Analysis of Nikon's new universal N-Log LUT

[horshack]

Nikon recently released a new universal N-Log technical LUT for all their cameras, which replaces Nikon's original camera-specific LUTs. The original LUTs handled highlights particularly poorly. In fact they didn't really handle them at all - they inexplicably clipped all N-Log values above ~68% to white.

Here is my analysis of the new LUT. First here are the tone/gamma curves for both the original vs new LUTs, which I calculated by converting both 3D LUTs to 1D and graphing the resulting curves. Notice how the original LUT clips all highlights above 68% to white, whereas the new LUT has a nice, smooth roll-off.

Here is a visual comparison showing the original vs new LUT in action. This is a high DR N-RAW capture from a Z6 III, with the original vs new LUT compared, along with a comparison to the same scene using Davinci Resolve's CST with tone mapping.

For reference, here is how Nikon describes the new LUT in the comments at the top of the LUT file:

# Development Color Space = REC709
# Output Gamma Curve = BT1886
# Output Tonemap = MEDIUM_CONTRAST
# Highlight Rolloff = Rolloff 2 - medium

[PannySVHS]

From what i saw on the web Z6iii,8,9 have beautiful color, texture and motion in Z Raw, best in their classes except from the Canon C70. Interested to see some results, which people are able to achieve with the new curve.

[Attila Bakos]

If you are interested, I have a free 3D LUT Analyzer tool on my website.
Here is how it looks with the N-Log_BT2020_to_REC709_BT1886_size_33.cube applied to a LUT Stress Test image:

When you click and hold either the picture, or the RGB parade, or the vectorscope, you can view the "before" state.
You can also drag and rotate the 3D Visualization.

[horshack]

12 hours ago, Attila Bakos said:

If you are interested, I have a free 3D LUT Analyzer tool on my website.
Here is how it looks with the N-Log_BT2020_to_REC709_BT1886_size_33.cube applied to a LUT Stress Test image:

When you click and hold either the picture, or the RGB parade, or the vectorscope, you can view the "before" state.
You can also drag and rotate the 3D Visualization.

Wow your site is fantastic. Lots of useful LUT tools there. Going to try out the false-color generator right now.

[Attila Bakos]

11 hours ago, horshack said:

Wow your site is fantastic. Lots of useful LUT tools there. Going to try out the false-color generator right now.

Thanks! Please be aware that the false color generator creates 3D LUTs with a size of 100, this was necessary to enable adjustments by percentage. It will work fine in an NLE but I don't think you'll be able to use it in cameras.