Flat settings

SLavictoire

SLavictoire

Well-known member
Since nobody is checking in "Technical DVX" i'm bringing my question up here.

"Hey everyone, Does the default Flat settings of the DVX100 is the flattest I can get? Or I have to modify some Scene Settings to get flatter images?"
 
People try to shoot flat because they want to play with that Log gamma look, but the reality is you can't fake Log gamma on a camera that doesn't have it built in. All you're doing is flattening the contrast to a point where you would just bring it back to the normal level in post without gaining anything.
 
Yes, I know, but technically, in the settings of the DVX100, there is a scene file called "Flat". His this the flattest I can ever get from my DVX100?

Because last time I shoot with it, It was in front of a green screen, and in post, I soon realized that my blacks where crushed and noisy because of my in cam scene file settings.

Thanks for that detail by the way! Nice reminder!
 
That's one of the issues with trying to shoot Flat, especially on cameras that aren't actually compressing the gamma in the Rec.709 space like Log gamma actually does. Cinestyle on the Canon DSLRs causes a similar complaint, and what most people ended up doing was go back to shooting traditional gamma curves, really.
 
SLavictoire said:
Since nobody is checking in "Technical DVX" i'm bringing my question up here.

"Hey everyone, Does the default Flat settings of the DVX100 is the flattest I can get? Or I have to modify some Scene Settings to get flatter images?"
Click to expand...

A lot of people have different things in mind when they ask for "flat." What does it mean to you?
 
It depends what you're motive is when shooting in a flat profile. These days the idea of shooting in flat or log is mainly down to retaining as much picture detail as possible so there's more flexibility when it comes to colour correction. This makes sense with modern cameras as they are designed with this in mind, utilizing robust codecs that can handle being pushed and pulled about on post. With the dvx you're shooting on a codec that is basicaly 15 year old technology and can't really cope with any heavy grading so the idea of creating a flat profile is pretty pointless as its a baked in image, the only thing you can really do with it in post is put a bit of contrast back into it.
The one area where a flat profile is usefull with the dvx is when you need to squeeze a bit more dynamic range out of the camera, in this case I use the cine or cine d gamma, keep the pedestal at between 0 and +2 to keep the shadows getting crushed and use a bit of detail coring to keep the noise under control.
 
This "flat" profile on the DVX was probably submitted by a user...no? The camera menu (on my 100A) has no such profile.
The "flattest" or most (relatively) noise free settings I see are the generic Cine gamma mode, as long as you don't clip the highlights. In contrasty outdoor situations, I tend to use high gamma, -1 on the auto iris, master ped at 0 and coring at +5.
Also I set zebra at 90% to help keep the whites from blowing out. YMMV.
There really are no magic settings to substitute for lighting control in tough situations. Under "cinema verite" conditions, however, the above setting helps me get more usable footage and is easily "tweakable" in Vegas (or your own NLE).
Hope this helps.
Ken
 
kplo said:
The "flattest" or most (relatively) noise free settings I see are the generic Cine gamma mode, as long as you don't clip the highlights. In contrasty outdoor situations, I tend to use high gamma, -1 on the auto iris, master ped at 0 and coring at +5. Also I set zebra at 90% to help keep the whites from blowing out. YMMV.
Ken
Click to expand...

Thanks! I might try out this week-end!
 
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