jonpais

@Mat Mayer Thanks much.

Surprised that the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN for MFT is being released alongside the E mount version. I thought we’d be in for a long wait. Even more surprised to learn that they rely on optical correction firmware, something I thought only the original manufacturers’ lenses did. Haven’t figured out yet whether I should be disappointed or not... Does anyone have any information about whether the 30mm f/1.4 DC DN does the same? Are you interested in either of the 16mm lenses? Will knowing that the lenses use firmware correction affect your buying decision?

There is precious little GH5 HDR footage on YT. Most that say HLG aren't uploaded in HDR, and the ones that are are only 15 second 'tests'.

Every single person I know of without exception has recommended 12-bit, or if absolutely necessary, 10-bit. If you've got the GH5, you can begin shooting for HDR today. I've never shot the Ursa Mini, but if I'm not mistaken, Daniel Peters has shown that the dynamic range of the GH5 compares favorably to the BM camera. Edit: fwiw, Matthew Scott, a longtime advocate of RAW, and a cameraman and colorist whom I greatly respect, recently sold his BMMCC (I know, not same!) and bought the GH5, saying the image quality is better.

The Top Ten OLED HDR Reference Monitors for Under $800 (continued) I'm writing this after having sat through hours and hours of podcasts and webinars, some of which lasted as long as an hour and-a-half, which went on and on about the benefits of HDR, introduced dozens of new terms and acronyms I'd never heard of before, and didn't get to the 'what about the monitor?' part until the last ten minutes, when you'd learn that the industry standard, the one used by practically all the studios, is the Sony BVMX300, which costs $45,000. What the heck!? At this point, you might be wondering, why the push for HDR? And the short answer would be money - after all, these manufacturers have to sell their television sets! Seriously though, cinema cameras and even consumer cameras have long been able to shoot high dynamic range images (10-16 bit, 10+ stops of DR), but it's only recently that display technology has followed suit. And now, reference monitors are playing catch up with premium TV sets. It couldn't have been the other way around, because the displays used in monitors all roll off the same assembly lines as those used for consumer televisions, mobile phones, tablets and watches. To make a long story short, I listened to Alister Chapman giving a webinar - and this is someone who's got a fair amount of experience both behind the camera and as a colorist - and he claims to have graded a project or two with the Ninja Flame, a 7" external recorder/monitor that runs $800, and when he took the finished work to Sony's Pinewood Studios and looked at it on the Sony X300, he says the grade was nearly spot-on. Not perfect, mind you, but very good. So while it's obviously not an ideal situation (I personally dislike editing on anything smaller than a 27" monitor), anybody who's able to get hold of an Atomos or other HDR external monitor should be able to begin editing HDR right away. While he hadn't done so himself as of the time of the webinar, Chapman cautioned against using televisions as reference monitors because they each have different curves (not sure if I remember correctly!) and auto-enhancement features to make their picture stand out; and while I've heard several colorists talk about picking up an OLED TV, I've yet to read about anyone's experiences grading on one - if I'm not mistaken, I think they're mostly used to demo work to clients... So there you have it: at least one monitor (the Dell) that I'd consider buying myself if I had a powerful PC; a number of budget options (an Atomos or Small HD monitor); or wait it out till next year or beyond, when several other affordable monitors hit retailers' shelves. I've already put a deposit down on a Ninja Inferno, which is due to arrive in three weeks. @Vesku Okay, fire away!

@Vesku Please let me finish first. First of all, LCD panels can also be certified Ultra HD Premium. The Sony BVMX300/2 OLED monitor is $45,000.

The Top Ten OLED HDR Reference Monitors for Under $800 Just kidding! Before I delve further into the current monitor situation for HDR, let me first rattle off some of the specs of the 27" Dell UP2718Q, talk a bit about why it's so freakin' awesome, then why you might not want to pull the trigger just yet, and lastly suggest some options that won't require you to sell your kidney to pay the bills. Dell proudly boasts that the UP2718Q is the first certified Ultra HD Premium monitor. What exactly does that mean? It means that it meets criteria regarding resolution, screen brightness, bit depth, color gamut and so on, all of which were developed with television sets in mind. some of which may not be necessary or even desirable for a reference monitor that you'll be seated three feet away from in a smoke-filled dimly lit room decorated with heavy metal posters. Now for the specs: the UP2718Q's got an impressive 3840X2160 screen, a ridiculous 384-zone full array local dimming backlight (making the monitor a little chunky compared to its svelte competitors, and which probably accounts for a fair share of the hefty price tag), 1000 nit brightness, hardware calibration, 10-bit color, numerous connections, including Display Port 1.4, which allows for HDR support for high-end (read: expensive) graphics cards, an IPS panel and pretty nifty color accuracy for sRGB, Adobe and rec.709 (all 100%), 97.7% for DCI-P3 and 76.9% rec. 2020. Before you go ballistic, no monitors can currently display 100% of rec.2020, and in the neighborhood of 77% is supposedly an altogether respectable result. The monitor also happens to be rather well-built. While the unit itself is excellent, it's got downsides that've got nothing at all to do with Dell (afaik): (1) it's not compatible with Apple; (2) some behaviors with Windows will be a little aggravating (if memory serves me correctly, having to do with how it handles non-HDR content and screen brightness); (3) PC graphics cards will be terribly expensive; (4) support for HDR movies, such as streaming services from Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube are not available for PC and; (5) HDR PC games are in short supply. Oh, and did I mention that the monitor retails for $1,500? To be continued (bear with me!)

