Benjamin Hilton

I believe also that the FS100 had about 11.5 stops of dynamic range; about what the GH5 and similar cameras have. I wonder if it's possible for some really talented person to take the sensor and processing power of the FS100 and mod it into a smaller body. Even just a box with an HDMI port on it would be amazing...could build out a nice package that is still small and compact.

I tried working his profile into an a6400, but couldn't get anything to feel right. Something really special about that sensor. I have never used an F3 before, would love to try it though. Anyone had any experience using Glen's profile with the F3?

Agreed. NDs and a smaller body would be amazing!

I haven't tried the FS5, but have spent some time with the fs7. They are nice cameras for sure, just don't seem that came out of the camera special touch that the FS100 did. Maybe the 1080P helped with it to a certain extent, 4k can be a bit harder to get right without feeling like plastic.

I was thinking back today just how much I enjoyed the images produced by my beloved old Sony FS100. I have shot with quite a few cameras since then, but I think I can honestly say that the FS100 produced some of the best-looking images on a consistent basis for me than any other camera I have worked with since. I shot primarily with Glen Cairn's G log ultimate which gave me beautiful dynamic range and color straight out of camera. Many times my grade was a simple lowering of the blacks and white balance adjustment. And, the files for 24mb/sec AVCHD, so easy in post. We moved on with cameras because of the size and ergonomics but I think that if Sony rehoused the FS100 sensor in a mirrorless body today, I would be the first buyer. Here are some 720p images from some of my old films for posterity sake. Does anyone else have fond memories with this camera? Some stills from your work with it?

Does anyone know of/use a good video player that can handle 10 Bit on a Mac with LUT support? I have used VLC up until now, but it is pretty slow and buggy and doesn't support playback LUTs. I would love to be able to review my footage off of the card with a 3D LUT for the V-Log without having to import to an NLE. Any thoughts? I am using Mac systems. Thanks!

It's definitely a tough shot, but fun to try anyway...

I understand, thank you for your respectfulness.

Would you mind removing that picture? I would prefer to not have profanity associated with my work for religious and professional reasons.

The secret to those images though is in the color grade. There are very few cameras that will look that good with minimal grading. I have spent months off and on in the color bay with v log tests devoloping LUTs that match my style with the camera in almost every lighting scenerio. But now that I have the LUTs developed, it's an easy matter of applying them to my footage as a grade, then doing my corrections underneath on each project. I think it's possible to create amazing images with almost any camera these days. The trick is to pick a camera and stick with it for a while. Take a couple of weeks to test it in every situation. Find out what exposures compliment the sensor, what ratios it likes, native ISOs, and what it likes for breakfast. Then after you find its sweat spots, take the footage into Davinci and play with it. Develope a color science that matches your style. Most codecs are robust enough these days to really develop whatever color science you want with your images in post, especially if you can shoot log.

I think the GH5 is complimented by soft lenses, as the sensor is naturally really digitally sharp. I've tried a lot of lenses with it, including native Panasonic m43 lenses, and I still end up grabbing the 24-105 for quick shoots most of the time. Good zoom reach, color, contrast, flare control, and constant f2.5 aperture with a speedbooster. And, it's reasonably soft, which I think compliments the GH5 really well. The native m43 Pansonic lenses are way too sharp when paired with the GH sensors in my opinion.

Thanks! The 10 bit codec is very strong, almost as strong as proress I would say, just not as fast editing wise:-) With 8 bit there is definitely pink macroblocking just like the Gh4, but I haven't seen any of it with 10 bit. I know there is a lot of confusion as to whether you need 10 bit or not in a camera, but I would say that the GH5 is made to work in 10 bit with v log and therefore looks it's best by far in that codec. Though, many other cameras and log profiles, including Sony's S log 2, are made to take advantage of 8 bit, and therefore look great in 8 bit. It's not so much that 10 bit gives you huge advantage over all as a reason to buy the GH5, more that the 10 bit is a huge advantage if you shoot with the GH5 and v log, as the camera seems made for 10 bit. Yes, everything I included was shot with the Canon 24-105 f4, which with a speedbooster, is a f2.5 equivalent. Panasonic really nailed the HD on the GH5. With the GH4, 1080P was really bad looking compared to shooting 4k and downsampling in post, really soft, and a lot of moire and noise. But with the GH5, in-camera 1080P doesn't look any different than shooting 4k and downsampling in post. All my tests have shown they look exactly the same - which is really nice when you need to turn around a quick project for Youtube. I think the akward looking motion is mainly due to compression, which is why the 400mb/sec all-i codec is exciting. The problem with all that though, is that most of my work ends up on Youtube with terrible compression anyway, so I've kind of given up on good motion for now - until we reach the days of amazing internet speeds and prores Youtube:-)

Sorry, I was flying and just caught up with this. It's a GH5 with V-Log with a Canon 24-105 1st generation lens. I am falling in love with this camera more and more every shoot; I don't quite see what so many people have against it. With a speedbooster you get super 35 4K 10 bit log with a robust, yet not bloated, codec. Plus, a really tough body and battery that will get through some of the hardest shoots without overheating or dying:-) And the image is just beautiful! 12 stops of dynamic range are definitely enough for most normal shooting, I rarely end up blowing anything out, even when exposing on the bright side. The V log is a bit noisy, but the noise looks a lot like film grain, I think it adds a nice texture. Also, all the screenshots are taken from footage shot in 1080P 10 bit, not 4K.

