Everything Else, Videos

Earth Ritual with the GFX-100 II, One Year On

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This time last year I was preparing to shoot the amazing “Earth Ritual” performance by the Of The Wild Ecological Circus Collective. I have been incredibly fortunate over the last few years to have been involved with various circus acts and performers, from Glastonbury to traditional travelling circus. I filmed this performance using the then new Fujifim GFX-100 II. The GFX-100 is a large format camera with a 102 megapixel sensor that has an area around 1.7x greater than a full frame sensor (approx 1.3x wider/taller). This sensor can be used in many different ways, for example using it’s full width to shoot 4K or shooting at 8K with a frame size just fractionally smaller than Full Frame. For Earth Ritual I used the large format 4K mode with the large format Fujifilm GF 55mm f1.7 lens for an extremely shallow depth of field. 
I really like the way this camera looks, I shot using F-Log but it also has a number of different film emulations built in. Since I shot the film there have also been firmware updates to improve it’s autofocus. There is a more in depth write up about the shoot here.

Fujifilm Eterna digital cinema camera

But also since I shot this Fujifilm have announced that this year they will be releasing a large format cinema camera based on the GFX100 II.  The Fujifilm GFX Eterna looks like it will be a really interesting camera, especially if you are interested in larger than Full Frame formats. You can find more information about the Eterna here.

I used Nanlite and Nanlux lights to light this. Mostly utilising the Forza 720B with a projector lens and gobo as well as a number of Nanlite Pavotube lights for the background.

One thing about all of the circus people I know is that they are passionate about what they do and put a huge amount of effort into delivering entertaining performances. Yet circus is often seen as something seedy or second rate – I can assure you that most contemporary circus is hugely entertaining. Whether that’s a beautifully artistic performance, a funny comedy sketch or a show just for grown ups. So, next time a circus comes to your town, go and see a show. And I hope to bring you more circus later in the year. 

Workflow

Colour Management In Adobe Premiere Pro

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30 Years of Rec-709.

Most of us are familiar with Rec-709. It is the colourspace for standard dynamic range television that was introduced in the early 1990’s. Most of us have been working with and delivering Rec-709 content for the past 30 years.

Because Rec-709 has been around for so long, the majority of the editing and grading software that we use defaults to Rec-709. Rec-709 has a limited dynamic range and a limited colourspace. It was designed around the TV technologies available in the 1990’s when Cathode Ray TV’s were still dominant and LCD screens were nowhere near as good as they are today.

But things are changing. 

Most good quality phones, tablets, laptops and TV’s on sale today support bigger colourspaces than Rec-709. And most can now display high dynamic range HDR images. Streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon, Hulu etc are all streaming HDR content. Even YouTube and Vimeo fully support HDR. Eventually HDR will become completely normal and Rec-709 will fade into obscurity. 
But right now we are in a transition period where a lot of content is still mastered and delivered in SDR but at the same time there is a need to deliver more and more HDR content.

Colour Management.

One way to make this easy is to use colour management in your editing and grading software. In a colour managed workflow the editing/grading software will try to determine the colourspace of your source material  by reading the metadata contained in the file. Then it will determine the required delivery colorspace, usually based on the setup of your monitor or you can tell the software which colourspace you want to deliver your files in.

The software then converts from the source colourspace to the final output colourspace. The end result is that regardless of the colopurspace of your source footage, it will look correct on your monitor with the correct contrast and correct colour saturation. All your grading adjustments are applied to your footage in it’s original state which maximises the final image quality. This also makes it possible to change the output colourspace from one colourspace to another without having to change the grade – one grade can be used for many different output colourspaces. All you need to do is to change the output colourspace setting. 

OK, it isn’t always quite as simple as that – you might need to make some fine tuning adjustments to your grade if you switch your output between HDR and SDR. But overall, if you grade something correctly for HDR and then switch to an SDR output, it should still look pretty good and this greatly simplifies your workflow if you need to deliver in both HDR and SDR.

S-Log3 is not, and never has been flat!
 
