Re: DxO results out for 5D3
LetTheRightLensIn said:
But you come in and trash anyone to pieces if they make a sensor thread and if they mention that any aspect of a sensor is not the best in the world.
No...I trash the idea that Canon not having the best sensor in the world matters.
LetTheRightLensIn said:
I think some people dispute the accuracy of DxO's results when they claim that the D800 is capable of more dynamic range than the hardware is rated for.
that is only because you don't understand normalization
I fully understand normalization. Normalization doesn't create anything that you didn't start out with, though. It REMOVES things...such as noise, but it does not create. One way or another, scaling down or scaling up, you are destroying original, pure information and diluting it. You cannot create dynamic range you did not start out with. The only thing that might potentially increase is perception...but thats a subjective matter that cannot be objectively evaluated in a scientific test like those DxO runs.
LetTheRightLensIn said:
That said, DxO's screen DR numbers still show that the D800 wins on the low-ISO DR front. It still gets 13.2 EV of native hardware DR. I have no interest in disputing that. Sony and Nikon made some brilliant moves with better technology, and they deserve to take the win!
OK, well you sure bashed and insulted and trashed me (and indirectly some famous scientists) to pieces in that other thread when I said that would be the case.
I trashed your use of potentially inaccurate source data...at the time that thread occurred, you guys were using images created under inconsistent lighting with inconsistent exposure from source cameras that were either potentially or explicitly declared pre-release...then claiming accurate results. I wasn't disputing the numbers...just the methodology and proclamations of total accuracy. You'll notice that once people started getting their hands on actual release versions of the 5D III and tests were done on dark frames from legit copies, I took the results as far more accurate.
LetTheRightLensIn said:
you need to read up more on this....
Its just the normalization thing again, and its the same deal...you can't create what you don't have. If you didn't start out with dynamic range in-camera, you aren't going to correct blown highlights with some math and scaling.
LetTheRightLensIn said:
The real problem though, is if DxO is wrong about that, even if their method of deriving that number is consistent...what else could they be wrong about? If DxO can interpret "normalized DR" numbers such that they indicate a camera is supposedly capable of more than the hardware would allow, what else might they be wrong about?
maybe it is not they who are confused
Not saying they are
confused...I am not sure their model is as relevant as I used to think it was though. I don't have a problem with their screen DR numbers (at the moment...if they claim the next Nikon 14-bit DSLR is capable of 14.4 stops of screen DR, I'll completely reverse my opinion of DxO in total!) Same issue...you don't create what you don't have with a bit of averaging, and you don't recover what you lost at a hardware level with software. It was gone long, long before it even reached the software. I don't think anyone is confused...I think there is probably some bias in interpretation, and potentially a flaw in the model. That wouldn't mean their numbers are incorrect within the definition of their model...just that they don't demonstrate the real-world capabilities of the actual camera hardware as well as I used to think.
LetTheRightLensIn said:
They certainly seemed to miss the ball on the 5D III low ISO performance...between DxO's own SNR and high ISO DR scores for the 5D III, I'd have figured it would win that category.
They penalized the 5D3 for making the color filter array more color blind which helps improve SNR while making different colors harder to tell apart and worsening chroma noise, they may have over done it a bit, but that is where that came from and they have been consistent in their formula for that.
I think that may demonstrate my issue with DxO superbly. When comparing 5D III photos to D800 photos, from a direct-from-camera standpoint, the 5D III seems to have FAR better color. The D800 in many of the video reviews I've seen seemed to exhibit rather flat color, often with a distinct green cast. It wasn't just an LCD screen problem regarding the color cast either...the same green cast showed up during post-processing as well. So even if Canon tweaked the CFA to improve SNR, it certainly doesn't seem to have affected color rendition in the real world enough to penalize them as much as DxO did.
LetTheRightLensIn said:
I think it came out a little bit much in this case since the D800 slipped just above the bonus points zone and it perhaps overly penalizes the 5D3, but there is nothing technically wrong or confused about what they did measurement by measurement there although I think you can argue that their weightings are maybe not the most sensible for the overall score there. I do think it leads to some somewhat odd results at times. The overall sensor is even odder and even they say there is no way to make one number tell the story.
I think the idea of "bonus points" in what is supposed to be an objective comparison is an odd thing at best, and an element of subjectivity in general. There shouldn't be "bonus points" for anything in an objective test...ISO is ISO, you don't give an ISO score bonus points because some dot on a plot fell just barely inside of a particular "zone" and call it a win, while another dot on a plot fell just barely outside of a particular "zone", and call it a loss. Its not objective.
The fact that other people put so much weight on them, though, and seem to acknowledge them at face value WITHOUT any critical evaluation, is curious to me, and I simply can't help but harass when I see just as much fanboyism regarding DxO as you claim Canon photographers here exhibit regarding their gear (the latter of which is more understandable, since it IS the physical piece of gear that actually empowers ones photographic creativity...not a set of numbers from DxO.)
A bit rich since you seriously harassed me post after post for a while because DxO was so much better than me and that so much weight had to be given TO DXO.
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Same as my point above, I was disputing your
use of inaccurate source data (inconsistent photos taken with pre-release cameras) and claiming total accuracy in your own results. The thing that really irked me at the time, though, was how you immediately started the doomsday reports about how Canon had failed all of their customers and failed to live up to untold years of expectation, yadda yadda...based on numbers derived from inconsistent pre-release source data...regardless of whether it was backed up by renown scientists or not. I'd slam you again for the same reasons if you made the same premature, sensationalist claims again.
Regardless of how accurate they may have been in the end, the claim was a bit bogus, and my point about DxO at the time was that they never used a random, inconsistent set of source data to produce their numbers...they used very carefully produced images and a consistent process to produce consistent results (which, despite my current misgivings about DxO's new results for the D800, I still adhere to.) Within their model, their results are consistent...but I have some problems with how they have rated the D800 and given it what I believe are some unrealistic ratings (not everything, but a couple things.) Its hard to trust results when trust has been broken with what seem to be bogus numbers like 14.4 stops DR from a 14-bit camera, or giving some "bonus points" and a win to an ISO score when the competition was only fractionally worse. Sketchy, and worth disputing and discussing, at the very least.
And, in the end...it doesn't matter. Its clear that, despite its technological inferiority, however major or minor any given individual may wish to construe those inferiorities, the 5D III takes awesome photographs. Its clear that both the D800 and 5D III take awesome photographs. So, in the end...real-world results trump technological inferiority.