In the download you will find 2 LUTs. The 65x version is for post production and grading, the 33x version is for use as a camera LUT. While I have aimed to replicate much of the look of the TV series it must be noted that grading is only a small part of the look.
Set design, the colour of the sets and costume also play a significant roll. If you find this LUT useful please consider buying me a cocktail or other beverage. Thank you! For more information on how to do that please watch the video below. See this post for details about this. This is a broadcast safe version of the Sony s LUT with added contrast and saturation, suitable for broadcast and other direct to air applications. They can also be used in post production.
Having now spent even more time with one I have been looking at how to best optimise it. It should be remembered that this is a 4K camcorder. So Sony are packing a lot of pixels onto the 3 sensors. As a result the camera does exhibit a little bit of noise at 0dB gain. No camera is noise free and we have become spoilt by the large sensor super 35mm cameras with big sensors, big pixels and very low noise levels.
So I did a little bit of work with various settings in the camera to see if I could minimise the noise. The first thing was to test the camera at -3dB gain. On many cameras using negative gain will reduce the cameras dynamic range due to a reduction in the highlight recording range.
But on the Z using -3dB of gain does not seem to adversely effect the dynamic range, but it does significantly reduce the noise. I found the noise reduction to be much larger than I would normally expect from a -3dB gain reduction. So my advice is — where possible use -3dB gain. The Z is pretty sensitive anyway, especially in HD so -3dB which is only half a stop is not going to cause problems for most shoots. I fell that the cameras standard detail corrections result in some over sharpening of the image.
This is particularly noticeable in HD where there is some ringing over correction that gives a black or white overshoot on high contrast edges. Dialling back the detail levels just a little helps produce a more natural looking image.
Below are my suggested detail settings:. This might cause problems for those going direct to air for broadcast TV. For direct to air applications you may need to consider changing the white clip setting. HG1 and HG2 are broadcast safe gammas, so these are another option for direct to air.
If using the Hypergammas it should be noted that the optimum exposure will result in a slightly darker image than you would have with normal HG1 G This gives a nice reasonably contrasty image with bright mid range and a moderate extension of the highlight range.
SCENE and. The files are all there in the correct root directory update exception — on blank formatted card when I view them in Finder but when I insert the card into the camera they are simply invisible. Have tried to get an answer to this from Sony support but so far that has led me nowhere. My questions are.. My camera is in Version 1. With the reference to a difference in file structure between the cameras.
I would be ever grateful for an update of the scene file presets you have created Allister. From the mark1 system to be applicable on the mark2. SCENE files would to pop up…. Also: does anyone know of a scene file that is especially adapted to chroma key shooting? Is there any profile out there that is built around Slog3? Or is that simply not doable? Are they HG 7 and 8 or where do they come from? To me it seems a scene file based on Slog3 would provide the largest scope of dynamic range but still a pretty ready-to-go image coming out of the camera.
Are this settings goods for my camera also? Thanks, Alex. Matrix, Multi Matrix, etc, etc.. Understand that this would be pure goodwill of course but sure that many of us would appreciate the gesture very very much. Your email address will not be published. This is a broadcast safe version of the Sony s LUT with added contrast and saturation, suitable for broadcast and other direct to air applications. They can also be used in post production.
There are 4 different LUTs in this set. A basic LUT which is really good for checking exposure etc. These are primarily designed for post production or for use on a client monitor on set. My recommendation is to use the LUT for your viewfinder and exposure and then add the film emulation LUT later in post. As always to date at least I offer these as a free download available by clicking on the links below.
However a lot of work goes into creating and hosting these. Iris aperture is switched between auto and manual via a dedicated button as is focus. Autofocus works surprisingly well even in low light. For all but the most critical applications you can add 12dB of gain without any major dramas to boost the low light performance.
Zoom in and it drops down to f4. Single small sensor cameras have come a long way in recent years and the Z is no exception. The picture quality is pretty good for a budget camera. Colours are vibrant, noise levels are low and dynamic range perfectly useable. Noise levels are low enough that you can afford to slightly under expose the camera and tweak the pictures a little in post production if you need to.
This can be useful if you notice the camera is struggling with bright highlights. I felt it was best to expose just a little lower as this gives better looking highlights about half to one stop. If using auto exposure, including a Chromatic aberration is very low, probably being hidden by in camera processing. The PXW-Z creates good looking images for a single smaller chip sensor out of the box. But as well as the standard look the camera does include 6 picture profiles which can be found towards the bottom of the camera menu.
Each profile gives a quite different look. As you can see each of these looks is quite different The Z also has several different scene settings that can be used for shooting in full auto under differing lighting conditions, these change the way the camera works out the auto exposure levels.
