Amazing New SONY VENICE Music Video Footage (Lewis Capaldi)
- Thread starter AlienRock
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jasonbrooks
Well-known member
Great looking video, shame about the melodramatic music! �� j
What naysayers? What are they saying or complaining about?
This looks great by the way. Better than anything I ever saw from the F55 or any Varicam for that matter.
Agree, what naysayers? Better than anything from the Alexa too.
morgan_moore
Major Contributor
It still looks a bit 'loggy' to me (on my craptop)
Even that opening fram the tungsten light is not a rich yellow.
I think there is/has been a shift over time and proper saturation has been forgotten. Imagine the yellow one sees in a tungsten light in an old copy of national geographic.
Even that opening fram the tungsten light is not a rich yellow.
I think there is/has been a shift over time and proper saturation has been forgotten. Imagine the yellow one sees in a tungsten light in an old copy of national geographic.
I think the opposite. The F65 looks basically like the F55. This looks better than both.
Zsigmond James
Member
Footage from the F65 when placed side by side with footage from the F55 does not look similar in terms of image texture, motion cadence, or handling of shadows/highlight roll off - of which the F65 renders with subtler more filmic gradations. The colors between the two cameras are similar(though not identical) on account of the Shared CFA, much like with the Venice. However, as I own both the Venice and the F65, I much prefer the image from the F65, as the image is more natural; what you see is what you get. On the other-hand, the Venice tends to produce an image that’s more glossy - for lack of a better term- in texture and more than slightly over saturated in color/tone, which is not not too unlike footage shot on the F55 - and really, the Venice is much more of a spiritual successor to the F55 than the F65. Another argument for the image of the F65, would be that the F65 produces a more natural rendition of skintones, despite having a slight bias towards red/magenta. The Venice can sometimes do strange things with skin. With random variance the venice sometimes produces really glossy/shiny skin that looks as if NR has been applied, especially when talent’s skin is glistening and or lit with a soft source above key.... furthermore the Venice definitely has a bias towards Yellow(to varying degree) which has a tendency to render skintones a bit on the side of jaundice yellow under tungsten lighting.
FYI if anyone is interested in trying out the Venice for their own tests, I’m offering a 15% discount on an already deeply discounted rate for the month of March: https://www.sharegrid.com/losangeles/l/64991?type=rent
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There are a lot of naysayers on YouTube and Vimeo, especially test videos saying it looks too much like "crappy old sony video".
I think this video proves that it can go head to head with the Alexa (or even be better).
Interesting insight. Thanks, man. By the way, are you related to Vilmos Zsigmond?
Other examples showing VENICE as good or better than Alexa LF: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?360234-Sony-VENICE-Impressive-Skin-Tones
Bassman2003
Veteran
I thought it looked very nice, but if you had told me the video was shot on a GH5s and graded I would not have second guessed your info. Kind of looked sharp/digital for such a high end camera. I think one of the strong points of Alexa footage is that it has the 'soft with detail' mojo going on. Things are getting a bit blurred from $2000 - $40,000 when good operators are involved imho.
As long as there's no aliasing/moire or other digital artifacts, having more detail always provides more flexibility. If super detailed landscape/wide-shot is needed, you've got it. If doing close ups you can use diffusion or do it in post (really easy to do in any NLE without a plugin). Real detail also provides more post-cropping options. To get VENICE level detail one needs to use an Alexa 65 from ARRI (rental only). The only thing the Alexa LF/65 have over the VENICE is highlight behavior (and perhaps slomo, though Sony can up the game with time).
This is as good as anything from ARRI and also shows fantastic flawless detail with super shallow DOF and top-of-the-line skin tones (ARRI level color realism, yet not ARRI look). Watch full screen in 4K if you can:
When you factor in the cost of the VENICE vs. the Alexa LF, the deal is even sweeter (can't purchase the Alexa 65). Sony could someday add their super AI eye/face tracking AF- it's getting good enough for even high-level productions: for certain 4K tracking shots- better than any human can ever do. Adding human-factor/cinematic guided semi-auto focus control would seal the deal.
JPNola
Veteran
I was recently on a feature film set where they were using the Venice. When I asked my AC buddy what he thought of it he said that he liked it so far and added something to the effect of "What else is there? We hate the RED cameras. They aren't dependable in the field. And the ARRI mini is dead now that everyone wants 4K if not higher. " I mentioned the ARRI LF, he had not yet been hands-on with one, and his opinion was that the Venice is more the new "It" camera as a result of the ARRI LF's price ( over 2x as much as the Venice ) and more significantly, size and weight. The Venice, when stripped down to minimal, is roughly the size of the ARRI mini. He speculated that the Venice is better for Steadicam, gimbals, and car-mounts than the ARRI LF, from what he knows of the two cameras.
Here are a couple photos of the Venice fully "built-up", feature-film style, in two different configs:
Here are a couple photos of the Venice fully "built-up", feature-film style, in two different configs:
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Thanks for the info. Really insightful. It seems like everyone who's used a Venice flat out loves it, or really likes it. Looks like Sony is doing something right.
Also yeah it's really darn easy to stick the Venice in car mounts, steadicams, etc. due to the tethered sensor block feature (ala SI-2K). Really cool stuff.
Saw that video. Really great footage. Yeah it does seem "too sharp" out of the box but as you said with a diffusion filter, or tweaks in the DI, it can look less sharp and more "filmic". Might be a reason for ARRI fans to stick with ARRI since it seems to have the "milky details" out of the box. But to me the Venice looks the least "digital" out of all the Sony CineAlta Cameras.
By the way, do you know any good tutorial on how to replicate diffusion through NLE?
On "The Shoot" video, rich color and detail but not Cover Girl skin tones, and then about a 1:30 in it actually did turn into a Cover Girl shoot of sorts, helpful to see the 3 distinct skin tones but the predominant impression of that rich color is (slightly) oversaturated skin tones, especially the bronze skin model but the others as well, and definitely not Cover Girl lighting; contrast too high. So not to quibble, rich color and detail, beautiful for that but grade not up to Cover Girl standards, no complaints about what's coming out of the camera.
In the world view, when we look at sequences like these are we seeing through the grade or looking at the grade?