Is N-RAW real RAW? Nikon Z9 under the spotlight at EOSHD

It is time for a good old fashioned EOSHD article. Everything you’ve seen so far on YouTube is meaningless – yes it is. Comparing one shot to another this way is no longer representative of the camera. Our camera’s capabilities far outstrips what you can see via YouTube. At best it’s a comparison of grading styles.

Back in the days before LOG recording, your camera’s colour science was baked in and you were reliant on it. Since then, most footage looks very similar in LOG before it’s graded, and the main difference you’ll see on YouTube is how two cameras have been graded to match, or how the default picture profile and white balance compares. Then, on top of that it will all be converted to H.265 at a very low bitrate for streaming, even in 8K. In fact 8K looks dreadful on YouTube if you really examine it. So how can we really judge what a camera and codec as powerful as 12bit N-RAW is doing?

The answer is to have a good pixel peep. Freeze a frame, and look at it up-close at full resolution, without adding noticeable compression. This is what I set out to do here, to examine the texture and look of the image in 8K N-RAW on the Nikon Z9. Does it really have an advantage over the Sony A1 in H.265? Does N-RAW as a “film stock” really LOOK like RAW if we compare it to the Sigma Fp-L in uncompressed Cinema DNG? It’s time to find out.

Read moreIs N-RAW real RAW? Nikon Z9 under the spotlight at EOSHD

Lossless Blackmagic Cinema DNG 2.5k workflow for Adobe Premiere CS5.5 / CS6 with smooth playback and editing

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/48085024[/vimeo]

DOWNLOAD 2.5K BLACKMAGIC H.264 FOOTAGE HERE

(Important: on the Vimeo page for this clip, click download to get the 2.5K 80Mbit clip. Don’t bother watching it full screen from the stream as it is a pale imitation of the full 2.5k file)

I’ve been experimenting today with Blackmagic Cinema Camera workflows.

I use Adobe Premiere as my main NLE. I am not an FX guy so rarely use After Effects. But it comes in very handy here.

Premiere cannot yet edit the CinemaDNG files natively, performance is very limited, it interprets the footage at 1fps, requiring you to fix this for every clip and image quality suffers greatly, possibly because it doesn’t allow you to edit in glorious 12bit.

Here’s the solution that’s working best for me…

Read moreLossless Blackmagic Cinema DNG 2.5k workflow for Adobe Premiere CS5.5 / CS6 with smooth playback and editing

EOSHD grades the Blackmagic camera raw CinemaDNG files

Above: my first go at grading the Blackmagic Cinema Camera raw output

The above frame is scaled to 660 pixels wide for the blog. Click here to view the full 2400 x 1350 frame in your browser and another full frame here

John Brawley and Blackmagic Design today released the first raw DNG files from the camera.

Here’s my take on how the raw camera stands up.

Read moreEOSHD grades the Blackmagic camera raw CinemaDNG files