Sekhar

I'm talking about color science in general, not the A7S II specifically. 

My work is mainly creative features, docs, shorts, and music videos, where I have don't have lightning-fast deadlines to meet. In those conditions, I've gotten much nicer results from beefier color spaces like Blackmagic's than Canon's very saccharine, Crayola look. Even with weddings, you generally have a couple months to deliver, and between Filmconvert, Speedlooks, and Magic Bullet, finding a decent look is within anyone's reach. If not, I doubt the camera is the problem. 

Looks great, has a nice stylized feel.

Here's another test. Thanks for humoring me. As always any tips are greatly appreciated!!!
 

IMO a lot of the color issues we see with Sony footage is due to indiscriminate and improper use of log. Folks seem to use log like it's a badge of honor, for every single situation and as a substitute for proper lighting, and as we know log and 8 bit is not a happy combination. A good way to assess and compare say an a7sII color would be to shoot without log, and I think it will also behave well in post shot that way.

Wait, I thought MatthewP pretty much debunked the "1Dc sees better color than NX1" conclusion in the shootout thread with his grade comparisons (see Page 3)? That would discredit the premise of this new article about technical vs. artistic view of color and 1Dc being better than NX1 that way. I.e., if you have good color info (technically speaking), you should always be able to tweak the image to fit your artistic preferences.

Yeah, if pros pick up NX1, they will do wonders, as this video shows. Its quality is so good, it comes down more to skills, techniques, and support equipment. Glad NX1 is finally getting the attention it deserves and not being dismissed as prosumer stuff. I'm sure we'll see more examples, which can only help adoption.

We're talking better resolution for NX1, NOT sharpness. You can sharpen the 1Dc image all you want, but you aren't going to get the detail that just isn't there. See below a grab from your video to see what I mean. I've sharpened the 1Dc image to look similar, but you can see it doesn't have the same detail.

Yeah, if pros pick up NX1, they will do wonders, as this video shows. Its quality is so good, it comes down more to skills, techniques, and support equipment. Glad NX1 is finally getting the attention it deserves and not being dismissed as prosumer stuff. I'm sure we'll see more examples, which can only help adoption.

Well, grading (not color correction) is a personal thing, so if you like high contrast, then you go for high contrast...what the rest of us think means squat. Having said that, you do need to watch the whole clip for the lows and highs. E.g., you say the lows are at 10 mark, but that is only at the beginning; if you scrub forward, you'll see the level touch 0, and that part is going to be too dark if you corrected for the beginning.
Anyway, if your goal is to increase contrast, once you set the lift/gain to adjust low/high levels, you might want to try reducing gamma for the lows and increasing it for highs. That will increase contrast, but in a much more subtle way. E.g., see below for for what happens to your clip if we do that (I also increased the saturation a bit). It is for illustrating the gamma adjustments only and may be nothing like what you want or meant to be pleasing in general.

Well, grading (not color correction) is a personal thing, so if you like high contrast, then you go for high contrast...what the rest of us think means squat. Having said that, you do need to watch the whole clip for the lows and highs. E.g., you say the lows are at 10 mark, but that is only at the beginning; if you scrub forward, you'll see the level touch 0, and that part is going to be too dark if you corrected for the beginning.
Anyway, if your goal is to increase contrast, once you set the lift/gain to adjust low/high levels, you might want to try reducing gamma for the lows and increasing it for highs. That will increase contrast, but in a much more subtle way. E.g., see below for for what happens to your clip if we do that (I also increased the saturation a bit). It is for illustrating the gamma adjustments only and may be nothing like what you want or meant to be pleasing in general.

Well, grading (not color correction) is a personal thing, so if you like high contrast, then you go for high contrast...what the rest of us think means squat. Having said that, you do need to watch the whole clip for the lows and highs. E.g., you say the lows are at 10 mark, but that is only at the beginning; if you scrub forward, you'll see the level touch 0, and that part is going to be too dark if you corrected for the beginning.
Anyway, if your goal is to increase contrast, once you set the lift/gain to adjust low/high levels, you might want to try reducing gamma for the lows and increasing it for highs. That will increase contrast, but in a much more subtle way. E.g., see below for for what happens to your clip if we do that (I also increased the saturation a bit). It is for illustrating the gamma adjustments only and may be nothing like what you want or meant to be pleasing in general.

