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NX1 dynamic range in 2018


Andrew Reid
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Hi,

I have been lurking in this forum for a long time and learning quite a bit from you guys. And I have a question regarding NX1:

Is it worthwhile to buy NX1 to complement my 5D3 in 2018 and future-proof my videos, considering the following:

a) I am a hobbyist shooting mostly family kids shots and also occasionally nature shots/videos

b) I own a 5D3 with 24-70 L Mk1, 85mm 1.8, 50mm 1.8 and 17-40mm L (I shoot mostly ML RAW).

c) I also own a lot of manual lenses (M42, PK, OM, CY etc.)

d) I am looking to buy a 4K capable camera to future proof my videos and to complement my 5D3 (5D3 really can take abuse and it's not going anywhere soon) but i do not want to spend too much money

e) I do have opportunity to buy a second hand NX1 + 16-50mm S + 55-200mm for about USD1.2K.

Would appreciate some guidance here. Thanks

 

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Ok. I’m curious now. I missed the NX1 boat. Is it worth trying out? H.265 is totally native now and it’s really the only camera that really takes advantage of it. 

Im curious... what’s the articles or forum posts I need to read up on it? Wasn’t there a hack for it? Is there any speed booster options? Which lenses should I get? Would love to go native with the autofocus. I think it’d be a fun camera to review because it’s now fully relevant with h.265 with High Sierra. 

Is there a true log on this camera? Which profiles are best to shoot on? Any weird quirks I need to know? 

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This camera is ideal for prosumer or amateur videographers." Point and shoot" with continuous autofocus (CAF), gamma DR all parameters at zero, dual antishake (OIS+DIS) and P mode. This video was shot handheld with the EVF and the 16-50mm S lens. The resolution is superior to anything I have seen ( 70mm film in a Cinerama or Imax theater not counted). You guys might say it´s "oversharpened" but I bet in that case you don´t have the up to date display which is an oled or VA panel FALD UHD TV. Yesterday I shot a video with the 50-150mm S lens and it is on YouTube also.

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@Inazuma I do not have the time to write my complete thoughts (good for the people trying to read all the pages I usually write!), these days, because of a couple of deadlines, but you got the point.

My perspective is from a "blue collar" film and video technician (with "white collar" education I must say!) standpoint, and the absolute/perfect image is not my holy grail. I want good ergonomics and reliability when I work (heat dissipation/power management) with good image without too much post (with the ability to do a little tweaking later, if I will). That is why I found my sweet spot in NX, and C100mkII cameras. Workhorse cameras!

When I work in bigger projects, usually we use rented cameras, there is no shame in renting equipment! I am also a hobbyist photographer, and with the NX, I can even do a couple of photographic jobs per year, and everyone is happy so far. Win win situation.

I have said myself millions of times, the ISO performance in video is disappointing, but then again, it doesn't change the way I shoot, or creates any issues. I would gladly take a NX with a couple of stops better ISO performance, but it isn't a deal breaker, because we managed to do our job with worst equipment, not a long time ago (smaller sensors, slower lenses, big/heavy/expensive lighting e.t.c).

Now, the only manufacturer that brings new tricks (and abilities) to the table, is certainly Panasonic. Right now there are so many GH5's around me, that I buy equipment with those in mind (Edelkrone GH5 version, SmallHD Focus GH5 version e.t.c), for some personal reasons (disclaimer here!), I won't go m43 right now (even though I have used the LS300 a few times the last couple of years for some small projects), but the truth is, GH5 and GH5s, are pushing the envelope.

I would be waiting a little bit longer, to see where the market heads. Until then, I will keep my 2014 cameras, close to the next decade, and that, is a triumph of the system, on its own device.

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9 hours ago, Matthew Hartman said:

Those results are really stunning. But help me understand the workflow here. So if I set my NX1 to the 16-235 setting in camera, I do or don't use the additional technique with fast color corrector in Premiere? Slightly confused here. 

You can set it to 16-235 in camera to save yourself the post.

If you set it to 0-255 in camera, you need to bring back the shadow and highlight detail in post.

This gives a bit better colour, bit better flexibility in post and uses full RGB luma range of the 8bit codec.

16-235 is the 'safe' range.

I don't know why Premiere and MacOS cannot just interpret the file correctly in the first place, but that's Apple and Adobe for you.

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12 hours ago, Anders Bixbe said:

This camera is ideal for prosumer or amateur videographers." Point and shoot" with continuous autofocus (CAF), gamma DR all parameters at zero, dual antishake (OIS+DIS) and P mode. This video was shot handheld with the EVF and the 16-50mm S lens. The resolution is superior to anything I have seen ( 70mm film in a Cinerama or Imax theater not counted). You guys might say it´s "oversharpened" but I bet in that case you don´t have the up to date display which is an oled or VA panel FALD UHD TV. Yesterday I shot a video with the 50-150mm S lens and it is on YouTube also.

You have some really DEEEEEEP focus there, were you stopped down? The footage is looking really nice on my 2k 10bit BenQ. But man, that insane detail is both a blessing and a curse. 

