I downloaded an A1 sample from Gordon Laing on Vimeo, 8K 24p, 10b 4:2:0 S-Log3, 400 Mbps, and graded it to HDR10 in Resolve, played on 8K QLED, it honestly made my P6K upscaled to 8K look soft by comparison but it was still difficult to see much if any change from a 4K playback of same 8K file on same tv, even from 1 foot where I could scrutinize the pixels.
I would note, I could break XAVC apart too easily for HDR. I tried to place the sun in Gordon’s clip at 2000 nit but it was breaking apart by 1200 nit. It didn’t appear the sun (diffuse) was majorly clipped if at all on the luma exposure waveform but data in the blue channel was rolling off starting about 10b code value 775, approximately 1200 nits. As I continued to raise it, the highlight swung grossly to yellow which is an overdone characteristic I see in a lot of YouTube HDR videos, presumably for artistic effect as yellow rays of warmth, so I let it ride, but it is fundamentally still just channel clipping. If you kept going the green channel would clip too , leaving you with a mosaic red sun spilling into nearby areas as well. The footage was quite busy (euphemism for noisy) on patterned areas, smooth textures and gradients alive with swarming winds.
When I compare BRAW footage from P6K, it would be unfair say anything less than BRAW killing it, denser, solid richness to the gradients, minus the busyness and swarming winds of dust, also lacking the fine crisp details. I’m not sure how much of this is sharpening, edge enhancement but I did notice black and white outlines to edges, but they are very small at 8K. I can push highlights like the sun in BRAW to a much greater degree, but these are HDR points. Straight from the camera of normal contrasts the A1 is most certainly great, but Gordon’s beach shot was a torture test of ordinary flat tones shot into a flat S-Log3 gamma. You have to do something with it. And my result was very nice looking, just couldn’t push into the extremes with it for HDR.
I’m undecided on the A1, trying too hard to fall in love perhaps. If not for the breathtaking price, an easy win for its AF and stabilization but no matter what imatest said about its great DR measurement, the small pixels are noisy in SLog3 and it begs for raw, which to me is an expensive royal pita to franken-rig. It means that P6K with internal BRAW and a stabilized EF/EFS lens kills it even without AF when price is factored, certainly for HDR and maybe not at all for straight from the camera output.
I would note, I could break XAVC apart too easily for HDR. I tried to place the sun in Gordon’s clip at 2000 nit but it was breaking apart by 1200 nit. It didn’t appear the sun (diffuse) was majorly clipped if at all on the luma exposure waveform but data in the blue channel was rolling off starting about 10b code value 775, approximately 1200 nits. As I continued to raise it, the highlight swung grossly to yellow which is an overdone characteristic I see in a lot of YouTube HDR videos, presumably for artistic effect as yellow rays of warmth, so I let it ride, but it is fundamentally still just channel clipping. If you kept going the green channel would clip too , leaving you with a mosaic red sun spilling into nearby areas as well. The footage was quite busy (euphemism for noisy) on patterned areas, smooth textures and gradients alive with swarming winds.
When I compare BRAW footage from P6K, it would be unfair say anything less than BRAW killing it, denser, solid richness to the gradients, minus the busyness and swarming winds of dust, also lacking the fine crisp details. I’m not sure how much of this is sharpening, edge enhancement but I did notice black and white outlines to edges, but they are very small at 8K. I can push highlights like the sun in BRAW to a much greater degree, but these are HDR points. Straight from the camera of normal contrasts the A1 is most certainly great, but Gordon’s beach shot was a torture test of ordinary flat tones shot into a flat S-Log3 gamma. You have to do something with it. And my result was very nice looking, just couldn’t push into the extremes with it for HDR.
I’m undecided on the A1, trying too hard to fall in love perhaps. If not for the breathtaking price, an easy win for its AF and stabilization but no matter what imatest said about its great DR measurement, the small pixels are noisy in SLog3 and it begs for raw, which to me is an expensive royal pita to franken-rig. It means that P6K with internal BRAW and a stabilized EF/EFS lens kills it even without AF when price is factored, certainly for HDR and maybe not at all for straight from the camera output.