The dynamic range is no different in each profile. The red flower in the frame grab was not that red. I like the Pro color settings as it gives true to life colors and it grades quite well if you want to make tweaks in post production.
To me the colors are not as accurate as they could be. The Cinematone Gammas in picture profiles 5 and 6 flatten the image a little and bring up the shadows. This can help a little if you wish to tweak or adjust the images in post production. The Cinematone gammas are not the same as the Cinegammas found in the higher dynamic range cameras like the FS5 or A7.
Personally I did not like the colors associated with the Cinematone color settings. But one of the great things about the Picture Profiles is you can mix and match the various gamma curves and color matrix settings to create your own looks and styles.
One small annoyance I found with the PXW-Z was that the only menu button is up on the top of the hand grip. As I like to fiddle around with the Picture Profile settings I did find it a little awkward to access the menu controls on the very top of the camera, especially if it was at shoulder height or above on a tripod.
Like most modern cameras the PXW-Z has a full set of WiFi features including the ability to transfer files wirelessly via ftp to a remote server, to stream live or control the camera from a tablet or mobile phone. One more trick that the PXW-Z has is the ability to shoot continuously at up to fps fps when the camera is set to 50i area. In addition the inevitable faster shutter speeds mean that you do need plenty of light to get the very best results.
I could definitely see a small drop in image quality when shooting at or fps, but the footage is perfectly useable and it is great to be able to slow down motion by 4 or 5 times. You do need to be a little careful if using the interlaced footage within a progressive production as very fast moving objects that travel through the frame may exhibit the combing artefact common in regular interlace material when show progressively.
To get the full 5x slow down the camera needs to be set to 60i area to allow the selection of fps. I think the Z will find a home in many corporate and industrial production applications. The ability to shoot in 4K gives the flexibility to crop int the image to re-frame shots for HD productions.
And the price is good too, you get a lot of camera for the money. The new Sony A is making quite a stir. It can even shoot at fps in HD. It also has picture profiles so you can tailor the look of the pictures or to suit different shooting conditions. The Cinegammas are very useful for challenging lighting conditions as they offer an improved highlight roll-off. Log gamma curves are very different to conventional gamma curves.
Conventional gamma curves like rec or Cinegamma are designed to produce a pleasing on screen image without any post production work although the cinegammas do typically benefit with some tweaking in post. Then to help deal with bright highlights conventional gammas use some kind of highlight roll off or knee to increase the brightness range the camera can capture without effecting the mid range.
In addition it also means that if you are over exposed when you shoot, the picture will look bad and no amount of post production correction will ever make it look good. Log gamma curves such as S-Log2 and S-Log3 are very different.
They extended the dynamic range that the camera can capture. The pictures will be made compatible with the TV or monitor via adjustments made during editing or in post production.
So working with S-log2 and S-Log3 is a two step process — shooting and grading grading is the term used for adjusting the look of an image in post production. Because log gamma no longer needs to have a contrast range that matches the display range, more dynamic range can be squeezed into a conventional recording codec.
It also means that there is no longer a need to use any highlight roll off or knee, so there is a lot more picture information in the highlights and brighter parts of the image. As a result exposing log gamma extra brightly is not normally a problem and in many cases brings lot of advantages.
Log gamma curves do have a shadow roll off that mimics the real world shadow roll off. Under exposed log looks bad. It will lack color and it will be noisy and grainy. But trust me, shooting 1 to 2 stops brighter than the recommended levels given by Sony on the A and any other Sony Log camera will normally bring the best results. The A etc also have S-Log3, but as these are 8 bit cameras even when using an external recorder I would still recommend that you use S-Log2.
Besides, viewing and monitoring S-Log3 is tough as the pictures look even flatter than S-Log3. My recommendation is to shoot at between 1 and 2 stops bright. For the LUT set I would appreciate a Cocktail, but am happy with whatever you feel is appropriate or affordable. For a start it has new and much improved sensors and processing. That combined with 10 bit XAVC means that there is a noticeable improvement in image quality, in particular noise levels.
As a result the pictures from the X actually grade really well. However for the best results when grading or for general purpose shooting I feel you can benefit from a few simple changes to the cameras picture profiles. Out of the factory the camera uses Rec gamma with a knee.
This gives a reasonable picture but the highlights can look rather crushed with some neon colours. I feel that the X really benefits from the use of a Hypergamma gamma curve. Below are some settings that you can change in the Picture Profiles for better image quality, change ONLY the settings listed:.
Profile for night shooting where low light performance is critical and noise may be an issue.
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