XAVC transcoding with FCP X

Posted on November 29th, 2013

Only 6 months after the launch of the Sony F5 and F55 and we’ve already seen a dramatic increase in the level of support for the XAVC 10-bit 422 codec by several mainstream NLE’s (if not all of them). For a full list of software compatible with Sony XAVC and Sony RAW checkout my recent article.

Earlier this year I also wrote an article on how to use a free copy of DaVinci to transcode XAVC (HD, 2K, 4K) or RAW footage into ProRes or really any myriad of codecs. This article will will show you how you can use either the full or trial version of FCP X to do the same thing.

Final Cut Pro – X - Supports up to 4k XAVC as of version 10.0.8.
Notes: Needs OSX 10.8.3 or higher but I’ve run it on 10.8.2 without issues

1.) Import your XAVC (4k or 2k source files) using the standard Import Media icon, or navigate to FILE -> IMPORT -> MEDIA from the menu bar.

XAVCproxy1

2.) Navigate to where your clips are located, and be advised that your FCP X will not be able to find the individual clip files on your computer if you have modified the structure of how it is on the cards. ie. you must keep XDROOT -> CLIP with all the associated files from the root folder of XDROOT.

XAVCproxy2

3.) If you turn on your background tasks (Command + 9) you can see the status of the conversion to ProRes 422.

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4.) Once your clips are processed and converted to ProRes you can find them on your MAC using the following similar path:

XAVCproxy4

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XAVC & Sony RAW software compatibility list

Posted on November 4th, 2013

I originally published this information on the Sony F5/F55 forums.

Here is the latest status on XAVC & Sony RAW software compatibil​ity:

AutoDesk Smoke – no plugin yet for XAVC but some users report HD XAVC works.
( Official Thread )

Adobe Production Suite CS6 – Support for XAVC and RAW only via third party plugin.
XAVC – supported by Rovi or possibly other third party plugins. ($400-$600)
Notes: Rovi available only for PC at this time and failed miserably on my freshly installed PC when tested.

RAW – supported via FREE Sony PLAD-RW1 plugin.
( Official thread )

Adobe Production Suite CC – Full support of HD/2k/4k XAVC. Support of RAW via FREE Sony RAW Plugin v1.2.
Notes: Windows and MAC.
( Official thread )

Davinci Resolve Lite v9 or higher – Will open 4k XAVC & RAW files but export is limited to HD 1920×1080.
Davinci Resolve Full v9 or higher – Full support of XAVC & RAW including up to 4k resolution output.
Notes: Windows and MAC.
( Official thread )

Sony Vegas 12 – Full support for XAVC, even SR Codec. No RAW support. You need to use Sony RAW Viewer 1.x or 2.x and export using SR Codec then ingest to Vegas.
( Official thread )

Avid – Supports XAVC through AMA plug-in.
XAVC: As of PDZK-MA2 Version 3.11 (Announced Sept 4th 2013) AVID can support HD and 4k XAVC via AMA link.
( Official )

RAW Support: FREE Sony PLAV-RW1 v1.x and v2.x for Windows of MAC offer support for Sony RAW MXF files (F65, PMW-F55/F5 and NEX-FS700) in Avid MediaComposer and Symphony products, allowing viewing and editing capability.
( Official )

Final Cut - No XAVC support.
Notes: FCP7 will work with proxy MPEG-2 50mb but you need Log and Transfer Plug-In Version 1.2 for Final Cut Pro. See link.
( Official thread )

Final Cut Pro – X – Supports up to 4k XAVC as of version 10.0.8.
Notes: Needs OSX 10.8.3 or higher but I’ve run it on 10.8.2 without issues.

Aiseesoft MXF Converter for MAC – Simple MXF converter to convert XAVC into ProRes HQ in batches. $30.

