C300 colour grading

[jambredz]

This is probably the closest i'll be to the c300 and wow...really loved the look of this footage. Got this footage from http://carousel.hu/c300/?page_id=233 There's footage there for all who want some clips to play with (just ask permission to use it publicly)

Tech specs:
85mm
iso850
f1.8
shutter 1/48
3100k
ND4 stops
C-log
The OP said he purposely set that white balance to see if he could correct it .

First clip is the raw image...2nd and 3rd are my grading. Personally i prefer the 2nd. Graded with ColoristaII. i love how organic it feels. Def not like my 7d :P. ah well.....I can dream :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUhcmarPoQA&list=HL1333687184&feature=mh_l olz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUhcmarPoQA&list=HL1333687184&feature=mh_lolz

[alpi69]

Yeah, i was shocked first time I played with that C300 codec. It is extremely robust. Even with some noise in the high ISOs you can pretty much play with it.

[groveChuck]

Wow, that's some beefy codec there- lots to work with!... C-log is looking good!

The second grade looks great!

[Erik Naso]

That was seriously bad white balanced footage. The grade held up well and you did a good grading it.

The future of codecs and how robust the new ones are is so fricken cool. We are living in some really great times!

[jambredz]

Thanks Erik. - love me some colorista. Wasn't that Hard. Its a powerful program

[Erik Naso]

Yup! Love me some Colorista as well. However you have to have an eye for color to get it right. As you did.

[Noel Evans]

Unfortunately I was led to believe the answer to a good colour grading base was 10 bit - 10bit 10bit 10bit - All hail 10bit.

With CMOS sensors things have changed somewhat. Back in the day of SD CCD cameras - we were spoilt with 480P of Red 480P of Green and 480P of Blue at the sensor end - but for the most part these were all 8bit on the lower prosumer end until p2 gave us those extra bits.

Lets jump ahead and compare 2 10bit cameras to the C300 - these are the published facts (but clearly dont tell the whole story - Im simply looking at one component).

Epic - 14MP sensor for a resolution of 5120x2700 or 5k - approx 2.8MP for each k of image.
Sony F3 - 2MP sensor for resolution of 1920x1080 (lets call it 2k for ease) - approx 1MP for each K of image.

C300 - 8MP sensor for a resolution of 1920x1080 (again lets call it 2K for ease) - approx 4MP for each K of image.

Now I dont need to be a rocket scientist to understand that having more MP at the beginning is going to effect what I get out of it (with the assumption that all those MP are used to make the final image i.e. no line skipping / binning). One of the benefits of that is we get a full 1920x1080 of Red, Green and Blue and all that information coming into the DSP has to be worth something on the way out - even at 8bit. One consideration is that the C300 doesnt get any of the banding or posterization commonly seen on the FS100 or AF100 (mind you I havent seen anything on the AF100 in that regard yu cant get around for a quality result anyway). Bottom line is - the C300 could output a Quad HD image using the same image process other cameras utilise and IMO why dont they give us a way to get at it. Who knows what the future holds...

EDIT TO ADD: The C300 also as a result of the level of sharpness it has, has a couple of small issues that need to be overcome - Im sure in time they will. But I have noted people complain saying the sharpness makes it - video (y) - put that on a large screen and see that issue be gone.

[Noel Evans]

I wont edit above but where it says compare 2 10 bit cameras should read "10 bit or > than"

[alpi69]

EDIT TO ADD: The C300 also as a result of the level of sharpness it has, has a couple of small issues that need to be overcome - Im sure in time they will. But I have noted people complain saying the sharpness makes it - video (y) - put that on a large screen and see that issue be gone.

I huge factor is the lens. While my Canon L glass seems a bit contrasty and one may say"videoish", my 1.4 lenses (mainly Sigma30 and Samyang 85) look much smoother. I am also testing Minolta MD lenses now, and they are beautiful also, but have flaring issues.