kaylee

Hi Chaps.
I decided to take my FORBES70 camera out to play last weekend.  I'm happy with the results but wanted to ask for some honest critique.
I'd love to hear opinions on the image quality - resolution, perceived dynamic range / highlight/shadow rolloff, colour, and general 'look' of the images.  
Please bear in mind that the current maximum res is full hd, but in terms of full hd res, how is the image looking?  
 
I'd also love to hear some views on the large format aesthetic the camera exhibits.  Maybe in comparison with the recent trailers for Hateful Eight and The Revenant.  Is the added expense over say a full frame camera and fast lenses justifiable?  is the current resolution cap of full hd a real issue?  
curious for your thoughts! - ps.  larger file available for download (and detailed info about the system) on the vimeo page

Cine 2 is really not much worse than CINE4 for dynamic range - I would recommend CINE2 then.  

Messing with the A7R II - good, but I would wait if you can till the A7S II - rolling shutter issues.  Also save some cash. 
 
Here's my receipe that I'm liking:
COLOR MATRIX  - Pro, not s gamut - reds feel more red
COLOR GAMMA - CINE4, not slog - cleaner highlights.  Slog2 looks weird with an 8 bit codec how it gets noisy in highlights
Black Level: 0
Black Gamma > Range: Middle , Level: -3
Knee > Mode: Auto , Auto Set > Max Point: 95 , Sensitivity: Mid
Colore Mode: Pro
Saturation: +8
Color Phase -2
Color Depth > R+1, G-1, B+2,, C-2, M-1, Y-3
Detail > Level, -5 Adjust > Mode; Manual, V/H Balance: -2, B/W Balance Type3, Limit: 0, Crispening:0, hi_light Detail: 0
White balance > Manual > Grid setting B 1 (one to the left)
You don't have to follow it perfectly, but overall it can get to some stunning results.
And the secret to any log recording is post.  Use film convert.  filmconvert.com.  Or impulz luts.  Select slog 2 - modify it - less contrast - less of a curve since it's less flat as s log 2
I used Film Convert Arri Alexa Log C profile for grading. FilmConvert setting is Arri Alexa as the camera. logC. film stock is Fuji Film 8543 Vivid. color 93. curve 100. size 35mm full frame. grain 0.  But just mess around - find what you like.
Have fun!
And everyone post your own.  Together we can help each other improve.  That's what it's all about - using the Hive to get better.  Get knowledge, give knowledge.

Thanks Ed. 
I am very curious to play with the Knee parameter for better highlight roll off. 
Is the knee being used in your setup? Cause here is what the manual says and I am not sure what "Mode" refers to:
KneeSets knee point and slope for video signal compression to prevent over-exposure by limiting signals in high intensity areas of the subject to the dynamic range of your camera.
When selecting [Still], [Cine1], [Cine2], [Cine3], [Cine4], [ITU709(800%)], [S-Log2] in [Gamma], [Knee] is set to [Off] if [Mode] is set to [Auto]. To use functions in [Knee], set [Mode] to [Manual].

So I tried adding ONLY an input LUT to the V-Log footage. AlexaLOGtoREC709, with a tad bit saturation. That is all. Colors are looking great IMO.
 

I shot a rolling shutter test for the dvxuser thread, or anyone else who wants to play... there is supposed to be quite an angle on the vertical line and I moved it fast enough to achieve it.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?303559-Measuring-rolling-shutter-put-a-number-on-this-issue!
Oh and I agree they don't have the bandwidth to read the whole sensor, but I really am sure I did see it somewhere (planning on buying the camera does aid memorising odd facts that come up). They should certainly be able to read two sensor pixels per video pixel and could do who knows what on-sensor combining to make those pixels. Maybe they just meant they used all the pixels in the 16:9 area with on-sensor combining, it is very clean and my initial ISO 3200 test is also looking okay.

Yeah the Animators 7S is great in low light

Very nice Aaron. And thanks for your support with the purchase.
Nice that people are experimenting with different in-camera profiles before taking it to the EOSHD LOG Converter.
Curious to see the results of that as well!

Been in this situation quite a few times. Generally it's not going to be Branson who decides.  
 
Thanks.
As said, the whole thing is going through tests. We'll work it out. Currently it's inly accessible on the site through Vimeo until tomorrow. 
Thanks Andrew - "one of Manchesters finest"... That's quite a statement! I'll just keep going and hope more people enjoy my work.  

I think I would rather shoot HD

For 800 dollar its a very very good deal, i edit nex 7 AVCHD on my macbook air with 4gb ram with no problems.

