About
AJA CION Camera Tests | #TryCION Loan Program
Test shooting at the Sporting Kansas City vs. FC Dallas match. Used on tripod and CION shoulder rig with a Zacuto Z-Finder.
The camera struggled with the amount of light available in the stadium, which resulted in shooting 80% of the time at EI 1000. Nearly all of my footage was still very underexposed. I used a curves adjustment to raise my levels and pull up my shadows. I found that the noise introduced is very pleasing and looks organic. I also noticed that the shadows are much easier to recover than your highlights. Fast lenses are a must! Rokinon Cine DS lenses make a great indy filmmaker lens set for this camera thanks to Wooden Camera Canon EF to CION Mount adapter.
This camera is an interesting beast... I can see it being a great production camera for anything needing a strong contrasty image(action, drama, sports, etc.). Luckily, the ProRes files are so beefy at 12-bit 4444 or even 10-bit 422 that you can pull out a lot of information. Not sure it's up to the 12 stops DR it claims to be. It's probably closer to 10 in most situations. Under the right conditions it might be 12 stops using gamma Expanded 1, Flat Profile, and EI 320.
Credits
David Kaufman: DP/ Editor
Technical Info
Camera: AJA CION
Codec: Apple ProRes 422 HQ 2K
FPS: 60
Gamma: Normal
Color Correction: Skin Tones
WB: 5600K
EI: 320 (Rokinon 24mm & 50mm T1.5-2.8) - Fan Shots & Post Game
EI: 500 (Canon 24-105mm f/4) - Pregame Walkout
EI: 1000 (Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6) - Game Play
10/05/2015
02:05
