Overly Hot Hotspots On 5Dmk3

[DanThePhotoMan]

Hello all! This may have been addressed before so forgive me, but I'm just curious to see if anyone is noticing this on their 5Dmk3's.

I understand the 5Dmk3 doesn't have the best dynamic range, but does anyone else find hotspots to be overly hot? As an example, I was camera op on a short film the other day, and both the DP and I agreed to move to the 5Dmk2 simply because some of the things (i.e. lamps, televisions) were so drastically hot and were overexposed, where on the 5Dmk2 they were near evenly lit.

Also, I was walking around the park with a friend who had a 7D, and after comparing shots the shadows were much, much harsher on the 5Dmk3 at the same exact ISO, aperture, and shutter speed as well the whites being much hotter.

Now don't get me wrong, I love my 5D and have been blown away with it at times when I'm able to control the exposure of the subject, but I'm not really understanding why everything is so blown out at times. Is this a user error, camera error, or not an error at all and just how the camera handles?

Thanks, and I appreciate any responses.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Hello all! This may have been addressed before so forgive me, but I'm just curious to see if anyone is noticing this on their 5Dmk3's.

I understand the 5Dmk3 doesn't have the best dynamic range, but does anyone else find hotspots to be overly hot? As an example, I was camera op on a short film the other day, and both the DP and I agreed to move to the 5Dmk2 simply because some of the things (i.e. lamps, televisions) were so drastically hot and were overexposed, where on the 5Dmk2 they were near evenly lit.

Also, I was walking around the park with a friend who had a 7D, and after comparing shots the shadows were much, much harsher on the 5Dmk3 at the same exact ISO, aperture, and shutter speed as well the whites being much hotter.

Now don't get me wrong, I love my 5D and have been blown away with it at times when I'm able to control the exposure of the subject, but I'm not really understanding why everything is so blown out at times. Is this a user error, camera error, or not an error at all and just how the camera handles?

Thanks, and I appreciate any responses.

What are hot spots?? Are you referring to infrared or sensitivity to heat?
I could not find a definition online, is it a specialized term that some use in video?

 

[RGF]

Are the hotspots on the raw file after processing or on the LCD on the back of the camera.

If the latter it could be related the settings (Landscape, portrait, ...) even if shooting raw. As I understand Canon's raw file, there is an embedded jpg that reflects the cameras settings. You of course can over-ride this when converting the raw file.

 

[DanThePhotoMan]

Sorry, I would love to post examples but it'll be a day or two till I can get to my computer that has the files on it.

And I'm shooting in RAW. Also, Mt. Spokane, hot spots are areas that are overexposed in the shot. It may just be a video saying which I'm accustomed to, so I apologies for the confusion.

In short, it just doesn't handle highlights well at all, and the shadows are so harsh it just makes them looks worse. I have some examples I'll try and put up from a concert the other week. The singer was not lit very well and the back was pretty bright so I expected there to be a bit of a difference, but the lights in the back were so blown out that they were just smudges when I opened the files.

I know it's not very helpful unless I post pictures so I'll do that asap. Thanks for the replies thus far.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Sorry, I would love to post examples but it'll be a day or two till I can get to my computer that has the files on it.

And I'm shooting in RAW. Also, Mt. Spokane, hot spots are areas that are overexposed in the shot. It may just be a video saying which I'm accustomed to, so I apologies for the confusion.

In short, it just doesn't handle highlights well at all, and the shadows are so harsh it just makes them looks worse. I have some examples I'll try and put up from a concert the other week. The singer was not lit very well and the back was pretty bright so I expected there to be a bit of a difference, but the lights in the back were so blown out that they were just smudges when I opened the files.

I know it's not very helpful unless I post pictures so I'll do that asap. Thanks for the replies thus far.

Thanks for the explanation, the only thing I could find was referring to infra red, so I was trying to imagine infra red somehow heating the sensor and creating overexposures. I had not heard the term before.


It is always a issue for me when a bright light is in a darkish scene at high ISO. It doesn't work well (Understatement). I did not notice either the 5D MK II or the 4D MK III, or my D800 doing well at high ISO with a light in the scene.

I thought that cinema folks had total control over their lighting so they could minimize DR issues.