 

Sony adds the following notes:
-Re Avid: Media Composer 6/6.5 with our AMA plugins (Raw, XDCAM/XAVC and SR) supports RAW, XDCAM, SR and XAVC HD. No support for 4k XAVC until Media Composer 7. Also supported with our XAVC and SR plugins is the AMA file export function, which allows you to export SR and XAVC encoded .mxf iles. Avid has no 4k infrastructure so RAW/4k XAVC support is still limited to a 1920 extraction (which you have much more control over using the new Frame Flex tool in MC 7) and 1920 export/playout.

-FCP 7 requires Content Browser or XDCAM Transfer as the XDCAM plugin/rewrapper. The old XDCAM EX Log and Transfer plugin for FCP 7 was for XDCAM EX only– no MXF/UDF support. You can also use MXFImport from Calibrated Software or the Sony CINEMON workflow accelerator plugins to bring 50 Mb in directly without a rewrap. For SR you can use the Sony SR plugin for FCP 7, which adds read/decode support. Note that the FCP 7 SR plugin is decode only, so no SR renders or sequence presets. When you tell FCP to auto match the sequence to an SR clip you will get a Pro Res sequence.

-FCP X supports SR files via rewrap to .mov using Sony SR Viewer (new version contains batch export automation script)

-Unoficially, you can bring SR files into Premiere Pro CS6 if the FCP 7/Quicktime SR plugins are installed on the same system. This is not sanctioned by us or by Adobe but the files will import and decode..

Posted in Filmmaking, PMW-F5, PMW-F65, PWM-F55 | Tagged as: , , , , | Leave a comment

Out of the box F55 skin tones

Posted on October 1st, 2013

I had an opportunity to work on a few episodes for a web-series where the footage would be going straight from camera to post for editing without any color correction or further grading. Below are some stills captured directly from the footage without any further processing.

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The frames are not meant to look like Hollywood’s next up and coming blockbuster film. Instead they show what you might expect from the camera “straight out of the box” with your only efforts going towards good lighting, exposure, and use of the built-in Hypergammas available. I think some really beautiful skin tones are seen here from this camera – and this is GREAT news to producers who are looking to go straight from camera to delivery with minimal, or no efforts in further post production processing.

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The footage was shot XAVC in HD with the camera set to 24p, 1/48th shutter, 5600k and HyperGamma7 which gives you 1000ISO, 109% white clipping and a slight boost to the mid-tones. HG7 also places middle grey at around 40% IRE. Lighting was achieved by an assortment of reflectors and CFL’s to balance out around f8 on all our beautiful & talented actresses. The lens used here was the Tokina 16-50mm f2.8.

The frame grabs were pulled directly from FCP X 10.0.8 using the latest plugin to import XAVC files. A tutorial on how to use FCP X 10.0.8 to convert XAVC MXF files to ProRes 422 will be coming in the following weeks – stay tuned.

Feel free to join the discussion about these images on DVXUSER Community Forums

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F55 global shutter test videos

Posted on September 24th, 2013

For most of 2013 Sony has been keen on pushing the PMW-F5 with some very attractive kit options which has left many wondering if the $10k price difference for the PMW-F55 with the global shutter, 4k XAVC internal shooting capability, and extended color gamut are really worth it. (The F55 also offers a few other bells and whistles over the F5 not listed here.)

“Global shutter” in simple terms exposes the entire imager simultaneously rather than scanning each pixel row one by one very fast. A global shutter avoids typical CMOS sensor artifacts like smear, skew, wobble, or partial exposure. It is also much the same in how a frame of 35mm film is exposed (in whole) and so it becomes a lot more representative of the film judder motion you would get shooting on actual film.

Below is some test footage I shot with a 500mm lens on the F55 earlier this year. You can definitely feel there is something different about the motion quality in the footage.

Here in another test sequence I shot and edited the camera was set to a much higher shutter speed to yield more of a “strobing” look.

*EDIT* I’ve already been asked since this posting, “what else does the F55 offer over the f5″. For one it includes 4k real-time SDI outputs for broadcast or other live applications. The F55 when recording 4k XAVC can also record HD MPEG proxy files at the same time to the SAME card. This means after shooting 4k XAVC there is no need to go through hours or days of transcoding your footage into proxies for editing. There may be more differences and I will update this as I find them.

