Picture Profiles for the PXW-FS5.

Caption Picture Profiles for the PXW-FS5.
PXW-FS5 Picture Profiles

The Sony PXW-FS5 is a great little camera. It’s a camera I really enjoy shooting with as I can just grab it and go, picking up some great pictures with the minimum of effort. The built in Picture Profiles offer a wide range of different looks that can be quickly selected by pressing the P Profile button and choosing a profile. But one of the best parts is that you can tweak and adjust each profile to suit different shooting applications.

I tend to leave Picture Profile 7 alone. This is the S-Log2/S-Gamut profile that you must use when shooting raw and S-Log2 is my preferred log curve for shooting 8 bit UHD. But that leaves profiles 1 to 6 to play with and adjust, plus profiles 8 and 9 if you don’t use S-Log3. If you want to go back to the factory settings each profile can be reset individually (using “reset” within the profile settings).

Perhaps the two most challenging situations to shoot in are scenes that are high contrast and bright or low light scenes. Often you may encounter both types of scene on the same shoot, so it would be good if the pictures were at least similar. So we don’t want to use totally different color settings. But you can use different gamma settings to help better deal with the differing lighting levels and contrast ranges.

For brighter scenes I am a big fan of Sony’s “Cinegammas”. The Cinegammas differ from the standard gammas in the way they handle highlights. Basic television gamma has a very limited dynamic range, around 6 stops. Then to extend the dynamic range something called a “knee” is added to the top of the gamma curve. The point where the curve transitions from normal gamma to the knee is called the “knee point”. Everything above the knee is is compressed or squeezed. So in effect below the Knee 1 stop  is record with 1 stops worth of data, but above the knee 3 or 4 stops may be recorded in the same space.

cinegammas-1024x768 Picture Profiles for the PXW-FS5.

In practice this means anything brighter than the knee point will have very little contrast, when you have low contrast it is also hard to see any detail. So the highlights in the image look flat, lack texture and detail. If you have bright skin tones up in the knee they just look like blobs of color. Cotton wool clouds come out as white blobs in the sky and it is the knee that is largely responsible for the “video look”.

Sony’s Cinegammas are different. They do not have a knee. Instead of a hard knee point where you switch instantly from not compressed to compressed they have a slow and gradual transition from not compressed to very compressed. This is not unlike the way film behaves and is typically called a “highlight roll-off”. In practice because this transition is gradual it is less obvious. Because it is less obvious you can start the transition lower down the gamma curve which means you have more recording range for the highlights and can therefore increase the captured dynamic range. But to get the best looking recordings you want to keep faces and skin tones below the more aggressive parts of the roll off, so often you need to expose marginally darker than you would with conventional gamma.

For standard gammas it is typical to set the cameras zebras to 70% and have zebras just starting to appear on skin tones. With the Cinegammas I recommend reducing the zebras to 60%. See this article for more info on the correct exposure https://www.xdcam-user.com/2013/07/correct-exposure-levels-with-sony-hypergammas-and-cinegammas/

If you want to use the Cinegammas and are doing anything for broadcast TV that will not be graded and the video levels corrected to the 100% maximum required for broadcast then you should only ever use Cinegamma 2. All the other Cinegammas allow recording up to 109%.

All the Cinegammas record a similar extended dynamic range, Cinegamma 2 will almost always appear a little darker as it’s recording range is shrunk to ensure it does not exceed 100%., but even though it may appear a little darker, the captured dynamic range is the same.

For brighter scenes Cinegamma 1 is my go-to gamma curve on the FS5. It captures a large dynamic range. For darker scenes I will often use Cinegamma 4 as this raises shadows and the mid range. Cinegamma 4 is also useful for shooting back lit scenes.

Cinegamma 3 is a little more contrasty than Cinegamma 1 so if you want a picture with higher contrast this is the curve you should consider.

300x250_xdcam_150dpi Picture Profiles for the PXW-FS5.

What about color?

The standard color mode is OK, but I find it a little gaudy. If you want a more film like look then the Cinema mode works quite well to give a more de-saturated look. But my favourite color mode is the Pro color mode. It’s not as vibrant or highly saturated as the standard or ITU709 color modes but it does produce very accurate colors. It’s a bit less green that the standard color mode. If you want a more vibrant image you can increase the saturation, I find Pro Color at +14 saturation gives great color straight out of the camera.

The Color Depth control is a bit of an odd control. It works by targeting a particular color, but instead of increasing/decreasing the saturation of the color it makes the luminance level of objects that are that color brighter or darker. If you make a red car darker in brightness it makes the color appear stronger relative to the brightness. A positive setting makes the luminance darker, so the color appears stronger, a negative setting makes the luminance brighter so the color appears slightly more washed out.