S-Log3 and other log formats should never look flat. The only time they look flat is when there is a miss-match in the colour space between the material and the way it is being viewed.
 
S-Log3 in a Rec709 project looks flat because of this miss-match, this is NOT how it is supposed to look. But because in the early days most software only supported Rec-709, S-Log3 always looked wrong and as a result looked flat. In legacy workflows where there is no colour management the most commonly used solution to make S-Log3 look right is to add a LUT. The LUT transforms the S-Log3 to Rec-709 (and perhaps adding a creative look at the same time) so that the contrast and colour now looks correct.

Need To Deliver In HDR.
 
But we are now starting to need to deliver content in a lot more standards than just Rec-709.  HDR10, HLG, Rec2020 etc are now common and LUT’s designed to go from S-Log3 to Rec709 are no use for these alternate colourspace outputs.
 
So, most of the editing and grading software platforms we use are moving to colour managed workflows where the software detects the colourspace that the source material is in as well as the colourspace you are monitoring in and then automatically transforms the source material to the correct output colourspace. This eliminates the need to use LUTs, your footage will always look correct. This way all your grading adjustments are applied directly to the source material without being restricted to any particular colourspace and you can change the output colourspace to different spaces depending on what you need to deliver and you don’t need to change the grade for each alternative output.
 
By default in the latest version of Premiere Pro colour management is normally disabled, but some earlier versions enabled the colour management by default.

Enabling Colour Management.
 
To enable colour management in Premiere Pro 2025 (version 25.0 and later) go to the Lumetri panel and  under “Settings” “Project” enable (tick) the “log auto detect colour space” setting. Now Premiere Pro will detect the colourspace that your footage was shot in and colourspace transform it to you projects output colourspace. It is also worth noting that there is an additional setting that allows you to select the correct viewing gamma for the desired output, whether you are making content for the web or for broadcast TV.
 


If you want to deliver in HDR a bit further down in the settings you will also find the ability to change the timelines working colourspace, under these setting you can quickly change the timeline from Rec-709 to Rec2100 PQ (HDR10) or Rec2100 HLG for HDR. Changing this setting will change the working and output colourpace – note that if the colourspace of your monitor does not match these settings the image will not be correct – for example if you are using a Rec-709 monitor and you select Rec-2100 PQ the viewer images will appear flat.
 

If using a computer with a colour managed HDR screen, for example a MacBook, you will also need to allow Premiere to manage the computers Display Colour Management so that the viewers are displayed in the correct colourspace and then enable Extended Dynamic Range monitoring if the monitor is capable of displaying in HDR in the Lumetri settings under “Preferences”.


Be aware that if you allow Premiere to manage your colourspace this way you will no longer be able to use the majority of the LUT’s designed for S-Log3 as these LUT’s include a colourspace transformation that you no longer need or want. But – now you are free to deliver in both SDR and HDR without having to create different grades for each.

The colour management in Premiere is still somewhat basic, but it does work. But it’s very difficult to use the colour management and LUTs at the same time. Personally I much prefer the colour management in DaVinci Resolve which has a lot more options and the ability to add additional colourspace transformations as part of the individual grade used for each clip. This allows you to add LUT’s designed for a huge range of different colourspaces within different overall colour spaces.


Burano, FX3, FX30, FX6, LUTs, PXW-FX9, Scene Files and Luts

Copying a LUT from a Sony FX camera into DaVinci Resolve.

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A question that comes up quite a bit is – how do I get the LUT I have been using in the camera into DaVinci Resolve.

There are two parts to this. The first is how do you get the LUT you are using in the camera, out of the camera. Perhaps you want to export the s709 LUT or perhaps some other LUT.

To export a LUT from the camera you can use the embedded LUT option that is available when using the Cine EI mode. 
If you turn on “Embedded LUT” on the camera and record a clip the camera will save the LUT on the SD card under:

FX3/FX30 – private – M4ROOT – GENERAL – LUT folder.

FX6/FX9 – private – XDROOT – GENERAL – LUT folder.

