PXW-FS5, Review, Uncategorized

The Sony PXW-FS5. Run and Gun Super35 for all.

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The New Sony PXW-FS5
The New Sony PXW-FS5

I was lucky enough to get some hands on time with a prototype FS5 in Amsterdam at IBC. In case you haven’t heard about it, the PXW-FS5 is a compact interchangeable lens, super 35mm camcorder from Sony that can record in HD or UHD 4K. It shares many of the features of the already incredibly popular PXW-FS7 but in a much smaller body. As well as being similar to the FS7 it also has many similarities with the lower cost FS700, more on that later.

SMALL AND VERY LIGHT.

The first thing that struck me about this camera is just how small and light it is. The top handle and handgrip can be removed making it even smaller and the body alone weighs just 800 grams. It really is very small and very light, so perfect for drones, gimbals or simply for those of us that want something compact for travel.

REMOVABLE HANDGRIP

On the right side of the camera there is a chunky handgrip with a host of assignable buttons, a zoom rocker, an assignable dial (ideal for exposure control) and a joystick for navigating through the cameras menus and controlling various functions. The handgrip is comfortable to hold and gives you a very secure grip of the camera. It can be rotated and locked into an wide range of positions so you can adjust it to suit your shooting style and how you’re using the camera. My only criticism of the hand grip is that for me and my big hands the record button was a little too recessed and could be tricky to press. Perhaps before the cameras are released this may be addressed.  The handgrip can be quickly detached via a quick release mechanism. The mounting system is very secure and I couldn’t find any play or wobble. Like the handgrip on the FS7 it uses the LANC protocol to control the camera and is connected via a 2.5mm plug. So this means that the majority of other existing LANC controllers can be used with the camera for remote control. Once the handgrip has been removed you can add a standard Arri rosette (not supplied, but available from Sony as a spare part) to attach the arm and controller from the FS7 or any other arms or attachments that use the Arri rosette standard.

Details of the detachable handgrip.
Details of the detachable handgrip.

THE LEFT SIDE AND BUILD QUALITY

The left side of the camera is like a miniaturised FS7. There are several assignable buttons as well as the always familiar ENG style switches for gain and white balance. Above the switches there are push buttons for iris, shutter and gain control. There’s a dial and buttons for navigating the menu system (similar menu structure to FS700) and two large dials for setting the audio recording levels. On top of all that there is a large dial to control the iris/aperture or the electronic variable ND filter. Yes, that’s right an electronic variable ND… more on that later.

Top of the PXW-FS5 with the handle removed.
Top of the PXW-FS5 with the handle removed.

This camera is incredibly well built, it even has both 1/4″ and 3/8″ threads on the base as well as eight 1/4″ threads on the top of the body  for multiple mounting options on tripods as well as for attaching accessories such as lights or monitors. The body is lightweight magnesium alloy and to me it feels extremely well constructed. When I shot with it in Amsterdam it was raining heavily and it did get quite wet but that didn’t cause any problems. I would always recommend a rain cover, but sometimes you do get caught in unexpected rain showers.

POWER AND CONNECTIVITY, WIFI AND LAN

This is a 12v camera so for power the camera uses the now common BP-U type batteries as used on the EX1, PMW-200 etc. Or you can power it via a DC socket on the rear of the camera. Thanks to the low power electronics (approx 12 watts) a BP-U60 will run the camera for an incredible 4 hours. That’s almost double the run time of the already low powered FS7. So with one battery in the camera and a spare in your pocket you should have enough power for a full day of shooting. Connectivity is very good, there are two XLR audio inputs, one on the rear of the camera body and one on the right side of the removable handle. So even when you remove the top handle you can still attach an external XLR mic to the camera. On the top handle there is Sony’s MI shoe so you can add a radio mic or further XLR input box if you wish without extra wires or cables (the handle also includes a GPS receiver for adding your location to the footage metadata). On the back of the camera there is an HDSDI output and HDMI output. The SDI is HD only and the HDMI can be HD or 4K (UHD 8 bit, 4:2:2, 3840×2160) depending on the cameras shooting mode (Currently the HDMI/SDI output is not available when recording 4K internally. However a firmware update, version 1.1, will enable the HDMI/SDI while recording internally at a later date). It’s worth noting that there are no timecode or genlock inputs or outputs. In the future there will be a firmware option to add a raw output to the camera for the best possible image quality (there may or may not be a charge for this upgrade and I don’t know when it will be available). As well as the traditional video connections there is also a full size LAN port. The camera has wifi too, so you can connect to the internet or a network via either WiFi or a LAN cable and then use it’s built in streaming capability to stream your footage live or upload it via ftp at a later time. This is going to be great for breaking news or to stream corporate events for clients. Next year I’m going to try to stream the Northern Lights live from Norway.

