Z9 on test - N-RAW no better than H.265?

[Kino]

On 8/9/2023 at 11:02 PM, MrSMW said:

Nice footage and grade, but it’s all sunset and as such, only showcases one very specific use case.

This is true. The footage looks good here because of the limited use case, but you can already see some issues with dynamic range in the shadow areas.

Here is another example that more effectively demonstrates both the strengths (color depth) and the limitations (dynamic range) of the Z9's NRAW:

The camera produces beautiful colors in NRAW and ProRes RAW, but the dynamic range is a problem:

You can see how easily the highlights clip in the footage above. Here are other examples of highlight clipping, along with a tutorial on red and blue channel clipping:

 

 

[Django]

Yeah I don’t think Z8/Z9 are DR monsters but DR isn’t everything. Highlight roll off, Color science, noise etc are equally if not more important.

That said, I have noticed highlight clipping in a lot of footage and there are reports of this in RAW stills as well.  Not sure to what extent this is an issue but it seems to be a valid concern in some scenarios.

As far as grading though, N-RAW and even ProRes 422 HQ really has a nice thick quality imo.