VaricamLT: Panasonic VariCam LT

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Barry_Green said:
Let me just point out, this part isn't strictly true. Panasonic doesn't (as far as I know) offer a VLOG-709 LUT. They offer a VLOG-V709 LUT. V709 is their stylized interpretation of a better-looking 709 palette. It is not an accurate, strictly-by-the-book 709 palette. V709 is different from Rec.709.
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Yes, understood!

The great thing about standards are there are so many to choose from...

Im curious whether there will be V2020 versions arriving soon?

cheers
Paul
 
IanTheM said:
Scarlet-W vs Varicam LT

http://www.thebriannguyen.com/2016/03/red-scarlet-w-vs-panasonic-varicam-lt-complete-dynamic-range-comparison/

Nice latitude.
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Agreed. And more importantly IMO is the way its able to hold the colours.

Some additional info, through other user experience and me taking a look at it more.

Had the pleasure of listening to Don McAlpine ACS ASC talk about the varicam. He talked pretty highly of it.

But here's some creative ways Don used ISO5000. Don found that by lighting to 5000 instead of 800 that he could light the same, but much lower wattage output (of course we all know that), but he did it deliberately because he found the actors pupils would open up and appear more natural and could be used to convey deeper emotion. I tried it, the effect is interesting. Extending the DOF, as required by using 5000ISO. Done had a particular shot he wanted to see the BG at his chosen focal length, (roughly translated), so instead of being ISO800 @ t.4, he went to 5000ISO and dropped to T8 and approx 7/10s, given him the look he wanted.

This one is something Id thought about and tested. Over crank to 120FPS. So, 24fps @ 180 degree shutter (1/48) vs 120fps @ 180 degree shutter (1/240) is about 2 stops 7/10s. I can set up and light my scene to 24fps, and when I come to the over crank to 120fps. Switch to 5000ISO, which also happens to be around 2 stops and 7/10s and bang, away I go. Nothing else required because the 800 and 5000 will match perfectly.
 
Noel Evans said:
This one is something Id thought about and tested. Over crank to 120FPS. So, 24fps @ 180 degree shutter (1/48) vs 120fps @ 180 degree shutter (1/240) is about 2 stops 7/10s. I can set up and light my scene to 24fps, and when I come to the over crank to 120fps. Switch to 5000ISO, which also happens to be around 2 stops and 7/10s and bang, away I go. Nothing else required because the 800 and 5000 will match perfectly.
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Except noise of course.
 
The noise at 5000 is there, but it could be knocked down with good noise reduction and as always it depends on the shot. My tests are showing me that using the native 5000EI and dropping it to 2500 is a really great place to be on the camera. 2000 actually matches the native 800 so closely it's hard to tell the difference between the two.

I pulled the trigger and am going Varicam V35 for my upcoming series. Unfortunately it didn't work out on this one to get the LT's, but with the DNA of the two cameras matching so closely it won't affect imaging.
 
CharlesPapert said:
The noise at 5000 is there, but it could be knocked down with good noise reduction and as always it depends on the shot. My tests are showing me that using the native 5000EI and dropping it to 2500 is a really great place to be on the camera. 2000 actually matches the native 800 so closely it's hard to tell the difference between the two.

I pulled the trigger and am going Varicam V35 for my upcoming series. Unfortunately it didn't work out on this one to get the LT's, but with the DNA of the two cameras matching so closely it won't affect imaging.
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So if I'm understanding you right, ISO5000 has only about a 1stop noise hit increase for a 2.6stop increase in sensitivity? So shooting ISO5000 and pulling it to ISO2500 compensates for the noise but probably loses 1stop of highlights? That sounds about in line with other cameras with hardware gain adjustments where each stop of gain boost often adds around 1/3 stop of noise.
 
nyvz said:
So if I'm understanding you right, ISO5000 has only about a 1stop noise hit increase for a 2.6stop increase in sensitivity? So shooting ISO5000 and pulling it to ISO2500 compensates for the noise but probably loses 1stop of highlights?

Yes on the highlights, because the dynamic range is being shifted as it does with other cameras. It's hard to call apples to apples on noise, because it can have a different appearance from camera to camera. It's not uniform noise across the frame, it does appear in the areas you'd expect like solid areas in the bottom end of the curve, but it is much more subtle in highlights, and less electronic than other cameras.
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nyvz said:
So if I'm understanding you right, ISO5000 has only about a 1stop noise hit increase for a 2.6stop increase in sensitivity? So shooting ISO5000 and pulling it to ISO2500 compensates for the noise but probably loses 1stop of highlights? That sounds about in line with other cameras with hardware gain adjustments where each stop of gain boost often adds around 1/3 stop of noise.
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Theres only 1db noise increase between native 800 and native 5000
 
migueltoran said:
Panasonic has published the operating manual.
http://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/varicam/lt/dl.html

And found this about slow motion recording:
"The sensitivity and the dynamic range will drop 1 level due to the limitation of fast speed recording in [AVC-Intra2K-LT]/[AVC-Intra-LT]. f ISO800→ISO400f ISO5000→ISO2500"
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They just mean that when you shoot faster there is less time for light to hit the sensor so therefore the image is darker.
 
Hi Brian:

I think it is a little tricky to qualify "not significantly noisier", that may lead some people to believe that the native 5000 is all but identical to native 800. My tests have shown that ramping down the ISO from 5000 to 2000 delivers that benchmark. I do agree that the 5000 is impressive; the noise is mild and agreeable but it is present.

I'm shooting a 3-camera studio setup tomorrow--when our stage lighting package came in over budget, I offered to my gaffer that we could shoot at 2000 which allowed us to cut the wattage of instruments in half. Great asset!
 
dreamXpress said:
new footage:

https://vimeo.com/162502356

https://vimeo.com/162485138
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Thanks for sharing your footage.
I really don't like how the camera is handling colors in the 1st video. Were you shooting V-look, or another picture profile?

The second video looks much better but it's becoming clear the camera doesn't respond well to LED lights in the blue family.
Your footage agrees with my findings that it is indeed noisy in the areas that aren't fed enough light (no surprise here).
 
These barely graded, handheld, unlit, shallow depth of field samples make it really hard to judge anything much from the images. Noise looks atrocious in that longer nightime sample - but since it's unlit and barely graded, it's hard to make a call one way or the other.

If the exposure was so far down into the noise floor, that grading the blacks down would erase all shadow detail... well that's on the exposure choices, not the camera.

I really need to arrange a playdate with the Varicam to see what it can really do.
 
Grug said:
These barely graded, handheld, unlit, shallow depth of field samples make it really hard to judge anything much from the images. Noise looks atrocious in that longer nightime sample - but since it's unlit and barely graded, it's hard to make a call one way or the other.

If the exposure was so far down into the noise floor, that grading the blacks down would erase all shadow detail... well that's on the exposure choices, not the camera.

I really need to arrange a playdate with the Varicam to see what it can really do.
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I'd agree and add there seems to be plenty of exposure issues in the first one (didn't watch second).
 
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