SENSOR AND SENSITIVITY

Left side of the PXW-FS5
Left side of the PXW-FS5

The sensor appears to be the same sensor as the PXW-FS7 and PMW-F5, so it’s a dedicated 4K video sensor. This means that compared to most DSLR’s and many other large sensor cameras it has minimal image skew and low levels of rolling shutter. When I shot with it I didn’t find any shots that were noticeably effected by rolling shutter even though I shot a lot of footage from a moving boat. Noise levels are well controlled even though the native ISO is 3200 ISOin S-Log and 1000 ISO in other gammas! It looks like the image processing in this camera is really rather good at reducing noise. In low light and the dark the pictures from this camera look very good. My understanding is that in order to keep the power consumption down and to keep heat levels low this camera uses different processing to the FS7.

Ungraded frame grab from the PXW-FS5. Note how little noise there is. Click on the image for the full size frame.
Ungraded frame grab from the pre-production PXW-FS5. Note how little noise there is. Click on the image for the full size frame.

This makes sense as this camera does not have some of the more advanced functions of the FS7, like the CineEI mode, but on a camera like this the simpler menu structure and less complicated shooting modes really come in to their own as it helps make it a very easy camera to use. And for me, this was one of the best surprises with this camera. It’s very easy to use!

EASY TO SHOOT WITH

I had the 18-105mm power zoom lens which is available with the camera in the PXW-FS5K “kit”. It has to be said that this isn’t a high end cinema lens. It’s a low cost DSLR type lens with a powered zoom function. It’s a constant f4 throughout the zoom range but still small and compact. The camera includes electronic lens compensation that helps reduce some of the distortions and vignetting that would otherwise be visible (this does work in both HD and 4K with this camera). In addition with a Sony lens you can choose via the menu which direction the focus ring operates in. When paired together like this it’s almost like having an ENG handycam camera like the EX1 or PMW-200 again. You get a smooth power zoom that tracks focus reasonably well in a very compact package. OK, so it’s only a 6x optical zoom and the focus ring is one of those uncalibrated round and round servo jobs, but you know what, it works and it works pretty well. The camera even has Sony’s clear image zoom function that electronically increases the zoom range with virtually no image degradation. Apparently this can even be used with a prime lens to make it into a short zoom, although I was unable to test this clever feature out for myself. Once the production cameras come out I’ll be sure to try this!

The autofocus is pretty good too! The camera has Sony’s face tracking auto focus which is great for shooting people on the go as it locks on to faces and will ignore the background etc.  Turn off the face tracking and you have a smooth and accurate autofocus system. Add in image stabilisation as well and for run and gun this really starts to make a compelling package that could be handed off to an assistant or less experienced operator for some B roll.

The PXW-FS5 with 18-105mm power zoom.
The PXW-FS5 with 18-105mm power zoom.

LIMITATIONS COMPARED TO THE FS7

What about the limitations? Compared to the FS7 there are a few limitations. The codec options are all long GOP. You can choose between AVCHD or XAVC-L. There is no option for XAVC-I and in part that’s because this camera records to SD cards (SDXC for XAVC-L). There are two card slots so you can have either relay (one card after the other) or simultaneous recording to provide an instant backup. It’s nice to be able to use such cheap media, provided you remember that this is low cost consumer media, not really designed for professional applications. SD cards are normally very reliable provided you buy good quality cards from a reputable source.

Each card slot can be independently controlled by the hand grip rec button, the top handle rec button or body rec button if you wish. Back to the codec…. XAVC-L is a great codec. In HD it’s 10 bit 422 at up to 50Mb/s so offers full broadcast quality recording. In UHD (4K, 3840×2160) it is only 8 bit 4:2:0 at 100Mb/s so a little more restricted. But don’t panic! The 8 bit UHD recordings look beautiful. They are packed with detail and have rich well balanced color. I think it’s also worth remembering that like most 4K cameras this uses a bayer sensor, so you never have a true full chroma resolution equivalent of a 444 or even 422 signal off the sensor to record anyway. One small but important point to consider is that a Long GOP codec needs a more powerful computer to decode than an I Frame codec. So to edit the 4K (UHD only, no DCI 4K in the FS5) from this camera you will need an up to date and reasonably high spec computer. My retina MacBook Pro will play back and edit a single stream without issue, but start trying to use multiple layers or grading and adding filters and it will start to drop frames. One further limitation of the FS5 is that the highest base frame rate in 4K is 30fps. So you can shoot at 24, 25 or 30fps in 4K  at 100Mb/s or 24, 25, 30, 50 or 60fps in HD at 50 or 35 Mb/s XAVC-L or AVCHD (1920×1080 @ 17/24/28 Mb/s, plus 1280×720 @ 9/17/24Mb/s) or an AVCHD proxy for ftp or streaming at (it’s a multi-region camera).

