a7S colors?

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I absolutely love the a7S and am eagerly awaiting an updated model with IBIS (and HOPEFULLY 4k)!

I am still not completely happy with the colors that I personally can get out of the camera though.. Other people seem to be getting better results and I am still stuck with the green/magenta color cast..

Now that the camera has been out for quite some time.. Any tips on getting the nicest looking image/colors straight out of the camera? 

I like shooting flat but generally avoid Slog2 and use PP6.. 

Thanks

[caseywilsondp]

If you're shooting flat then you're already doing color correction to your images, it's not very hard to pull the image magenta/green in your mids or all over or whatever. Just use your scopes when grading and you'll get a very nice image. This isn't Sony specific FYI, all cameras I've used need a bit of push and pull

[Andrew Reid]

It does take some expertise in Resolve but it's possible.

S-LOG 2 is not for beginners.

If you want an easy way to sort the reds out (stop them looking purple), switch from S-Gamut to another colour mode but keep S-LOG for the gamma.

[jcs]

When comparing the A7S to 5D3 RAW, it's clear that recording in a linear color space with lots of bits (14 in this case) is much easier to deal with. Over- or under- exposure is relatively easy to handle in post as long as blacks and whites don't clip. The challenge with the A7S is that unless carefully set up and exposed, color behavior is non-linear, which means unexpected color changes happen with over- or under- exposure.

As you may have discovered, PP6, which is CINE2 gamma and CINEMA Color Mode is one of the best stock all-around settings. Setting Color Phase toward magenta slightly can be helpful. Tweaking Color Depth can be helpful in some situations but doesn't really work well in the general case. I'm putting together a guide for matching the A7S to 5D3 RAW for skin tones. I've also created a simple app for OSX to help with editing A7S files in Resolve when audio is needed.

[JLemos]

It does take some expertise in Resolve but it's possible.

S-LOG 2 is not for beginners.

If you want an easy way to sort the reds out (stop them looking purple), switch from S-Gamut to another colour mode but keep S-LOG for the gamma.

​I have a good amount of experience grading SLog footage from a Sony F5 and i may say that the Slog from a A7S is just near it in terms of how it looks after recording, it's completely different how it reacts to grading comparing with a file from a F5, probably the 8bit and 10bit takes a big part in it.
The A7S files are much harder to grade.

[Andrew Reid]

​I have a good amount of experience grading SLog footage from a Sony F5 and i may say that the Slog from a A7S is just near it in terms of how it looks after recording, it's completely different how it reacts to grading comparing with a file from a F5, probably the 8bit and 10bit takes a big part in it.The A7S files are much harder to grade.

​Can you elaborate? Would be interesting to hear how they differ.

[Ed_David]

I find "cinema" and "pro" color gamuts to be much more pleasing skintones and red color rendition than sgamut.  play with the color gamuts.

[JLemos]

​Can you elaborate? Would be interesting to hear how they differ.

The A7S is a achivement but when you grade it against F5 footage you end up finding that the footage from the A7S is much more stiff, the richness of colors isn't so good and you end up with many colors blending into others (you can see it with skin tones more easily).
That's why i have serious doubts about the usefulness of a totally Flat profile in 8bit color space, in my opinion it narrows the colors you can have in a limited color space, they end up blending several color tones in only one because there isn't more space available.