Then to get a LUT into DaVinci Resolve the easy way is to go to the Resolve preferences colour management page, scroll down and there is an “open LUT folder” button that will open the LUT folder. Copy your LUT into this folder. Then click on the “Update Lists” button. Now your LUT will be available to use in Resolve.

Workshops and Events

CVP Brussels Technology Showcase

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I’ll be in Brussels for CVP’s Technology Showcase event on the 11th of December. I’ll be presenting a session on monitoring, delving into what type of monitor might you need for shooting as well as for post production for both SDR and HDR workflows.
There are also sessions on lighting, hybrid production, audio and  broadcast production. As well as the workshop sessions there will be a large selection of some of the very latest equipment  from a wide range of manufactures on show.

For more details and to register for this free event (That includes a socila evening with drinks and food) please click here.

Everything Else

Bright Tangerine Sitewide 20% Discount for Black Friday. 

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Bright Tangerine have announced the details of this year’s Black Friday sale. Lasting from Monday 25th November to Tuesday 3rd December, products on Bright Tangerine’s online store – as well as with participating retailers – will be discounted by 20%. In addition to the sale, this year’s Black Friday sale also includes a charitable donation, with a percentage of profits being put towards the Redford Center.

“At The Redford Center, we believe storytelling through film is one of the most powerful tools we have to accelerate environmental progress and solutions. Our mission to safeguard the planet through compelling, impactful films is made possible by the support of partners like Bright Tangerine. We’re honored to be a part of their campaign, which bolsters our work and champions sustainable, eco-conscious practices within the film industry.”

– Grace Davis, Development Officer for The Redford Center

The Redford Center’s work specialises in environmentalism in filmmaking: promoting climate conscious films from less-established filmmakers via grants and scholarship. The nonprofit’s work has helped over 50 documentaries and features reach the public through funding and production support.

Bright Tangerine have been a supporter of this website for some years and their help has allowed me with the running costs and preparation of many of the articles and features. They also make some really excellent innovative products. Their FX6 kit with the viewfinder support is one of my favourites. Their LeftField base system that works with standard Arri style dove tails is great for so many different cameras. 

Bright Tangerine FX6 accessories.
Everything Else, Lighting

Nanlite and Nanlux Black Friday Deals.

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Nanlite and Nanlux have a couple of amazing, global, Black Friday deals.

Featured Black Friday Deals:

 

NANLITE FS-300B LED Spotlight

MSRP: $399 (excluding local taxes)

Now: $239 (excluding taxes) – 40% off

NANLUX Evoke 1200B LED Spotlight
MSRP: $3949 (excluding local taxes)
Now: $2764 (excluding taxes) – 30% off
 
The FS300B is a light I really like. It produces a huge amount of very high quality light, its Bi-Colour so very flexible. It has a standard Bowens mount and can be fitted with a wide range of modifiers including a Fresnel lens (FL20G), soft boxes, domes, etc, etc. At this price it is an absolute steal for such a great highly versatile light.
 
If you are just starting to build a lighting kit this would be a great place to start. A couple of these, one with a soft box as your key and another with the FL20G zoomable fresnel lens (with barn doors) as your fill and you will be able to light a large range of scenarios. It’s probably a bit overkill using the FS300B as the fill but they do dim all the way down to virtually nothing and having a second punchy light gives a lot of flexibility to deal with different lighting challenges. I wish I had these sorts of options at these prices when I started. 
A bit more expensive, there is also the FS-300C full colour version which takes all of the same modifiers but gives you the ability to use it for coloured effects and washes, I believe there should be some discounted offers for these too.

 

The Evoke 1200B is another great light that packs a lot of punch. Great for lighting larger spaces or simulating daylight. It’s also rain resistant to IP54, so it can be used outside in the rain if needed. 

Along with the FS-300B and Evoke 1200B, a range of other top-selling products are discounted by up to 30%, including the NANLITE FC and FS series LED lights, PavoTube II C series LED tube lights, and FM Projection Attachments.
Discounts vary by region but are generally in the 30-40% range. You’ll need to contact your local dealer to see what deals they have, but these really are great lights at incredible prices.

