Which is better? Canon C100 internal AVCHD vs ProRes compared

Gear News

by Sebastian WöberOctober 22^nd, 2014

External hard disk recorders like the new Atomos Ninja Star have been very popular. They offer an easy way to record to high quality easy to edit codecs on cameras that would only offer highly compressed quality.

cinema5D reader Björn Kurtenbach shared a comparison he shot on a Canon C100 that shows off the difference between highly compressed internal AVCHD recording (which is a 4:2:0 signal) and external ProRes 422 and 422 HQ recording to an Atomos Ninja Star external recorder via the uncompressed HDMI output.

Check out the great video comparison below.
Which solution do you like better? Please let us know in the comments.
Make sure you watch this in HD!!!

What we see up here is surprising to say the least. In some moments it seems as though internal AVCHD recording is on par or actually better than ProRes.

External on a Sony A7S?
I just returned from a shoot with 3 Sony A7S cameras where I also tried to record the feed on an Atomos Ninja Star. Unfortunately at this time the ProRes signal on the Ninja cuts off some highlights and blacks on an A7S so it is not recommended. Sony needs to work on an update on numerous issues with the A7S firmware.
Generally I would say the internal Sony A7S encoding is absolutely sufficient for most if not any application. The C100 codec is a lot weaker though.