 

[bdunbar79]

The 5D3 does horrible in harsh lighting with a lot of overblown highlights and shadows, such as outside at noon on a hot summer day. The RAW files aren't as easy to work with as the 1DX files are in those situations, I agree.

 

[Radiating]

Hello all! This may have been addressed before so forgive me, but I'm just curious to see if anyone is noticing this on their 5Dmk3's.

I understand the 5Dmk3 doesn't have the best dynamic range, but does anyone else find hotspots to be overly hot? As an example, I was camera op on a short film the other day, and both the DP and I agreed to move to the 5Dmk2 simply because some of the things (i.e. lamps, televisions) were so drastically hot and were overexposed, where on the 5Dmk2 they were near evenly lit.

Also, I was walking around the park with a friend who had a 7D, and after comparing shots the shadows were much, much harsher on the 5Dmk3 at the same exact ISO, aperture, and shutter speed as well the whites being much hotter.

Now don't get me wrong, I love my 5D and have been blown away with it at times when I'm able to control the exposure of the subject, but I'm not really understanding why everything is so blown out at times. Is this a user error, camera error, or not an error at all and just how the camera handles?

Thanks, and I appreciate any responses.

The 5D Mark III has MUCH more highlight headroom and MUCH cleaner shadows than the 5D Mark II. I've extensivly compared both and carefully studied both of these aspects for a review website.

Your camera is deffective or you are mistaken. You also might have the camera set up wrong such as auto lighting optimizer set incorrectly.

 

[MarkII]

The 5D Mark III has MUCH more highlight headroom and MUCH cleaner shadows than the 5D Mark II. I've extensivly compared both and carefully studied both of these aspects for a review website.

There is some advantage to the 5DIII at very high sensitivities, but at base ISOs the 5DII and III RAW files are practically indistinguishable.

 

[East Wind Photography]

Have you tried HTP (Highlight Tone Priority)? On the 5DIII this works with stills or video. Compresses the DR a bit for just such an occasion.

BTW, the 5DIII has excellent DR. 14 bit compared to 12 bit on earlier models. For video, wide DR will usually get you into trouble when you start editing your clips and compressing for DVDs. HTP will get you closer to that compressed DR needed for video work.

Hello all! This may have been addressed before so forgive me, but I'm just curious to see if anyone is noticing this on their 5Dmk3's.

I understand the 5Dmk3 doesn't have the best dynamic range, but does anyone else find hotspots to be overly hot? As an example, I was camera op on a short film the other day, and both the DP and I agreed to move to the 5Dmk2 simply because some of the things (i.e. lamps, televisions) were so drastically hot and were overexposed, where on the 5Dmk2 they were near evenly lit.

Also, I was walking around the park with a friend who had a 7D, and after comparing shots the shadows were much, much harsher on the 5Dmk3 at the same exact ISO, aperture, and shutter speed as well the whites being much hotter.

Now don't get me wrong, I love my 5D and have been blown away with it at times when I'm able to control the exposure of the subject, but I'm not really understanding why everything is so blown out at times. Is this a user error, camera error, or not an error at all and just how the camera handles?

Thanks, and I appreciate any responses.

 

[rumorzmonger]

The 5D Mark III has MUCH more highlight headroom and MUCH cleaner shadows than the 5D Mark II. I've extensivly compared both and carefully studied both of these aspects for a review website.

Your camera is deffective or you are mistaken. You also might have the camera set up wrong such as auto lighting optimizer set incorrectly.

I agree... if your dynamic range is worse than the 5D Mark II, something's definitely wrong with either your camera or your processing.

 

[kbmelb]

It could also be the RAW processor. They all have there own presets for individual cameras and implement them upon import. Whatever you are using could be applying a lot of contrast.

 

[DanThePhotoMan]

For the stills, I'm using ACR 7.3 to process.

I have my Auto Lighting Optimizer off, and HTP off, but I don't think that's the issue. I've done quite a bit of shooting to test those out and I haven't noticed any type of real world difference.

For the video, we were judging by the LCD on the back of both cameras as well as the monitors both cameras were plugged into. Were were shooting a bit flat with contrast and saturation turned down. mk3 was A Cam, and mk2 was B Cam both shooting ISO 640, f/5.6, and a shutter of 50. There was a lamp on the dresser, and when properly exposing for the mk3, it was waaay underexposed on the mk2. When we brightened the dimmer switch to expose for the mk2, the mk3 was so blown out it looked like a blob of light.

