People 99% of the time take cat pics so if you want real world items put some purr and fur in there dang it! I want cat pics!

Comment edited 3 minutes after posting

8 upvotes

I agree, but we couldn't get it approved by the Humane Society.

9 upvotes

Photographers have been using cats as slave models for generations now. What possibly could the Humane Society have objections to now? Are cat models trying to unionize and demand more kitty treats? Just drug up the cats on catnip and they will be none the wiser.. Damn those smarty cats! they must have figured out what the camera gear costs and want a part of the action.

Comment edited 1 minute after posting

1 upvote

Stuffed lynx would be purrrfect !

1 upvote

I can just see the uproar about hunting. It would need to be a road kill.

0 upvotes

Total comments: 271

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