AF100 Settings for Post-Production

Glenn Przyborski

Glenn Przyborski

Member
I've read a whole lot of comments whereby AF100 users are touting various combinations of gamma, matrix, knee and other settings to achieve the ideal "film-like" image. Panasonic gives you an interesting selection of image controls.

I've worked in high-end broadcast production for most of my adult life and here's my 2 cents worth and how I setup my cameras…

If you're shooting with an AF100, chances are that the footage you shoot is going to be edited by either you or someone else. After editing, someone will probably do some form of color correction (excuse me… "grading") to your project before it's released.

I've learned a long time ago that it's best to start the post-production process with images that are well-exposed, in-focus, with good overall color balance, and absolutely no black clipping or unusual gamma induced contrast. Remember, on the AF100, you only have 256 steps from black to white. Give yourself as much latitude as possible for final "grading" during post-production. I always add the film-like "S-gamma curves" and crushed blacks in post, not in camera.

If you set your camera to crush or deepen low-lights or shadows within a scene, your will see noise and compression artifacts as soon as you try to recover low-light details in post. Also, IMHO the chroma and luminescent channels of the AF100 don't precisely track each other as they approach white clip, which for some reason, Panasonic uses 110 units of video instead of the usual 100 to 103 units.

For what it's worth, here's the settings I use on my AF100…
180 degree shutter
Scene Select F1
Operation FILM CAM
REC Format PH1080/24P
Detail Level -4
V Detail Level -4
Detail Coring -2
Chroma Level 0
Chroma Phase 0
Master Pedestal 0
DRS OFF
Gamma SD NORM
Knee LOW
Matrix NORM1
Skin Tone DTL OFF

One other thing… For the highest quality images, shoot at 1080P, not 720P. If you want to release a final product in 720P, downsample your 1080P edited master. I don't want to start a controversy, but virtually every major TV show and TV commercial, whether originated in 35mm or digital, is post-produced and mastered in 1080P.
 
Just curious. Why less detail and vdetail?

Glenn Przyborski said:
I've read a whole lot of comments whereby AF100 users are touting various combinations of gamma, matrix, knee and other settings to achieve the ideal "film-like" image. Panasonic gives you an interesting selection of image controls.

I've worked in high-end broadcast production for most of my adult life and here's my 2 cents worth and how I setup my cameras…

If you're shooting with an AF100, chances are that the footage you shoot is going to be edited by either you or someone else. After editing, someone will probably do some form of color correction (excuse me… "grading") to your project before it's released.

I've learned a long time ago that it's best to start the post-production process with images that are well-exposed, in-focus, with good overall color balance, and absolutely no black clipping or unusual gamma induced contrast. Remember, on the AF100, you only have 256 steps from black to white. Give yourself as much latitude as possible for final "grading" during post-production. I always add the film-like "S-gamma curves" and crushed blacks in post, not in camera.

If you set your camera to crush or deepen low-lights or shadows within a scene, your will see noise and compression artifacts as soon as you try to recover low-light details in post. Also, IMHO the chroma and luminescent channels of the AF100 don't precisely track each other as they approach white clip, which for some reason, Panasonic uses 110 units of video instead of the usual 100 to 103 units.

For what it's worth, here's the settings I use on my AF100…
180 degree shutter
Scene Select F1
Operation FILM CAM
REC Format PH1080/24P
Detail Level -4
V Detail Level -4
Detail Coring -2
Chroma Level 0
Chroma Phase 0
Master Pedestal 0
DRS OFF
Gamma SD NORM
Knee LOW
Matrix NORM1
Skin Tone DTL OFF

One other thing… For the highest quality images, shoot at 1080P, not 720P. If you want to release a final product in 720P, downsample your 1080P edited master. I don't want to start a controversy, but virtually every major TV show and TV commercial, whether originated in 35mm or digital, is post-produced and mastered in 1080P.
Click to expand...
 
MrSeth said:
Just curious. Why less detail and vdetail?
Click to expand...

When the AF100 is shipped, its "detail" and vertical detail settings are set to "0". If you want to achieve the look and feel of motion picture film, "0" is way too much enhancement. "0" gives the camera a traditional video look... such as a live camera on a sporting event.

Detail enhancement circuitry works by increasing the contrast of transitions between light and dark. It doesn't create a higher resolution picture, it increases the apparent sharpness of the image.

With the factory setting of "0", you'll actually see a fine outline of black around bright objects. (very non-film like) Detail enhancement is a throw back from the days of old analog, Plumbicon TV cameras.

IMO the worst detail enhancement is vertical detail. If this isn't reduced, a car or truck grill, window blinds, wire-rim glasses, power lines and any other object with sharp horizontal lines will appear to bounce, jitter, or vibrate.

You really need a well setup 1080P monitor to properly set the AF100's detail levels, but I've found that DETAIL LEVEL -4 and V DETAIL LEVEL -4 yield a good, sharp, film-like image... Thanks
 
And I would also tone chroma level to about -5 to protect from chroma clipping. It's way easier adding chroma in post than saving something clipped.
 
monkeyking said:
Wouldn't Cine gamma D give you more latitude than SD Norm?
Click to expand...