SUPER SLOW MOTION

You can however shoot at up to 960fps by using the S&Q motion mode. This mode operates in almost exactly the same way as the FS700. It’s HD only. Up to 60fps the camera can record continuously, there is no sound however. Above 60 fps the camera uses an internal memory buffer to cache the super slow motion content. This means that at 240 fps, which is the fastest full HD speed, the camera can record up to 8 seconds of action. You have a choice of a start trigger which starts the 8 second record period when you press the rec button or an end trigger. If you use the end trigger you can wait for the action to happen, then press the rec button and the 8 seconds prior to pressing rec is then transferred to the SD cards. At 240fps 8 seconds of action becomes an 80 second clip. At 480 fps the sensor is read at half HD vertical resolution, at 960 fps the resolution is about 1/4 HD and it gets pretty grainy looking.

PICTURE PROFILES, S-LOG AND GAMUT

The PXW-FS5 includes picture profiles that have a number of preset “looks” straight from the factory. But you can go in to each of these picture profiles and change the gamma, colorspace, matrix and many other image quality settings. The FS5 has Cinegammas and S-Log2, S-Log3 as well as S-Gamut, S-Gamut3 and S-Gamut3.cine (some of these options may not be in the camera at launch, maybe only S-Log3/S-Gamut3.cine, the others added later). The Cinegammas are great for projects that won’t be graded or only have minimal grading. S-Log2/3 are fantastic for film projects or other higher end work that will be graded as it allows the full dynamic range (14 stops) of the camera to be captured. In HD the 10 bit recordings are going to be fantastic with S-log3 or S-Log2. In UHD the 8 bit recordings will be a bit more restrictive when it comes to heavy grading or post production work. S-Log2 is better than S-log3 when you only have 8 bit data as it uses all of the data available. But as a test I decided to record some S-Log3 with the FS5 and then grade it to see how it holds up. I was really very pleasantly surprised. Get the exposure right and it works well and can produce a beautiful image provided you don’t push the grade too far. When shooting in S-Log you can add a gamma assist LUT to the viewfinder to make exposure assessment easier. At the moment there is only one LUT which is the 709(800) LUT. This corrects the gamma in the viewfinder to a much more normal looking image to make getting your exposure right much simpler. I noticed that the cameras Histogram always measures the recorded signal. I think this LUT is going to be the key way of getting good log exposure with this camera, but it’s also very simple to use and that’s what you need for run and gun. Add the LUT and if it looks right, it is right, it really is that simple. The camera will feature an enhanced zebra function that will operate over the full brightness range of 9 to 109 IRE and when the histogram is used you can include a marker line at the zebra level, so if you want to use a grey card or white card to set your log exposure this will be possible (this feature wasn’t working on the review sample so I have not tested it yet). There is no CineEI mode in the FS5.

The images from the PXW-FS5 really are very nice indeed. They contain lots of very fine detail and nice rich colors. The camera I had was a pre-production prototype, so there will be some tweaking of the image before launch, but I really hope that Sony don’t change it too much as it really looks great already. There is a little noise at 3200 ISO but the noise has a very fine grain and is not at all unpleasant. You can use a lower ISO if you want, even when shooting in S-log. Once the production cameras are available I will investigate the best ways to get the most out of the standard gammas and log gammas.

Ungraded S-Log3 frame grab fro a prototype PXW-FS5. Click on the image for the full size. Note THIS IS A JPEG so will contain artefacts not in the original image.
Ungraded S-Log3 frame grab fro a prototype PXW-FS5. Click on the image for the full size. Note THIS IS A JPEG so will contain artefacts not in the original image.
Graded S-log3 from the PXW-FS5. Click on the image for the full size frame. Note THIS IS A JPEG so will contain artefacts not in the original footage.
Graded S-log3 from the PXW-FS5. Click on the image for the full size frame. Note THIS IS A JPEG so will contain artefacts not in the original footage.

