FHDcrew

Half of the shots in this video I shot are in 8-bit rec709 but graded in post.  Learn your gear and 8 bit is just fine.
 

Half of the shots in this video I shot are in 8-bit rec709 but graded in post.  Learn your gear and 8 bit is just fine.
 

Glad I stayed in the Nikon system 😂 

Love this!  I am coming to the same conclusion as I shoot in 8-bit rec709 more and more.  And I find that having a color managed workflow helps a lot; the image is quite flexible when conformed to Davinci Wide Gamut; responds a lot like LOG does.  And if my exposure and white balance aren't too off, the grading experience is great.

Absolutely, if you can shoot 10-bit Vlog and are happy to grade it in post then there's no reason not to.
The main motivation for me is really in dealing with the older or smaller cameras that don't have a log profile built in, and being able to realise as much of their potential as possible.  The GX85 is my main camera now, simply because of size and form-factor, but as we have been reminded by @John Matthews in the "World's smallest DSLM that shoots 4k?" thread, there is still a lot of love for these small cameras.

And this is why ProRes 10bit 422 is plenty for even quite "high budget" productions to shoot in, and they don't "need" raw at all. 

You could go gyro stabilization?  Get a cheap action cam and hotshoe mount it.  Use it to log the data.

10 bit vs 8 bit. to make 10 bit really better than 8 bit, the camera has to be very quiet. when the codec is thick and the camera is at high iso, noise cancels the limited advantage of 10 bit over 8 bit. and most modern cameras shoot log at native iso of 800 to 2000, at which starting to show noise, even though the latest cams have good low light capabilities. 
for log shooting, in order to protect high light, it is typically to expose at about 60%-70% ire, and this is typically darker or underexposed, or ettl on the histogram. for most digital sensors, ettr when shooting and then push half a stop to one stop down in post to reduce noise makes the image looking darn good. shooting log ettl then pull up half a stop or a stop, you will see heavy noise in the shade frequently. 
personally, i think 12 -16 bit raw shooting is the best if wanting to do post cg. 10 bit log does not have much more benefit over 8 bit rec 709 if you shoot 8 bit rec 709 sooc. the reason why 10 bit log is useful is to match the color of different cameras in post. nowadays, 10 bit log is used as a quick leeway to 12 bit raw, which is not the right approach in most of the cases, imho. 

This is interesting, @kye, thanks for putting 8-bit back out there. Nice to be reminded that there is more latitude than I've perhaps remembered.
I've shot log almost exclusively for the past five years or so except for under-lit situations. I found 10bit vlog so easy to work with that I came not to question the extra bit of workflow vs the headache of getting anything in 8bit wrong. 

Those are good points. I would argue 10bit to 8bit comparisons almost never look like the 10bit file is 4x better. When shot properly, the 8bit file often indistinguishable to the 10bit file. The real question is: “Exactly how much can you screw 8bit up and still fix it?”

It is going to be subject dependant to what can be recovered or not and how that recovery looks and test charts are always going to be easy to bring back from the brink, as you only have 24 values of colour represented.  As you stretch and squash things out to try and recover information, then there are gaps or data being lost, but you will not see this loss with a limited colour palate on a test chart. For example there are only 4 shades of grey, so you aren't going to notice that you've lost 100+ shades of grey due to having to grade it so heavily or due to under or over exposure.  Having a grey scale and a gradient of colours on a test chart will show up this loss.

Would love to see skin tones!  I need to learn how to work with them given 8-bit limitations. That indeed always tends to be the trickiest for me to work on. 

Actually, for these I didn't use Colour Management (I know this will shock people!) and it was a bit of a surprise to me too, but the LLG controls just worked better.  The fact they're designed for rec709 might have something to do with that, perhaps, maybe... ?
😆😆😆
I normally make my adjustments in real projects using Colour Management, and they're fine because they're not a torture test like this with huge adjustments, but maybe I'll keep this in mind and if I get difficult shots then maybe I'll change to rec709 for one node and do the adjustments in that.
Cool, I'll work out the best way to post them.
TBH I don't know what "more latitude" really means.  For example it might be the amount you can shift something before clipping occurs, or before some level of visible undesirable aesthetic effect occurs, but this would be situation dependent and also user dependent.
If you can think of a way to test this then I'd be happy to have a look.  From memory, I think I set the blue image to a colour temp in the 6000s and the warm one to 3200, and neutral was in the middle somewhere.  The magenta and green images were setting the in-camera adjustment to the maximum it would go in those directions.  So, from that, these are very large WB errors to recover from, and (hopefully!!) much more than you'd ever encounter in real life.

Also, if anyone can think of any other tests I should do then I'm all ears.  Perhaps the one that might be useful is including skintones, so maybe I'll have to make a cameo in the test images.  
Realistically, the ability to recover skintones is probably the most important thing, and perhaps the most fragile.

