Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

Finished up my custom calibrations on the DSC chart, think I nailed it. All the colors in the boxes. Here is some footage from the last couple of days, to demonstrate what this $4500USD camera can do.

Shot in 720p60 XAVC-L. I have my gains set at 6/12/18db, need that extra levels boost so I can iris down a bit for sharpness.

Re: Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

Hey Paul! That’s an interesting job. Does this mean you (ahem, …. finally) have a keeper?

That shot with the broken water main is something - obviously carrying some pressure! Could have watered a lot of lawns with that geyser. It’d give Old Faithful a good run for the money.

Questions:
Were these shots taken at f/1.6?

Did you use your light on some? At 0:56 with the ambulance the SOLAS reflectors on the clothing really shows up as if it was lit from some light source. Maybe from a vehicle?

3:07 What’s this guy waving his little flash light for? He didn’t want his picture taken?

For nighttime news, do you wear TV News identification or SOLAS gear?

3:26 Closing the valve: For info, as an aside, when shutting down a water main like that, one needs to be really careful that it doesn’t cause a water hammer and blow the pipe apart. Since the guy isn’t wearing SOLAS gear I assume he’s from the utility department. That’s a pretty big main!

With drivers like these guys, is it any wonder why some bikers don’t like going along the shoulder of the road? Some drivers don’t let the likes of trees, power poles, or buildings (and obviously fire hydrants) get in their way either.

Re: Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

The MODEL is a keeper, this particular unit will take a trip top Sony service within the 90 day labor warranty period to resolve the focus blur during zoom, and wide angle blur issues.

Some at f1.6, some slightly less, light permitting. Keeping my minimum gain values at 6 and 12db helps provide a bit of increased sensitivity which in turn allows me to close down the iris to provide a noticeable degree of sharpness.

I currently use a Comer 1800 2ng Gen (MkII!) with some gels, it has a condenser array that flips down, and if you flip it partially down, it actually becomes a variable zoom LED.

The firefighter is waving a car passing by through the scene.

At work, I wear a "tactical" polo shirt with my stations logo. The "tactical" part of the shirt is slits on the shoulders for attaching radios and such, or in my case, an Android phone with remote scanner capability. I only wear reflective gear when I am on the freeway/highway, which is required by law.

Paul

Re: Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

Take note at 2:46. Look at the ambulance with the reflective stripes. No, it is not melting and warping, it is actually square, that is just the effect of the 26mm wide angle on the X180. It doesn't retain shapes very well. I've used broadcast 4.5mm B4 lenses with less distortion!

Paul

Re: Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

Hey Paul will you post the calibrations and I'll have a look at it on my demo X180.
I usually record indoors under tungsten lighting so it will be interesting to see how your calibrations look.

Re: Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

Sure Rob, here are my official Paul Anderegg ENG Night Profile settings, calibrated at 3200k using dual Lowel Omni tungsten light source. :)

BLACK On
Master Black: -1
R Black: +4
B Black: +3

MATRIX On
Adaptive Matrix On
Preset Matrix On 2:ITU709
User Matrix On
Level 0
Phase: -8
User Matrix G-B: -13
User Matrix B-G: -35

MULTI MATRIX On
B: +4/+13
MG-: +16/+20
R: 0/-14
YL: -21/+4
YL+: -10/+10
G-: -40/+55
CY: +20/+71


Those are the settings needed to get the ITU709 preset colors into the boxes so to speak. These settings are only valid on Preset 2 ITU709, any other selection will result in non accurate calibration. The black settings were needed to get the dot in the center of the scope with the lens cover closed. Auto Black Balance will reset those figures, and wanted to push towards a green hue in the blacks, especially evident when gained up. With a black level of -1, the negative light black level still hovers a bit above 0IRE on the waveform. Will post some DSC chart frame grabs in a separate future post.

Let me know what you think of these Rob.

Paul

Re: Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

Almost forgot, I forgo BLACK GAMMA adjustments now for Gamma STD6. Looks better in low light.

Paul

Re: Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

Here are the stock and after calibration vectorscope images. The one that is really bad is obviously stock. The calibrated green vector was 5 less than the above calibration data, I was afraid of green shift so I cut back the green a bit. The demo YouTube clip is using the figures listed above, with increased green to match the other colors.

Re: Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

Hi Paul, Good settings, as I am not sure on a lot of setting, is there any change you could add some text next to test sett below, on what they do, just so when i am shooting out side i can get a idea on what is what, I still fine fair skin people look like they have very red faces, may i can fix this by turning down the red ?? Thanks

R Black:
B Black:

MATRIX On

Phase: -8
User Matrix G-B: -13
User Matrix B-G: -35

MULTI MATRIX On
B:
B:-
MG-:
R:
YL:
YL+:
G-: -
CY:

Re: Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

The R and B black adjustments were done to move the black spot on the vectorcope away from green towards magenta. With white, the dot was centered in the vectorscope, but if sent a black screen to the scope, the dot would move towards green, most evident during high gain and SLS.

If you do an Auto Black Balance, it will reset those values to 0, but when I did that, the auto black balance gave me green blacks. Obviously, magenta would give a redish skin tone, so perhaps run an auto black balance after shooting a face back to back with the other values and see if it makes a change?

And, are you evaluating the skin hue on a calibrated monitor, the LCD on the camera, a vectorscope showing the red shift?

Paul

Re: Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

.... and what happened in particular when they sprayed the water on to the burning car? The sample video cut out at that point.

Andrew

Re: Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

I believe the fire went out. :-P

The clip goes shaky as I reposition to not get water splatter on my lens, so I cut it off.

Paul

Re: Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

I was hoping for some instant water-->steam action on the engine block.

I gotta hand it to you ... that's some very good looking video you have there.

Andrew

Re: Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

I made some slight alterations to my X180 image settings. I went from STD5 to STD6 for raised levels, turned off black gamma in exchange for knee saturation +25, tuned down the detail a bit with less crisping, and did a general +25 saturation boost with a new 3200k preset. I am pretty happy with how it looks. I did this in conjunction with a fully and heavily gelled Comer 1800 LED, so I am getting pure and vectorscope centered 3200k. Check out the interview, how nice the skin looks even with the colors blasting all around. Here is some test clips in 720p60 from overnight. The video was ungraded and unaltered, as it came out of the camera, uploaded in ProRes LT with a 100% white clip. I will shoot tonight in 1080p60 mode with a 108% white clip before I send the camera back to Sony for backfocus correction.

Re: Pretty X180 night ENG video
 

would it be possable to save these settings on a card then upload ?