GEAR REVIEWS
ALEXA 35 has to be taken into account as exceptionally tough competition. In practice, the dynamic range of the ALEXA Mini LF is more of an appropriate comparison, and the V-RAPTOR XE holds up in this arena, with almost identical results in the highlights and shadows. We found two things in our more technical under and overexposure tests and high ISO stress tests. Firstly, the camera holds up exceptionally well when properly exposed at ISO 3200 and 6400, rivalling (or often surpassing) most dual-native ISO cameras for in-camera noise and colour retention, and certainly beating the Mini LF in a low-light shoot- out. However, the tests were not so good when it came to recovering poorly exposed images. Tests shot three stops underexposed still felt very clean when brought back up in post, but the image feels markedly noisy at four stops under. Overexposure was less forgiving. Between one and three stops over the image was much cleaner and provided richer colours than when properly exposed. However, highlights quite quickly suffer and go flat and unrecoverable in large areas of the image at three stops over or beyond. The ALEXA, by contrast, handles
particular sticking point for both of us and factors heavily into any camera choice. In fact it’s often the thing that separates the wheat from the chaff in an incredibly saturated market of excellent cameras. We routinely turn to ARRI cameras for specifically this reason, as they tend to excel in retention of bright details in windows and lampshades in a way that other cameras just cannot compete with. But in steps the RAPTOR! From our tests, the dynamic range and highlight retention of the V-RAPTOR XE were both very comparable to the ARRI ALEXA Mini LF. The camera’s website claims 17+ stops of range, which would rival even the exceptional ALEXA 35. In our tests however, the RAPTOR fell a little short of that and needed to be underexposed by at least two stops to get close to the same amazing highlight retention. With the ALEXA 35, it was actually quite hard to create a test environment that clipped it in both highlights and shadows simultaneously. Putting the RAPTOR into the same lighting scenario tended to lead to blown highlights. But in context, holding the circa £13,000 V-RAPTOR XE (Z mount, body only) against the approximately £60,000 (body only)
rough treatment markedly better, with images remaining recoverable a few stops past these limits in both directions. Highlight roll-off is an area of particular excellence for the XE. Some cameras hit absolute white in an ugly way, whereas the RAPTOR managed to bridge the gap between clipped and detailed in a way that was nuanced and less obvious. That’s a real win in our books; cameras at lower price points tend to really fall down in this area, and need either dramatic underexposure or careful treatment in post. Any work-horse camera for us needs to deliver here more than anywhere, as 95% of anything we shoot is intended to look good on the day – and we tend to make our exposure choices on-set rather than relying on things being pulled around dramatically in post. COLOUR Colour reproduction with the in-built Rec. 709 display settings (pleasingly adjustable via the Output Tone Map and Highlight Roll-off settings) is rich and cinematic, but we both tend to avoid in- camera Rec. 709, and instead largely rely on our own custom-built LUTs. In testing
HIGHLIGHT ROLL-OFF IS AN AREA OF particular excellence FOR THE XE”
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