Again, thanks for all the responses, I appreciate ya'll taking the time out to address this.

 

[RGF]

Are the highlights position sensitive? That is, do they show up all over the shot or have you only tested a few areas. You might create a setup with lamp and darker area. Spot meter both bright and dark areas (you cau use different wattage bulbs to control how bright the lamp will appear or adjust general luminousity in the room to lighten the dark areas. This will allow you to test for bad areas on the sensor.

 

[Rienzphotoz]

such as outside at noon on a hot summer day.

You just described Qatar, 12 hours a day for 8 months of the year ... "perfect lighting conditions" (if there is such a thing) for photography, account for less than 2 or 3 weeks here ... I envy most of you folk from Europe and the Amercias with nice blue skies, natural green trees and all. :'(

 

[meli]

BTW, the 5DIII has excellent DR. 14 bit compared to 12 bit on earlier models. For video, wide DR will usually get you into trouble when you start editing your clips and compressing for DVDs. HTP will get you closer to that compressed DR needed for video work.

I think 5ds file of any generation would fit nicely into a 12bit file without any loss.

The 5D Mark III has MUCH more highlight headroom and MUCH cleaner shadows than the 5D Mark II. I've extensivly compared both and carefully studied both of these aspects for a review website.

Your camera is deffective or you are mistaken. You also might have the camera set up wrong such as auto lighting optimizer set incorrectly.

I agree... if your dynamic range is worse than the 5D Mark II, something's definitely wrong with either your camera or your processing.

That is if he was shooting above 800. Otherwise there wont be any difference between mk2 & mk3.

 

[TrumpetPower!]

The 5D3 does horrible in harsh lighting with a lot of overblown highlights and shadows, such as outside at noon on a hot summer day. The RAW files aren't as easy to work with as the 1DX files are in those situations, I agree.

I'd hardly say the 5DIII is horrible in harsh lighting. Harsh lighting is horrible, generally, yes, but the 5DIII handles it as well as you could reasonably ask it to. No camera is going to fix bad light.

Here's an example I was playing around with last week. Obviously, it's Arizona, the middle of the desert. And it's midafternoon. And I'm in the bottom of a steep ravine. I can't imagine anybody seriously looking to do anything pretty in harsher conditions.

This one isn't going in my portfolio, and it's not the shot I was out there to make, but it's a far cry from "horrible."

It's also basically straight out of the camera. No lifting of shadows, no HDR, no noise reduction...just white balance and exposure normalized with a ColorChecker passport, scaled, and sharpened for the scaling.

I took a three-shot auto HDR bracket; I always do for landscapes because it's so easy. But I wouldn't use any other than the normal exposure for this shot anyway. No need; the camera has all the dynamic range I needed for this shot and then some.

Cheers,

b&

 

[bdunbar79]

The 5D3 does horrible in harsh lighting with a lot of overblown highlights and shadows, such as outside at noon on a hot summer day. The RAW files aren't as easy to work with as the 1DX files are in those situations, I agree.

I'd hardly say the 5DIII is horrible in harsh lighting. Harsh lighting is horrible, generally, yes, but the 5DIII handles it as well as you could reasonably ask it to. No camera is going to fix bad light.

Here's an example I was playing around with last week. Obviously, it's Arizona, the middle of the desert. And it's midafternoon. And I'm in the bottom of a steep ravine. I can't imagine anybody seriously looking to do anything pretty in harsher conditions.

This one isn't going in my portfolio, and it's not the shot I was out there to make, but it's a far cry from "horrible."

It's also basically straight out of the camera. No lifting of shadows, no HDR, no noise reduction...just white balance and exposure normalized with a ColorChecker passport, scaled, and sharpened for the scaling.

I took a three-shot auto HDR bracket; I always do for landscapes because it's so easy. But I wouldn't use any other than the normal exposure for this shot anyway. No need; the camera has all the dynamic range I needed for this shot and then some.

Cheers,

b&

But you know how awful I am doing post work . That's where the 1DX gives me 3 steps .