FS5: FS700, FS5 and FS5m2: any difference shooting Prores from RAW signal?

gumonstro

gumonstro

Well-known member
though sensors are the same and the RAW signal that goes inside an atomos inferno or odyssey 7q is unprocessed, the reason why it should produce, theoretically, the same exact image from those 3 cameras, is there any difference I'm not considering in color science (FS5mkII is selling as a improved color science version of the mkI)? slog2 is the same? iso? DR?

did anyone compare it?
 
oddly, not all Sony raw is created equal. I own the FS700 & the FS5II. while a lot of grumbling was made about the improved color science on the mark II, I’ve found it to be legit, OUTSIDE of the “STANDARD” profile. which makes sense. it’s different internal processing. & we have to remember that 12bit raw has to map those spare bits somewhere. so, while I don’t have a comparison shot yet (I’ve been meaning to do identical shots comparing the 2 cameras- don’t have an FS5I to throw in the mix) I have found the color science, particularly in skin tones, to be much improved on the FS5II, even in raw (raw to ProRes or DNxHR, etc). the area where the FS700 used to struggle was in the tonal transition from mids to shadows. the FS5II performs much better with that. I shot yesterday with a wide variety of African American skin tones (again, an area the FS700 struggled in both accurate color rendition & tonal transition) & the FS5II performed excellently. I own an Inferno & O7Q, & I’ve found the color science to be improved on the FS5II & much more than just marketing hype. you know that nagging frustration of finding a LUT in post that just fell into place for the FS700? that’s gone with the FS5II. if I find some time, I’ll shoot a little test comparison that stresses both cameras. as always, this is just my 2 cents. but I was convinced enough to buy a second mark II.
 
I emailed sony pro support. Here's the answer:

"We cannot disclose sensor information.

But, yes, the RAW output from these three models should look similar."

what you're saying is very interesting. you should run a test. it would be the first test to compare FS700 and FS5II FS RAW signal output. i found that there's an amazing test showing image difference between Pro Res from the FS RAW recorded on shogun and O7Q, but nothing comparing those 2 cameras.

hope you have free time for it.
 
well, I found a little time to just bang out a quick test while I prepared my FS700 for sale. what I found was in fact pretty surprising. I'd say Sony was accurate in saying they should look "similar" but I discovered quite a few differences, particularly between the two recorders.

shot with the same lens (Canon FD 35mm) at the same stop (2.8/4.0 split) at identical settings (SLog2/SGamut/2000ISO) on both the FS700 & FS5II. recorded both cameras on both recorders in 4K ProRes so that those differences could be ruled out. I tried to include a few typical stressors (tonal gradation on skintone, harsh overexposure in the background, with fine detail silhouetted, etc.) I'll let you look at the stills & come to your own conclusions. CD, way back when, said they had tweaked the debayering algorithm that Sony had provided them to get better results with the FS700 image. all I can say is, clearly they're tweaking that raw stream in a different way than Atomos. I'll let the community judge whether it's better or worse.

link is to full resolution frame grabs on my Google Drive.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YJIUc9WewqY77dlywlEO7OQpCWtEFp7J?usp=sharing

thoughts?
 
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