KyleProhaska
Veteran
I apologize for the length, but it's necessary...skip to the bottom for bolded specific questions.
OK, last time around on my feature I shot on the XHA1 with Letus Adapter. Obviously an older HDV camera, more noise, but a really great image. I used a setting called PANALOOK for that which used the cameras CINE2 setting with MASTER PED in the negatives (-8 out of -15 I think) which helped bring down the black level to a more healthy level which I would probably Color Correct it to later. This gave me a really wonderful image in-camera and correction on the film was minimal throughout, mostly a mid-tones boost with some highlight management.
I'm trying to get a similar setting with my AF100 and I'm finding it tough. Banding is a pretty big issue on the camera and also I'm not a fan of a super smooth image. Some thing I'm nuts but the Canon XHA1 had a very fine grain pattern to it that of course was video noise, but it was fine enough to look just like grain I might add in post, with some exceptions but overall it was pretty beautiful. That plus the Letus Extreme's vibrating adapter GG inside gave it a bit more grain. This mean banding was literally impossible, and the A1 all by itself actually never gave me that problem in general. The noise was just too "good."
Well, the real reason I'm wanting to shoot on the AF100 and NOT the old setup which was bulky and huge was because I can get the DOF I want in a smaller package and use my Nikon Primes still. However, I'm finding it hard to get an image that I'm pleased with. I'm really looking for something similar to what the XHA1 gave.
The gamma has a lot to do with this I think, and it should be easy but I still can't figure it out. Here's a graphic of what the gamma curves on the A1 look like (I was using Cine2).
It looks to me to give a pretty signifiant mid-tones press (although that graphic is no doubt exaggerated to show the difference in gammas easier. To think about the actual gamma more accurately you could likely stretch the graphic horizontally and get something more accurate right? That's my guess. I also used a pretty substantial KNEE adjustment on the A1 which I would like to keep on my AF100. That limits me to the non-Cine gammas LOW, HIGH, SD NORM, HD NORM, & BPRESS.
The nosier gammas from most to least are: CINED, HIGH, SD NORM, HD NORM, LOW, CINEV, & BPRESS.
The A1 had a black level setting that would change the blacks (stretch, press, mid). The AF100 doesn't have this, only Master Ped adjustment or the gamma itself has attributes that do similar things. Cine-D stretches blacks, while BPress presses them and other leave the blacks alone.
It looks to me that BPRESS gives me am image the A1 did since it presses the blacks a little BUT it presses the mid-tones which CINE2 didn't do...it looked to press them Problem being, BPRESS is the cleanest gamma. It's super milky smooth and clean, which looks a little too electronic for me...not very filmic in texture. I would prefer to have this kind of image by default if I could, but is that possible? I'm looking for a little noiser image with a slightly dropped black level (possible slight drop of mid like A1's CINE2, and allowed use of KNEE. A1 also gave pretty saturated colors by default.
I thought about the color gammas, but those bring in Chroma noise which isn't the type of noise I need and isn't really flattering.
Any suggestions from users who have had this thing for a while like me? Here's some examples of IN-CAMERA shots with my old setup. Same internal setting throughout the shoot, only lighting changes. (2.35 crop was done later) Please don't critique those shots, I wanted a bit contrasy and warm look...
OK, last time around on my feature I shot on the XHA1 with Letus Adapter. Obviously an older HDV camera, more noise, but a really great image. I used a setting called PANALOOK for that which used the cameras CINE2 setting with MASTER PED in the negatives (-8 out of -15 I think) which helped bring down the black level to a more healthy level which I would probably Color Correct it to later. This gave me a really wonderful image in-camera and correction on the film was minimal throughout, mostly a mid-tones boost with some highlight management.
I'm trying to get a similar setting with my AF100 and I'm finding it tough. Banding is a pretty big issue on the camera and also I'm not a fan of a super smooth image. Some thing I'm nuts but the Canon XHA1 had a very fine grain pattern to it that of course was video noise, but it was fine enough to look just like grain I might add in post, with some exceptions but overall it was pretty beautiful. That plus the Letus Extreme's vibrating adapter GG inside gave it a bit more grain. This mean banding was literally impossible, and the A1 all by itself actually never gave me that problem in general. The noise was just too "good."
Well, the real reason I'm wanting to shoot on the AF100 and NOT the old setup which was bulky and huge was because I can get the DOF I want in a smaller package and use my Nikon Primes still. However, I'm finding it hard to get an image that I'm pleased with. I'm really looking for something similar to what the XHA1 gave.
The gamma has a lot to do with this I think, and it should be easy but I still can't figure it out. Here's a graphic of what the gamma curves on the A1 look like (I was using Cine2).
It looks to me to give a pretty signifiant mid-tones press (although that graphic is no doubt exaggerated to show the difference in gammas easier. To think about the actual gamma more accurately you could likely stretch the graphic horizontally and get something more accurate right? That's my guess. I also used a pretty substantial KNEE adjustment on the A1 which I would like to keep on my AF100. That limits me to the non-Cine gammas LOW, HIGH, SD NORM, HD NORM, & BPRESS.
The nosier gammas from most to least are: CINED, HIGH, SD NORM, HD NORM, LOW, CINEV, & BPRESS.
The A1 had a black level setting that would change the blacks (stretch, press, mid). The AF100 doesn't have this, only Master Ped adjustment or the gamma itself has attributes that do similar things. Cine-D stretches blacks, while BPress presses them and other leave the blacks alone.
It looks to me that BPRESS gives me am image the A1 did since it presses the blacks a little BUT it presses the mid-tones which CINE2 didn't do...it looked to press them Problem being, BPRESS is the cleanest gamma. It's super milky smooth and clean, which looks a little too electronic for me...not very filmic in texture. I would prefer to have this kind of image by default if I could, but is that possible? I'm looking for a little noiser image with a slightly dropped black level (possible slight drop of mid like A1's CINE2, and allowed use of KNEE. A1 also gave pretty saturated colors by default.
I thought about the color gammas, but those bring in Chroma noise which isn't the type of noise I need and isn't really flattering.
Any suggestions from users who have had this thing for a while like me? Here's some examples of IN-CAMERA shots with my old setup. Same internal setting throughout the shoot, only lighting changes. (2.35 crop was done later) Please don't critique those shots, I wanted a bit contrasy and warm look...
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