Your ideal NX1 Settings

[Geoff CB]

Curious what peoples settings are for the NX1. I've been hearing some say they only shoot in Gamma C which surprises me. I know that Andrew's log solution is also a great one. This is the one that I have found personally excellent.

[Hene1]

It's much more pleasing to watch something thats not flat and gray, but full of beautiful colors and contrast. That is why I usually shoot with Gamma C, sometimes normal, but almost never with Gamma DR. I think this dynamic range hype (which EOSHD is full of) is mostly nonsense, as long as it leads to overall bland image.

[tugela]

The problem with Gamma C is that it tends to make shadows black.

[Andrew Reid]

It's much more pleasing to watch something thats not flat and gray, but full of beautiful colors and contrast. That is why I usually shoot with Gamma C, sometimes normal, but almost never with Gamma DR. I think this dynamic range hype (which EOSHD is full of) is mostly nonsense, as long as it leads to overall bland image.

Haha. Is Arri LOG on the Alexa dynamic range hype in your book as well then? Same principal.

[Hene1]

Haha. Is Arri LOG on the Alexa dynamic range hype in your book as well then? Same principal.

I believe that with Alexa you can get the contrast and saturation back, becouse it records 12-bit RAW and is made to shoot LOG in first place. NX1 is made to shoot heavily compressed 8-bit H.265 Rec709 and everything you make in posts decreases the image quality. It's like in photos when shooting JPG vs RAW.

When I got the NX1 I made some tests between different gamma modes, and with my limited skills, I was never able to transform GammaDR footage to look as good as footage shot with GammaC. With GammaDR the edited footage had either too much contrast (which was breaking the skintones) or it was left muddy. I personally didn't find the middle ground there.

[Andrew Reid]

with my limited skills

And you think the camera is the problem?

There are two approaches you can use

If you don't plan to grade the image and just want great colour out of the box stick it on 0-255, normal picture profile, avoid raising the black levels or using gamma DR. Don't forget to remap 0-255 to 16-235 in post to get rid of the harsh clip to highlights and crushed black details.

Or you can raise the black levels and use gamma DR then grade it, do all sorts... To say quality decreases is not correct. You can apply a range of very artistic looks to the flatter output.

[ricardo_sousa11]

Heres my current settings, this is my balance between retaining color and DR, making it easy to grade :

These are : -10 sharpness, -2 Saturation, -3 Contrast +8 Black levels.

OOC:

Graded :

[Geoff CB]

Heres my current settings, this is my balance between retaining color and DR, making it easy to grade :

These are : -10 sharpness, -2 Saturation, -3 Contrast +8 Black levels.

OOC:

Graded :

Love it! Looks very clean on the highlights.

[ricardo_sousa11]

Love it! Looks very clean on the highlights.

Thank you Yeah, if we protect the highlights from getting crushed, it always looks quite amazing.

Heres a few others, but the OOC settings are always the same.

 

Just like Andrew said, the goal is to have enough so that you can make artistic choices later on in post...This is actually one of my favourite parts of any project, to grade the footage in a lot of ways and see how it ends up looking.

[Geoff CB]

Not my test but interesting settings. One of the things that I think seems to be happening is that if you reduce contrast or increase black level to much you get banding in the colors. However, color get back to proper levels if you decrease saturation alongside decreasing contrast.

[ricardo_sousa11]

ED David also has amazing footage from the NX1 and explains both the settings and the grading:

https://vimeo.com/115004338

[mercer]

ED David also has amazing footage from the NX1 and explains both the settings and the grading:

https://vimeo.com/115004338

It seems like Ed was using the NX1 before the FW updates and to my eye, that test, with those settings, look way better than anything I've seen with Gamma DR. Of course, Ed wants a more stylized image, and I appreciate that more than a cookie cutter, clean, event look.

I don't have the NX1, but I do have the NX500. Although different cameras, I wonder if 500 behaves like the NX1 prior to the Gamma DR update. 

Again, different cameras, but one thing that took me a while to adjust to was the minor effect different lenses has with it. The in camera settings seems to affect the picture look more than the lens does. Coming from a Canon Rebel background, I was used to obtaining different "looks" just by using different lenses. I wonder, if with Ed's settings, the varying looks of different lenses returns while still having some leeway to grade.