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XAVC transcoding with Davinci Resolve

Posted on August 21st, 2013

This is a re-post from a thread I wrote on the Sony F5/F55 forums under my username alias starcentral

Below is a run down on how to use Davinci Resolve to transcode your XAVC footage from the F5 or F55 camera using Davinci Resolve. This might be useful for anyone looking to create “rushes”, dailies, or low res proxy files from the Sony F5 or F55 cameras. (It seems quite odd to call 1080p low res proxy)  :)

Note that you can use the FREE version of Davinci Resolve Lite to open 2k or 4k files with the only limitation being that it can not output higher than HD resolution files. You’d need the full paid version of Davinci Resolve to go higher than HD, but this is still a great option for those looking to wrangle out some files from their Sony MXF files.

Note there are some differences in settings you may like to use depending on the purpose of the output files.

IMPORTING AND CRITICAL SETTINGS

  1. Import your MXF files you want to convert in the MEDIA POOL section of Resolve. (Drag from the file explorer area). Once ALL your clips are down below select ALL OF THEM, right click and review the CLIP SETTINGS. Particularly you want to check that the DATA LEVELS are set to 0-1024 instead of AUTOMATIC. Now if these are really only for purpose of DAILIES you can select 64-940. If you shot slog2, 64-940 can remove a bit of that “slog2″ look so directors don’t freak out too much over a “pure” looking slog2 image. If you are GRADING or want to preserve the original slog2 look then definitely chose 0-1024.
  2. Click on SETTINGS (lower left) and check that your IMAGE SCALING is setup how you want. If you shot in 4k mode and outputting to HD you will end up with a thin black bar at the top and bottom of your video files if you chose “scale entire image to fit”. For going 4k to HD I usually select “scale full frame with crop” so that the image fills the entire frame. Note however this does chop off some pixels from left and right sides.

two

  1. If you are scaling any footage (ie: 4k to 2k or 4k to HD) under IMAGE SCALING you can select between various filters that will increase/decrease quality or the scale but also increase/decrease rendering times.
  2. Also under CAMERA RAW options. If you shot in slog2 + sgamut then select SONY RAW, Decode Quality: Full Resolution, Decode Using: Project, Color Space: sgamut, Gamma:slog2.

 

OUTPUTING THE FILES

  1. Once you are ready to output all your clips select the DELIVERY window in RESOLVE.
  2. This took me 532 hours to figure out… to select ALL the CLIPS for your output go down to the timeline and on the timeline BAR right click and select ALL CLIPS. Sadly this took me forever to figure out, and I do mean forever.
  3. Now you need to chose your file output settings. For CODEC you might want Quicktime H.264 or Quicktime MPEG which are pretty good and can play on most PC or MAC computers. Otherwise there are various ProRes and Cineform options as well.
  4. Note your frame rate setting, compression quality setting, and don’t forget to check the AUDIO box if you want to include SOUND in your output files.
  5. IMPORTANT one here: Under “SET TO VIDEO OR DATA LEVEL” you want to select “Normally scaled legal video” if you want 64-940 data levels, or “Uncaled full range data” for 0-1024 levels.
  6. If you want all your clips as SEPARATE video files there is a check box for INDIVIDUAL SOURCE CLIPS by the RENDER TIMELINE AS option. For dailies maybe you want one continous file, but I usually keep all of them separate so they can be easily referenced by unique filename if needed.
  7.  Select WHERE you want the files to save to. If you don’t pick this you can not start the job.
  8. There is a checkbox to keep the original source filename. I recommend this option again so clips can be referenced back to the originals if needed. Also keeping the same file names has benefits if you plan to do any round trip editing wiith 3rd party software and back into Resolve for grading, etc..
  9. Once you are done setting up your output job, select ADD JOB.
  10. Once you are ready, START the job and wait several minutes to hours to days depending on how many clips you have and how long they are (and how powerful your computer is).

three

Posted in Filmmaking, PMW-F5, PWM-F55 | Tagged as: , , , , , ,

F5/F55 WIFI How-To

Posted on July 27th, 2013

IMG_9286_FB_642

2 days before my 40th birthday Sony released the highly anticipated version 1.2 firmware version for its F5 and F55 cameras. Some of the new features inclued Wi-Fi support, SR Codec 422 and 444 (RGB variant), x1.3 anamorphic support, and other improvements and enhancements.

