Matching AF100 footage to the GH2

[Lpowell]

I recently invested some time into tweaking GH2 Film Mode/White Balance settings and AF100 Scene File settings to match each other more closely. Unfortunately, the built-in gamma curves available on the AF100 all produce noticeably higher contrast than the GH2 in Smooth Film Mode with Contrast at -2. The AF100 gamma curve with the lowest contrast is CINE-LIKE D, but its highlights are still a bit extreme compared to the GH2's. To my eyes, this gives the AF100's highlights a telltale videocam edge reminiscent of the HVX200.

Initially, I went with the general consensus here on the AF100 forum, and set the AF100's Detail Level to -4. That seems to be considered fairly sharp by most AF100 afficionados:

http://blog.abelcine.com/2011/04/06/af100-scene-files-created-by-abelcine/

The results I saw from that approach, however, were disappointingly soft compared to the look of the GH2 using Flow Motion v2. I eventually boosted Detail Level up to -2 and found that the key to matching the GH2 was to adjust the AF100's Master Pedestal down to -9. That also crushes most of the low-level sensor noise from the CINE-LIKE D gamma curve, and allowed me to reduce Detail Coring to the minimum at -7. To my eyes, this produces a major improvement in image quality, making AF100 footage look much more like the GH2:





Sorry about the discrepancy in framing, it's due to the GH2's slightly different crop factor and the height of its lens mount. Here are the settings I used on the GH2 and AF100, which I think produce a more pleasing daylight color balance than the defaults on both cameras:

GH2 Daylight Settings
Film Mode Smooth
Contrast -2
Sharpness -2
Saturation -1
Noise Reduce -2
WB Daylight
A-3
M-2

AF100 Daylight Scene File
Gamma CINE-LIKE D
Matrix NORM2
Detail Level -2
V Detail Level -2
Detail Coring -7
Chroma Level -1
Chroma Phase 0
Master Ped -9
DRS OFF
Skin tone DTL OFF

[Lindquist]

very cool, if i were try to use the settings for af100 on my hpx170 would i get fairly close?

[Lpowell]

Like the HVX200, the HPX170 has a lot in common with the AF100 and many of the setup options are labeled in the same way. However, the HPX170's CCD image sensor is very different than the AF100's MOS image sensor, and I'd expect its gamma and color balance to require different settings.

[groveChuck]

Great match!!! The blacks in the shadows of the green foliage look a little darker on the AF100, but everything else is amazingly close. Nicely done!

[NoahK]

Yeah not bad at all! I'd bring along a monitor with waveform and vectorscope next time and a color chart. You should be able to get the match pretty well that way- especially if the camera are using similar quality optics.

-Noah

[hscully]

I tried these settings today. It's a really good match. Thanks. I'll try to post some grabs tomorrow.

[Bern Caughey]

lpowell,

As always, nice work.

Thanks for sharing.

Best
Bern

[Lpowell]

Here are GH1 Film Mode and White Balance settings designed to match both AF100 and GH2. I uploaded some comparison footage here:

100 Mbps GH1 takes on GH2 in both 24H and HBR modes!

GH1 Daylight Settings
ISO -1/3rd stop slower than GH2
Film Mode Smooth
Contrast -2
Sharpness -2
Saturation -1
Noise Reduce -2
WB Sunlight
A-2
M-5

[mcbob]

I should really send you some money for saving me time trying to tweak this further. Do you have a PayPal account?

[Lpowell]

Do you have a PayPal account?

No, but Vitaliy does:

http://www.personal-view.com./talks/categories/hacks