 

Also – while you are there put a Nanlite WS-RC-C2 remote control in your shopping basket. It only costs around $15 and it allows you to remotely control up to 12 fixtures, it’s a huge time saver when you want to tweak or tune lights from the monitor or for when a light fixture is in a hard to reach spot. While there is also app control the WS-RC-C2 is a great add-on.

 

If you are a dealer and able to offer these discounts please comment with your location and contact details below.

FX3, FX30, FX6, Travel

Filming the Northern Lights.

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It’s that time of year when the nights draw in and get longer in the Northern Hemisphere and many will be thinking of trips to Scandinavia, Iceland, Alaska or Canada to see the spectacle of the Northern Lights. While this year many have been treated to Aurora displays further south, there remains something very magical about the way an Arctic Aurora dances and the light is reflected by the snow. For those that fancy trying to film the Northern Lights I put together this video with some tips and ideas. If you like the video please don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.


cameras, cinematography

Fujifilm Announces Eterna Large Format Film Making Camera

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Fujifilm Eterna digital cinema camera

OK, OK, so it’s not a Sony camera. So, why am I writing about it? Well I think it’s very interesting and Sony don’t have anything quite like it.

Fujifilm have announced that they are developing a digital cinema camera that is based on their large format GFX-100II digital stills camera. They say it’s “in development” but they have been showing samples at InterBee in Japan and there are pictures of it on the Fujifilm website, so it can’t be all that far from being launched.

The sensor in the GFX-100II is a huge 43.8 x 32.9 mm large format sensor with 102MP. It’s not quite as big as some medium format cameras, but it is 1.7x larger than a full frame sensor.

The sensor is made by Sony and it’s a great shame that Sony haven’t put this into a camera, although Sony would have to come up with a new very clever lens mount system if they wanted to allow owners of existing E-Mount lenses to use them to shoot cropped.

In the GFX-100II Fujifilm do some very clever things with the sensor such as offering the ability to choose between a slower (possibly 14 bit) readout that gives increased dynamic range, a touch less noise and additional tonal information or a faster readout speed (that is probably 12 bit) with much less rolling shutter but also slightly less dynamic range. At least they give you the choice and you can switch between the readout modes depending on what each shot needs the most.

LOTS OF SCAN MODES:

You can shoot using the full sensor width at 4K or with a special 5.8K 2.35:1 scan mode and when used like this with a suitable lens such as the Fujifilm GF 55mm f1.7 the results are gorgeous. Take a look at the film below, shot with the GFX-100II.

If you want to shoot at 8K this is also possible by cropping the sensor to very slightly less than Full Frame. And then from this you could also shoot Super 35 at around 5.7K after cropping. Additionally the camera has several anamorphic shooting modes including open gate 3:2. So, that large format sensor opens up lots of possibilities, you are not limited to large format, Full Frame and Super 35 are possible and look great.

ADAPTABLE LENS MOUNT:

The GFX lens mount can easily be adapted to PL, Canon EF, Nikon, M42 and many others. Looking at the pictures the Eterna has a locking version of the GFX mount. The camera has special modes for the Fuji Premista lenses and Fujifilm say they are working on power zooms and other lenses for the Eterna.

The side of the Fujifilm Eterna Digital Cinema Camera



RECORDING CODECS

Recording codecs in the GFX-100II include internal ProRes, H265 and H264, so plenty of decent options and  its even possible to output raw to an Atomos recorder at up to 8K. I would expect to see all of these same options in the Eterna and the quality of the H265 encoder is extremely good with the ability to choose between I frame only and Lon GoP at a wide range of compression ratios.

CONNECTIVITY

Looking at the pictures of the Eterna you can see that it has an SDI out, HDMI out, Ethernet, Genlock and timecode connectors. There are also lemo connectors and hirose connectors – presumably for accessory power and lens options. 

