Watching da vinci 2K coloring session
 

Yesterday I had the chance to sit down with our colorist and see first hand footage from our EX-3 graded with several other formats ranging from a 900R down to mini-dv. Our news magazine occasionally takes outside source material from other parts of the world, but we try to generate as much of our own content as we can, hence, the mini-dv. While I can't give technical kinds of observations, I can relate some of the colorists reactions to his first experience with seeing our EX-3.

Let me say that this session I sat in on yesterday was done a gentleman with years and years of experience with every film and format available, including RED. The show he was working on does not have a particular look per se, but rather stories get cleaned up/freshened up to put it in layman's terms, for broadcast. The show will generally contain several longer pieces that serve as anchors for an episode with shorter pieces filling the gaps.

It was not long into the session when his fingers stopped flying over the keys and he looked over his shoulder at me and said, "how much did you say this camera cost?" I told him and he looked back at his monitor and shook his head. "There is nothing wrong with this picture," he said. I should mention that the picture profile I find myself using the most was originally found on this board. It leans more towards broadcast than film to be sure. A rich saturated look, but being careful not to crush the blacks. As a side note, he has colored a Christmas Concert where my camera served as a B camera to 12 950's and his Engineer associates could not distinguish one camera from another.

In all of the feedback he gave me, the one area he told me to pay attention to was the white clip point. I do use the 100% zebra bar setting but I guess I could always learn something else to make my footage that much more consistent. Perhaps a picture profile tweak is in order. Anyway, I've rambled long enough. It was just a great confirmation to me that the EX-3 is an incredible over-achiever.

Dave

That's great to hear Dave! Thanks for sharing! (great story)

So can you please describe your PP in detail? I'm specifically interested in your gamma. CINE4 or ?

Yes, please post your picture profile settings. I have the EX1 and I'm sure the settings will be different, but I am trying to soak up as much info as I can. Did you use -3db or 0db gain?
Detail on or off?

Right now the numbers are as follows...

Matrix...................Hi Sat
Detail....................On
Level.....12
Freq.....+40
Crisp....-10
Gamma.................STD 2
Black.....................-3

Best,
Dave

P.s. I shoot all my stuff at -3 generally, but during the concert for audience shots I had to go to +3