Does all this pixel peeping over camera nuances really matter on set if you know your camera sensor as a DP? Check out some screenshots from my latest commercial and see if you can guess the camera it was shot on. How good is your camera knowledge? :-) (All these images are just with a 10 second grade, so don't be too hard on them)

Why not make your adjustments after Filmconvert with the Lumetri panel?

According to my understanding, Panasonic created VLog L to better work with the GH4/GH5's native 12 stops of dynamic range possible from the sensors. Full VLog is created for the 14 stops of dynamic range possible from their Varicam line. So, adding full VLog to the Lumix cameras would not give a better dynamic range as the sensors cannot capture more than 12 stops.

The difference is even more noticeable with a high-quality grade. (Exact same settings on both) Not just in the noise, but also the dynamic range.

No Problem. I attached a LUT I exported of that grade if you want to try it out as a base for the sequence. It includes all the adjustments minus the power windows to bring up his face. I think power windows are your friend on a project like this where you really couldn't light. They give you the ability to draw the attention to the right places by bringing the exposure up or down in certain areas. Grading is a very fine art that takes a lot of practice, don't give up! It's worth taking the time to learn and practice and become a master. (I still feel like I have a long way to go here) Jungle Grade V_1_32.Screen Shot 2018-02-01 at 8.46.59 AM.cube

What do you think of something like this? I took what you posted last, and kind of massaged it into more of a 16mm film color space. (I think I could do better with an ungraded raw still, the multi-generation screenshot is probably a little rough at this point:-) Her skin exposure still needs to come down in my opinion, but I can't do it with the still as there isn't really any info left there to bring down.

I'm not sure what kind of look you are going for with this story, but I got this after a few minutes in Resolve...kind of an old Kodak film look (I worked just off of a screenshot so it isn't very high quality) This was your original:

Definitely will help. The key is to only expose by 1 stop, 2 stops and it gets noisy really fast. I have a GH5 coming in tomorrow, looking forward to testing 10 bit V-log! :-)

I would be happy to share my filming workflow for the G85 and GH4. White balance: This is a major key. When the white balance is set too warm with these cameras it can be very difficult to pull back in post due to shadow contamination and red channel clipping. Setting your white balance leaning toward the cool side can greatly improve your skin tones. Exposure: The way I set exposure on fast shoots is with the camera's built in spot meter; also sometimes with false color when I can get it. I have found exposing the key light on skin tones to 1 stop under (3 bars on the meter) to be the sweet spot for healthy looking, non plastic, skin tones. Picture Profile: (This one might be a touchy one:-) I use the natural picture profile. I have put in many hours extensively testing natural vs cine like D in different lighting situations and natural wins hands down for me in daylight. Reasons for this: Cine Like D actually doesn't have that much more dynamic range than natural. It can appear that it does have more range, but this is simply because the camera drops the exposure by about a stop when you switch the profile to Cine Like D. After you bring the exposure back up 1 stop to match natural, you actually have about 1/2 stop less room in the highlights then with natural; you do gain about 1/2 a stop of shadow detail though. Natural on the other hand, gives you about 1/2 a stop more highlight detail and a much gentler highlight roll off; at the sacrifice of losing about 1/2 a stop of shadow detail. For me personally, highlight roll off and skint ones are much more important than shadow detail. For the reasons above I shoot with these picture profile settings: Natural Contrast -2 (Any lower and skin tones start to lose the natural look) Sharpness -3 Noise Reduction -5 Saturation -2 (This greatly reduces clipping in the red channel) Curves at +1 Shadows, +0 highlights iDynamic set to Low (This give a little bit of lift in the shadows without introducing noticeable noise) Those are my daylight settings. Because Cine Like D handles shadows so much better, I shoot with it when I get in a low light situation. This gives much cleaner high ISOs than natural. Like I mentioned in my first post, these settings are my personal choice after a lot of testing and filming. I would encourage anyone who shoots on a regular basis to get and test them for yourself with your camera, lighting, and lenses. Find your sweet spot and run with it:-) I agree. Each sensor is different. Some sensors love over exposure, while others like the Panasonic cameras, really don't like it. ETTR with the GH4 in my opinion, can easily kill skin tones with red channel clipping. You can see in some places in this video here, especially at 3:36, where I accidentally ETTR ed with the GH4; skin tones are kind of one golden block:-)

I am sorry for not being clear, but this is not what I am saying. I am saying take the half a day to test each camera you will use yourself with the metering method you will be using in the field. Then when you are in the field, you will know exactly how to expose with your camera so you can get it right the first time.

The de-clip plugin from Izotope is amazing; works wonders on slightly clipped audio files.

This is something you really need to test for yourself. Every camera will react differently to under/over exposure, and the variable of exposing with a hardware light meter vs histogram vs internal meter vs zebras vs false color will make a big difference. If you can, setup several scenes in the typical environments you will be shooting in; low light, back light, cloudy etc.; (It is probably best to have a person in the shot as skin tones are the most important thing to monitor.) Using the metering system and picture profiles you will normally use, expose your camera in 1/3 stop increments from 3 stops under to 3 stops over. In post grade these clips to normal and look through them all side by side. Also test different white balances, ISOs etc.; doing this you will learn a lot about your camera. I have been testing the GH4 and G85 in this way in many different environments and with several different picture profiles for quite some time. I test, then use in in the real world, then test again. After hundreds of videos filmed all around the world in some of the harshest of filming environments, I feel like I have really hit the sweet spot with these cameras. This is a quick project we just released yesterday shot with the GH4 and G85. Filming and editing was done in two days; shot entirely in natural light run and gun.