Anyway, interesting post and it's nice to see the Samsungs being discussed again. I guess with all the rumors of Samsung ending their camera line, the NX series has become that boring ex that has moved on, which magically makes her a lot more interesting. 

[neosushi]

Love it! Looks very clean on the highlights.

Seems like there is a ton of banding / artefact in the sky though... that's why you use so much grain during your grading ? 

[kidzrevil]

Thank you Yeah, if we protect the highlights from getting crushed, it always looks quite amazing.

Heres a few others, but the OOC settings are always the same.

 

Just like Andrew said, the goal is to have enough so that you can make artistic choices later on in post...This is actually one of my favourite parts of any project, to grade the footage in a lot of ways and see how it ends up looking.

dope !

I started shooting with the normal gamma profiles, I shot some of these on vivid (namely the two shots with the old man) all at default settings except sharpness down to -10. I didn't use any diffusion filtration on these neither. I've noticed when you shoot flat on this camera that you can get some weird color banding and anomalies, but they do not present themselves often. Using the vision color impulz luts the LUT will pull down the bright highlights and shadows into an acceptable range even with a contrasty picture profile. There is a surprising amount of detail in the nx1 files, sometimes highlights could look blown but there is actually detail there. Shooting -0.3 to -0.6 exposure and I've got better results than with the gamma dr profile. Again the impulz lut's are a good start as they bring the highlights down and the saturation gets a non linear response like film (very saturated colors get reduced and undersaturated gets a slight boost) works really well with the nx1

[mercer]

dope !

I started shooting with the normal gamma profiles, I shot some of these on vivid (namely the two shots with the old man) all at default settings except sharpness down to -10. I didn't use any diffusion filtration on these neither. I've noticed when you shoot flat on this camera that you can get some weird color banding and anomalies, but they do not present themselves often. Using the vision color impulz luts the LUT will pull down the bright highlights and shadows into an acceptable range even with a contrasty picture profile. There is a surprising amount of detail in the nx1 files, sometimes highlights could look blown but there is actually detail there. Shooting -0.3 to -0.6 exposure and I've got better results than with the gamma dr profile. Again the impulz lut's are a good start as they bring the highlights down and the saturation gets a non linear response like film (very saturated colors get reduced and undersaturated gets a slight boost) works really well with the nx1

The shot of the lifeguard stand looks like a vintage post card. Wicked. And the dirt looks great. The texture and details are great. 

[kidzrevil]

The shot of the lifeguard stand looks like a vintage post card. Wicked. And the dirt looks great. The texture and details are great. 

thanks dude ! The canon fd L series lenses are exceptional on this thing

[mercer]

thanks dude ! The canon fd L series lenses are exceptional on this thing

Yeah they are. So, you can do +/- exposure with manual lenses on the NX1?

[kidzrevil]

Yeah they are. So, you can do +/- exposure with manual lenses on the NX1?

absolutely. I usually set the camera to aperture priority and set the minus exposure

[mercer]

absolutely. I usually set the camera to aperture priority and set the minus exposure

Good to know, I assume the 500 does it too. For some reason I thought you needed a native lens for that function. I imagine that would be great when you don't have an nd, but you still want to shoot wide open. Amongst other scenarios. 

[ricardo_sousa11]

dope !

I started shooting with the normal gamma profiles, I shot some of these on vivid (namely the two shots with the old man) all at default settings except sharpness down to -10. I didn't use any diffusion filtration on these neither. I've noticed when you shoot flat on this camera that you can get some weird color banding and anomalies, but they do not present themselves often. Using the vision color impulz luts the LUT will pull down the bright highlights and shadows into an acceptable range even with a contrasty picture profile. There is a surprising amount of detail in the nx1 files, sometimes highlights could look blown but there is actually detail there. Shooting -0.3 to -0.6 exposure and I've got better results than with the gamma dr profile. Again the impulz lut's are a good start as they bring the highlights down and the saturation gets a non linear response like film (very saturated colors get reduced and undersaturated gets a slight boost) works really well with the nx1

Loving these looks, will def. try them !