The front of the Fujifilm Eterna Digital Cinema Camera



EDIT- It has been revealed that it does have a built in ND filter.

And the name – Eterna. Well that comes from one of the film stocks that Fujifilm used to make and it’s also one of the built in film look presets that the camera has.


Everything Else

Firmware Updates – Are they really broken?

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How safe are firmware updates? In light of recent events where Sony have released firmware updates for the FX3 and FX30 and then withdrawn them only days later I decided to write this piece in attempt to help people understand what might be happening and what the risks are.

Firmware updates can never be entirely risk free. Afterall, for most cameras a firmware update means replacing the software that alters the way many of the processors function with new software. And this replacement process can sometimes in rare instances go wrong. Generally, if you precisely follow the instructions provided with the update, including checking that the file you have downloaded is valid and  corruption free (usually done by comparing an MD5 checksum value against the file size) the update will go smoothly and all will be good. 

Real world update failures due to a hardware or software error are very rare. If you look around the online camera user groups, while you will likely find examples of failed updates, some of these may be user error. Not following the instructions etc. But a few will be real failures. But it’s worth considering that user groups will by their very nature attract more users looking for help with issues than users that don’t have issues. So, the numbers will be skewed and may give the impression of a bigger issue than it really is. Also look at the size of the group, if you have a group like some of the FX30 groups with +35,000 users and there are 10 individuals with issues that’s 1 in 3500 or less than 0.03% of the groups membership. A very small number.

On top of this we also need to consider that the firmware that everyone downloads is the same for everyone. And, as everyone is putting this on the same camera you would expect any issue with the firmware to effect every camera in the same way. So, if there was a bug, it should affect every camera and everyone should experience the same issue, not just a very small fraction of the user base. 

But, we have seen this before. There have been instances where a firmware update has led to problems when the camera is set up in a very specific and perhaps unusual way and then when a very specific change is made the camera doesn’t behave as expected. Somehow this particular combination of settings has slipped through the extensive testing that’s done leading to a bug in the firmware to go undetected. When this happens the manufacturer will typically quickly release a follow on update to fix the bug.

Following the recent release of firmware version 6.0 for the FX3 and version 5.0 for the FX30, despite the fact that the vast majority of people that did perform the update have had no issues there were a number of reports of issues with the cameras WiFi or Bluetooth networking functions. In some cases the cameras would crash or become unresponsive when the networking was turned on. Based on the number of issues reported in the user groups I don’t think the number of people affected was huge, but clearly it was enough for Sony to withdraw the firmware updates from their website to investigate. 

So, what could be going on here? Why might only some people be affected while the majority are perfectly OK, afterall a true firmware bug should affect everyone? 

Version 5/6 brings some big changes to the WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity with many adjustments made to help improve the stability of the connections and improve compatibility with the latest Monitor and Control app. I suspect that this new firmware is using functions within the WiFi and Bluetooth chips that were previously unused, so this firmware might be turning on parts of the chips not previously used.

It might be that some people have cameras that have faulty WiFi chips but because the part of the chip with the fault wasn’t used by the previous firmware versions they would have been completely unaware that their camera was hiding a hidden issue until the time the new firmware turned on the faulty part of the chip. 

This is just a speculative theory, bit it fits what appears to be happening. Did these camera develop this fault after they were purchased or did it exist at the time of purchase? That will be difficult to prove either way unless a batch of faulty chips gets identified. I have a great deal of sympathy for those affected, it could happen to any of us.

And I guess this is one of the issues with firmware updates that add or turn on new features. There is now way to know if the fault pre-exists in the camera with earlier firmware versions as there is no way to test a feature that the firmware has yet to be written for.

It’s a tough one for any manufacturer. End users now expect, demand even, that new features are continuously added to their cameras. That necessitates a steady stream of firmware updates and the switching on of parts of the camera not previously used and this will always carry a tiny level of risk, even if it’s extremely small. One solution would be for manufacturers to refuse to provide these feature upgrades, if you want new features buy a new camera with the latest firmware.