This blog entry will discuss how to setup and install the wi-fi option and what exactly it will give you access to :)  and what it won’t give you :(

INSTALLATION:

After you download the v1.2 firmware software from Sony you might want to backup any scene files you have to an SD card. I won’t go through the firmware upgrade in detail but it takes long so make sure you have a proper power supply attached to your camera. Sony indicates you must perform a “RESET” of the camera after the firmware upgrade to avoid instability. When you purchased your F5/F55 camera it should have came with the USB wireless LAN module IFU-WLM3. Don’t read the Operating Instructions that accompanies it since clearly the USB module was designed for use operating Projectors wirelessly.

Insert the USB module in the top USB port hidden in a compartment next to the VF cable. I tried putting it in the USB port near the headphone jack but the camera did not recognize it.

IMG_00000306_s  IMG_00000305_s

Once the USB wireless LAN module is installed you will be able to ENABLE the WIFI under the SYSTEM menu. The WIFI option is near the end of the SYSTEM menu list.

IMG_00000309_s

Once the WIFI is enabled you will need to join the network that the F5/F55 camera has created with your mobile or other device. On my F55 the network was called “DIRECT-7sF0:PMW-F55_0100418″ but yours will be different.

To join the camera’s network via WIFI you will also need to know the SSID password. To find the password that was setup for your camera’s WIFI network scroll down to SSID & Password.

IMG_00000308_s

Select ENTER to view the SSID & Password details. This is the password you will need to enter into your mobile device or other device in order to join the camera’s WIFI network.

IMG_00000310_s

Now that your camera is broadcasting itself to the world you can use your mobile device (iphone, ipad, Blackberry, Andriod, tablet, etc…) browser to access the camera. In your browser enter http://10.0.0.1 and hit enter. You will be asked for username and password to access it. This should be:

USERNAME:  admin

PASSWORD:   pmw-f5    or   pmw-f55

I successfully tested a macbook Pro, iPhone 4, Blackberry Z10, Blackberry Playbook… and all worked perfectly.

WHAT YOU CAN ACCESS:

Once you successfully connect to your camera at the top of the screen you will see the camera status displayed which shows the following: Stby (in green) or REC (in red), TCG, 4 audio level meters, clip name, system frequency, picture size (resolution), recording format, time left on media cards, and battery voltage level. These are display only (not interactive) and update automatically when the camera goes into record mode, or if any of the settings are changed.

camera_control

Next you have access to enable/disable four of your custom assignable camera buttons which conveniently also display the name of the assigned function beside each button. An LED indicator will also let you know if you have a button enabled or disabled.

assign

The last section of the remote control capability fall under: MAIN, PLAYBACK, and CURSOR.

MAIN:

This section allows you to adjust the following settings: S&Q FPS, Shutter Speed, Color Temperature, Sensitivity (ISO), and Gamma. You can also start/stop recording of the camera, turn on/off color bars, and perform an auto black or white blance. There is also a camera ”LOCK” button but it does not actually lock the camera itself, it only locks out changes from being made accidentally on your browser. :)

main

PLAYBACK:

Once you select the Playback menu you can remotely control the playback deck built into the camera. This is a great feature, as personally I have found it difficult to get use to the playback buttons on the camera itself.

playback

CURSOR:

The Cursor menu allows you to remotely control the camera system menu as well as turn on or off the status display of the camera. This is a great way to navigate the FULL camera system menu without having to go through the camera itself and use the selector dial knob. It does however require that you have an external monitor hooked up as the actual camera system menu does not get displayed back onto the remote device. Not so great if you only use a Viewfinder as your display device.

cursor

WHAT YOU CAN’T ACCESS:

So far this is a great start to some “remote control” features on the F5 & F55 and I expect that over time it will evolve into even more accessibility and features that can be accessed remotely. It is pretty obvious that to make full use of the WIFI option on the F5/F55 you will need to use an external monitor with the camera. What I would really like to have seen was the actual camera menu displayed back on the remote device itself. As mentioned earlier, in the case where you might only be using a Viewfinder with your camera the WIFI remote control feature becomes slightly less attractive when it comes to the PLAYBACK and CURSOR options.