CENTER SCAN MODE

FS5 has a center scan mode that uses just the center super 16mm sized part of the sensor. This mode is only available when shooting in HD, but the really nice thing is that you can assign the center scan mode to one of the assignable buttons and it switches instantly between full scan and center scan. This can be useful for extending your focal length electronically, in effect acting as a 2x extender. It means that if using the 18-105 lens for example you can get the equivalent of a 36 to 210 focal length by using the center scan mode. Another possibility is being able to use super 16mm lenses or even some 2/3″ ENG B4 zoom lenses. Super 16 is slightly larger than 2/3″ so not all 2/3″ lenses will be suitable, but many will be fine and won’t need an optical adapter, just a mount adapter.

THE LCD AND VIEWFINDER

For monitoring you have two options. There is a nice 3.5″ LCD panel (same panel as the FS7 perhaps) that can be attached to either the right, left, front or the rear of the hand grip. The LCD is plugged in to the side of the camera using the same connector as the FS7 viewfinder. The LCD can be rotated into a wide range of different positions for viewing from the rear, front or side of the camera. The attachment system and mount is well thought out and much better that the FS7’s viewfinder mounting system. The resolution is approx 1/4HD (960 x 540) which appears to be the norm for this size of LCD panel. On the back of the camera there is a small electronic viewfinder (EVF). This little EVF is actually rather good. It’s OLED so has great contrast and has a resolution very similar to the larger LCD panel. It is however quite small and you do need to get your eye nice and close to the EVF to get the best from it. I used it a lot for my shoot in Amsterdam.

VARIABLE ND FILTER

The FS5 Has a variable ND filter.
The FS5 Has an electronic variable ND filter.

I’ve saved one of the best bits about this camera to last. It has an electronic variable ND filter. On the front of the camera there is a traditional looking filter wheel knob with 4 positions. In addition on the side of the camera there is an exposure adjustment wheel that can be used to control the iris or the ND filter! When the front ND filter wheel knob is set to clear the ND filter system is removed from the optical path. But in the other 3 positions the variable ND is placed between the lens and the sensor. It’s very important to understand that this is not a polarising ND filter as often used on the front of camera lenses. It is a special crystal that darkens when a voltage is applied to it that does not polarise the light. When the ND filter is in place it can be controlled either via the ND knob or the exposure dial. If controlled by the ND knob you can set the 3 selectable ND levels via the menu, so you can choose just how much ND you get at each of the 3 ND knob positions. If you use the wheel the you get smooth control of the ND from dark to near clear over what I believe is a 7 stop range. In the future there will be a firmware update to allow automatic control of the ND filter.

The FS5 uses what we know as Sony’s E-Mount (although Sony actually call the lens system the Alpha system). Because the sensor is very close to the lens mount it’s very easy to adapt from E-Mount to almost anything else, such as PL-Mount or Canon EF. As anyone that’s used a Canon EF lens or camera will know, the aperture on the Canon lenses operates in steps. This means that you can’t make a smooth exposure change mid shot. The variable ND filter on the FS5 gets around this problem very nicely as you can set you exposure with the aperture as you would normally and then use the ND filter for any mid shot exposure changes. The other nice thing about a variable ND is that it allows you to make exposure changes without altering your depth of field. It’s very clever technology that first appeared on the PXW-X180.

CONCLUSIONS

I think Sony really have a winner on their hands. The current FS7 is a great camera, but can be a bit bulky for run and gun, it’s a shoulder cam. The FS7 is a great digital cinema camera with 10 bit 422 4K DCI and UHD and full LUT and EI capabilities. The new PXW-FS5, while a little more limited as a digital cinema camera is much smaller and I think much easier to use for run and gun. The combination of the FS5 with the 18-105mm lens with it’s power zoom, effective autofocus, variable ND and really great handheld ergonomics make this a really easy camera to shoot with on the move. It really does remind me of the EX1 when that was launched.  At that time to get really good quality images you almost always had to use a shoulder mounted camera, but the EX1 changed that forever. Now we have broadcast quality handycams such as the PXW-X200 that are used day in, day out for news and documentary production. To me the FS5 is similar. Up to now the majority of high quality super 35mm cameras have been shoulder mounted or bulky. The Fs5 brings really exceptionally good image quality combined with ease of use into a truly useable handheld package for the first time.  While there are other small options such as the new Sony A7s2 they are not as ergonomic as the FS5 for video work, they don’t have XLR audio without the use of adapters, they don’t have conveniently located zoom rockers etc.