Great work, @kye! I'd be interested at looking at the full resolution images if possible. After doing the WB tests, do you think there's more latitude in slightly blue, magenta, or green version. I remember that Gerald Undone did a test some time ago and found more latitude in a warmer WB than a bluer WB.

Love this!  I am coming to the same conclusion as I shoot in 8-bit rec709 more and more.  And I find that having a color managed workflow helps a lot; the image is quite flexible when conformed to Davinci Wide Gamut; responds a lot like LOG does.  And if my exposure and white balance aren't too off, the grading experience is great.

8-bit rec709 profiles are much more flexible in post than you might think.  I'm not saying they're as good as an Alexa or whatever, but they're a million miles better than people give them credit for.
Here's a latitude and WB torture test of the GX85, in the standard profile (8-bit rec709) customised to have reduced contrast but normal saturation.  
For each of the below, the left image is the properly exposed reference image, the middle one is the graded image, and the one on the right is the image SOOC.
Exposure latitude test - +3 stops:

Exposure latitude test - +2 stops:

Exposure latitude test - +1 stops:

Exposure latitude test - -1 stops:

Exposure latitude test - -2 stops:

Exposure latitude test - -3 stops:

Exposure latitude test - -4 stops:

Exposure latitude test - warm:

Exposure latitude test - cool:

Exposure latitude test - magenta:

Exposure latitude test - green (as far as it would go!):

Notes on the testing method:
GX85 shot in manual mode on cloudy day Exposure varied by changing lens aperture WB varied by changing colour temp and tint Tools used in Resolve were mostly Lift/Gamma/Gain, saturation, and some had a bit of Shadows/Mids/Highlights Notes on the results:
If it's clipped then it's clipped, there's no getting around that If you've shot a whole sequence in the wrong WB then shoot a test chart replicating the error, spend some time on the correction, then apply to all the shots... a bit of work but worth it to rescue a days shooting If you've shot on auto-exposure / auto-WB and want to correct the small errors then this is easily possible - it won't have gotten it nearly as wrong as what I have shown above Most cameras shooting in rec709 will do funky stuff to colours depending on their luma value as part of the look of the profile, so when you over/under expose and then pull things back the hues and saturation levels will have shifted around in odd ways compared to a normal exposure, but if it's a real shoot then you most likely won't have many dominant hues in the image and you only have to correct the ones that are in the frame and distracting, so the above is far more work than normal shooting would be  The days of needing RAW or even LOG to change exposure or WB in post are gone, and although the rec709 profiles often have lower DR than log profiles, they're much better than you think.
If anyone wants me to post full-sized versions with titles so you can flick back and forth then just let me know.
Happy shooting!

@PannySVHSdid you shoot with your Sony F3 at all?  🤣

Happy New Year, dear friends! My year was ambivalent and full of lessons. Film bizz in Germany is very rough and ungrateful if you are trying to enter the field of large narrative projects. I had an accident, a branch falling on my head. They immediately looked for a substitute for the rest of the whole gig and they still have not paid me yet due to some mushy accounting routines. Canceled jobs due to reasons intransparent to me. Got taken advantage by an upcoming director, working for free in advance of a contract. 😂 But I am happy about the things I learned and my passion for video and film is bigger than ever.

There were a lot of ups and downs.
I launched my own pro-wrestling company in May. It has been very successful so far.
I've continued my freelance video work and it has gone well.
I'm pretty content where I'm at gear wise. I'll probably upgrade my B and C cams to S5IIs but overall I'm quite happy with the L-mount and feel pretty good about its future.
I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Had my right kidney removed. No more cancer. If my scans look good in April I'll be officially considered cured. 
Flooding ravaged my community twice. It is still recovering.
So 2023 brought some real big highs and some real low lows. If it weren't for the election I'd almost be looking forward to 2024!
Happy New Year to all of you!

Good year!
 
Gear: I snagged an older Nikon 17-35 2.8 F-Mount lens for $350.  Works very well, stabilization and autofocus both work surprisingly well for its age, and it has been a welcome addition to my kit.  I also bought an Amaran 60d and snagged a Neewer RGB light for 1/3 its retail price from an auction.  No new camera upgrades; 2024 is the beginning of my 3rd year with my Nikon Z6.
 
Work: Started to get some good pay opportunities and get some nice consistent work.  Started working for a nonprofit with a great working environment, producing a lot of promotional material.  Enjoying this experience.  Second-half of 2023 I focused a lot more on broadcast than on cinematography.  Crewed some D2 College Football games and even did a basketball game recently.  Also tried to learn my way around a 4 M/E switcher.  I built a custom video switcher solution using OBS, Central Control, a Newtek Tricaster Control Surface, and a bunch of plugins.  I use a cheap Blackmagic Decklink Quad in the mix and it works great given how little I spent on the whole thing.
 
