New D Bolex footage focusing on skin tones
- Thread starter pulpfiction007
- Start date
starcentral
Veteran
1:16 shows the best in tonal range of what this camera can do.
Looks great.
Looks great.
Ian-T
Veteran
Bern Caughey
Veteran
Perhaps of the worst skin tone test ever.
Digital Bollocks.
Digital Bollocks.
starcentral
Veteran
I think it shows good range, but the color correction in the video was quite off (at least on my color calibrated monitors).
With a bit of cooling this is what I come up with;
With a bit of cooling this is what I come up with;
novoluc
Active member
I find it hard to get a proper idea of the skin tones since they shot that with a lighting giving so much magenta - because the skills of the person doing the color grading will make such a difference. I wish they had use a proper neutral (color-wise) lighting and posted some raw footage. After all it's supposed to be done to evaluate what they said was "the final sensor calibration". There was a pretty sharp exchange of comments about that on NoFilmSchool blog, where they posted that and a mostly out of focus outdoor test. That being said, it seems to me that this camera has a lot of potential. Very curious to see the final product properly tested by competent filmmakers.
L.
L.
They posted a selection of DNG still frames from the video that you can download and play with yourself. The whole point of shooting a raw camera is that there is no native look. It is a blank canvas.
Note that the lighting setup for this was all done with nominally daylight balanced neutral lights, HMI, Kino flow, Diva light, LED ring light. Fully controlled studio setup. This camera very finely discriminates small differences in hue values and if you push saturation it will accentuate them. The interplay of different color casts between light sources is something that we all have to work with. It is also something to actively use as a creative tool.
But if you are looking for some single definitive video sample that you can peg as what the D16 looks like you won't find it. It is not a canned look video camera. It is a chameleon. Skin tone, color and texture is completely under the control of the person shooting and grading the footage. The D16 gives you a rich infinitely broad palette for painting with light.
http://www.digitalbolex.com/d16-portrait-day/
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starcentral
Veteran
If anyone has worked with RAW, this video (although it was not cc'd or graded and sure maybe it has some magenta lighting for style) should be enough to convince the masses that A.) the camera is fully functional, and B.) given its RAW will have the bandwidth in post to "deliver".
The images regardless of some of the lighting, etc.. to me definitely has a filmic look to it. The highlights are smooth, the tonal gradients look smooth, and most importantly it does not look like video ( at least not in this test ).
I shot some footage recently straight out of the F55 (XAVC) and you can see just how videoy it does look in comparison to these clips. Its over in the F3/F5/F55 frame grabs section. I spent $30,000 on the F55 how much was the D16 again?
The images regardless of some of the lighting, etc.. to me definitely has a filmic look to it. The highlights are smooth, the tonal gradients look smooth, and most importantly it does not look like video ( at least not in this test ).
I shot some footage recently straight out of the F55 (XAVC) and you can see just how videoy it does look in comparison to these clips. Its over in the F3/F5/F55 frame grabs section. I spent $30,000 on the F55 how much was the D16 again?
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That does look very videoy. Very nice video, but video.
Jade Lane
Active member
Starcentral - Nice to read you're positive comments, £2600.00 ($3300.00) is the latest price i've heard for the next batch or orders. Glad I have one of the original Kickstarter 80 on order, getting closer to a shipping date so I hear.
KahL
Well-known member
I think people should probably begin altering their language in certain respects when describing cameras. Most notably, the notion that a high end cinema camera looks like "video" or "video-y". Video has a very distinct look, shown on concerts, football games and of course certain films like 28 Days Later or Bamboozled.
Maybe what needs to be said is "clinical", not "Video-y", since these cameras don't look like video at all. If it feels too precise, too clinical, then use some diffusion.
There are many DPs who have already solved this issue and there are even more solutions when you look into it.
I'm pretty sure the F55 has exponentially MORE capabilities than the DBolex will, respectively. Being more filmic looking on a lower end camera probably shouldn't be a major deterrent, especially if you know exactly what the characteristics of film actually are and are able to emulate them regardless of the [digital] camera.
Maybe what needs to be said is "clinical", not "Video-y", since these cameras don't look like video at all. If it feels too precise, too clinical, then use some diffusion.
There are many DPs who have already solved this issue and there are even more solutions when you look into it.
I'm pretty sure the F55 has exponentially MORE capabilities than the DBolex will, respectively. Being more filmic looking on a lower end camera probably shouldn't be a major deterrent, especially if you know exactly what the characteristics of film actually are and are able to emulate them regardless of the [digital] camera.
If you want it to look like "film" you grade it that way. The D16 definitely does not look like any conventional encoded video camera. It has more usable dynamic range than any 16mm film stock I ever shot with though probably a bit less than the best current gen negatives. The overall response characteristics are very similar to Kodak's range of slide and 16mm reversal film stocks from 20 years ago rather than a negative stock.
The aesthetic look of the shot I graded above is more like contemporary fine art digital still photography than either video or film. It is distinctly digital in character, and that is not a bad thing. It is one of an infinite range of possibilities.
starcentral
Veteran
That's exactly my point, it takes a lot of effort lighting, using other tricks, and post to produce images that are inherently more filmic on the majority of cameras being discussed in these and other forums - and that includes the F55. So the proof is in the pudding and I posted those videoy looking frame grabs that were straight out of the F55 camera to show that the D16 is going to give you more of a filmic look straight up without all those efforts.
Having said that had I shot the same scene under the exact same lighting using slog2 or RAW on the F55 I would expected a more filmic look as well with better highlight rendition, etc.
But regardless the D16 is 1/10th the cost of the F55. Not bad I say.
novoluc
Active member
Note that it was not fully controlled, since they didn't realize that the Kinos were giving magenta. If you read the post, it says: "Some have noted over on the forum and on Vimeo that there is a slight Magenta cast, but apparently this is due to the Kinos used in the test, and not an issue with the footage."
Which begs the question already asked by others: why don't they get their tests done by someone who know what he's or she's doing? They may be good a developing a camera, but everything we see needs serious interpretation to realize it has so much potential. Or does it?
L.
KahL
Well-known member
That's another oddity here. I've used Kinos for years and don't ever recall a magenta shift occurring and certainly not as drastic as shown in this footage. Has this happened to anyone else using Kinos of any sort?
starcentral
Veteran
I don't believe the magenta shift from the kinos either, to me it looks like a gel or something was used for a more colorful image and style.
Divas sometimes have a magenta shift, strong one. I don't know why people are saying that this specific camera is so sensitive that it picks it up, I'm sure if I go and dig around in my old hard drives that I've got HVX200 footage with the same magenta cast from a Diva, MX footage (actually if you happen to have the Mary Poppins Blu Ray anniversary DVD you can see it in one of the interviews I shot), etc.
Kinos will sway green.
It's pretty normal/common.
JoeJITSU
Veteran
Hahahaha, Nice to see you here Kahl. uniquetechnique from the UG/OG