The FS5 is sure to be a hit. I have one on order.

Please remember that my review is based on a pre-production prototype camera. Some features and functions may change between now and release and options may or may not be added in later firmware updates. I have tried to be as accurate as possible and believe that everything is true and accurate, but things do change!
NORTHERN LIGHTS 2016.

Don’t forget I run storm chasing and Northern Lights expeditions every year. I still have some places on the second Northern Lights tour in Feb 2016. These are amazing expeditions by snowmobile up on to the Finnmarksvidda. We go ice fishing, dog sledding, exploring, cook a meal in a tent and enjoy traditional Norwegian saunas.

More information here.

Northern Lights over our cabins in Norway.
Northern Lights over our cabins in Norway.

 

cinematography, Technology

Testing without charts leads to questionable results.

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OK, my hands are high in the air. I’m as guilty of this as everyone else. I test cameras,  present results here and elsewhere and I report on my observations. Typically providing frame grabs of what I have shot, maybe some nice scenic shots, maybe people shots, but not often shots of test charts. I use them all the time in my workshops and when setting up cameras for myself so why don’t I shoot test charts for my reviews? Well because they are boring and often don’t reflect the real world that we shoot.

But here’s the problem. In my previous post I commented about how some footage of Panasonic’s V-Log from the GH4 looked. The shooter, like me, had chosen to shoot some random shots and then grade them. But here’s the problem. I don’t know what those scenes actually looked like when they were shot and I don’t know what look the reviewer was trying to achieve. Plus there is always the issue that a look that one person finds pleasing may be the next persons least attractive look.

This is where charts should be used. If you shoot a known test chart you eliminate a lot of variables. One of my all time favourite charts is the DSC labs Cambelles.

CamBells-CK_for_webIt’s not a chart in the traditional sense, it’s just a picture of some attractive young ladies on a beach. But it’s a very clever image as it contains some very useful markers. It has very deep shadows and bright highlights (with a 5 stop dynamic range). It has a very broad range of skin tones and the skin tones have the same shade as the industry standard Chroma Du Monde charts. It has all the colors that you are going to encounter in normal shooting, blues, green. reds, they are all there. But here’s one of the key things – repeatability. Every one of these charts that you buy from DSC is exactly the same. So Fred in Australia could get a new camera, shoot his copy of the chart and straight away I know exactly what it should look like here on the other side of the world. Also because it’s a picture of people on a beach, we all know what that looks like and when it isn’t right we notice it. How many of you right now without looking it up can tell me exactly what color the 3rd bar from the left on an SMPTE color bars chart should be?

The use of a decent chart also becomes especially important when looking at cameras where the final image isn’t derived in the camera but in post production. By shooting a known chart and providing a frame grab of that unprocessed image those reading the review can make their own assessment of how easily the footage will grade and how it will respond to different lookup tables. Also when providing ready graded examples of footage, by including a chart in a corner of the shot the reader can see exactly what you have done to the footage. Maybe the reviewer likes strong reds, if there is a chart or other known color reference in the shot then the person reading the review will be able to see this from the strong reds on the chart in the graded footage.

Of course test charts do only show a part of the story about how a camera will behave in the real world. Real shots of real scenes are still incredibly important. But well designed charts brings a known reference and helps both the reviewer and those reading the review see through a lot of the variables that creep into creative shooting of real world scenes.

So: Note to self: Try to include charts in your test shots more often.

 

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Panasonic GH-4 V-Log upgrade.

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I’ve been asked by quite a few people now to comment on the upcoming GH-4 V-log option. For a start I haven’t tried it for myself, I have only seen content that’s been posted online, so it’s hard to tell a great deal about it especially as the online examples I’ve seen so far have been terribly exposed, typically grossly overexposed (but maybe that’s a design characteristic). What I know for sure is that it brings an improvement in dynamic range from 10 stops to 12 stops and that’s obviously a very big improvement. But, it has to be considered that many video cameras have been providing 11 stop ranges for many years, so in many respects this is just the GH4 catching up.