Skills: I feel that my style as a cinematographer became more established; when running and gunning I began to figure out what types of camera moves and whatnot I enjoyed the most and observed a level of consistency with my work which is always nice to see.  That being said, I need to push myself more.  I don't feel that I grew exponentially especially within the past 6-months.
 
My favorite work of 2023:
 
This one is a Baptism Recap Video I made, shot on my Z6 with the Tamron 45mm 1.8 and Nikon 17-35.  All 10 bit prores to my Atomos Ninja Star.  Graded in Resolve.  I feel that this was the one I pushed myself the most in recently, both in terms of effects but also in learning to get better at sound design.
 
A worship night hype video I made.  Funny story: was planning to use my Ninja Star and shoot 10 bit.  Accidentally formatted the CFAST Card in the Ninja Star (the ninja star itself formatted the card).  I had a lot of files on this card as its 256gb.  So refused to use it for the shoot because I had hoped to recover the data from it.  In addition, the memory from my XQD Card was almost full, and it was a lot of files I needed to hang onto (dumb me didn't transfer them yet) so I had to resort to 8-bit 1080p 28mbps from my Z6.  Video turned out fine, but I don't love the 1080p from my Z6.  Does not grade as well as even the 8-bit 4k, let alone the external 10 bit.  I will say I was happy with the final output.

I've been thinking about my own strengths and weaknesses too, and have started a project designed to let me focus on something that I'm quite weak at with the goal of improving in that aspect.  I think that focusing on something in particular and just practicing that might be a good way to build that specific skill.
I'm reminded that in sports the coach will have players run drills of the same thing again and again, presumably so they can focus on that one thing without being distracted by the chaos of a normal situation.  I imagine the situation is the same with film-making - trying to work on one aspect while also doing all the rest probably doesn't help much in comparison to just focusing on that one thing.

Good year!
 
Gear: I snagged an older Nikon 17-35 2.8 F-Mount lens for $350.  Works very well, stabilization and autofocus both work surprisingly well for its age, and it has been a welcome addition to my kit.  I also bought an Amaran 60d and snagged a Neewer RGB light for 1/3 its retail price from an auction.  No new camera upgrades; 2024 is the beginning of my 3rd year with my Nikon Z6.
 
Work: Started to get some good pay opportunities and get some nice consistent work.  Started working for a nonprofit with a great working environment, producing a lot of promotional material.  Enjoying this experience.  Second-half of 2023 I focused a lot more on broadcast than on cinematography.  Crewed some D2 College Football games and even did a basketball game recently.  Also tried to learn my way around a 4 M/E switcher.  I built a custom video switcher solution using OBS, Central Control, a Newtek Tricaster Control Surface, and a bunch of plugins.  I use a cheap Blackmagic Decklink Quad in the mix and it works great given how little I spent on the whole thing.
 
Skills: I feel that my style as a cinematographer became more established; when running and gunning I began to figure out what types of camera moves and whatnot I enjoyed the most and observed a level of consistency with my work which is always nice to see.  That being said, I need to push myself more.  I don't feel that I grew exponentially especially within the past 6-months.
 
My favorite work of 2023:
 
This one is a Baptism Recap Video I made, shot on my Z6 with the Tamron 45mm 1.8 and Nikon 17-35.  All 10 bit prores to my Atomos Ninja Star.  Graded in Resolve.  I feel that this was the one I pushed myself the most in recently, both in terms of effects but also in learning to get better at sound design.
 
A worship night hype video I made.  Funny story: was planning to use my Ninja Star and shoot 10 bit.  Accidentally formatted the CFAST Card in the Ninja Star (the ninja star itself formatted the card).  I had a lot of files on this card as its 256gb.  So refused to use it for the shoot because I had hoped to recover the data from it.  In addition, the memory from my XQD Card was almost full, and it was a lot of files I needed to hang onto (dumb me didn't transfer them yet) so I had to resort to 8-bit 1080p 28mbps from my Z6.  Video turned out fine, but I don't love the 1080p from my Z6.  Does not grade as well as even the 8-bit 4k, let alone the external 10 bit.  I will say I was happy with the final output.