First the standard look (notice the blobby, flat, no texture look to the clouds from the knee):

standard-1024x576 Picture Profiles for the PXW-FS5.
PXW-FS5 Standard Settings

So, here are some suggested settings for different shooting conditions. Remember, you can mix and match the color and gamma settings, so if you like the colors from one profile you can take the color settings and use them with the contrast settings (gamma, black gamma) of another.

1: AC-GPMC – General purpose, medium contrast (good all-round profile).

Gamma: Cine3, Black Gamma Middle -7, Color Mode Pro, Saturation +16 (substitute Cine3 with Cine2 for direct to air broadcast).

ACGPMC-1024x576 Picture Profiles for the PXW-FS5.
Alister’s PXW-FS5 Profile AC-GPMC

2: AC-GPBT – General purpose for bright high contrast scenes.

Gamma: Cine1, Black Gamma Low -3, Color Mode Pro, Saturation +16 (substitute Cine1 with Cine2 for direct to air broadcast).

ACGPBT-1024x576 Picture Profiles for the PXW-FS5.
Alister’s PXW-FS5 Profile AC-GPBT

3: AC-GPGD – General purpose, looks good direct but good if going to be graded (shadows raised to help in grading)

Gamma: Cine1, Black Gamma Low +4, Color Mode Pro, Saturation 0 (substitute Cine1 with Cine2 for direct to air broadcast).

ACGPGD-1024x576 Picture Profiles for the PXW-FS5.
Alister’s PXW-FS5 profile AC-GPGD

4: AC-GPLL – General purpose profile for darker scenes (raised shadows to make grading easier).

Gamma: Cine4, Black Gamma High +7, Color Mode Pro, Saturation +6 (substitute Cine4 with Cine2 for direct to air broadcast).

ACGPLL-1024x576 Picture Profiles for the PXW-FS5.
Alister’s PXW-FS5 Picture Profile AC-GPLL

5: AC-EXLL – For use in very low light levels (is the equivalent to adding +6db gain, does increase noise).

Gamma: ITU709(800), Black Gamma Low +7, Color Mode Pro, Saturation 0.

ACEXLL-1024x576 Picture Profiles for the PXW-FS5.
Alister’s PXW-FS5 Picture Profile for very low light AC-EXLL

6: AC-ASIA1 – Vibrant colors, slight boost to reds/blues.

Gamma: Cine3, Black Gamma Middle -7, Color Mode ITU709, Saturation +10, Color Depth R+5, G-3, B+2, C+1, M0, Y-2.

ACASIA-1024x576 Picture Profiles for the PXW-FS5.
Alister’s PXW-FS5 Picture Profile AC-ASIA1. Vibrant vivid colors.

AC-FILM1 – Film like color and contrast.

Gamma Cine1, Black Gamma Middle -7, Color Mode Cinema, Saturation +8, Phase -3, Color Depth R+4, G-1, B+1, C0, M0, Y-4.

ACFILM-1024x576 Picture Profiles for the PXW-FS5.
Alister’s PXW-FS5 Picture Profile AC-FILM1, a film-like profile.

 

 

29 thoughts on “Picture Profiles for the PXW-FS5.”

  1. Hi Alister,

    I guess most of these settings also apply to other related Sony cameras like the Alpha 7 line of cameras (7ii 7sii and 7Rii). It’s one big Sony picture profile family after all…
    Stefan

    1. Yes, you could apply these profiles to the other cameras but the results will be slightly different due to the different sensors and processing.

  2. Thanks for your post about picture profiles for FS-5. I appreciate your setting and prefer to have Cine1 and colour pro. With 8 bits 4:2:0 the exposure are so important. You wright that you recommend 6o% zebra for faces but I hope you can express it more obvious. If I have a 18% grey card which Zebra do you recommend, ?and witch value in Davinchi Resolve will it be ?
    Thanks
    Patrik

  3. Hi Alister. When I try to enter your No.6 (AC-ASIA1) into PP6 on my FS5, I only have the option of Color Mode ITU709 MATRIX and not ITU709 alone.

    What am I missing?

  4. Hello Allister,

    Thank you for the great work you’ve done in helping us figure out how to use these cameras.

    I have a shoot coming up which will require me to use an FS5 and an FS7 together. The FS5 will be used for wide shots and the FS7 will be used for close ups. Is there a simple way using picture profiles to ensure that these cameras are as well matched as possible?

    I typically shoot SLOG3 in Cine mode on the FS7 rated at 1000 and am unsure what to do to make the cameras look as similar as possible.

    Gratefully,
    Tim

    1. If you are using S-log3 at 1000EI on the FS7 then the FS5 should be set to S-log3 and expose a white card on the FS5 at 67%.

  5. Hi Alister,
    I’m planning a trip to Norway to see the Northern Lights with my father soon.
    Was planning to take the FS5 along to capture the journey (and the aurora!).