Oh no, Xavier, by story I meant any coherent message that the images speak as a whole, the subtext, the underlying message that talks to us as humans at a higher, intellectual level rather than at a purely sensory (visual/auditory) level. E.g., many interpreted even the little pizza rat clip as an underdog "story." A more obvious example is of the buffalo that saved its calf from lions that clearly has a "story" I'm talking about (a beginning, middle, and end, to use the cliche).
If there was such a message in Watchtower of Turkey, I didn't get it. It seemed to me like a juxtaposition/collage of beautiful images, much like a Victoria's Secret fashion show. E.g., frenetic cuts like that can indicate a frenzy of wild activity, but I don't believe that's what this filmmaker intended for the tourist viewers. What then was the purpose of this kind of cut other than to look cool and generate discussions like this?
Anyway, I sense clear disdain and disapproval of my comments here (talking of subtext, I can easily read "what the heck do you know?"). But guys, rather than immediately push back, please consider what I said and discuss because we're all trying to be better filmmakers, and I for myself might be missing an important point here.

No, sorry if I sounded disapproval. I love to discuss "content" instead of Mac/Pc or 8/10bit discussions!!! 
We'd better not use YouTube counts as a measure of quality. But makes videos for near-zero audience it's not cool either!
I see this type of editing as a "virtuosistic" version of normal editing. But I must confess that I have enjoyed Joe Satriani and Steve Vai quite a bit! You either like it or not, there is nothing wrong with not-liking it!!!

Oh no, Xavier, by story I meant any coherent message that the images speak as a whole, the subtext, the underlying message that talks to us as humans at a higher, intellectual level rather than at a purely sensory (visual/auditory) level. E.g., many interpreted even the little pizza rat clip as an underdog "story." A more obvious example is of the buffalo that saved its calf from lions that clearly has a "story" I'm talking about (a beginning, middle, and end, to use the cliche).
If there was such a message in Watchtower of Turkey, I didn't get it. It seemed to me like a juxtaposition/collage of beautiful images, much like a Victoria's Secret fashion show. E.g., frenetic cuts like that can indicate a frenzy of wild activity, but I don't believe that's what this filmmaker intended for the tourist viewers. What then was the purpose of this kind of cut other than to look cool and generate discussions like this?
Anyway, I sense clear disdain and disapproval of my comments here (talking of subtext, I can easily read "what the heck do you know?"). But guys, rather than immediately push back, please consider what I said and discuss because we're all trying to be better filmmakers, and I for myself might be missing an important point here.

Oh no, Xavier, by story I meant any coherent message that the images speak as a whole, the subtext, the underlying message that talks to us as humans at a higher, intellectual level rather than at a purely sensory (visual/auditory) level. E.g., many interpreted even the little pizza rat clip as an underdog "story." A more obvious example is of the buffalo that saved its calf from lions that clearly has a "story" I'm talking about (a beginning, middle, and end, to use the cliche).
If there was such a message in Watchtower of Turkey, I didn't get it. It seemed to me like a juxtaposition/collage of beautiful images, much like a Victoria's Secret fashion show. E.g., frenetic cuts like that can indicate a frenzy of wild activity, but I don't believe that's what this filmmaker intended for the tourist viewers. What then was the purpose of this kind of cut other than to look cool and generate discussions like this?
Anyway, I sense clear disdain and disapproval of my comments here (talking of subtext, I can easily read "what the heck do you know?"). But guys, rather than immediately push back, please consider what I said and discuss because we're all trying to be better filmmakers, and I for myself might be missing an important point here.