It went OK…
I ended up doing 21 jobs instead of the previous years 33, but the 2022 year workload was insane and a necessity after 2 terrible Covid ‘work’ years (ha, 6 jobs in 2 years).
2024 I have revised it down slightly even further to 15-20 and I already have 4 jobs locked in for 2025.
Volume-wise, I have no concerns.
Client-wise, as in the type, ditto. I have always been quite picky because otherwise…
Kit-wise, struggled again all year long. As a solo, multi-day, hybrid destination wedding shooter, I have some very specific needs.
It’s been an evolving process over many years based on the available tech each year combined with my ever-evolving approach and needs.
By the close of my 2023 season, I finally cracked it regarding kit with the final conclusion that a 2, 3 or 4 body kit could work equally as well, but glass was the key.
L Mount does not give me it so it has been a case of either ditch it totally, or split my photo and video needs into 2 different systems.
For 2024, I decided to do just that and then we will see how that goes.
My ‘perfect’ set up is with Canon, based around a pair of R3’s, IMO, the ultimate current hybrid body, but I can’t afford so…
L Mount for video and Nikon/adapted Tamron for stills:
Static video = S1H + battery grip + 70-200mm f4
Roaming video = S5ii + Sigma 28-70mm f2.8
Candid photo = Nikon Zf + 40mm f2
All other photo = Nikon ‘X’ + Tamron 20-40mm f2.8 plus Tamron 70-180mm f2.8
The ‘X’ being either; Z8, Z9, new Z6iii if it is available in time, or even another Zf. 
Other than that final piece of kit, I’m sorted and happy with all my set up, cameras, lenses, lights, audio etc and I’m well set up also with my motorhome/RV as a home away from home and mobile office.
Bring it on ‘24!
 

Good idea to reflect on the year!
My highlights of the year:
Bought a Thunderbolt hub and radically changed my home setup
I use my MBP laptop for everything, and now have the following setup.  When I dock it at home I plug in a USB-C hub which connects it to power, my speaker system, the Resolve dongle, and a few peripherals.  When I want to use it "normally" I plug in a Thunderbolt-to-mini-DisplayPort cable that goes to my UHD panel, and the MBP switches to using the UHD panel as the main UI.  I can run Resolve in this mode, but it's not the best setup.  If I want to run Resolve properly I remove the cable for the display and plug in my new Thunderbolt hub.  The TB hub then connects a second 1080p panel I have on my right as the UI and connects the BM UltraStudio Monitor 3G, which is connected to the HDMI input of my UHD panel.  When I run Resolve in this setup the UI is to my left, and the UHD panel will be a pure monitor feed set to the correct resolution and frame rate (up to 1080p, which is my timeline resolution).
  My big purchase was that I did a course on using alternative colour spaces in Resolve with Hector Berrebi
It was pretty niche, but really solidified a bunch of concepts that I'd seen in passing or had some familiarity with.
There's another course from him coming up in Feb to do with skintones and beauty grading and retouching that I'm really curious about.
  I bought zero cameras and zero lenses
  I did two post-pandemic trips, one to Melbourne and the other to South Korea
The best investment in my film-making is putting interesting things in front of the camera, and this was definitely that.
  Discovered how to grade iPhone and GX85 footage to match with GH5
In preparation for the Melbourne trip I did a comparison between the iPhone, GX85 and GH5.  It was mostly to rule out the iPhone as a serious camera option.  I proved myself wrong and discovered the iPhone is actually incredibly good and useful in post.  I worked out a power grade to convert it to Davinci Intermediate and was able to colour grade it just as easily as LOG or RAW.
I also discovered that the GX85 is practically as malleable as the GH5 when it comes to small adjustments.  
  Really nailed down my understanding of Colour Management in Resolve
This is what enabled me to grade the iPhone and GX85 so well.  If you're not using Colour Management then you're basically fumbling around in the dark with boxing gloves on, you've got no hope of doing anything except accidentally discovering a few tricks that seem to work.  
  Discovered I prefer the GX85 over the GH5
The GX85 suits my shooting more than the GH5 because it's smaller, the tilt screen is so much faster/easier to use in busy public places than the flippy screen, and now that I can grade the files just as easily the image is just as good unless I hit the limits of the image (e.g. DR)
  Switched from MF primes to an AF zoom
This was a revolution.  I used to shoot with fast manual primes, but in Korea I discovered that the 14mm F2.5 was fast enough for having a natural amount of DoF and had good low-light, and the speed of the AF-S was a real upgrade to my shooting.  I have since switched to the 12-35/2.8 and will see how that goes on future trips.
  Learned a bunch of things about editing
I have a huge backlog of previous trips that I haven't edited yet.  In fact, the small percentage that have a "final" video edit, I am still quite unhappy with.  Overall I have felt like I didn't know what I was doing in the editing, or the colour grade.  This feeling isn't completely gone, but I have had a number of realisations about various editing challenges and I feel like I'm almost knowledgeable enough to edit something in a passable way. If I had to sum up, I feel like I'm almost good enough at editing and colour grading to understand what I'm doing in post, and I almost understand enough about post to know what equipment I need in prod.