Many thanks to the positive comments 
Many of the shots here are actually re-graded from the originals. Encouraging to see the rapid improvement but shocked to see what I thought looked good previously!!
The video you mentioned Aaron is "Davoodi - Party Life". I think another puppet video is on the cards soon! So much fun.  

this looks OFFICIAL. ba
Each and every image -  I shot, lit, edited, graded. A little directing. Very involved in creative ideas. sicc. did work
Core crew was mostly 4-5 regular people in these productions (Director, DOP, Production Manager, Spark, Make Up awesome and inspiring to see you producing such nice stuff without 3 dozen ppl at the video village (im trynna keep some of the scenes in my first feature p bare bones). hell yeah. you must have a great team
The aim is to have 100% new material for Showreel 2016. Max creativity required.
 
 

I purchased a set of the Wasabi batteries and charger from Amazon when I bought the camera. One of the two batteries fits a bit "snug" and I have to use a pointy object to pry it out of the camera. I still plan on using it as it works fine otherwise but just keep that in mind when purchasing them. I've heard others report the same issue of the Wasabi  batteries fitting too tightly.
Battery life with this camera has so far been decent but nothing to brag about. If I knew I were going to be using the camera for video all day, I might want four or five batteries to feel safe.

Thank me again when your house is on fire and your kids and wife (if there are any) dead!
Charger really makes sense, charging in camera sucks.

hi vaga id like to hear what ppl think about this too
in my experience its not great but alright, but mind you ive barely shot any stills and ive just been using the 100mbs 4k and 120fps options with the screen on almost all the time doing some casual test shooting. i havent had a chance to completely wear out the sony battery cuz i dont have any backups yet but ill get back atcha when i do
speaking of extra batteries.... do you guys have any suggestions for the "transcend u3 card" of 3rd party batteries on amazon? lol i need that delightful dichotomy of reliability and frugality
P.S. cant believe i spelled dichotomy right on the first try

I'm working on an edit as we speak.
It transforms skin tones. Much less yellow cast to warm hues.

Hello all,
Finally sony replied about recording limit. its 29min in 4K.
Web site was mistake. I got mine delivered yesterday. with 29min recording..
 

A general warning RE: over exposing log. 
Yes It reduces noise as you can effectively push the floor down in post (perhaps beside the point but this is how Dolby noise reduction worked in way in audio with pre-emphasis) BUT you lose over exposure latitude and usually more importantly, the skin tones are pushed further up the log curve and can end up with les data allocated to them than if you just shot 709.
i wouldn't personally bother with 3 stops over TBH. Though you may find a use for one and two. Best generally is to expose properly and just de noise, I find.
smooth highlight roll off is one of the joys of log. I wouldn't want to lose it over a bit of noise...

Should be here by Monday!
I wish they'd made it 12mp-ish, then the low light would have been killer for a one-inch sensor due to larger pixels. Best of both worlds, and would have eliminated the only big down side.
the Canon XC10 has a 12mp-ish 1-inch sensor and can hit ISO 20,000.
Still, i think it'll do what I need, which is to fill in where the C100s let me down: frame rates higher than 30 and occasional 4K shots.
 

I see dead people!

lol first thing i did
 

Thanks - that was my (very unexpected) reaction, and why I commented...

Second video is much nicer.
Wow.
That is one hell of a clean 1080p image going on.
Wonder why Canon themselves talked it down?!
Clearly they want us to buy the Cinema EOS cameras for video, don't they. Even to the point of them claiming their flagship DSLR has moire... when actually it looks to do far better full frame internal 1080p than the 1D X, 1D C, GH4 and 5D Mark III put together.

It just used the Fine Detail picture style I was using for stills, so basically had a USM ("Un-Sharp Mask", which sharpens the image) applied to it. I was only interested in moire/aliasing so didn't bother with anything else (well, sensible shutter speed). If you actually wanted to shoot movies with it you'd use a different profile...
This one is hand-held and with the Neutral Picture Style (91MB, untweaked Picture Style - so can be better, note my total video shooting with the camera is these moire tests)...

https://vimeo.com/136118235
(Oh and remember the video shown on Vimeo is 720p and you need to download the 1080p version.)

It still completely destroys my GH3 and GH4 for moire/aliasing when shooting 1080p... please note this was my entire point. I am very impressed over this single item though. Bonus points for anyone else shooting this scene with their camera-of-choice!!!

BTW here's the maximum amount of stuff you can have super-imposed on the screen. You can turn much of it off, pretty much item by item. The settings are as per the video except it had a different picture style - Fine Detail here - and it was shot at f10, which you can probably see was needed from the histograms...
(You can also optionally clean the screen, I recommend Spontex micro-fibre cloths.)