Of course this wouldn’t go down well and I don’t see that happening. Another solution would be to avoid buying a camera until the final version of the firmware is released. But that would mean only buying a camera towards the end of its release cycle.

I suspect the reality is that if we are to continue to expect to get extra features or other improvements added to our cameras via firmware updates that very occasionally things might go wrong, that perhaps a very small percentage of users will have a problem and that’s something we need to come to terms with if we want these updates. Or you just leave the camera with the firmware it was supplied with in which case you have nothing to worry about.


Alpha1, FX3, FX30, Review

Portkeys LH7P – A monitor that can control your camera.

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For this years Glastonbury festival I chose to use a combination of a Sony A1, FX3 and FX30 (we also used a DJI Pocket 3 and a Wirral wire cam). These are all small cameras and the screens on the back of them really rather small. So, I wanted to use an external monitor to make it easier to be sure I was in focus.

Using the Portkeys LH7P with a Sony A1 at Glastonbury Festival



I have been aware of the Portkeys monitors for some time, and in particular their ability to remotely control the Sony cameras via WiFi. So this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out the LH7P as it would give me the ability to control the cameras touch tracking autofocus using the monitors touch screen. So, I obtained a demo unit form Portkeys to try. Click here for the Portkeys LH7P specs.

The Portkeys LH7P with a Sony FX3



I have to say that I am pretty impressed by how well this relatively cheap monitor performs. It has a 1000 Nit screen so it’s pretty bright and overall the colour and contrast accuracy is pretty good. It won’t win any awards for having the very best image, but it is pretty decent and certainly good enough for most on camera applications. 

The LH7P is HDMI only, but this helps keep the weight and power consumption down. While mostly made of plastic it does feel robust enough for professional use. But I wouldn’t be rough with it.

The monitor is very thin and very light. It runs off the very common Sony NP-F style batteries or via a DC in socket that accepts 7 to 24 volts, a surprisingly large range that allows you to use it with almost any battery found in the world of film and TV. It uses very little power at around 9 watts, so the larger NP-F type batteries will run it for at least 3 or 4 hours. 

It’s a touch screen monitor and the touch operated menu system is quite straightforward. One small issue is that if you are using the monitors touchscreen to control the cameras touch autofocus you can’t also use the touchscreen to access the menu system or change the cameras other settings, it’s one or the other. When connected to a camera, to use the monitors menus or access the camera settings you must have the touch tracking focus control turned off. If you are using the touch tracking controls there are 4 assignable buttons on the top of the monitor and you can assign things like peaking, zebras, false colour etc to these, so most of the time having to choose between touch focus or touch menus isn’t a big drama as these switches can be used to turn on and off your most commonly used exposure and focus tools. But you do have to remember to turn off the touch tracking if you want to change another setting from the monitor.

When you are using the monitor to control the touch tracking it is very responsive and because there is very minimal latency due to the direct HDMI connection to the camera it works well, just touch where you want the camera to focus. The only downside is that you don’t get a tracking box on the monitors screen. This is because Sony don’t output the tracking box overlay over the HDMI.

As a result there may be times where you do need to look at the LCD on the back of the camera to see what the camera is tracking. When I used it a Glastonbury I didn’t really find this to be too much of a problem, f I was unsure of what the camera was focussing on, I simply touched the LH7P’s screen where I wanted to focus. 

Pairing the monitor with the camera is simple, but you do need to make sure the cameras wifi is set to 2.4Ghz as this is the only band the monitor supports. To see how to pair it with an FX3 please watch the video linked above. Once connected I found the connection to be very stable and I didn’t experience any unexpected disconnects, even when the venue at Glastonbury was completely full.

The LH7P screen with camera control activated



I have to say that this low cost monitor has really surprised me. The image quality is more than acceptable for a 7″ monitor and controlling the  camera via the monitors touch screen is a very nice way to work, especially given the small size of the LCD screen on a camera like the FX3 or A1. I haven’t had it all that long, so I don’t know what the long term reliability is like, but for what it costs it represents excellent value.