FS7: What am I dealing with?

P

Paul Walker

Active member
So I hired a pretty solid camera op for some BRoll on a corporate I shot and his stuff looks clean and nicely shot.

The A cam is a C500 shooting 4:2:2 10 bit, 4k CLog (and it's absolutely beautiful) while the B Roll and one interview was shot on an FS7 at 4k SLog (think it's 3). I'm going to try to grade them together but what I'm wondering about is what I'm dealing with. Specifically, the FS7 isn't 10 bit but it looks much stronger than an 8 bit image or is it some kind of watered down 10 bit? Clearly, the Canon's 10 bit image is going to be a little stronger but what does the Sony have to lift it above an 8-bit DSLR and what gives it that extra 'something?' Visually, it seems to be better than, for example, an ASII but I can't quite put my finger on it.

And sorry to go all noob but any tips on grading as never graded an FS7's SLog output before, particularly as I'm matching it to a full, Canon cinema camera.

Also, just out of pure curiosity, any way of upgrading an FS7 to get it to shoot 10 bit, 4:2:2 at 4k?

I quite like the FS7's output. Looks nice.
 
I was thinking the FS7 is natively 4k at 10-bit 422...the FS5 is only 4k 420 (really, UHD). Of course, I guess a quick google search would answer that.
 
Hey Paul, the FS7 shoots 10-bit 4:2:2 color internally at all frame rates and resolutions. It also shoots at relatively high bitrates. That's why you're noticing the stronger image and why the FS7 is such a popular camera to work with.
 
Also, a quick tip. DL Sony's Catalyst Browse software and open up the files with it and it will give you all of the info like CODEC, bitrate, color sampling, resolution, frame rate, ISO, gamma (whether it was shot in S-log or "709"), etc.
 
Well if he is unlucky the 7 was set at rec 709. But yeah you have to know the exact log version.

These days I usually slap a Colorspace Transform on the FS7 footage and work from Arri C-log. Its a nice starting point.

A good tip also is to start your shoot with shooting a color chart with each camera on the same light. Then you can easily make a lut between the two.


But maybe try the transform on both and see what it does.
 
Doug Jensen said:
You better figure out which type of S-LOG it is because each requires a different LUT as the starting point for grading.
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Not a pro colorist, I've always been under the impression that LUTs are convenient starting point, not a "requirement" for grading LOG footage. I mean, couldn't I use an SLOG2 LUT on an SLOG3 image as a jumping off point if I like the results? Don't plenty of colorists roll their own curves without LUTs all the time?
 
JCummings said:
Not a pro colorist, I've always been under the impression that LUTs are convenient starting point, not a "requirement" for grading LOG footage. I mean, couldn't I use an SLOG2 LUT on an SLOG3 image as a jumping off point if I like the results? Don't plenty of colorists roll their own curves without LUTs all the time?
Click to expand...

There are many ways to skin a cat and I'm sure there many colorist who have no idea how to work with S-LOG footage. Using a LUT may not be mandatory, but only a fool would waste time doing doing the grading 100% manually. Sure, you can grade the brightness and contrast manually pretty easily without a LUT, but you need to keep in mind that S-LOG is about more than just gamma, it is also about color space and that is much harder to compensate for manually than gamma. S-GAMUT, SGAMUT3, and S-GAMUT3.cine all need to be treated differently, and doing it properly by hand is going to be really hard and produce inconsistent results. Why fight it? Just drop the right LUT onto the footage and you'll be 90% of way there -- and then the creativity can begin.

Of course, as Cary will point out, if you use device transforms you can skip LUTs altogether. But that's just a different workflow and not the same thing as grading manually from scratch.

I wil also say that anyone who dumps a LUT on their footage and calls that grading is also a fool. The LUT just gets you in the ballpark and sets the stage for grading. Grading is what comes after the LUT and basic exposure adjustments. At that point in the workflow is is perfectly fine to roll your own secondary LUT or grade by hand . . . whatever gets the job done. But you have to have that first LUT to adjust the color space, if not for other reasons too.
 
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