Cineform and DNG from Blackmagic Camera

[Carlo Macchiavello]

Today i tested Cineform builded from a DNG sequence of BMC...
All work fine as usual with cineform... Great work guys...

[David Newman]

Thanks.

For others, here is the beta that support BMCC and CR2,NEF,etc. Lots of RAW support.

Here's a beta version of GoPro CineForm Studio Premium for Windows. With this, you can use the Studio interface to convert CinemaDNG files directly into CineForm RAW. The conversion will automatically adjust to the white balance from the sensor and the color matrix in the CinemaDNG files...this will eliminate the green tint that you were seeing with the dpx2cf tool (doing it non-destructively.)

Usage:
Launch GoPro CineForm Studio and use the 'Step 1 Import' room to select a single file from the image sequence (it will automatically import the rest of the sequence). For simple batch importing a lot of clips, drag in the folder(s) containing all your shots from an explorer window into the import clips bin.

Then in the 'advanced settings', choose your conversion settings.

Quality: Filmscan 1 is sufficient but if you want to get into the shadows a little more, go with Filmscan2
Encoding Curve: Up to you (Protune default is excellent, optimized for 11)…, but again, upping it to 13 stops will let you get more detail from the shadows.
Decoding Curve: Play around and see what you like best...you can always change this setting after the conversion.

Then add the clips to the conversion list and click 'convert all'.

After conversion, proceed to the 'Step 2 Edit' room to do the image adjustments.

Installer:
http://software.gopro.com/beta/GoPro....152-Setup.exe

Keep in mind that this is a beta and your feedback is welcome.

Regarding Resolve not seeing the adjustments you make in CineForm Studio, that appears to be a choice made by BlackMagic Design for Resolve. Hopefully they can add implementation in the future.

One more thing...Mac version is in the works!

[Garrett Low]

just went through and did a quick test. The Beta version seems to work. Took some DNG sequences I found online and pulled them in using Filmscan1. WOW! I think this is the camera that RED was suppose to make way back when the Scarlet was promised as 2K for $2K. not quite $2K but when you consider you get DiVinci it brings the cost of the camera down to $2K. May have to rethink my future camera purchases.

[Jay Bloomfield]

Originally Posted by David Newman

Regarding Resolve not seeing the adjustments you make in CineForm Studio, that appears to be a choice made by BlackMagic Design for Resolve. Hopefully they can add implementation in the future.

The Windows version of Resolve 9 beta 3 seems to maintain the active metadata settings all the way through to render.

Also, with this beta version of Studio Premium, I assume that it will live side by side with a licensed version of Studio Professional, correct?

[David Newman]

Active Metadata issue will Resolve is only for RAW sources (i.e. directly transcoded from CinemaDNG or CR2/EF sequences), 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 are fine. We have a workaround for this.

Premium beta will expire in 15-days when installed over a Professional activation, you really need a Professional beta for test.

Here is the latest Pro 1.3 build
http://software.gopro.com/beta/GoPro...B7RBGCbCg2U%3D

And the latest Premium 1.3 build
http://software.gopro.com/beta/GoPro...YC0b6uuFzOg%3D

[Jay Bloomfield]

Gotcha on the Resolve issue. Thanks for the Pro beta.

[Soeren Mueller]

David, thanks a lot for the beta links!

I can only say Wow... until now I used Cineform mainly for intermediate stuff from/to compositing and such... never really dealt with Cineform RAW before. Works great though! Much smaller than the original DNGs and much better performance... using First Light in realtime and having the freedom to chose another Debayering method on the fly - I like ;)

Slighty off topic: is it costly to add Cineform RAW as a codec on camera regarding licensing? Does it have high hardware/processing requirements? Just curious as it seems that DNxHD will be added to the BMCC via firmware update... curious what's theoratically possible there...

[Soeren Mueller]

PS: The reason I'm still using FirstLight as supposed to CineForm Studio is that the latter just crashes or vanishes when I add an AVI after I select "Edit" in the "what do you want to do" startup screen while FirstLight works flawless with the same AVI...

I installed the latest Premium beta from your links in the 14 day trial mode. Is my install somehow messed up or is this just some kind of beta instability?

[David Newman]

Contact support (support@cineform.com), as we can't reproduce the AVI failure, we use AVIs all day every day for the life of the product. Support will try and arrange a remote session to see what your system is missing.

[David Newman]

Originally Posted by Soeren Mueller

Slighty off topic: is it costly to add Cineform RAW as a codec on camera regarding licensing? Does it have high hardware/processing requirements? Just curious as it seems that DNxHD will be added to the BMCC via firmware update... curious what's theoratically possible there...

It is so much less compute intensive:
No demosaic required (demosaic is compute intensive if quality is important)
No 2400x1350 to 1920x1080 scaler (also computer intensive)
and CineForm alone is 50% faster than ProRES and DNxHD.
with a licensing cost in volumes approaching free.

[Dmytry Shijan]

very nice update! hope for same feature in osx version too...

[John Hewat]

I'm using Cineform to convert the DNGs to Cineform RAW and then edit in Premiere.

My next question is in regard to color correcting.

I understand if I use First Light, it's non-destructive and affects the metadata.

What about if I use Magic Bullet Looks or Colorista? Are they tools which can take advantage of the Cineform RAW flexibility? Or, since they will require rendering to make their changes, are they destructive and not nearly as flexible? I'm a bit in the dark with this stuff.

[Carlo Macchiavello]

colorista or other effects plugin that you apply in NLE work with render, not like metadata correction, then they require rendering and your footage could change (depend of what you apply, how, di that you use to save new movie, etc etc).