    Wanted to ask if there’s a particular setup/PP you’d recommend using for such low light situations – I imagine noise is going to be a key consideration here.

    I’ve got the standard kit zoom lens and also a couple of Nikon zooms – was planning on grabbing a few secondhand primes to take along – anything you’d recommend?

    Also, given the fact it’s considerably colder in that region, should I consider some protection for the camera/lens etc?

    Thanks!
    Tony

    1. Wide and fast lenses is the key. Forget zooms unless you have f2.8 or f1.8 zooms. You really want f1.4, so look at the Samyang 21mm T1.5 or better still a Samyang 24mm T1.4 with speedbooster (makes it a 18mm T1.0). Another option is a Sigma 20mm f1.8. Conventional rain covers offer little protection from the cold, wrapping the camera in a scarf or balaclava works well. I’d recommend Cinegamma 1 and turn the shutter off.

  6. For programming these profiles into the FS5, should we reset the color depth for each to “0” unless otherwise specified?

  7. Please ***HELP***

    Hallo and first of all thank you, I`ve learned a lot and allready bought you a drink and there will come more!

    I am desperate with the FS5 and it`s COLORFRINGING / ALIASING issue in Slog and HD. Sony is not hearing my complaining since more than one year and I was hoping you could help.
    Point the camera on highlight contrasty edges like a window and you will see nasty aliasing on the edges. A tree in front of the sky will show purple and green fringing. Sometimes it`s hard to create the effect but it shows up to often and I know I am not alone so it`s not a falty camera. On the internet I have seen the C300 producing quite the same stuff and Canon fixed this within the first firmware update.

    Thank you!
    Mitja

    1. Purple and green fringing is normally a sign of chromatic aberration, which is a lens issue. I’m not hearing complaints of aliasing or moire issues from other users in the regular shooting modes.

      There are some issues with green fringing and odd colored pixels on edges when shooting using the high speed modes and this is down to the fact that the sensor is read at 2K in this mode so it’s very difficult to totally eliminate all artefacts when you can’t change the optical filter.

  8. I’m giving your #1 and #2 profiles a go at the moment. You don’t specify a knee setting – so what is yours set to?

    Also are you able to explain what the purpose of ITU709-800% is? And why is it so much brighter than regular 709?

  9. Hi Alister

    Thanks for this in-depth look at PP’s for FS5, often what I shoot goes straight out as is, so don’t use S-LOG as it won’t be graded.

    I like PP6 as I’ll be shooting in pitlanes and like the colours to pop.
    What should my zebra be set to for PP6, when recording piece to camera in pitline using available light?

    Thanks

    1. The “correct level for skin tones would be between 55 and 60%, but that might be a bit low for a direct to air production. What you need to watch is the way the Cinegammas roll off the contrast above 70%. So if you have anything brighter than 70-75% it starts to get flat and loose contrast, so watch what happens to skin tones if brighter than 70%. I normally use zebras at 60% with the cinegammas for skin tones.

  10. Hi Alister,

    I’m very new to Sony FS5 and just bought before the cash back offer ends. I have a question, I’m going on holidays what’s the best picture profile I can use to shoot family and friends with some sightseeing. I only have a kit lense. Also I want to do some colour grading too.

    Many thanks

  11. Hi Alister ,

    Really basic question here.

    I presume your recommendations Listed above from 1 to 6 correspond to the Picture profiles from 1-6 in the cameras menu, and these are your preferred tweaks ?
    I’m filming in a school next week covering multiple subjects inside classrooms, only lit from one side (windows ) and generally with a some fluorescent lighting. Then into School halls, gyms and playing fields.

    Do you think its feasible to keep changing your PPs from location etc or would you choose one PP (or slog ) and stick to it. Knowing the school, the levels of lighting are quite low so maybe your PP4 might be best for inside ? I tend to carry a panel light around with me, with a small panel light for back/side lighting to pep things up little. Usually it’s 20 mins or so in each class so not much time to sort out settings.

    Thanks for any advice given, I realise your time is valuable.

    Neil

    1. Picture Profiles are there to provide both a number of custom looks as well as the ability to choose different settings for different shooting situations. While I would rarely change the color settings within a project, I will often change the gamma curve to suite the shooting environment. In particular alternating between different Cinegammas depending on which one I fell gives me a better image for the light available. There isn’t really any secret sauce behind this other than looking at the monitor, flicking between them and choosing the one that you think looks best.

  12. Hello Alister, have you been able to compare these PP’s to the MKII’s new profiles? If so, how would you compare and / or match them if shooting SLOG isn’t feasible because of workflow and or low light reasons?

      1. That’s what I understood.

        have you been able to pinpoint which gamma curve and color profile are used for the standard / PP1 on the MKII? It seems there’s no info on it.

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