mercer

I have a 2014 MacBook Air with 8gb ram and have no problems with 4k footage, but I think it looks better, heavier if that makes sense, when downscaled to 1080p at conversion. I use EditReady and it is lightning fast. But I have heard Rocky Mountain converter is excellent and it's free. The only reason I went with EditReady is for the other features and I already had ClipWrap and you get a lower price by upgrading from ClipWrap to EditReady.

I recently put the camera through its paces, for the same reasons. What settings are you currently using, and what is it you don't like about them?

Yeah, I noticed the body only sells on eBay for about $450. If this ever gets under 3, I may have to give it a try. Right now, I am looking at maybe picking up a used FZ1000. I have a very specific project it will be perfect for. But either way, the D5500 sounds like a decent hybrid camera.

I've been hearing a lot about the D5500 lately... Is it supposed to be that good for the price?

Looks great, I love the Technicolor blues.

I downloaded the trial of both Film Convert and Color Finale, and found both to be great programs. I will probably go forward with Color Finale for budget reasons and because it seems to be a more all around color tool. And yes, EditReady is awesome, super fast. But you're right I really enjoyed applying LUTS in color finale. Are there any plans for an NX500 guide and LOG and/or LUT?

Is the G7 weather sealed?

The best places around me to shoot are parks, but yes I have to find some new places, now that my tests are done. Don't worry I won't waste any more bandwidth posting the final results. I have found that Sekhar's settings are close except I found -2 saturation, -10 sharpness, -5 contrast to be the best settings for an out of camera look, and if you want a little latitude in post. I shoot horror and thriller shorts, so I am looking for a little darker, muted color. I actually thought the calm profile was workable as well when you dialed down sharpness and contrast Anyway, thanks for the advice and I'm interested in hearing your final results.

Yeah, you're right about lowering the saturation. I'm thinking leaving it at 0 is probably the best bet. The last shot, I really just wanted to see how blue the sky could be... Obviously too much.

Or some kind of sadist, because here's another test... Enjoy.

Andrew, this is slightly off topic as it pertains to the NX500, but I am really curious what your findings are... as far as settings? I have just completed my second to last round of tests, and to be honest, as Mat Meyer had said, I was totally overthinking this camera... especially for my lack of grading skills.

I'm using EditReady, and converting it to 1080p. I tend to like a high contrast look, so I was lowering the gamma and darkening the curves in color finale... So it is very possible it is my grade. That clip was literally the first time I have ever attempted to truly grade footage.

Thanks, Andrew. I appreciate the tip. Since there are a lot of incremental settings in this camera, I thought I would try and get a really flat image, use a LUT and try some things in post.

you can download this video from Vimeo, the ungraded, flat image is there.

On my monitor and phone and TV, the greens look somewhat muted, but maybe there is too much saturation, or yellow in the grade. I'll take a look, don't worry I won't post the results...

Hey, thanks for the constructive criticism. As I said since the beginning, this camera is more camera than I am used to with little information floating around regarding settings. After trying nearly every setting with this camera, and never being really pleased with the results, I decided to try a really flat image and grade it, something I've never done before. The first shot is not great... At all... but I think the two, through the tree shots came out okay, especially the close up focus of the pine branches. I'm not sure where you live, but we have plenty of trees that are those colors of greens near me. I apologize if I'm being too defensive, I came to this site to learn, so any useful knowledge you have is much appreciated. I didn't intend to overexpose the shot... I'm not sure you can tell, but the big pine trees are a dark green with grayish pine trees in front of the cabin which is a mix of dark wood and weathered wood, that is almost white. With the cloudy, grayish white skies I tried my best to keep some shadow detail. Thanks again...

This is a second attempt at grading the flat profile in the NX500 - Custom Profile - Saturation -8, Sharpness -10, Contrast -8. It was shot with the Canon FD 28mm f/2 at ISO 100 with a fader ND filter. I graded it with Color Finale using the Kodak to Rec709 LUT as the grade base. Any pointers or tips would be greatly appreciated.

I have been messing around with the Color Finale trial and the Alexa to rec709 LUT works nicely on ultra flat nx500 footage and pretty good on a5100 footage as well. You have to lower the opacity a bit, but it seems to be a great starting point.

Haha, I forgot to lower the volume. When I go out, I am testing 10 different lenses at a time with 3 or 4 different profiles. If I don't narrate it, I'll never remember my settings.

Here is my recent test. I used a custom profile with saturation at -8, sharpness at -10, and contrast at -8. I then used the free trial of Color Finale to apply the Alexa to Rec709 LUT and the other tools to further grade the shots. Don't expect much, this is the first footage I have ever graded. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Haha, yeah that is me in all of bald glory. I should have tested the lowlight with a faster lens. I have a couple 50mm 1.4 lenses but with the crop factor, I don't think I can wide enough for the room. But I do have the FD 28mm f/2 lens, that baby should give me enough width and the aperture should open enough to make a big difference with the lowlight test. I'll also try to bring up the highlights and shadows to see what I can save from the darkened image.

I've been using -5 across the board and am pretty happy with the results. But I think I'll give your settings a try. Are you editing and delivering in 4K?

That looks great!!! I have the NX500 and when I go -10 with saturation, it turns it black and white... Did you mean -10 contrast?

Don't get your hopes too high. I saw two other listings for that Soligor, one for 4 something and one for 220 or best offer. Assume you'll get the same, or less, as the cheapest one listed. Even still, between the two lenses you could make a nice profit. Good buy!!!

Copies of that Minolta are listed on eBay for 400 bucks... You may have gotten the deal of the year.