I’m afraid I had to laugh at some online V-log examples where the shooter had applied look up tables for Arri’s LogC to the footage. This clearly demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of log curves and LUT’s and how they work. You’re never going to get a great image by applying a LUT designed a 14+ stop input range and wide colorspace to footage with narrow colorspace, totally different luma recording range and only 12 stops. I really wish people would learn how these things actually work before blindly assuming that “because it’s log it must be better” and “because it’s an Arri LUT it’s going to make my camera look like an Alexa”. Sorry, but it really isn’t that simple and this is a case of the blind leading the blind. If you want to use LUT’s then V-Log will need it’s own dedicated LUT’s as it’s unlike any other log curve out there. The majority of log cameras have ranges of at least 13 stops (2 x the range of the GH-4’s 12 stops) and more commonly 14 stops or more.

Clearly, it’s an improvement to the camera, but this upgrade really reminds me of many of the flat profiles for the Canon 5D that don’t do much other than making the picture look, well, flat. They don’t actually add any dynamic range. I’d be really interested in the noise in the shadows from the GH4 in V-Log. My suspicion is that it will be quite noisy or heavily noise reduced compared to the standard profiles.

Review

Zacuto Gratical Viewfinder

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A little while back I was given the opportunity to try out a Zacuto Gratical viewfinder along with other parts of the Zacuto Recoil rig range. I had heard nothing but praise for the Gratical from other users, so I wanted to try one for myself. As a user of the Sony F5 and FS7 I was interested to see if, as I suspected having the ability to add LUT’s in the viewfinder would get around some of those cameras own LUT limitations.

What I wasn’t really expecting was to be totally blown away by the quality of the image! Sony’s viewfinders aren’t bad and I have been using them successfully for years, but the Gratical really took my breath away. Not only is it very high contrast, which is to be expected from an OLED panel, but it is also bright and remarkably sharp. I think a lot of the sharpness comes from the design and construction of the eyepiece which is very good indeed. The Gratical really is the first viewfinder that I have used where I didn’t feel the need to use peaking for day to day focus.

The use of a 4:3 OLED panel allows the Gratical to display a 16:9 image across the upper part of the screen while showing the waveform and vectorscope below, so the screen image is un-cluttered. As well as 16:9 the Gratical can display a wide range of other aspect ratios and also includes the ability to de-squeeze all the common anamorphic formats.

So what about the LUT capabilities? Well they really are very good. You can apply a LUT to the viewfinder image as well as the signal that is passed through the viewfinder independently. This gives you amazing flexibility, allowing you to monitor one LUT in the VF while sending a different LUT to the producer or director. There are built in LUT’s for the majority of the current log equipped cameras plus you can load your own LUT’s into it via USB, what more could you want.

All in all the Gratical is a great addition to almost any video camera. You will need to think about how you are going to power it, either via a Canon battery attached to the unit itself or by an external power supply, maybe something like a D-Tap or make use of the hirose on the F5/F55 or on the back of the FS7’s extension unit. Then you will need to mount it, but at least there are plenty of very secure mounting options, including Zacuto’s own very nice recoil system.

It’s not a cheap viewfinder, there are many cheaper viewfinders that offer many of the features of the Gratical, but none of the other ones I have tried have the beautiful image quality of the Gratical.

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Sony HXR-NX100 Webinar.

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HXR-X100-sideI first came across the Sony NXR100 at Broadcast Asia and I thought it was a great little camera then. I’ve now just finished a short shoot with it and it confirms my first thoughts. This is an interesting little camera that shares the same 1″sensor as the PXW-X70 but in a larger housing that is easier to handle in many professional applications. You get the same great image quality (although only recording XAVC-S or AVCHD) but the bigger package really looks the part (important for corporate and other pro applications) and offers larger controls, more assignable buttons and separate focus and zoom rings. To find out more why not join me next week for an introductory webinar. Click here for more details.

cinematography

Does the average TV viewer actually get the “film look”?

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So I have just watched a TV commercial that I assume would have had a pretty big budget (it was shot on film) on the TV. If you are in the UK it’s the new John Lewis Insurance ad.

You can watch it here on YouTube.

Now when I first saw the add it immediately looked washed out and the blacks looked really milky, at first I thought there was something wrong with the encoding. But now I’ve seen it a few times in a few different places, in reality it’s meant to look like that, it’s obviously a creative look or style.

