This weekend, Armando Ferriera will be uploading a video to his YouTube channel in which house colorist at Dolby Laboratories in California Shane Ruggieri talks about his workflow grading a7s III footage. Shane is one of the world's foremost experts on high dynamic range video. https://twitter.com/mondobytes/status/1321154876097753089?s=20 https://twitter.com/mondobytes/status/1320847103447330816?s=20 And here it is! https://youtu.be/2K9oe7aEpdg
Sony a7s III HDR
The Sigma 85 is simply unbelievable! That and the a7s III are a dream combo. Shot with XAVC S-I 600M 10-bit 4:2:2 at 60p. https://youtu.be/SfWp4OUdumQ
Free Downloadable a7s III HDR Footage!
Shot with the Sigma FE 85mm f/1.4 DG DN, the sharpest 85mm lens in the E-mount system, with incredible autofocus speed and accuracy and recorded in 4K ALL-I, the highest quality, least compressed internal codec of the a7s III, and the gold standard for digital cinema. It will play smoothly on many computers even without transcoding.... Continue Reading →
a7s III Shoots Some Stunning HDR!
At long last, we've got a bunch of models lined up! The Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN is one spectacular lens and the autofocus performed nearly flawlessly this morning (speed and sensitivity both set to 5). What's amazing is how tenacious eye detect AF is, even when overexposing S-log3 by a couple of stops. I'd... Continue Reading →
More HDR Tests
I shot S-log3 XAVC S-I this afternoon, making sure to ETTR, with zebras set to 94%. After pulling down highlights and boosting saturation a smidgen, I think I'm seeing some banding in the wall to the right behind me (over my left shoulder). Aside from that, I'm very pleased at how the image turned out:... Continue Reading →
Things Are Shaping Up
The a7s III has lots going for it: superb eye detect autofocus in video at up to 120 fps, an articulating touch screen LCD, indisputably the best EVF of any mirrorless camera, edit-friendly codecs with tiny file sizes, the red frame that surrounds the image in the LCD when you're recording video, a full size... Continue Reading →
Response to a DPReview Troll (yes, another one!)
An intellectually bereft commenter in the forums over at DPR claimed that the video I shared the other day wasn't HDR, saying: It just looks insanely grey and bland. In fact I think there's something wrong with the video. Even the sun is not bright at all. Other HDR videos on YouTube look fine. That... Continue Reading →
a7s III: Insanely Beautiful 4K HDR!
This video takes us for a leisurely early morning stroll around the Bund, a waterfront area and protected historical district in central Shanghai. It was shot in HLG3, 4K 60p with the Sony 20mm f/1.8 G lens and audio was captured with the Sony ECM-B1M shotgun microphone. To the best of my knowledge, this is... Continue Reading →
MicroLED Is A Pipe Dream
For a while now, any time OLED television sets are mentioned, online commenters raise the spectre of burn-in and suggest waiting for microLED, which they insist is just around the corner. Like OLED, microLED is a self-emissive technology capable of true blacks, infinite contrast and outstanding viewing angles but with a brighter output than OLED... Continue Reading →
Canon 8K HDR PQ Sample Footage
After weeks of grumbling about the lack of interest in HDR PQ, a forum member over at DPReview took pity on me and shared a brief clip shot with his EOS R5 - and it really looks great! Too bad Sony doesn't have such a feature on the a7s III! https://youtu.be/WOXAFFLmcGs
Vincent Teoh: Colorists Should Consider an OLED TV
https://youtu.be/VDG_lmEPc_g?t=1013 Vincent Teoh, in his unboxing video of the Panasonic HZ1000 OLED TV, corroborates what I've been saying for months now, which is that an OLED display should outperform Apple's Pro Display XDR for HDR grading, and just might be the best budget option short of a reference monitor. When I reviewed the Apple Pro... Continue Reading →
Should You Be Using a Production Monitor for Grading HDR in 2020?
Just a few years ago, when HDR was still in its infancy and VESA had not yet even published standards for HDR monitors, Atomos, along with Mystery Box and several other influential content creators, were advocating the use of production monitors for grading HDR video on a budget - with some even going so far... Continue Reading →
Selling My Asus ProArt PA32UCX-K!
Whether grading Rec. 709 or HDR footage, the colors of the Asus are too warm; and in order to calibrate the monitor, I'd need to shell out another $1,600.00 for the Teranex Mini SDI to HDMI 8K HDR, with no guarantee that the colors would be any better. For only $1,300.00, you can pick up... Continue Reading →
Plug and Play
Exhausted from weeks of struggling to get the colors of the Dolby Vision certified Asus PA32UCX to match those of my LG OLED C7, last night, in a fit of desperation, I connected the Blackmagic Ultrastudio 4K Mini directly to the television, opened up a long dormant project in Final Cut Pro, began grading, and... Continue Reading →
Asus PA32UCX-K As A Grading Monitor for YouTube
Asus ProArt PA32UCX (l), iMac (c), LG OLED C7 (r) I thought I'd jot down my first impressions of the PA32UCX solely in its capacity as a grading monitor for delivery to YouTube - the primary purpose for which I purchased the display. For this, I'm evaluating the image quality of an HLG HDR video... Continue Reading →
7 Tips to Better Sony HLG HDR Footage
https://youtu.be/fiNxXXDKoCk Custom white balance using the X-Rite color checker. This will give you consistent results. Unfortunately, Sony makes doing custom white balance much more tedious than it needs to be.ND Filters. In broad daylight, exposures can be in the thousandths of a second at f/9 or f/10. This might be fine for architectural or landscape... Continue Reading →
Revised Opinion of Sony’s Fake 8-Bit HLG
https://youtu.be/aFYkotwoEj4 Since shooting HLG 3 and properly exposing, I've had to re-evaluate my attitude towards Sony's implementation of HLG, also known as instant HDR. HLG requires no color correction, though it can still hold up to a very tiny bit of manipulation in post. The LCD on Sony's a7 III is too dark even in... Continue Reading →
The Daejeon Chronicles 