The 27" Dell UP2718Q is the first desktop monitor to carry the Ultra HD Premium certification. It carries a price tag of $1,500. Reviews have all been excellent. Fortunately for me, it’s not compatible with my 2016 Macbook Pro. ?

This probably doesn’t belong here, but the way Curtis Judd and Jacob Fenn approach the Canon C200 from a workflow perspective rather than specs alone I found quite interesting.

@Axel i just sent you a couple HLG clips. Check your email. In the arguments against HDR above, replace 4K, OLED and HDR with the word sound and see how well they hold up. Yet most American movie theaters, especially outside of urban areas, were still not equipped for sound: while the number of sound cinemas grew from 100 to 800 between 1928 and 1929, they were still vastly outnumbered by silent theaters, which had actually grown in number as well, from 22,204 to 22,544.[59] The studios, in parallel, were still not entirely convinced of the talkies' universal appeal—through mid-1930, the majority of Hollywood movies were produced in dual versions, silent as well as talking.[60] Though few in the industry predicted it, silent film as a viable commercial medium in the United States would soon be little more than a memory. - Wikipedia OLED isn't the holy Grail: Most reviewers, and more importantly, professional colorists I've read and listened to in podcasts and in interviews believe that OLED delivers near perfect picture quality. CEO and General Manager of Flanders Scientific Bram Desmet has gone on at length about the superior picture quality of OLED. At the risk of repeating myself, DisplayMate considers the recent line of OLED televisions from LG good enough to qualify as Studio Reference Quality. Right now is almost impossible to find a right use for HDR content, it is a very limited market...Our TV channels (the big ones) just this year became full HD, and we deliver in 1080, 4:2:2 8bit: Technicolor, Samsung, Walt Disney Pictures, Netflix, DirecTV, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Panasonic, Universal, Sharp, LG, Dolby, Sony, Philips, Amazon, DreamWorks, Microsoft, Arri, Intel, Hisense, THX, NVIDIA, and Toshiba are only just a few of the members of the UHD Alliance. Netflix, Amazon, YouTube and others are already streaming 4K HDR content today. Production companies aint about to rework their hardware and their workflow to cater to the 2 people with HDR displays: Netflix alone, with over 104 million subscribers worldwide, rolled out over 150 hours of HDR content by the end of last year, and Amazon Prime had plans to double HDR content to 200 hours by early 2017. It would appear as though there are significantly more than two people in the world with HDR television sets. @Mattias Burling ran a couple of tests before proving that most people can not see the difference between 1080p & 4K: That is an indisputably reliable, scientific study. They should try sitting a little closer to the set. They won't get radiation sickness! I don't have to squint to see the dramatic difference in detail between my 2013 iMac and my 2017 5K iMac. The same goes for my LG C7 compared to my dated Samsung HD television. And it's not just about the number of pixels. HDR has higher local contrast, giving the impression of greater sharpness. There are NO computer monitors with true HDR: It will only be a matter of time before HDR grading monitors are plentiful and reasonably priced. Even calibration software priced in the thousands of dollars a few years ago is now available at no cost. Several companies, like Atomos and Small HD, have already released HDR capable external monitors and soon, all NLEs will also be on board, with FCP X entering the end of this month. Someone said earlier that colorists over at liftgammagain scoffed at the idea of using an Atomos Sumo or Ninja Inferno as a grading monitor, but I imagine they'd be just as horrified to see the laptops and computer monitors many of us use to grade rec 709 footage right now! To truly have real 10bit HDR workflow takes an investment than no semi pro, or amateur, can afford right now, or next year I presume. No way: There are already numerous HDR videos being uploaded to YouTube every day by people like you and me. As far as cameras and lighting go, according to Hurkman, if you already own a camera with reasonably wide latitude, HDR won’t be an excuse to buy another one, and it seems to me that there’s nothing extra you need to buy for the camera or lighting departments if you want to shoot media for an HDR grade. TV sales are plummeting and there are few devices that support the newer technologies: IHS Markit forecasts that HDR TV shipments will grow from 12.2 million in 2017 to 47.9 million in 2021. Several smartphones by manufacturers like Sony, Samsung and LG already support HDR. It may come as a shock, but it's entirely possible to watch movies and TV shows in HDR10 and Dolby Vision on the iPhone X. Last but not least if one exposes the image for HDR delivery then your video will not look as intended when shown on SDR: This is not accurate. Colorists make a trim pass for SDR delivery as well, so content can be viewed on your brand new HDR set in the living room or on the small SDR set in your kitchen. When uploading to YouTube, you can either use YouTube's SDR Metadata Tool or your own cross conversion LUT. Unless you mean your HDR video won't look as good on an SDR set, which is undeniably true!