Frankly I don’t get it and I’m not sure many normal viewers appreciate the flat look and in some of the shots in this ad the blacks really are washed out. We have spent decades trying to figure out how to accurately capture deep shadows and display them convincingly. We are told how expensive OLED TV’s are so much better than LCD TV’s because they can show true deep blacks. People spend lots of money creating a home cinema with the right low light levels. Most modern TV’s include some kind of automatic contrast boosting mechanism. But at the same time it has become fashionable to show flat, low contrast, almost log like pictures on TV and online. Pictures that to me look like the pedestal/black level has been incorrectly set.

I guess here’s the thing: Shooting with log is in. Shooting with log is cool, shooting with log is the new fangled way to shoot. Producers, directors, creative people are being told that log is the best thing since sliced bread and from a capture point of view it does have some real benefits. The problem is that it appears that these people also believe that the normal viewing public also thinks that flat, log like pictures are cool. I’m not so sure that they do. Even though this was a film shoot it’s likely that the telecine would have used Cineon which is also a log curve, so the rushes would have looked very flat before grading.

Does grandma at home appreciate that a flat picture means a picture with a high dynamic range? Does Joe public think a flat washed out picture is special? Do they get the trendy flat creative style. Maybe they do, perhaps I’ve got it wrong, but to me it just looks all wrong. I’d much rather see a nice striking, contrasty image with rich colors and blacks that really are black. I think that sometimes creative people forget that outside of the industry peoples views on what looks good can be very different to the views of those of us that work in TV and film production.

cinematography, HDR, Technology

What does HDR mean in the world of video production?

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I’m really, really excited by HDR.

4K is cool, higher resolution, sharper pictures, but sometimes it’s tough to tell the difference between good HD and 4K, especially on a small screen. But HDR….. well HDR really does have that wow factor. Finally we will be able to see images on the screen that have contrast and brightness that is true to life. Vibrant, vivid high resolution images, no more muddy low contrast, dull images.

First of all, lets get this straight, this is not the same thing as the HDR photography that’s been around for an age where you take multiple images at different exposures to capture a massive dynamic range that you then process with photoshop or similar to create some kind of artistic but otherwise un-natural looking picture with un real contrast. Video HDR (or at least what’s being talk about now) is about displaying images on screens that have a dynamic range that closely matches the real world.

And you know what the best bit of this is? A lot of us already have cameras that are shooting HDR or that can be made at least partially HDR capable at no additional cost!

So what is HDR?

Historically television and cinema standards have been limited by display technology. Today a high quality LCD TV will only show a dynamic range of around 6 stops. If you have a light meter check it out. Measure the brightest whites and the deepest blacks and you should find a 5 to 6 stop range. Because cinema screens depend on reflecting light there are limits as to the contrast range that you will see in the cinema too. This has been the case since the very beginning of film making. Yet today we have cameras that can capture dynamic ranges well in excess of this, even an older camera such as a Sony EX1 can manage to record 11 stops, but with normal TV’s and monitors we have no way of showing this 11 stop (or more) range 1:1. So we massage the captured image to fit within the current conventional 6 stop display range using fancy things like the “knee” or special gamma curves like cinegamma, hypergamma or by grading and fine tuning the image in post production.

It’s all about the display.

The key technology that’s changing this is OLED displays. Remember dynamic range is not just about highlights but also about deep, dark shadows. We can make LCD screens brighter, much brighter. An LCD panel works by having a large light source behind an array of tiny electronically controlled ND filters. But these ND filters are never 100% dark, some light always leaks through. This means that when you make the back light brighter the blacks become less black as more light leaks through, so you don’t increase the contrast, only the brightness. The other issue is that current TV broadcasting standards (rec-709) are designed to work within the limitations of current display tech, so we don’t actually broadcast more than a 6 stop range. If we did the pictures wouldn’t look right on a 6 stop screen.

An OLED display on the other hand uses an array of individual LED emitters that are totally dark when they are off and can be very bright when all the way on. As a result they are capable of displaying a far greater dynamic range. TV and monitor manufacturers are now producing displays that are capable of showing dynamic ranges well in excess of the normal 6 stop range. If we then change the standard of the signals that we send to these displays to include a greater dynamic range that’s when the magic starts to happen. But it’s not just about contrast, it’s also about color. OLED displays can also show much more highly saturated colors.

You have to see it to believe it.