CAVEATS & OTHER TIPS:

No, WIFI on your camera will not allow it to stream video. I tested the range of the WIFI from the F5/F55 and after about 40 feet through a few walls I lost connection. Also despite the fact my main photo shows multiple devices connected to my F55, in fact only one device can be connected to the camera at a time!  ;)   If you can connect to the camera but have menu or control issues try a different browser on your device or check your Javascript settings.

 

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F55 slog2 LUT samples

Posted on July 2nd, 2013

Earlier in June Sony released several new 3D LUT’s for the F55/F65 in their forum and having just wrapped up principle photography on a cinematic style film I DP’d called Uncommon Enemies I wanted to give them a try and see how they would look. When applied to my slog2 + sgamut footage the results immediately blew me away and it was quite amazing to see my shots transform with new characteristics of their own derived from the Sony LUT’s.

Below are LUTs applied to a single frame from the film using Davinci Resolve with no other pre or post image adjustments. Individual results will vary on the exposure and color temperature setting of the original footage. You may need to adjust your exposure before applying LUT for optimal results. I also recommend you select the clip attributes in Davinci Resolve and set the video levels to use the full data values 0-1023.

You can view a 1920×1080 version available by clicking image.

original frame shot in slog2 + sgamut

slog2 to Rec709 version 1 (LUT posted by Sony in March 2013)

1D slog2 to Rec709 LUT built into Davinci v9 or higher

slog2-sgamut to Rec709 LC709 (Released June 2nd 2013 by Sony)

slog2-sgamut to Rec709 LC709 Type A (Released June 2nd 2013 by Sony)

slog2-sgamut to Rec709 Cine+709 (Released June 2nd 2013 by Sony)

Other LUTS:
starcentral LOW CON 01 LUT (available for free download from my blog)

starcentral GOLDEN TEXAS LUT (available for free download from my blog)

These are not really recommended for grading purposes and can be destructive to your images, so if you’re going to use these for grading purposes its best to use the Sony Cine LUT as a starting point or just start your grade from scratch.

To download these LUT’s visit the following links, the StarCentral LUTs are ones I created myself and others have enjoyed:

Sony 3D LUT’s for F55 & F65 posted June 2 2013

Sony LUT F65 slog2 sgamut to REC709 posted March 4th 2013

StarCentral LOW CON & GOLDEN TEXAS LUT posted March 9th 2013 

 

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Film look with the F55 on “Uncommon Enemies”

Posted on June 3rd, 2013

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Frame grab from Uncommon Enemies.

“Uncommon Enemies” is a film written and directed by Alex Hatz starring Michael Cram, James Gangl, Melanie Scrofano, and AJ Vaage. It is one of the latest film projects I’ve been working on as Director of Photography using the Sony PMW-F55 CineAlta camera.

Uncommon Enemies is a horror film set during World War II. The film opens with an American Sergeant behind enemy lines bringing a wounded soldier into retreat in an old abandoned barn when bigger problems come their way.

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The entire film was shot on location in Bradford, Ontario, Canada in a barn built in 1897 which really lent itself to the dark and grity look and feel for this film. The texture of the location is everything a DP could ever ask for when looking to shoot a great looking film. Nearly every direction you looked in there was something pleasing to the eye and camera, all of which was further enhanced with set dressing and our production designer.