How radical - asking for permission? ?

Is it true, as Serge Broslavsky writes in his petition to Panasonic (written prior to firmware update v2), that ALL-I 400Mbps only delivers around 85% or so of the bits-per-pixel quality of IPB 150Mbps, and that IPB 400Mbps would have higher image quality, making grading V-Log Lite easier to grade? I'm asking because I haven't seen any samples in which ALL-I 400Mbps has convinced me that it is any better for still subjects.

I didn’t try it before the update, but in FCP X 10.3.4, ALL I 400Mbps drops frames like mad on my spec’d out 2017 27” iMac

It means recording stops after 10 minutes.

+1 It's still ridiculously compact compared to using an actual cinema camera, and of course, it costs a ton less. I would go with an Easyrig rather than a shoulder rig, it takes the weight off of your shoulder and the strain off of your back (my rig must weigh around 12 pounds); an Easyrig also makes it possible to adjust the camera to eye level; Matthew Scott's setup in the video is too high for comfort and is probably going to lead to back problems in the future. Here's my twin enjoying his.

@ssrdd A reprimand and public apology would be good enough for me.

@Axel One of the things that drove me nuts with my previous sets was the junk black level, which was a dark gray. I'd say it was the most annoying thing about those sets: almost, if not more infuriating than the moire and aliasing I used to see with some of my first digital cameras, like the GH3 - but at least moire and aliasing are temporary phenomena, while weak black levels destroy the whole viewing experience from start to finish. The black level of OLED is indistinguishable from the bezel of the screen, which makes colors pop. The contrast also makes the picture appear sharper. In a dance video I watched recently, the studio would fill with water mist, and you'd think you could see each individual droplet hanging in the air - not because the image was any sharper, but because the perceived contrast was higher. This was on YT btw.

Alexis Van Hurkman writes eloquently about the advantages of HDR, which he firmly believes is the future of video. Most of you are probably familiar with Hurkman as the writer of the user manuals and online tutorials for DaVinci Resolve. This is taken from the About Me page at his blog: I divide my time working as a writer, director, and colorist. Based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, I do color correction for a wide variety of broadcast programming including narrative and documentary features and shorts, spots, and experimental subjects. I’ve color-corrected programs that have aired on The History Channel, The Learning Channel, BBC Four, and WNET; features and shorts I’ve graded have played at the Telluride, Sundance, Tribeca, Hamptons, and Amsterdam film festivals, among many others; video art pieces I’ve worked on have been exhibited at the NYC Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, and San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. You can check my IMDB listing to see my latest specific credits. So I think there is little doubt about his credentials. His article entitled HDR, Resolve, and Creative Grading is definitely worth a look.

3D, 12 bit, X-ray mode, infrared vision, 240 hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision

The best display for both editing and viewing HDR content is an OLED TV. 55” models could be found for as little as $1,400 last year. This from Display Mate The LG OLED TV is far better than the best Plasma TVs in every display performance category, and even better than the $50,000 Sony Professional CRT Reference Studio Monitors that up until recently were the golden standard for picture quality. In fact, based on our detailed lab tests and measurements the LG OLED TV has the highest Absolute Color Accuracy, the highest Absolute Luminance Accuracy, and the highest Contrast Ratio with perfect Black Levels of any TV that we have ever tested, so it even qualifies as a Reference Studio Monitor.

Thanks for sharing, @Don Kotlos. Does Richard do any side-by-side comparisons with the GH5?

I need to get my eyes examined, because the two pictures above look practically identical to me. You could easily intercut the 8-bit footage from both cameras and nobody would be able to tell the difference. Maybe skin tones will tell a different story, I don't shoot plants and coffee cups. I'd personally avoid shooting above ISO 1600 anyhow. On the positive side, the AF and IBIS look like they're doing a great job!

The GH5 has dozens of useless features I don’t need - like an EVF. ? @anonim Arguments like, “how about Sony, how about Canon?” are irrelevant and just meant to distract our attention. I could just as easily add, ‘how about Peugeot? what about Maytag?’

???

@anonim My mistake - I should have just written something I love. Because Brian Caldwell’s anamorphic lenses will require an adapter and will likely run $5,000, a price point even Veydra considered exorbitant for most m4/3 cameramen.