Workflow: Does Raw/log make this the ultimate B-Cam?

[dop16mm]

I've never worked in Raw or Log, but as I understand it with skill in color correction you can make it look like what ever you want. Correct? So really this becomes the camera that every cinematographer can afford to own and can be made to work in most any situation. This will be more than good enough to use as A cam, no question, but there will be a lot of situations where something else is specked.

I assume once this is out in the wild people will be busy making look-up tables to match the look of the other systems currently popular. Is this a reasonable assumption. For example, something like the FS700 is going to be a hit out the door because of the slow-mo, but it won't be raw right away, so if you wanted to shoot real time with the Blackmagic, you'd correct to the look of the Sony, and not the other way.

 

[huski]

hi,

to clear a few things up:
RAW - this means it doesn't converts the video to any video format, or to any color space, but saves the RAW sensor data (just for the best example, you will be able to adjust white balance after(!) shooting.
Uncompressed - this means it doesn't apply any compression, it just saves an uncompressed image sequence (very few camera has this. Very few cameras can do this (even the RED Epic, and the Alexa compresses the footage that is recorded internally)
LOG - this ensures that no detail is lost because of a gamma curve (when I say "gamma curve" think of a contrasty picture, where the blacks and whites are clipped). Everything - what the sensor is capable of - will be recorded. Of course you can still over, or underexposure.

Look up table or LUT - it is used to display the otherwise ultimately flat picture with a more normal look, without affecting the recorded media. This helps you viewing the image on set, and in post. (So a LUT is a must, if you want to view a log picture) For example: http://i.imgur.com/fMTQx.jpg
1. log
2. Log with a lut
3. graded image.

So: of course these all will give you a possibility to grade the footage to match another cam. But in real-world situations it is not that easy. (Just ask professional colorists, is it easy to match the Alexa's picture to the Red Epic's picture). An uncompressed, log image will always look much better. Making it look like a compressed FS700 image will break your heart
And the other thing to know is that uncompressed RAW is not an easy format to work with. You will need a fast RAID setup in your computer just to simply play it real-time.


Anyway, the big thing is that this is all yours for 3000$. Just to remember: neither the RED Epic ( 40.000$ ) nor the Arri Alexa ( 89.000$ ) can't shoot uncompressed RAW internally. (The Alexa can shoot uncompressed RAW with an external recorder like the Codex, the Epic can only shoot compressed RAW).
While your logic is good - meaning you will be able to grade it to other cams - I'm sure you won't like to make the Blackmagic Cams image worse, just to match it to a worse camera's image. You will order two of them