This has been out for a while, but it doesn’t seem to have been widely circulated. Sony has a white paper on S-Log which describes the intended use of S-Log gamma, from production to post. Of particular interest to compositors and colorists are the formulas for translating between S-Log and Linear Light.

Download the S-Log White Paper here.

The recent v.675 release of the Phantom software from Vision Research modifies how the white balance is stored in the raw cine files. This rendered the files created with this version incompatible with all the existing third party products that read the Phantom files.

Fortunately, developers have been quick to update their tools. Version 2.0.12 of the GlueTools Phantom Cine toolkit now supports the new white balance system, and I just got word that Iridas has implemented support as well, and that updated builds of their products should be available soon.

So, if you’ve downloaded files with the latest Phantom software and you see images that look like this:

instead of this:

you know you need to update your post software.

Canon has announced the 1D Mark IV, a 16 megapixel, APS-H sensor camera (vs. APS-C in the 7D and full frame in the 5D Mk II) capable of shooting 1080P video at 24, 25 or 30 fps, as well as 720P at 50 or 60 fps. It’s got some pretty nice still specs as well, of course. As usual, Vincent Laforet has made a short movie with it already, Nocturne. Can a full frame 1Ds Mark IV be far behind?

In other news, the word on the street is that Canon will be releasing a firmware update in 2010 adding 24P and 25P video capabilities to the 5D Mark II. Good news for early adopters.

There is a bug that pops up from time to time preventing Final Cut from recognizing Phantom cine files even when the GlueTools Phantom Toolkit is properly installed. There is a fix detailed on the GlueTools forum, but it requires familiarity with the Unix command line. To simplify the application of the fix, I’ve created an Applescript that automates this command – just download the program, and drag the cine files you need to fix onto the icon.

Note that this program only works in Leopard. Also, it currently will not look into a folder that you drop onto it — you’ll need to go into the folder and select the cine files (you can use command-A) and drag and drop them.

Get the file here: fix_cines.app

DVCPRO HD vs. AVC-Intra

In my last entry, I discussed the 3-way trade off between quality, size and complexity in codecs. Panasonic’s move from DVCPRO HD to AVC-Intra in their latest generation of P2 cameras provides an excellent example of a trade off between quality and complexity, as both codecs record at the same bit rate of 100mb/sec (at 30fps). How much better is AVC-Intra? To start off with, it preserves a lot more image information than DVCPRO HD. It records full raster (1920×1080, when recording 1080p) 4:2:2 at 10 bits per channel compared to 1280×1080 4:2:2 at 8 bits per channel, which means it’s starting out with almost double the data. Here’s a comparison of a frame of each (the same difference frames we looked at last time).

…continue reading Image Evaluation Series: Compression (Pt. 2)

For pretty much any film or video project you might work on these days, you’ll spend at least part of the time dealing with compressed material. In order to decide which codec to use, you need to keep in mind what purpose you are using it for and how a particular codec fulfills that purpose. In this entry, I’ll explain some of the techniques I use for evaluating codecs. In later entries I’ll cover some more specific results.

…continue reading Image Evaluation Series: Compression (Pt. 1)

Ever since Panasonic enabled color output on the viewfinder port of the VariCam H back in 2005, we’ve been waiting for them to actually release a color viewfinder to go along with it. Every high-end 2/3″ Panasonic camera since then supports a color viewfinder, but until now there hasn’t been a Panasonic part to put there. Now, with little fanfare, Panasonic is finally showing prototypes of their color finder, the AJ-CVF100G. Read the official press release here.

There were two at NAB – one on a VariCam 3700, and one on a VariCam 2700. The exterior looks almost identical to the black-and-white finders (which should please people dismayed by the large size of the Sony C35W). While the NAB floor is not the best place for doing critical image evaluation, my first impressions were quite favorable. The images were very sharp and extremely focusable, even with minimal peaking (though it is possible to set the peaking to 11 on this finder, if you want your image extra crispy.) Color seemed good as well. I was worried what artifacts the LCOS technology used in the finder might produce, but I couldn’t detect any disturbing flicker or color separation. I was told that, like the other color viewfinders on the market, you’ll definitely want to protect the screen on this one from direct sunlight. It would be nice if Panasonic would supply it with an auto-capping shutter, but it looks like that will be left to third parties.

One exciting feature of the AJ-CVF100G is support for every common HD format (meaning that you can expect to see it on a variety of non-Panasonic cameras in the not-too-distant future). It should be available this summer for a list price around $8,495.