Sony HDR demo at NAB
Sony HDR demo at NAB

Unfortunately there is no way I can show you HDR here. Your computer monitor probably only has a 6 stop range. So to really see and appreciate HDR you are going to have to go and see a demo. There will be many at IBC. Imagine a picture of a sunset where the clouds and sky really are VIVID orange, an orange that positively glows from the screen illuminating the faces of the viewers. Meanwhile in the same shot there is a deep dark canyon in the foreground and you can see every detail in the deepest shadows of that canyon. Or how about a night time cityscape where the unlit buildings are dark but still clear to see, meanwhile the lights on the buildings are like tiny bright diamonds of brilliant light. Maybe the easiest to imagine is a shot across water where the ripples of the water catching the sun really, really do sparkle and catch your eye. But remember it’s not just about a brighter display, but ones with much, much greater contrast and much richer colors.

HDR Limits.

Are there limits to HDR? Well yes there are, but these limits are becoming more to do with what is comfortable to view rather than what the display technology can do. Sony’s X300 HDR monitor can show I believe around an 11 stop range. Some colorists have told me that working on HDR material in a dark grading suite for a few hours can be quite tiring due to the increased eyestrain. Let’s face it, we wouldn’t want a shot of the setting sun that is so bright that it makes your eye’s hurt. So in practice I think 10 to 11 stops is about the natural limit of what we will be comfortable watching on a screen at home. But this is an enormous 10 fold increase over what we have now.

It’s FREE! Well, at least shooting and distribution is.

One key thing about HDR is that it doesn’t need any more bandwidth to broadcast or distribute than any other image of the same size. All you need to do is change the gamma curve and color space used. This means that OTT (Over The Top – web and internet) delivery services such as Netflix or Amazon can stream in HDR without needing to make any changes to their infrastructure, all they need to do is grade the programme to suit an HDR display. Right now you can already find a number of movies to stream in HDR and many, many more programmes will be available from Netflix and Amazon Prime in HDR this year.

The next thing to consider is that if you have been shooting material with a camera dynamic range greater than 10 or 11 stops then you may already have content that is going to look great in HDR. S-Log material is perfect for HDR, material shot by the F55 using S-Gamut or S-Gamut3 is excellent for HDR as not only does it have a high dynamic range but it’s sensor  also has a wide color gamut that will capture those highly saturated vibrant colors that only an HDR display can show. The F5 and FS7 will also shoot great material ready for HDR, although without some of the extended color range that the F55 is capable of. Even material shot with a Cinegamma or Hypergamma can be graded for HDR and in most cases will look better in HDR than it does on a conventional display.

Sony BVM-X300 HDR monitor.
Sony BVM-X300 HDR monitor.

So for us shooters, many of us already have equipment that can produce HDR content, in fact HDR will be the first time many of us will actually truly be able to see what we are shooting! To grade and produce HDR content you are going to need to invest in an HDR display. I’d love to get one of the new HDR capable Sony BVM-X300 monitors, but at £25k it’s too steep for me, so I will have to wait for a good quality HDR TV. The biggest issue with HDR will be that you will need to produce a different grade for HDR distribution compared to conventional Rec-709 distribution. But it must be remembered that many high end productions will already have different grades depending on the distribution method. After all a DVD or Bluray Rec-709 release of a film will need a different grade to the DCI-P3 cinema release.

Like 4K, HDR is already here. It’s not mainstream just yet, but it really isn’t far away. This isn’t a technology for the future, it’s a technology for today. Give it another 18 months and HDR TV’s will be common place in most TV stores, just as 4K TV’s are readily available now. Movie studios are sitting on huge archives of films that with a re-grade will look amazing in HDR. With the new 4K Bluray standard able to carry HDR content we really are looking at a tangible revolution in the quality of home viewing. Not just higher resolution but also higher contrast and dynamic range. If you are starting a big project now or want your material to have a long shelf life, you really should be shooting in 4K and using log or raw right now.

Better at home than in the cinema?

It’s interesting to consider that HDR is something that’s going to work much better in the home or at least via a display panel rather than via projection, so the home viewing experience may well exceed the cinema viewing experience (assuming that you have  decent sized screen and good sound system). The next generation broadcasting standard Rec-2020 allows for HDR. These are exciting times times and in the coming weeks I’m hoping to spend some time over at Sony’s Digital Motion Picture Center at Pinewood to learn more about grading and producing content for HDR, the details of which I’ll share with you here.

Bureaucracy in the way in Europe 🙁

In Europe we may have a problem. For HDR to work TV’s need to be brighter. Brighter TV’s consume more energy. At the moment it’s hard to sell an HDR TV in Europe as most exceed the power consumption limits laid down by the EU for televisions which are based on typical LCD technology 🙁 So you may need to personally import an HDR TV from elsewhere.