F5: Hiring F5 for a job next week and have a question or two

Sparky874

Well-known member
Hi. I am hiring an F5 with OLED VF for a week to produce a film around the Women's British Open in St Andews.
I currently shoot most of my work with a Sony F3 (or F35 if I can), but after working at the Open in Scotland last week with the F3, I was getting a little fed up with just how heavy it was with the V-LOK battery at the back, Samurai hanging off, TV logic monitor etc, etc. So I thought, love the F3's S-LOG image - why not just get that with an F5 with a much easier camera to manage!

Can I record to the internal cards, using the cameras S-LOG option as MXF files, with a high enough bitrate for grading? Is 50 mbps good enough? I am only interested in recording 1080 or possible 2K. The frame rate options seem like a good bonus too, but which ones are available at the moment shooting at this resolution.

I would love to just switch on the camera, choose the S-LOG options, and shoot away as I did with the F3.

Thanks all! Sparky x
 
XAVC HD will be plenty good enough for S-Log2 in the F5, Mpeg would "work" but why use it? Right now 1080 60p is the fastest frame rate available.
 
Thanks Foto. Do you what is the bitrate is for XACV HD? Do you use an F5/ F55? - I was wondering what exposing it was like without a waveform assist in the view finder.

Thanks, Sparky
 
Thanks Foto. Do you what is the bitrate is for XACV HD? Do you use an F5/ F55? - I was wondering what exposing it was like without a waveform assist in the view finder.

Thanks, Sparky

Bitrate is 100Mbps, so twice the size of XDCAM, but you get 10-bit and intraframe recording for the size penalty. I found XAVC 1080p pretty comparable to 140Mbps ProRes422. Though to my eye, you can't push the image quite as far as you can with 220Mbps ProresHQ.

XAVC is a really nice file-size/image-quality ratio IMO.
 
Hi. I am hiring an F5 with OLED VF for a week to produce a film around the Women's British Open in St Andews.
I currently shoot most of my work with a Sony F3 (or F35 if I can), but after working at the Open in Scotland last week with the F3, I was getting a little fed up with just how heavy it was with the V-LOK battery at the back, Samurai hanging off, TV logic monitor etc, etc. So I thought, love the F3's S-LOG image - why not just get that with an F5 with a much easier camera to manage!

Can I record to the internal cards, using the cameras S-LOG option as MXF files, with a high enough bitrate for grading? Is 50 mbps good enough? I am only interested in recording 1080 or possible 2K. The frame rate options seem like a good bonus too, but which ones are available at the moment shooting at this resolution.

I would love to just switch on the camera, choose the S-LOG options, and shoot away as I did with the F3.

Thanks all! Sparky x

Looks like Bill & Grug already answered your question, but here is some more information that might help out if it is your first time using the F5/F55 : http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?309119-First-Time&p=1986332208&viewfull=1#post1986332208

I am only shooting slog for all my projects on the F5/F55 and they are great for grading, the biggest issue right now is no monitoring LUT so you have to really figure out a system that works for you on gauging the exposure. Some will suggest zebras at 60% and using highlights on ridges of the face, etc.. while my favourite is ext. monitor with waveform monitor, but if you want a light setup maybe you want to stick with the Sony OLED just note depending on the scene you are shooting it can look very dark. I think shooting the Womens British Open won't give you a lot of trouble exposure-wise.

Lastly the XDCAM is 8-bit but 422 so still a bit better over F3 XDCAM 8-bit 420, but the XAVC will give you 10-bit 422 if you really need the extra bits for grading. In my observations I would do as many have suggested and shoot SLOG using 10-bit. Especially since the F5 with OLED has no decent exposure tool, so it could be in post you will need to move your image around by a stop or more here or there, etc.
 
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Thanks Foto. Do you what is the bitrate is for XACV HD? Do you use an F5/ F55? - I was wondering what exposing it was like without a waveform assist in the view finder.

Thanks, Sparky

Everything Grug said. Yes, I do own a F5 and have no problem properly exposing Slog. I use the Zacuto EVF instead of the Sony which has zebras that go down to 33 or a Small HD DP6 monitor with False Color when not hand held and of course the easiest, a cine light meter. The camera is rated properly that by setting the meter to ISO 2000 (compensate when using ND) you'll get a pretty spot on exposure putting your image at 33% gray, as compared to 38% with the F3.
 
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