The ULTIMATE LUT for Sony Cameras

The LUT everyone's talking about.

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[alisterchapman]

Be VERY careful if baking in the S-Log3 LUT. For a start it's a 33x cube LUT, so the image brightness range is divided into 33 steps and the poor interpolation between each step in the camera means there is a greatly increased risk of banding across even surfaces such as a blue sky or plain walls. You probably won't notice this while shooting and using a small monitor, but it may well show up in post. The next issue is that if the reason for doing this is because whoever is doing the post doesn't understand how to grade or compensate for differing exposure indexes in post, then it is likely that they will simply be adding a LUT to your footage to "grade" it. So, you will increase the propensity to have banding in the footage still further. A LUT on top of a LUT is never a good idea in any workflow. A further issue is that if you use an EI lower than base, the recording range is artificially reduced by the LUT and full output will not be achieved - look at the waveform, you will see the recording range reduce as you lower the EI below the base ISO. If a normal LUT is then added to this decreased range in post the highlight roll off will be incorrect unless you correct the input range prior to the addition of the LUT. Your highlights won't be as nice as they should be and your peak output won't reach 100%.

[avdpost]

As an editor who edits in Resolve, and someone who shot on Sony for years, it still amazes me when folks don't know the over exposure on Sony was intention to retain clean shadows. I've been using Alister's compensation luts for years and even made my own when doing basic conversions or handing off footage, but now in Resolve I just take the extra second to group all Sony shots and pre apply exposure compensation. It's really easy once you know.

[deepfriedbutter]

Thank you so much for your LUT pack! I got the link from your description. It's the best LUT pack I've found.

[BruceMoyle]

Holy crap. That is a great idea. I constantly have that issue with external editors and this never occurred to me. Thanks for sharing.

[awannagannaful]

Maybe it's my bg in tv commercials, but if the editor does the grading then ur not really a 'DOP', ur a cameraman. Either way, if he didn't get at least a phone call or any kind of follow up by whoever shot the footage, or a competent production person like a director or producer, to make sure all that time and money didnt go down the toilet, then it's not the editor's fault he messed it up. Just because Colorists and Grading Suites are increasingly more of a high end thing these days doesn't mean whoever shoots should not be responsible for being there until the product is delivered to the client, even just to review it and/or give feedback. It's your work after all that people end up seeing whether you like or not. May as well make sure you like it first, so they don't have to dislike it.

[ScottEmmick]

Thanks for a very informative video. If you're shooting an FX-3 in Cine EI but only using the base ISO's, isn't the base ISO already "baked" into the footage? I'm a newbie to base ISOs so I'm not 100% clear on this.

[keller]

I bake in S-log3 a lot on my FX9, simply because its the only way to record at 400iso when shooting in log (or get a nice clean 2000iso at the high base). Sometimes I like shooting at lower than base ISO in order to get cleaner shadows, knowing that I lose a little DR in the highlights. That tradeoff is fine with me in some scenarios. Coming from Blackmagic, its still crazy to me I have to do this strange work-around in order to change my ISO. Baking in S-log3 LUT works, but I wish it had a 'Flexible ISO' mode.

[clickredeye]

Nice idea. Really cool. Thank you for sharing it.

[skymakai]

I’m using EditeReady to export a LUT baked-in. I much prefer to have a log archive of the footage than baking-in, in camera. Would be nice if EditeReady would implement an exposure offset option which could work when using Cine-EI offsets.

[shagral]

Yep, this is a real problem. I work around it either by developing all the footage myself before sending it or by communicating directly with the editor. I do realize, however, that on bigger productions those are not valid options.

[AxTechs]

I would bake in a LOOK over doing this method as the resultant image is going to have banding and won't be as useable if production does inevitably hire a colourist. If a production can't hire a colourist then the project isn't really worth my time to begin with. Granted, I don't shoot on Sony too often. I shoot with red most the time where you can change the ISO, just not during a take, and the editor can have a LUT that you can enable or disable in the raw, but when I shoot prores, I usually bake in the LOOK.

[BenGarvesFilms]

I’m so excited to see if it really is an easy transition from the FX6 for you. Let us know!

[dsdddsdwe]

I'm so confused how editors can get this wrong. If the owner/operator used an external monitor that had a S-LOG3 to REC709 conversion LUT, I don't understand how editors can get it wrong in post? With the Sony FX6's MXF system, Final Cut Pro automatically applies the REC709 conversion LUT once you import the footage.

[Yvesphotoandfilm]

As a colorist I WANT the DP part of the conversation. And as a DP I WANT to be part of the colorist convo if it’s not me

[AdamKuzniar]

I feel like cine-ei is needlessly complicated to the point of not being worth time and effort. I understand why it exists and I think it propably works great for high-end narrative, but not for anything else.

[JusttJC]

Do you still have the post flexibility of colour grading if you’d bake the Slog LUT in?

[OliverCooper-qgyc]

so, when using a lut, you wont be able to see the 709 on the camera monitor like the FS7? I have an fs7 but all this its making me doubt upgrading. do you also have the flexibility of changing all the color hue etc like the fs7??

[Nqrgaard]

I have the FS7, do you remember the steps to bake in the LUT?

[MrAndrewClaycomb]

This is definitely the Achilles heal of current Sony cams, and the only people who actually understand how CineEI works are owner/operators. I've met so many non-owner cam ops and DPs that think changing the ISO is actually changing something in the recording. It would be amazing if Sony would give us more monitoring options to go along with this hack. I don't want to look at log and I certainly don't want to send it out to all on set monitors. Sure, you could just load monitoring LUTs onto all of the extra monitors, but if you're traveling from city to city and managing a bunch of different rentals, that's the last thing anybody wants to deal with. Also, if I'm running and gunning with minimal weight, an extra on camera monitor is the first thing I'm pulling off the body. In that case, I have to commit to running exclusively at low and high base ISOs, with nothing in between... or say F it, and just shoot in Custom mode. There has to be a better way!

[RaidOctober]

Haha I thought I was the only one with this issue ie external editors. Sometimes I will even leave a note with the producers that the footage needs to be brought back down.