Cine Gamma D does indeed bump up the detail in the dark areas and it also does a pretty good job compressing highlights. The problem that I've seen (possibly it's just my camera) is when the camera clips into white. Cine gamma D doesn't seem to adjust chroma as it's adjusting luminescence. In my test, Cine Gamma D allowed highlights to have unusual amounts of unexpected color. For example, in one scene, highlights in clouds appeared to be light teal instead of white. Backlit, over exposed skin had a pink color instead of clean white. If Panasonic would address the luminescent and chroma soft and hard clip settings, Cine Gamma D would be the best choice. Until that happens, I've found that gamma settings of "HD NORM" and "SD NORM" seem to give a good compromise between dark area detail and minimal chroma contamination at white clip. Thanks...
 
based on tests
hd norm has a similar gamma curve as to dslrs
crushed blacks, big highlight range.
However, i tend to prefer cine d more.
if everythign on my scene is well controlled, cine d.
if theres a big highlight that requires better highlights, hd norm is the gamma for me.
 
Faust said:
I think CINE D gamma is rather noisy and you cannot benefit from the knee compression circuit.
Click to expand...

Arancia... Your color correction example on Vimeo is excellent... It's just too bad that anyone has to waist time addressing a camera's chroma clipping problems.
 
Thanks for this, great, generous info. And on the subject of blacks, do you know if the Video setup (0 or 7.5) in the A/V IN/OUT SETUP has any effect on the recorded or live monitored image?
 
P.S. I see Barry's book says that the setup only relates to analog output. "There is no such thing as setup in digittal recording."
 
JDM NYC said:
P.S. I see Barry's book says that the setup only relates to analog output. "There is no such thing as setup in digittal recording."
Click to expand...

Fortunately the 7.5 units of setup (or pedestal as it was called) went away with digital TV. However we still receive the occasional Digital betacam or HDCam master that has incorrectly added setup.
The AF100 setting above only affects the SD NTSC analog output RCA connector. By the way, Barry's book is excellent. It was very smart of Jan and her team at Panasonic to ask him to write it.
 
editman said:
And I would also tone chroma level to about -5 to protect from chroma clipping. It's way easier adding chroma in post than saving something clipped.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I knocked down the chroma level in my Af-100 as well but I don't hear too many other people doing the same. Glad to know there's sanity to my logic :-)
 
dcloud said:
if everythign on my scene is well controlled, cine d.
if theres a big highlight that requires better highlights, hd norm is the gamma for me.
Click to expand...

I am really curious about this, because I do understand that Cine D offers no highlight protection, but it seems to capture a much larger latitude, right? I've been mostly using CineD, but sometimes using HDNorm when I want a punchier image, but usually only in more controlled environments. Because I can seem to capture a wider latitude with Cine D, I've found it better in less controlled environments. For instance I looked at a shot with clouds the other day and switched between HDNorm and CineD. D seemed to show a lot more highlight detail but Norm basically went to white (overexposed) way earlier.

Just trying to understand it a little more, but I do think D seems to be the most versatile, although I am pretty much always adding some contrast in post.
 
Benjamin Eckstein said:
I am really curious about this, because I do understand that Cine D offers no highlight protection, but it seems to capture a much larger latitude, right? I've been mostly using CineD, but sometimes using HDNorm when I want a punchier image, but usually only in more controlled environments. Because I can seem to capture a wider latitude with Cine D, I've found it better in less controlled environments. For instance I looked at a shot with clouds the other day and switched between HDNorm and CineD. D seemed to show a lot more highlight detail but Norm basically went to white (overexposed) way earlier.

Just trying to understand it a little more, but I do think D seems to be the most versatile, although I am pretty much always adding some contrast in post.
Click to expand...

i choose b.press or hd norm on really high contrast scenes

so far ive been using cine D for 80% of my work.
 
Last edited:
dcloud said:
i choose b.press or hd norm on really high contrast scenes

so far ive been using cine D for 80% of my work.
Click to expand...

but don't you find on high contrast scenes that you're not able to record as much latitude UNLESS you are using CineD. That's what I'm finding. I guess I see that with either settings it's best to protect the highlights and CineD lets you go with a higher exposure before clipping.
 
The original reason for the settings posted was to give you (in the posters experience) the best balanced image for post-production use. I too am a bit skeptical about the gamma selection, but I haven't worked everything out myself. I agree wholeheartedly about the detail settings, but I like Norm2. Cine-D is one of the noisiest gammas on the camera. I've been trying to do B.Press with a slight Master-Ped boost. Cine-V seems a little too contrasty and I like using Knee so B.Press or the others are some of my only options.
 
Curious why filmcam mode alters the image composition? Isn't it really more of
a "meters" vs. "feet" kind of metric (one's preference for how the same data
is measured)?

jeff
 
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