Both Alex and I really wanted a cinematic and “film like” look for this project. Band Of Brothers (5579 and ENR process) and Game of Thrones (Alexa) were a few shows we talked about in terms of looks we liked and wanted to emulate. But we also had several limitations to work around – mainly a fairly large 1500 sq. foot area to light, only three 15 amp circuits, and creating a “universal” lighting setup that would let us shoot in practically any direction with minimal lighting change setups in order to accommodate the blocking for the film.

Since the location was not well serviced I opted to use less powerful HMI’s as my main light source along with flos and low powered fresnels to balance out the light. With the sensitivity of the F55 I knew it could be easily pulled off. It did however mean tenting the entire perimeter of the 116 year old barn to eliminate any light leaks since I knew I’d be shooting down in double digit foot candle levels.

The F55 camera was lightly equipped with PAG v-mount batteries for power and the ikan D7W 7” LCD monitor with hirose DC cable to power the monitor from the camera. For glass we used three Tokina zooms, 11-16, 16-50 and 28-70 – all f2.8.

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I shot the film in 4k XAVC 10-bit 422, slog2, s-gamut straight to internal SXS pro cards. I had originally planned to shoot at 1250 ISO 24p 1/48th shutter but it became apparent with the low light levels and width of the set that I’d have to go up to 3200 ISO to get the f-stop on my lenses that I wanted.

For setting exposure I used my light meter religiously along with the waveform monitor built into the ikan D7W. Most of the scenes I was lighting for a max contrast ratio of 5:1 but generally talent was lit between 2:1 and 3:1, or sometimes more depending on where on the set they were or how the light was suppose to be motivated. I kept middle grey in the low 30’s and any bright light sources from exceeding 60-65 IRE.

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Despite the final look of the graded test frame much of the look was done “in-camera” by shooting a little underexposed and setting the white balance to 3200k while using daylight light sources.

The film is now in post-production and will be entered into select film festivals later this year. A launch-party screening is planned in Toronto once the film is completed.

[more frames coming soon]

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F55 exposure using zebras

Posted on April 8th, 2013

Now that the F5 & F55 are trickling out in more quantities and Sony has yet to release a professional exposure tool in-camera there are growing questions on how best to set exposure for when working with the cameras. Obviously with an external monitor or even a VF by Zacuto or Alphatron you can use the tools included, but when those add-ons are not practical or simply you don’t own them here are a few tips to setting exposure when shooting in slog2 mode on the F55:

In slog2 mode 90% reflectance (like a white card) should read 59% IRE. (Compare that to slog for the F3 folks which is 68% IRE for 90% reflectance.)

You can try setting your zebras to 60%-70% and not let anything very white or reflective-white show stripes.

Personally, I’ve been setting my stripes for 70% and making sure that nothing stripes unless its a super shiny surface, or say a “hot source”. I will probably move down to 60% but so far been pretty comfortable with 70%.

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F55 slog2 s-gamut mode test

Posted on March 9th, 2013

This frame grab was from my first test shooting the F55 using the 4k XAVC format in slog2 gamma mode and s-gamut color space. In post-production I applied Sony’s recently released slog2 to Rec709 LUT which was actually meant for the F65 but Sony says it should also work on the F55. Special thanks to Nate Weaver who discovered the LUT in conversation with Sony over on their boards and then shared it with others.

The video clip below has two parts: part-one is the full clip played normally and part-two of the clip features a 200% blow-up and a post digital zoom with pan and scan.

I found that Sony’s slog2 to Rec709 LUT crushes the blacks far too much so I created a slightly modified version of the LUT which worked out better for my scene. You can download it below if you want to give it a try, I also included another modified LUT which gives a nice golden hue to the highlights for a warmer look.

ORIGINAL SLOG2:

LOW CON 01 LUT:

GOLDEN TEXAS LUT:

 

DOWNLOADS:

Sony’s slog2 to REc709 LUT for the F65/F65: download

Original ungraded original slog2 + s-gamut 4k XAVC file: download

slog2sg_to_rec709_STARCentral.001 – LOW CON 01 LUT: ZIP | RAR

slog2sg_to_rec709_STARCentral.002 – GOLDEN TEXAS LUT: ZIP | RAR

Further Reading: What is a LUT?

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