Lol @ Pizza Rat...
I was taking into account the fact that it was an amateur filmmaker showcasing his art, and in that respect that kind of response/ dialogue is what we all aspire to generate and I am sure some people here do on on a regular basis.
I get your point though. Right now more than ever, as video is everywhere and getting cheaper to produce, story is king. Effects don't age well. I don't really look at this style as something a serious filmmaker would want to be known for. I am sure they would prefer people to appreciate how they use the camera to tell a story. In that respect, this video is a bit 'gimmicky' as it is swapping storytelling for the 'geezus, how did you do that' appeal. If you read comments for some of the more recent videos imitators have made, you can tell that people are kind of getting tired of it already. Everyone now is trying to tell a bit of story, such as Brandon Li to great effect, check out some of the links I posted. 
But none-the-less, if you are going to make a travel video and you are on your lonesome with a camera and a couple of lenses, it is an interesting skill to master - and tell yourself youve been there and done that. It also teaches you some important skills with regards to composition/ framing, movement, sound editing, organising footage etc.
We must also remember that montage, or random shots put together, is a bona fide genre that has been around since the beginning of film. When done well it can have the same impact on the viewer as a great story.
 
 

Wow, congrats! I like the look of your shots, and the trailer is intriguing. What's the status of this, release wise?

Cool. We actually shot a feature film with the NX1 and the SLR Magic anamorphic adapters. Here is a link to the trailer:  https://vimeo.com/138589715  I hope the rumors about Samsung getting rid of the NX camera division are untrue. I love the imagery of the NX1.

It's quite a 90s style edit with flinchy jump cuts, but these cuts are often facilitated her by modern things, such as stabilised timelapse and so on. So modern retro.
a very up to date post-modern classical soundtrack (like Einaudi, Max Richter, Clint Mansell etc, the music is almost interchangeable with them)
As a matter of personal taste this kind of thing gives me a bit of a headache as most of the images don't get time to breathe, but that's just me.
Like most such films the music does most of the work, if you put a different track on it wouldn't work so well, so to make your own start with a similar arpeggio or ostinato based track by Einaudi, Clint Mansell or Max Richter and cut away!
EDIT: Yes it is Einaudi i checked on Vimeo.
PS not a criticism of their music, more an observation of a genre style. I've seen Richter in concert twice!

Thanks. One thing I did last time was interview a couple of folks to explain the event, and I ran most of the interview as voiceover as I showed shots of the event...that made things very clear. In this video, I'm actually pretty happy for coming up with a semblance of a story for the last (Playworks) part: it was quite chaotic, and I had to come up with creative ways to cut it together.
WRT settings, I used gamma DR with sharpness -10 and contrast -5. These settings have worked best for me in high contrast scenes (there were pretty strong highlights). For a couple of the shots that had low contrast scenes, I did try a higher contrast setting to minimize banding, but didn't quite like the result. The lens was Samsung 16-50 S.

Yeah, I had to cover this event without knowing what to focus on or what would be happening, so tried to make a story out of whatever I captured. The first two parts (award and brief intro) are easy, but the Playworks one I tried to make it a meaningful and coherent segment out of different pieces I had. Oh well, something to prepare for next time. Thanks a lot for the feedback!

I think it looks good, but at times I wasn't sure what I was watching. What's the story behind this event? Also, cut away from the person who walks in front of your camera. But honestly the quality of video is excellent and I like your color balance. The DIS looks great!!!

Hi, My LUTs are now fully compatible with Rec.709 and no-LOG profiles.
Below, some samples made on frames from "Puberty Blues" by John Brawley.

Yeah, when folks say "it has good color science," they usually just mean "I like its colors." It's one of the scientific sounding terms people use to express an opinion as fact and to sound credible. The term "color science" seems to be especially popular with Canon lovers and Sony haters (I do personally prefer Canon colors to Sony's BTW).

Did you just try the built-in mic? I recorded an event once on my Google Nexus 5 phone with the built-in mic and the RecForge II app, and the quality was surprisingly good. It wasn't quite as flat as my Audio Technica AT-897, but for voice it was great. I suggest you try that first before investing...would be super portable too.