Jump to content

cantsin

Members
  • Posts

    948
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation Activity

  1. Like
    cantsin got a reaction from SRV1981 in Sony vs Canon colour science - does this explain the difference?   
    Back to the original subject of the thread: Andrew has a point that Canon cameras produce more pleasing/aesthetically appealing color than Sony (and Panasonic and Samsung, for that matter). But I don't believe that this has to do anything with sensor tech respectively color gamuts. After all, Nikon produces pleasing color, too, but uses Sony sensors.
    We shouldn't forget that 8bit video - i.e. the signal recorded by Sony A7 cameras, most Canon C-series cameras, Samsung NX1 and Panasonic GH4 internally - represents only a fraction of the sensor's color information. In the case of 14bit sensor signals, 8bit video only contains 1/64th or 1.5% of the original color information, in case of 12bit sensor signals, only 1/16th or 6.2%. (You might argue that debayering isn't factored in here for the 12/14 bit signal, but on the other hand, 4:2:0 chroma subsampling isn't factored in for the 8bit signal either.) So it's all about which choices the jpeg/mpeg engine of the camera makes: which 98.5%/93.8% of colors it will throw away and which it will keep.
    Cameras by consumer electronic manufacturers seem to be biased towards keeping a lot of green channel information because it will result in images that the untrained eye will perceive as sharper/more detailed. (The human eye can see greens better than other colors, a product of evolution and the age where hunters and gatherers need to spot prey or enemies in the woods.) It's probably the color science equivalent of edge sharpening, chroma oversaturation and increased micro contrast that is commonly used in consumer/amateur cameras to make images "pop" and appeal to the average consumers.
    We shouldn't forget that Sony, Panasonic and (still) Samsung produce affordable consumer 4k cameras to boost sales of their 4k flatscreen TVs. I wouldn't be surprised if their color sciences is optimized for those TVs rather than for professional or cinematic/photographic video production.
  2. Like
    cantsin got a reaction from aaa123jc in Is the EOS-M *THE* Digital Super-8 Camera?   
    Yes, the EOS-M with ML Raw is the digital Super 8 camera - aside from the fiddly handling and ergonomics, where original Super 8 cameras were much better.
    The effective sensor size in 4:3 3x sensor crop is 6.62x4.96mm, which is slightly larger than Super 8's frame size of 5.79x4.01mm. When shooting 720p, the effective sensor size drops to 4.41x3.31, which almost exactly matches the older Double/Normal 8mm standard.
    I've used the EOS-M with real Super 8 lenses (an adapted Schneider Variogon 6-66mm/f1.8 with Leica M mount originally made for the Leicina Special camera and an Angenieux 8-64mm/f1.9 with c-mount originally made for Beaulieu cameras), with the following results:
     
    My workflow was different: 
    - In both videos, Color Charts (X-Rite Passport Video) were shot for reference colors;
    - the .MLV files were converted to .DNG and imported, edited, graded and rendered in Resolve;
    - in the first video, no color correction/grading was done except lift/gamma/gain corrections + Neat Video on the low-light indoor shots at the end;
    - in the second video, a LUT based on DxO Film Pack's Kodachrome 25 emulation was used, on the final color correction node, for tweaking/styling the colors + FilmConvert's grain emulation was applied (without FilmConvert's color filters).
    Sound in both videos is out-of-the-camera, recorded with the internal mic.
    It's a nice, low-budget solution (all the more since you can nowadays pick up a used EOS-M body for about $100 - so I do even have two bodies). Quality Super 8 lenses are sharper on the small image circle than Canon's APS-C lenses (when so heavily cropped to 1:1 pixel sampling), but difficult to find on the second-hand market since only very few Super 8 cameras with interchangeable lenses existed. A note of caution: the Fujinon c-mount zoom of the Fuji ZC1000 Single 8 camera is a great lens but can't be adapted because its base is too thick to fully screw into the adapter. A d-mount adapter for adapting old Normal 8mm lenses (which are plenty available for cheap) unfortunately does not exist for EOS-M.
    Further drawbacks is the occasional funkiness of Magic Lantern, its incapability to memorize the movie crop setting upon startup, difficulty to precisely focus on the small display (since there's hardly any punch-in focus at 1:1 sensor sampling) and heavy file sizes due to uncompressed Raw recording. In addition, the Raw is not remotely as tweakable/pushable in post as the CinemaDNG recorded by the BM Pocket. But, of course, the Super 8 aesthetic is highly charming (and couldn't be emulated with the BM Pocket as well since you'd drop its resolution to SD in order to reach an S8 image circle on the sensor/use S8 lenses without vignetting).
    How were you able to set 18fps in MagicLantern? I haven't been aware of this possibility (and always shot 24fps). I'm not familiar with FCPX, but for optimal results, you should set the timeline to 18fps as well or at least a whole-number multiplier of it (such as 72fps) to avoid choppy motion.

  3. Like
    cantsin got a reaction from Geoff CB in Key Light (Bowens Mount) Less Expensive Than Apurture?   
    Yes, the clear recommendation is the Godox SL-60W, a 60W single-LED lamp for around $160 that is the low-budget film light champion, with really great light quality and a very robust build. The only downsides is that it doesn't include battery powering and has a slightly noisy fan.
    (Btw., it's "Aputure", not "Aperture" - maybe edit the title of the thread so that people looking for information can better find it.)
×
×
  • Create New...