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I used to go to the Cinerama theater in 1962 to watch Ben Hur, Spartacus and Lawrence of Arabia and I was kind of frustrated that I could not produce anything like it on my double 8 film camera. Yes, I have made films and videos since 1961 ( amateur, though). Not until 2015 when I got the NX1 I could get a bit closer to that cinematic feeling with the immense detail I saw in the theater 1962. My jaw was on the floor at both events. Now, I know that "cinematic" has different  meanings for us here. I used to be a DVD freak and was tweaking with CRT projectors in my own theater and I know how oversharpening and edge enhancement looks like. Now with most recent blurays that is not a problem anymore. I just can not see any oversharpening  with my NX1 videos in my theater with LVC X7000 projector or my Panasonic DX900 VA panel FALD UHD TV. 

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21 minutes ago, Anders Bixbe said:

I used to go to the Cinerama theater in 1962 to watch Ben Hur, Spartacus and Lawrence of Arabia and I was kind of frustrated that I could not produce anything like it on my double 8 film camera. Yes, I have made films and videos since 1961 ( amateur, though). Not until 2015 when I got the NX1 I could get a bit closer to that cinematic feeling with the immense detail I saw in the theater 1962. My jaw was on the floor at both events. Now, I know that "cinematic" has different  meanings for us here. I used to be a DVD freak and was tweaking with CRT projectors in my own theater and I know how oversharpening and edge enhancement looks like. Now with most recent blurays that is not a problem anymore. I just can not see any oversharpening  with my NX1 videos in my theater with LVC X7000 projector or my Panasonic DX900 VA panel FALD UHD TV. 

Isn't that because your projecting optically? 

52 minutes ago, sandro said:

The NX1 was amazing until the Samsung marketing department came in and decided to make the image look like their TVs = oversharpening, supercolors and "wow effect" as if this product was the for mass to be sold in stores by people who knew nothing about cameras.

Can you please site some evidence of this? 

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49 minutes ago, Matthew Hartman said:

Isn't that because your projecting optically? 

 

I have a 2.40:1 screen so I only watch NX1 videos in the theater (JVC projector) when I add 2.40:1 black bars to them. The Panasonic TV though is superior in image quality. Colour tweaking is easy on both and with gamma DR on the NX I never need any grading (shame on me) and I try to avoid low light. It´s fantastic with NX1 EVF in P mode that it always shows me how the exposure will look like so I can tweak it to my liking. 

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13 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

Nice shots. Colours like that and creamy shadows are an NX1 strength... Yes, it can do low light.

That 45mm F1.8 isn't bad either for $300 is it?!

Andrew, Do you use the Smart Range + in your 4k Samsung NX1 videos?
Do you recommend activating it always?

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5 hours ago, iamoui said:

@Matthew HartmanWhat is the "FLAT" profile? Is this straight from the camera?

Yes, and in combination with a Tiffen Low light contrast filter.

But Keep in mind my objective here was to challenge the "unacceptable noise" comment that some people hold against this camera, and others in the same class in general. 

A little Neat Video goes a long way. Also, by the time you add in more contrast or an s-curve to the footage, a lot of those artifacts perceptually go bye-bye. This isn't anything new. It has to be done on a lot of Alexa, RED and certaintly Blackmagic systems as well. 

Sony set such a high and impractical bar in my opinion. The high ISO capability is literally teaching a generation of how to NOT properly light and expose a dark scene, esstentially stripping away a really good tool that has been succesfully used for many of decade. And now the expectation (bad practice) of using very high ISO gets wrapped up in other systems, like the GH5s. It still comes with other compromises too. 

Darkness IS information in terms of narrative work, and I feel like I'm going to be evangelizing this more and more, and I'm already blue in the face as it is. ? Yes, this emoji is yellow. 

The viewer does not need to see every detail in a scene to comphrehend what the scene is relating. That would fall more into line with documentation. A narrative piece is not a document of antiquity, it's a story, therefore an illusion. The human brain is really good at filling in the blank spaces. All you need to give the viewer are hints, the brain parses the rest. It's pretty remarkable, and testimate to how powerful the mind is.  

Take my profile image of the man sitting in the car. You only see small hints of a car, some seat, some steering wheel, both descending into shadow. But you as the viewer know he's sitting in a car and not a train. Correct? It's what you don't see that's drawling you in. So going back to high ISO, do you really want to see all the details in the scene? I say, shadows are friends, not combatants. 

I learned this actually in my fine art classess in college some 22 years ago, and it was practiced knowledge long, long, long before that, and has been effective for all kinds of mediums within the arts and sciences. 

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11 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Nice shots. Colours like that and creamy shadows are an NX1 strength... Yes, it can do low light.

That 45mm F1.8 isn't bad either for $300 is it?!

The 45mm F1.8 is remarkeable for the price. The primes and S lens series in the NX system are hugely underrated. My S 16-50mm is Biblical. ?

13 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

Yes I find it handy.. gives you some extra highlight recovery.

Yes, ever since you alerted the community about it I've used it.

The setting truly does increase DR by a stop or two. Samsung did a horrible, horrible job at marketing this feature, which is a pretty big deal when you consider that DR sells cameras. 

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