My Experience at the HBO Camera Assessment 2023 Screening

Last year in February, I had the chance to attend the special screening of the HBO Camera Assessment Series 2023 at Rotor Film’s grading cinema in Babelsberg Studios. It was a rare opportunity—these screenings are not publicly available and usually limited to HBO cinematographers and directors as a reference when prepping for their shows. That alone made it feel like a bit of a golden ticket.

Since that day, I’ve been wanting to turn my notes into a blog post. It took me a while, but here it is.

So What Exactly Is the HBO CAS?

The HBO Camera Assessment Series (CAS) is a large-scale test where different cinema cameras—both digital and analog—are compared under identical conditions. And I’m not talking lab tests. They shoot a short, visually rich, fast-paced film with actors, costumes, sets, even drones. It's cinematic. It's stylish. It’s very HBO.

The goal is to give filmmakers a real-world overview of how each camera behaves in different scenarios. And yes, there’s a seven-figure budget behind it, so it’s no joke.

In 2023, the cameras tested were:

• Arri Alexa Mini

• Arri Alexa 35

• Sony Venice 2

• RED V-Raptor VV

• Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K

• Kodak 5219 500T film
  

What Tests Were Included?

Even though the footage was presented as a short film, it was carefully designed to include key camera tests:

1. Dynamic Range Test: Bright highlights and deep shadows in one frame. Fireworks, reflective surfaces, direct sunlight vs. dark rooms. You really see where each sensor clips—or doesn’t.

   
   

2. Available Light Test: Shot with practicals only. A great example was the moonlight scene, where a drone flies toward a dimly lit house. That’s when RED V-Raptor really impressed me—very clean shadows and usable detail where others struggled.

   
   

3. Mixed Color Lighting Test: Fluorescents, sodium vapor, tungsten, LED—all in one room. Some cameras handled it better than others. Alexa Mini and film were the only two that actually captured the green cast from the fluorescents, which tells you how sensitive their color science really is.

   
   

4. Color and Pattern TestCostumes with intense colors and fine textures. Here, cameras had to maintain saturation without overshooting or turning skin tones weird. Some slight shifts were visible in Venice 2 and Ursa 12K, especially under tungsten and LED mixes.

   
   

5. Image Elasticity Test (my personal favorite)They intentionally overexposed and underexposed shots—by 1 to 3 stops—and then graded them back in post. It was SO useful to see how far you can push the image before it falls apart. Alexa 35 and RED V-Raptor performed especially well here. You could dig into the shadows or pull highlights back with a surprising amount of detail still intact.
   

It Was Fast... Maybe Too Fast

Now, let me be honest: the film was beautiful, and seeing it on a calibrated grading cinema screen was such a luxury. But because it was edited as a continuous short film, the pace made it hard to absorb everything fully.

You’d get one scene shot on six different cameras—back to back, only seconds each—before the story moves on. I’m sure that when HBO cinematographers view this, they stop, zoom in, play back, pixel peep. For us, it was more of an overview experience than a deep technical dive. Still, it sparked a lot of thoughts, and having a Q&A with Suny Behar (the DP behind the test) was a great way to follow up with specific questions.

Final Thoughts

The main thing I took away from the HBO CAS 2023 is this: every camera has its own voice.

Camera	What Stood Out	Weak Spots
Alexa 35	Dynamic range king, especially in highlights	Some noise/artifacts in ES mode
RED V-Raptor	Surprisingly clean low-light & shadow detail	Highlight clipping above ISO 1600
Venice 2	Consistent color, strong in low light	Reds a bit punchy, some skin tone shifts
Alexa Mini	Still magic in mixed light and texture	Resolution can’t compete with newer sensors
Ursa 12K	High detail potential in daylight	Fixed-pattern noise in dark scenes
Film (5219)	Beautiful grain, soft highlight roll-off	Unusable when pushed too far, especially under LED or moonlight

And yeah—if you’re curious about the vibe of the assessment film they made, just watch the trailer below. It’s moody, stylish, and undeniably HBO. 😄