Did the Nikon D800 Really Pass the BBC Video Test?

UPDATE: No, they didn’t pass.

According to Nikon Australia, the company’s D4 and D800 DSLR cameras have become the first DSLRs to pass the equivalent of the bar exam for us mere mortals: the BBC Test–but properly known as the European Broadcast Union test.

But take a look at the results very carefully. Here are the downloadable PDF files for the D4 and D800 test accordingly.

The end of the D800′s PDF clearly states, “This camera cannot be recommended for serious programme-making.”

So does that mean it wasn’t passed by the company? Well, read the 5D Mk II’s test or the rest of the Legacy Camera reports. After one test, the company didn’t even bother to go forward with others: proving that even the first DSLR to change the movie industry failed as well. That’s not all, the RED One‘s test is a bit misleading well when the company states, “For normal production purposes, however, the viewfinder signal is perfectly adequate, but it should never be used as a programme feed.” Continue reading the rest of the report though and you’ll see that it seems to think that the RED One shouldn’t exhibit any major problems in normal use. That’s not all, the Panasonic AF-101 was nearly ripped to shreds.

Their vernacular is consistent, which so far leads me to believe that the union didn’t give the camera a passing grade. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t use it. They’ve used the Sony NEX 5N before.

Of course, I could also be totally wrong or it was a mistake. The tests also reference a Nikon 20-70mm f2.4 G lens. Unless that is meant to signify a T stop of some sort.

I’ve contacted the EBU Technical Dept for commentary and am waiting for a response.

Tagged as: 5d Mk II, bbc, d800, ebu, nikon, red one, Sony NEX 5n, test

Eric L

Seems like the D4 passed. Perhaps they (Nikon) over reached by including the D800?
Zara

Bulls**t.
stormwatch

Können sie bitte zeigen uns der ergebnisse für D4? Danke.
Andy Quested

Dear all. The cameras did not “pass” and the BBC is not and will not be using them for HD programmes.

Here are the sections from the test report

D4
10 Conclusion
The camera has very limited controls when in video mode, but has reasonable connectivity, allowing full resolution external monitoring and recording. Sound facilities are sparse, the internal microphone is adequate for note-taking or guide sound, and the microphone connector is a 3.5mm jack offering only un-balanced input.

The test procedures were as described and recommended by the EBU, in Tech 3335 (http://tech.ebu.ch/docs/tech/tech3335.pdf). Video performance is quite good at 1080p, much less so at 720p.

However, even though the sensor has 16.8 million photo-sites, it achieves only about 1,355×764, only a little better than 1,280×720.

Noise levels are very low, and the camera could be acceptable with ISO settings up to 6,400. Coloured spatial aliasing is present, and is clearly visible even on the camera’s LCD display (921k pixels, about 1,176×784). In theory, meticulous control of the shooting style can minimise this, by using only motivated
pans together with fairly short depth of field, such that detail out of the focused plane is always soft and therefore can never provoke aliasing. Exposure range is, potentially, as high as 13 stops, although this will be limited by the acceptability of the noise levels near black.

800
The test procedures were as described and recommended by the EBU, in Tech 3335 (http://tech.ebu.ch/docs/tech/tech3335.pdf). Video performance is not really acceptable at 1080p, much less so at 720p. Even though the sensor has 36.8 million photo-sites, it achieves only about 1,355×764, little
better than 1,280×720.

Many thanks

Andy Quested
Head of Technology BBC HD & 3D
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Marc

Oh wow, then I guess the BBC is recommending the iPhone for serious programme-making: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZftwokmhTY
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simonhowes

Would be better if they tested the D4 at DX and 1:1 ratio and the HDMI output as well.